Need Advice, WP ready for N00B?

[ret18057]

Hello all,

I am hoping to not get flamed, but I was looking for some advice...The bride is trying out a 1520, coming from a Note II. I saw the thread about the 1520 vs the Note III, but my questions are a little more generic.

I am considering the Icon (if it ever releases), so I have been playing with her 1520, and I have some questions about apps. I had hoped the dev support would be picking up steam, but it seems several of my daily apps are not on WP yet (?). Dropbox, Amazon MP3, Life360, Flipboard, Fitbit, to name a few. Don't get me wrong, I WANT to get out of the Google ecosystem as much as a I can (Apple is a non-starter for me), but have any former Android users found WP just isn't, well, there yet?

She said she feels the phone is the most intuitive she's used, and I like where MS is headed, I just wanted some advice about using the phone, since some of the comments about firmware and lack of support are scaring me a bit. I have about 12 days to decide, so I really appreciate any advice.

Thanks

 

[oditius]

OK, if you want to take it a little slower, and have $60 to spend, then check out the Lumia 520

Buy Nokia Lumia 520 for AT&T (Black) - Microsoft Store

You can play with it more and not be tied down to a contract. I started with AT&T on the 920, but because the apps was very little I went back to Android. But it has picked up speed a lot, and the apps I was missing was coming to WP. It takes time Android and iOS have been in the market longer, but look how far WP has come since the release of the 920 just 15 months ago. At it's pace the apps are growing faster than android apps did.

 

[mlbrowninsc]

I just picked up a 520 to use as well alongside my blackberry q10. I started with a 920 as well several months back but for one reason or another sold it. I must say that wp8 seems to have come a long way since I last used it. Looking forward to seeing what 8.1 brings. Might even come back to WP completely if they continue to improve. 520 is a great device to try the system out.

 

[ret18057]

Thanks. Devices aside (the wife has short eyeballs, and needs the bigger screen, not to mention we are not in a contract anyway), I was more curious about how well stuff just works. More for me than her (assuming the Icon ever comes out), I am a more demanding user than she is. Did anyone find that (recently) the app support just isn't there? Are there any alternatives to the more popular Android apps? Mail, for instance, is there an alternative to Outlook? I ask, because she has multiple accounts, wants a unified TILE but not a unified Inbox. Options, I guess.

Thanks

 

[xandros9]

Hello all,

I am hoping to not get flamed, but I was looking for some advice...The bride is trying out a 1520, coming from a Note II. I saw the thread about the 1520 vs the Note III, but my questions are a little more generic.

I am considering the Icon (if it ever releases), so I have been playing with her 1520, and I have some questions about apps. I had hoped the dev support would be picking up steam, but it seems several of my daily apps are not on WP yet (?). Dropbox, Amazon MP3, Life360, Flipboard, Fitbit, to name a few. Don't get me wrong, I WANT to get out of the Google ecosystem as much as a I can (Apple is a non-starter for me), but have any former Android users found WP just isn't, well, there yet?

She said she feels the phone is the most intuitive she's used, and I like where MS is headed, I just wanted some advice about using the phone, since some of the comments about firmware and lack of support are scaring me a bit. I have about 12 days to decide, so I really appreciate any advice.

Thanks

As oditus said, you could always give it a test run on the 520.

But anyways, dev support is picking up steam, yes, but still some are not there. There are unofficial Dropbox apps out there, but if you are using just the free version, I'd ditch and give Copy a go because I think they've done a good job going cross-platform and offer more baseline storage.
Dropbox used to be my go-to, but I switched to SkyDrive (haven't looked back yet, the online Office is a perk as well) and tacked on Copy when I needed some storage for less important/less often needed stuffs.

Shameless referral link because if you refer someone, it nets each person an extra 5 GB. https://copy.com?r=trzKIA
If you don't like these and want to stick it to me, feel free to just go to copy.com

As for the others, I'm not sure as I never used those. You could poke around this site and windowsphone.com (the store) to see how it looks.
I was never a die hard Android devotee, but I used to be firmly in Google land, floating between OSes, from Palm OS, WM, iOS, and Android. But the allure of aliases and free usernames of Outlook.com have lured me in and I'm somewhat weaning off of Google. (except everyone else uses Google, so I keep my account for Youtube, Drive, and Chat)
Also because MS is friendlier to other platforms than Google is to WP. (argue about the motives, but it doesn't change the fact)

Personally, I have found WP is there yet (and then some), but others have not. But all I have to say is that don't count out either from what you hear. Android isn't the laggy malware infested mess you often hear and WP isn't the useless, barren platform without any apps or games. (both are often flung around on the interwebs)

The comments regarding support and whatnot are probably worse than it is.
MS has a promise regarding updates for a certain time period, and Nokia is generally good with releasing updates. The question isn't will I get updates (all will be updated to the next major version, 8.1), but when, because carriers add a significant lag time (or if, if they choose to even push it) from when Nokia is finished and pushing it out the door to when phones actually receive them.
Keep in mind Android is often hit-and-miss. The Nexii are updated, thats a selling point, Samsung is OK I guess (especially since we're considering a flagship here), HTC has axed updates for their 2012 flagships (One X/X+), while my 920 (Nokia's 2012 flagship) still has a few more updates in sight. But the WP7 break fiasco is still around and many like to draw on that. MS likely will try not to do that again as it will likely kill WP for good.

 

[harmon rabb]

WP is there in most aspects, almost there in others, ahead in yet others. I expect it will be fully there in all areas once 8.1 is released. I was die hard android and switched for a variety of reasons. For any minor annoyance I've had (example, no forward button on the browser), there's been something that's an improvement over android (example, outlook is so much nicer than the android email clients, and SkyDrive integration is pretty amazing)