Switching from Nokia 701 is somehow dissapointment

[ivor1024]

So it's been a little more than a month since I switched from Nokia 701 to 930 and the difference is obviously huge as lumia is outstanding device. I'm really happy and I love it, performance is beyond amazing, there is no loading...almost everything is just instant (internet depending) and lag is non existent. Yet still there are things that are bugging me everyday and are still missing on my 930. The longer I use it, the more thing I find comparing to my 3 year old symbian phone (I'm talking about built-in software and hardware related features). I made a list of things I found so far

- first of I'm gonna start with FM transmitter which is my favorite feature as I could play my music anywhere I go. Anyone who ever used one of the few nokia phones with that feature knows how awesome this is expecially if you spend a lot of time in your car. I really don't know why did they stop adding this after switching to lumia series
- TV out is another one that I really miss because there is no way of mirroring your screen to a big screen except buying miracast dongle (if you don't own a TV that has it built in) and it also requires internet connection. So if you don't have both, it ain't gonna happend. Even HDMI is not an option...anyway, since I used it almost everyday, I end up carrying my old phone every time I want to watch a movie
- windows phone does not support MKV files in default video player like symbian. At least they bother enough to add subtitle support
- the fact that I no longer have micro sd card slot is bad deal for me. I have 64GB sdxc in my old nokia + 8GB of internal memory...that's twice as much as I have now. I moved some of my pictures and music to 930 and now I have 9GB left which makes me feel very limited
- no USB OTG either so there is no way of expanding my storage except OneDrive which I can use only with wifi connection as my plan data is limited to 2GB. Not to mention how slow it is browsing thro 2000 pictures..
- there is no notification light and I have to get to lock screen to see if I have any notification while I could just look at my 701 and tell if I had any missed calls or anything like that
- quiet hours are available only if you have cortona, so I guess I'm never gonna get this because I live in Croatia
- on my 701 I could activate LED flash by holding a lock button for 3 seconds (patch can reduce it to 1 second). There was like a milion occasions where I could turn on the light within a second or two just by reaching into my pocket
- screen rotation is slower and I have to turn my phone at much higher angle for screen to rotate. I don't like that and it's hard to get used to it
- settings menu is really unorganised unlike in symbian
- you can't see a picture info unless you press reframe. So if you didn't take high resolution photo or you have images that are not taken with your lumia, you won't find any details (not even in galery). Same goes for videos
- symbian is connected to wifi only when it's necessary and it disconnects right after it's no longer needed (when you close a youtube or browser) and your phone data is used for notifications while my lumia is connected to wifi all the time whether I use it or not
- there is no proper youtube app for WP. Metrotube and mytube are not bad but I don't like the UI and there is no app that supports 1080p yet. Cutetube for symbian is fast and simple and it does support 1080p (tho only for nokia 808)
- universal search works better in symbian IMO
- symbian have DLNA sharing button which shows your phone as an external device on your TV or PC and you can browse/copy you pictures, videos and music without any cables. I didin't find this option on my lumia but there's Play To app that doesn't work as it can't find my TV and it shows error when connecting to PC
- I should also mention that symbian uses real multitasking and it can run 50 apps with no problem (not that anyone will ever do but still...) while WP can handle only 7 at the time

As you can see it's not like it's missing a feature or two, the list is quiet long. I knew about most of these things before I bought it but I needed a new phone so I went for the best available right now and that's lumia 930 (of course android and ios are not an options worth spending my money). Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing device and I really enjoy using it but I feel pretty much restricted in a way I never felt with my old 701 expecially software-wise. I really hope windows 10 will change that tho I'm afraid I will be just as dissapoined

Just wanted to share this with you, tell me your opinion

 

[jmshub]

Welcome to the message board and thanks for your thoughts.

Some of your issues will be resolved by updates. I expect MKV support to be added to Windows Phone as they just announced that Windows 10 will support MKV out of the box. VLC Media Player is coming soon with the WP app in beta now. Likewise, Cortana is expanding for other countries and languages as they can, so while Microsoft doesn't do the best job of explaining timetables for things like this, hopefully you will see support for Cortana eventually. The flashlight option with the power button would be nice. As iOS rolled flashlight up into the OS, I expect Microsoft to just build it in as well.

