Surface phone or Lumia?

[paramsingh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdxVt577QCA

So I'm looking to get Nokia Lumia 930, my biggest concern was post-processing still captures and battery life, but after watching this video in which clearly the guy speaks about post-processing, something Lumia users have been complaining about since amber update but Nokia worked extra hard to ignore the complaints and focused on making products less desirable, like 930, no micro SD, apparently adequate battery life, no glance, thick and heavy for todays standards, older chipset.

Recently Lumia 530 was announced again 512mb RAM, which granted is more than enough for most users but it would be nice if it was 1GB, my point is 530 is still Nokia's creation not Microsoft's, needless to say it was obviously approved by Microsoft.

However, I want to talk about high end devices, recently Microsoft released Surface Pro 3 (SP3), which got great reviews, if you check out Engadget's best tablet to buy right now its got the highest amounts of votes, almost triple what iPad has. And during Microsoft keynote speech for SP3 they kept saying we listened to our users and reviewers, which clearly seems to be the case.

Do you think Surface Phone should replace Lumia 900s series? By that I mean Microsoft's engineering and ethics going into the production rather than Nokia's.

Or are you happy with your Lumia Device and prefer if Microsoft just let Nokia engineers design the next flagship?

 

[ven07]

I would love to see a surface phone! with 3d capabilities please!!!

 

[godse573]

Well seeing as how Microsoft bought out nokia, there technically wont be another nokia branded device. What will continue to happen is that Microsoft mobile is going to produce a broad range of smartphones to appeal to a large crowd, as nokia has been doing very well. What we wont see is a "surface phone" because the windows phone branch is already filled with a great variety of larger phones, like the 1520. I mean there isn't an iPad phone...

the reason again why the 530 has only 512mb of ram is because they are aiming the lower 500 and 600 range of phones to appeal to a crowd that is just getting a smartphone for the first time, or just getting a windows phone for the first time, while also keeping it affordable. I am however a little disappointed that the flagship Lumia devises don't have expandable memory. I mean I paid nothing for my 822 and I got expandable memory, but my icon does not which I paid 100 dollars for :eck: I am also disappointed that i don't have glance as well. Kinda weird..

 

[Stephen Lynam]

it'll be interesting to see what way ms goes for future phones....
Will the 930 be the last Nokia branded phone?

 

[paramsingh]

I see what you guys are saying, my question is more regarding the philosophy behind engineering rather than branding, Do you guys believe Microsoft would be a better listener than Nokia, lets be honest, Nokia made some good products but they never listened, every time users complained they tried extra hard to avoid us, I don't own a Icon but I am aware of the purple hue on display, over heating and WiFi connectivity problem which Nokia hasn't resolved still, and they go ahead and release 930, which is practically Icon. Micro SD and Glance screen should be standard with high end devices, that should go without saying, I feel like Nokia is not even trying, look at Sony, they started to make huge losses in smartphone but they got their act together and released the Z series and now Sony's smartphone department is generating profits, the same goes with LG.

Since Lumia 920, I have 925, I have not really seen much innovation from Nokia, even 1020 is a let down, 41MP sensor that was a downgrade from Nokia 808. I'm not saying they haven't made great products, 520, 1520, 720... all great but nothing which is amazing.

 

[godse573]

all great but nothing which is amazing.

Exacly. Perfectly worded. I have been preaching this for as long as Windows Phone has been around. If Microsoft want a top competing mobile os, they should go out and find a reason for theirs to be one. Take things like 8.1, which should have been released a long time ago. Things that are real selling points. where they can make a television ad boasting about their retina displays or dropping it in the toilet and it still works. They need a selling point. A real reason for someone to drop their IPhone 5s and switch to an icon or something. Removable memory and removable battery and things like that need to be on a flagship or else they cant be considered a flagship.

Anyways, I think the purple hue and over heating are problems with the developers preview, not the standard factory wp8, but don't quote me on that one.

All in all im a loyal Microsoft customer, but am a little frustrated at which the pace they are moving.

 

[gxtoast]

Just a note about the 925. My friend's Lumia 925 is definitely of inferior design and build quality to my 920. Totally different phones, and now her 925 has started malfunctioning only months after purchasing it (the sensor that disables the display when holding the phone to your ear). The speaker is positioned on the back because they made the phone so thin, which inhibits audibility and clarity. The screen scratches more easily than my 920. And my camera is better on the 920. I wouldn't buy the 925.

Regarding creating a great mobile platform. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that Microsoft really needs to do better than it is currently doing. I think the Nokia name will remain in the mid and low range market, at the very least. In the Surface high-end market I think Microsoft needs to produce compelling hardware and a much more refined and feature-rich OS. Apple is really stepping up its integration and cloud and Microsoft is just going to get even more behind if it isn't much more aggressive than it currently is.

Adding features doesn't mean a move away from simplicity, it just requires more intelligent design choices.

Here's one aspect that Microsoft could make a difference in: sophisticated Location settings that allow a smartphone to have its GPS Location enabled all the time without chewing the battery down in a matter of hours. How about a phone that polls GPS towers infrequently when not being used in Drive mode? What about GPS settings that change when a different mode is selected? Controlling Location services is key to better power management, so why is this ignored? At the moment there is just on or off. Not good enough.

What about better photograph management? An improved email client that makes it easy to select other folders? What about supporting swipe gestures to change from one Explorer tab to another?

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't go to any other platform and I still love the minimalism UI. It has clarity. But, this doesn't mean that it needs to be simplistic (simplistic is not desirable, whereas simplicity is).

I'm also still waiting for my OS update to 8.1. It is August already.

Yeah, it seems that Microsoft is slowing down. The Surface Pro 3 is the tablet I wanted to purchase in November 2013, so this is the good news. Now they just need to follow this with an equivalent update to the Surface, and a new bunch of Surface or Nokia Lumia phones to compete with the upcoming new releases from Apple. Apple is hammering Microsoft into the ground, again. New form-factors in new iPhones, along with new IOS and tighter integration with cloud and MacOS.

Android, as much as I hate the UI experience, doesn't need to iterate as much because the third parties are constantly iterating and bringing new features through their apps. The customisability of Android keeps the need for OS iteration down. Microsoft is in the same boat as Apple and yet they aren't nearly as aggressive.

Let's see what the second half of 2014 brings on the Microsoft WP platform. Fingers crossed.

 

[DoctorSaline]

Yes, Id love to the see the Surafce's esthetics going into the design and specifications philosophies for Lumia. Though I'm unsure how the existing Lumia engineers will react to this. The distribution will have to take place through Microsoft Mobile division though, since, MS has been traditionally bad at distributing devices globally.