Thinking of switching, i'd like some opinions.

[Chief_Adu]

How do you know when you have a text waiting for you if your phone is on your desk and you are looking at it from far away? Since there is no file explorer, how do you search through your files?

Let me answer this one

Windows Phone has hubs for everything. You need your documents? Open Office. You need your photos? Go to the Photos hub. There is really no need to have a file manager on Windows Phone. However, people do still complain about it, even when we have hubs for all our files...

 

[paulxxwall]

I have my quirks about wp8 but overall it has been a way better experience definitely zero lag and I hope things get better I really hope so

 

[thatotherdude24]

2 because I have heard that WP8 sucks from a lot of people.

If you go to Verizon and talk to the reps you will hear even more people say WP sucks. When I was shopping for my Lumia 822 I had the rep tell me WP sucks and droids and iPhones are better. I asked him why, all he came up with is because.

As hard as it may be to believe I try my hardest to be unbiased. Everybody has their own needs and likes therefore what works or I like may be different for somebody else. With that said I work a ton with computers and have a lot of clients, with that I have discovered when somebody doesn't know about something such as how to use it, never seen it or don't want to know about it whatever 'it' is automatically sucks. For some reason people find it easier to hate rather than be honest and helpful and just say I don't know much about it. So by you hearing from a lot of people WP sucks isn't surprising.

The best thing to do is pay attention to the phone itself and not the opinions of others, even some on this site. Watch YouTube videos, read articles heck go to a bestbuy or Verizon and put your hands on the phone but tune out personal opinions, pay attention to the device.


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[J_WP]

The live tiles replace the notification center. You'll know because when you pick up your phone, the messaging tile will have a notification on it. And if you've set it to double wide, it'll display the message on it.

Adding to that, your phone will also display a notification on the bottom of the lock screen as well. These notifications can also be customized to show other things like number of new emails, number of missed calls, etc.

 

[dpjackal89]

Is there a way to know you have a text message waiting for you if your screen is off?

 

[Boris Lozac]

Is there a way to know you have a text message waiting for you if your screen is off?

I think none of the WP8 phones have led notifications, which is a pretty big fail..

 

[txkimmers]

Thanks for the response. Well what I am mainly looking for is good battery life (about 1 day of moderate usage) and no lagginess, and be able to replace the apps I use every day. The apps I use every day are the browser (I don't need flash), citibank, discover, chase, google drive and dropbox (I will probably use skydrive), ebay, outlook, google maps (will probably be replaced by nokia maps as long as it supports public transportation, nyc subway maps app, poweramp (i like the wp8 music player, I'm a fan of zune), pdf, office, and slickdeals. The major thing I am looking for is to have a more stable OS than android.

I came from Android too, but I really fell in love with WP8, I just think it's gorgeous, and yes, the very definition of stable compared to my Android phone. I think your app needs are largely covered, except for the banking apps (I use the mobile site for bank inquiries so I don't really need an app). I will say that in the year that I have been on WP8, the app situation has greatly improved. There are some really fantastic apps now (for me, Super Calendar, Phonly, Photostream and anything by Rudy Huyn are real standouts), and that situation keeps getting better. I am so appreciative of devs who are designing third party apps that run rings around the official ones!

I have read about probs with every single Nokia phone, but I think is probably the situation with every phone on every user forum everywhere. I personally had a great experience with my 8X, the 920 that replaced that, and the 925 that replaced that--I replaced each out of preference for features, not problems with the unit. So as far as that goes, cross your fingers and hope you don't get a bum one, and be ready to get a replacement from the carrier if you do.

That all being said, it might not end up being your cuppa. I have read several threads about folks finding just one thing...but it's the deal breaker, like I posted earlier. I say make the best possible use of your 14 days...make that unit run its paces!

 

[dpjackal89]

I think none of the WP8 phones have led notifications, which is a pretty big fail..

That's what I was afraid of. It is as you said a fail lol. But its definitely not a deal breaker for me. The last app I forgot to mention was jefit. It's basically a gym log app (reps, exercises, weight, etc.). Is there anything similar to that on WP8? Also (I know I ask a lot of questions) do you guys think I should get the Lumia 928 or wait for the 929 which is rumored to be released in November?