Perhaps OTG support will be added with Windows 10 as well. Windows Phone was built around the concept of mobile & cloud, so I think that's the reason that OTG was never part of Windows Phone, but as the platform merges into the phone + tablet OS, we'll almost certainly see OTG support and HID drivers.

Things like FM transmitter on a phone are going the way of the physical keyboard. That is a niche feature that is needed less and less as nearly every car these days has Bluetooth and/or aux audio jack built in. I don't think there is a smartphone available today from any company that includes an FM transmitter.

Windows Phones do offer notifications via a feature called Glance. Unfortunately, the Lumia 930 doesn't support Glance (more on that here: The Nokia Lumia Icon and 930 do not have Glance, here?s why | Windows Central). Some Windows Phones have SD card support, but again, the 930 doesn't offer it.

I have never tried Play To or Miracast with any of my devices, but Roku recently added support for it, so I should just to see how well it works on Windows / Windows Phone.

I do agree that I wish it was easier to see the image information in your phone's image gallery.

Microsoft also chose to aggressively monitor power management in Windows Phone, hence the limited nature of multitasking and number of active apps. Maybe there are some people who would want to have many apps open at once, but for the average user, Microsoft wisely manages that in the background. I don't think most people realize that they aren't closing apps when they tap the home button and return to the home screen to open a new app.

Lastly, some of the items are personal preference or opinion. When Windows Phone binds to a WiFi network, it will remain connected to it until you leave the area or turn off the WiFi radio. To be honest, every other device I can think of works like that, I'm not sure why you'd want that any other way. Screen rotation works the same way on my phone as it does on my Windows 8 tablet. They may have detuned it to prevent it from turning too quickly when people are holding it off axis slightly, such as when they are reading in bed and right on the cusp of holding it horizontally.

 

[Rodrigo Mendes]

I think most of you complaints are strictly personal. 701 have some resources that Lumia series don't have. I know that. I just think the most of these things are outdated or obsolete for 99% of people. Like HDMI or FM transmitter. There's no use for these things if you have BT/WiFi. At least for 99% of people. But maybe you are 1%. That's OK.

But some of your complaints are really strange for me. Why complain about SD card if you know 930 don't have support in the first place? It's a know physical limitation.

Why you want that smartphone uses your data plan instead WiFi? WiFi is cheaper, in most of cases faster, have much better signal and helps battery life a lot. Looks like stupidphone choice for me.

Nokia 701 have a very bad Youtube app, I know that - and a lot of other stuff - because I still have a friend with Nokia 701 in my old job. Maybe you can have 1080p videos (I don't know why you want 1080p videos on 360p display), but the app have a incredible bad design. It's just bad. Ugly, confuse and disorganizad. It's very strange for me read something like that because Metrotube, Mytube and Tubecast are not only the best Youtube apps for Microsoft Store, but much better than ANY other stores too. Include oficial. It's almost unanimous. The only bad side is this: you don't have 1080p videos because Youtube don't have 1080p APIs available. But you have download option, beautiful interface and smooth performance. None of these are available for Symbian.

My friend complaints a lot of yours Nokia 701. A lot. And I was witness for a long time. Sometimes he shows me the issues, sometimes he just talk about. Freezing, spontaneous restarts, bugged keyboard (almost impossible to use, the worst I see in my all life, even the fist touchscreen phones was better), pathetic multitask (very slow and freezes a lot), huge battery drains since the first day, slow and bad auto wifi/data switch, 1080p mkv runs like crap (MoliPlayer is a good app for MKV on WP8.1), browser is absolutely slow, have a really bad performance and a several of bugs, email software is horrible to manipulate.

Well, that's what I remember know. He barely uses his phone because, in their own words: "it's garbage".

So there's no perfect system or smartphone. Just the one who matches with you. In this case, maybe Symbian matches with your needs. And that's OK.

 

[cheehong]

In my opinion, Android is more suitable to you . It has more functions,less limitations and essential app with quality . Don't hope for Windows 10 will arrive soon . So, some problems or bug will not fix immediately. Furthermore, Android phone has higher spec with lower price and always listen to the customer unlike Microsoft abandoned their own mobile platform and develops better app in IOS or either Android. I have regret buying a Windows phone. If I have a chance, I will buy a new phone. Don't expect Microsoft will brings overhaul experience to windows 10 ,even they might android and IOS is far away from Windows phone while Windows is lagging behind . I know my word will only offend many Microsoft fans boys but this is the truth that cannot be denied and I have face it in daily live . This only is my personal opinion, sry for the grammar mistakes.

 

[ivor1024]

jmshub and Rodrigo Mendes
The point of making this thread was to show you how many features a flagship from 2011 have and my lumia lacks. These are all the things from my personal experiance that I used a lot and now they are gone so it's gonna take some time to get used to it or find replacements. I live in a place where everyone have their own vacation house somewhere in the hills without wifi connection so FM transmitter or TV out are great options. I believe we are still not that far ahead as everyone thinks...things that can receive FM radio waves are still everywhere around you and it ain't gonna die any time soon. Also every single TV have plenty of input options and it's the easiest way of connecting your phone to a big screen as the only thing you need is a $3 cable


Rodrigo Mendes
About micro sd...it's not a complait, it's an observation. I really don't understand why would anyone disclude this option in a new device (expecially flagship) as it is the best way of expanding your storage rather than paying so much money to a carrier for unlimit data plan and use onedrive (also no carrier offers such option here in Croatia). But using data plan for notifications and messaging it better IMO as I hardly think that wifi consumes less power than 3G

I do agree that 1080p on 360p screen is stupid but the fact that a dead OS have that for some time now is just a shame for WP

I have made myself a custom rom for my 701 and I have no issues, freezing, bugs or anything like that. I can make a video just to show you that it can run 50 apps without system lag or crashing. I don't know what did you find to be wrong with mulittasking, it's probably the best among all. Some apps like browser (or some 3rd party ****) are slow but after all it has 1.3 single core CPU. Almost everything else works pretty much fast and smooth considering how old it is. MKV works with no problem, it can handle 4GB video just as any other and my battery lasts for 2-3 days with medium usage (that's after 3 years). All that being said, it is an old phone with a small screen for todays standards and obvious move was to get a new one


cheehong
Well I did tried android and it's no good for me, I don't like UI and it doesn't work as I would want it to. Everyone around me uses it and I just can't stand it (let alone ios). But I do agree that microsoft is making a really slow progress. They should have made WP much better by now considering they are in OS business for a very long time which is a big advantage

 

[Rodrigo Mendes]

jmshub and Rodrigo Mendes
The point of making this thread was to show you how many features a flagship from 2011 have and my lumia lack. These are all the things from my personal experiance that I used a lot and now they are gone so it's gonna take some time to get used to it or find replacements. I live in a place where everyone have their own vacation house somewhere in the hills without wifi connection so FM transmitter or TV out are great options. I believe we are still not that far ahead as everyone thinks...things that can receive FM radio waves are still everywhere around you and it ain't gonna die any time soon. Also every single TV have plenty of input options and it's the easiest way of connecting your phone to a big screen as the only thing you need is a $3 cable


Rodrigo Mendes
About micro sd...it's not a complait, it's an observation. I really don't understand why would anyone disclude this option in a new device (expecially flagship) as it is the best way of expanding your storage rather than paying so much money to a carrier for unlimit data plan and use onedrive (also no carrier offers such option here in Croatia). But using data plan for notifications and messaging it better IMO as I hardly think so that wifi consumes less power than 3G

I do agree that 1080p on 360p screen is stupid but the fact that a dead OS have that for some time now is just a shame for WP