 

[amitnahar]

That's what I was afraid of. It is as you said a fail lol. But its definitely not a deal breaker for me. The last app I forgot to mention was jefit. It's basically a gym log app (reps, exercises, weight, etc.). Is there anything similar to that on WP8? Also (I know I ask a lot of questions) do you guys think I should get the Lumia 928 or wait for the 929 which is rumored to be released in November?

you should definitely wait for Nokia Lumia 929 or whatever it will be called.
Answer to your first question - Runtastic Pro

 

[thatotherdude24]

Adding to that, your phone will also display a notification on the bottom of the lock screen as well. These notifications can also be customized to show other things like number of new emails, number of missed calls, etc.

The live tile notifications are great but the lack of some type of notification center does hurt. For the apps you do not have pinned to the start screen you have no way of knowing you have a notification.

 

[coip]

Is there a way to know you have a text message waiting for you if your screen is off?

The GDR3 / Bittersweet update that is coming to Windows Phone 8 Nokia Lumia devices in the next few months will add text message (and other) notifications on the glance screen. The glance screen is a cool feature for Nokia devices where, when you pull your phone out of your pocket the proximity sensor notices you just pulled it out and it'll quickly light up a clock in small white text (this is to save battery life since many people would power up their screens just to check the time). That feature came with GDR2 / Amber update, and the next one will add the text message and other notifications in addition to the clock. It's a great feature. I much prefer it to the blinking lights of Android.

I am pretty much just like you, but 6 months ahead. I was a long-time Android user and, while initially I thought it was great, I soon realized it's not a good OS. It's slow, sluggish, unstable, and, frankly, kind of boring with its rows of icons. I'm on Verizon so I bought the Lumia 928 on launch day, and I absolutely love it. The phone itself is fantastic: beautiful 4.5" screen with a vibrant display, plus the camera is absolutely amazing, especially in low light. Even more than the phone hardware, though, I love the Windows Phone 8 OS. It's incredibly fast, efficient, and stable. It's so much faster than Android that I'll never go back. You'll be pleased with it, no doubt. The common critique of "no apps" is way overblown. You'll find either the exact apps or fantastic equivalents for 98% of what you were using on Android.

As for getting the 928 or 929, I guess you'll know more in a few days when Nokia announces the 929 officially. Newer is always nice, but I'm guessing the 929 will be bigger (maybe too big?) and probably more expensive. The 928 is only about a half a year old and it runs Windows Phone 8 flawlessly, so you can't go wrong with either.

 

[AccentAE86]

If you can get past losing the billion screens of static, boring, archaic icons from Android and iOS, then you just might understand and then appreciate the Live Tiles. They are not icons. They are not ugly, randomly designed widgets. They are not just program launchers. And they are the most beautiful thing about Windows Phone!

What I've found is that most people who try and hate Windows phone is because they don't really understand or bother to figure out the system. So far I've converted 5 iSheep to WP8 and they are all very happy about it. But that's probably because I take the time to help them set it up, sit down and explain how it works, and guide them through it. Because it is SO different than Android or iOS.

Windows phone is NOT customizable, like Android. You won't see any rooting, no launchers like Touchwiz or Sense, no third party launchers, no skins. Nothing like that. In that sense, every windows phone is kinda like a Nexus: the clean and pure OS experience. Carriers will install bloatware, but they are all just apps, which can be uninstalled at will. (Though carriers can muck with settings, which I really don't like) So it is NOT CUSTOMIZABLE. Remember that!

But EVERY WINDOWS PHONE IS DIFFERENT!

That's because it's PERSONALIZABLE. You make the phone personalized for YOUR specific needs, and you make it report only the things that are important to YOU. That's where Live Tiles come into play. Like I said, Live Tiles are NOT just app launchers. They can be just about ANYTHING any developer can dream up!

For example, aside from being just app launchers, Live Tiles can be a:

-specific person
-specific place you want to navigate to
-specific restaurant
-a particular package en route to you
-a bus stop or station
-document
-specific page in a document
-music playlist
-radio station
-specific ebay auction item
-settings
-message notification
-calendar
-weather report
-specific computer on a network that you want to remotely log in to
-specific Instagram user, so you get their feed right on your home screen
-specific group of twitter users
-appointment
-trip itinerary
-wikipedia article
-newsfeed
-specific stock
-recipie for your favourite dish


etc etc etc etc etc so if you are getting my drift, Live Tiles can be just about ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. It all depends on what useful things the developers think should be pinnable on the start screen. Heck, a Live Tile can be a specific mood you want to set you room lighting to (using Philip Hue lights and an app called Oni). The sky is the limit.