I have made myself a custom rom for my 701 and I have no issues, freezing, bugs or anything like that. I can make a video just to show you that it can run 50 apps without system lag or crashing. I don't know what did you find to be wrong with mulittasking, it's probably the best among all. Some apps like browser (or some 3rd party ****) are slow but after all it has 1.3 single core CPU. Almost everything else works pretty much fast and smooth considering how old it is. MKV works with no problem, it can handle 4GB video just as any other and my battery lasts for 2-3 days with medium usage (that's after 3 years). All that being said, it is an old phone with a small screen for todays standards and obvious move was to get a new one


cheehong
Well I did tried android and it's no good for me, I don't like UI and it doesn't work as I would want it to. Everyone around me uses it and I just can't stand it (let alone ios). But I do agree that microsoft is making a really slow progress. They should have made WP much better by now considering they are in OS business for a very long time which is a big advantage

SD is strictly personal. Most of people don't need more than 27GB for smartphone storage. It's not a notebook or a PC. But it's OK if you are not "most of people". But you need to understand this is not normal.

Theres a LOT of flagship smartphones that don't have SD card too. Moto X, LG G2, Moto Maxx, HTC One and iPhone are in my mind know.

SD Card slot is really need only if you have low internal memory. Maybe 32GB is low for you, but you can be surte it's even too much for most of people. And when a device is desing, they only think about what people really want.

The same for FM Transmitter and HDMI.

About WiFi and LTE consumes: Does Wi-Fi Consume More Battery Power Than 3G or 4G/LTE? . It's well know that WiFi consumes less than 3G/4G. Since always. You can search for more.

 

[ivor1024]

About WiFi and LTE consumes: Does Wi-Fi Consume More Battery Power Than 3G or 4G/LTE? . It's well know that WiFi consumes less than 3G/4G. Since always. You can search for more.

wow didn't know that, I was convinced that wifi uses more power than 3G
thanx for sharing

 

[AluminiumRims]

I'm also coming from Symbian and I'm currently trying out WP8.1 with my 930. Hardware wise is the Nokia 930 really nice. The screen is large, clear and vivid compared to the 640x360 Symbian limitation. The speed is much better. However it stops there. On the software side, WP is really a turkey. There are so many features missing and the software just screams ill will, no privacy and limitations.

The UI is fluid and at times nice but there are obvious some things I dislike like the long scrolling sessions. Setting a time requires you to scroll 60 units, instead of just typing the time which is much faster. Multitasking is absent. You cannot save contacts to SIM. No USB OTG. WP is 4 years old now and Microsoft has still not removed their thumbs out their a**** in order to get WP a fully featured OS. BB10 was much more complete and supported more at the first release.

Basically Microsoft fails their own parade game, software. Windows 7 is the best OS for desktop out there and Windows has been that because it is simply the best OS out there for PCs. Why didn't they use that instead of destroying everything and tried to play Apple.

If you're a large company as Microsoft you should be able to do better than that.

 

[Rodrigo Mendes]

Save contatcts to SIM is obsolete. Makes no sense for nowadays.

Usually complaints against Windows Phone are superficial. This topic is not different.

 

[AluminiumRims]

Save contatcts to SIM is obsolete. Makes no sense for nowadays.

Usually complaints against Windows Phone are superficial. This topic is not different.

I don't care. If I as a customer wants to save my contacts on my SIM its my choice. All other mobile OSes let's do that because they let their customers do that if they want to. It's not the job of Microsoft to dictate how I want to save my contacts.

This really sums Windows Phone pretty well, deny user choice. Limit how users can utilize their phone and herd them into the pay line rather than give them a great tool.

 

[lbp775]

I don't care. If I as a customer wants to save my contacts on my SIM its my choice. All other mobile OSes let's do that because they let their customers do that if they want to. It's not the job of Microsoft to dictate how I want to save my contacts.

This really sums Windows Phone pretty well, deny user choice. Limit how users can utilize their phone and herd them into the pay line rather than give them a great tool.

Yes, I guess it is your preference but I honestly don't know why anyone would want to save contacts to their SIM.

Lose or get your phone stolen once and you'll change your tune.