So once you get over the loss of static icons, you might realize just how much better Live Tiles are. They are app launchers, your notification centre, and newsfeed all in one! And the best part, because it's so personalized, you can choose to only pin information/people/things that are relevant and important to you, so you don't get notifications and updates from things you deem useless or uninteresting.

Anyhow, not saying WP is perfect... no mobile OS is. But it does have it's pluses. Pluses that are good enough to choose it over the others in my opinion.

And the app gap isn't as bad as it seems. The biggest difference is, for example, instead of over 100 calendar apps on Google Play, we get to choose from, say.. 12. There is so much crap and garbage to wade through on Google Play and the App Store. Now, the latest games typically don't come on WP first, so if you are a hardcore gamer that has to have the latest game on release day, then I DEFINITELY wouldn't recommend WP.

But if you are just looking for an AMAZING day to day phone, WP is hard to beat. You can get all the info you want faster, with MUCH LESS tapping and swiping than Android or iOS.

Another HUGE HUGE HUGE plus for me is the integration of MS Office and Skydrive! For BUSINESS use, it's just so killer for me! Not sure if you run a business or use Office docs a lot, but many people do. I run a photography business, so when I create any kind of business document on my desktop computer, like an invoice in Excel 2013, or a contract in Word 2013, you can save directly to Skydrive right from any Office 2013 app. It's baked right into the File->Save screen. As soon as I do that, if you open MS Office on your Windows Phone, those documents automatically appear right there! You don't even have to browse to find them, they just APPEAR front and centre, as shown below. These are two invoices and one contract I created a couple weeks ago on my desktop, boom, shows right up on my phone:

And Vice Versa! If I create or edit a document on my phone or Win8 tablet, when I open up Word/Excel/PPT/OneNote on my desktop, that document appears right at the top! Even if I've never opened that document on my desktop before. No need to find the doc, no need to transfer it, no need to email it to myself, it just plain works.

For running a business, this is such a killer feature! My children's babysitter just switched from iOS, and she absolutely LOVES that Office/Skydrive integration too as a university student. She says she makes use of it every day.

Also, you have the power to share documents these world-wide standard office documents with other people. And I don't mean email it as an attachment or post it to your facebook wall, you can share a single, LIVE, working copy of a document to any number of people so you are all updating one doc. For example, my wife and I use OneNote to log our car's Business Mileage, our list of household tasks, and our Grocery List:

This way, as I look in the fridge and discover things that we need to buy, I just place a check in the box next to the item on my OneNote document. She does the same thing to the same document. So when either of us goes to the store, we always have an up-to-date shopping list right on our phones. It has made shopping SO much easier and faster! And of course, I can pin this specific grocery list to my homescreen, so it's never more than one tap away. Skydrive integration and sharing allows this kind of dynamic document interaction. And with MS writing the engines for WP, it doesn't mess up all my formatting like the third party office options did.

And if you turn on full quality Photo and Video backup on your phone, and have installed the Skydrive Desktop app, all your photos will automatically get written to your computer's hard drive. So now you don't even need to copy your pictures over.

I'm just mentioning these cool things beause these are the types of powerful tools that people often never discover when they "try out" windows phone. They give up on it, hung up on things like app count, or thinking that tiles are nothing more than ugly icons, without ever REALLY discovering the best parts of it.

So just do yourself the favour and get all the help you can get here. We are a friendly community and can help you get the most out of your phone.

 

[coip]

If you can get past losing the billion screens of static, boring, archaic icons from Android and iOS, then you just might understand and then appreciate the Live Tiles. They are not icons. They are not ugly, randomly designed widgets. They are not just program launchers. And they are the most beautiful thing about Windows Phone!...

[edited for space, but it was all great]

...Now, the latest games typically don't come on WP first, so if you are a hardcore gamer that has to have the latest game on release day, then I DEFINITELY wouldn't recommend WP....

First, nice post: if we could clone you and put you in every Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint store in the U.S., Windows Phone would already have 90% market share as I'm convinced that the only reason it's taking so long to take off is because 1. people don't understand it, 2. in-store reps suck at explaining it (seen so many times these reps talk people interested in WP out of it and steer them towards an iPhone or Samsung, ugh)

Second, the only part of your great post that I disagreed with was the gaming quote above. I'm a hardcore gamer and that's precisely why I chose Windows Phone: Xbox integration! I will gladly take fewer titles and a delay in getting them over the benefits of having them Xbox branded (love adding to my gamerscore and earning achievements while playing on my phone, playing online multiplayer Xbox live on my phone, etc.), especially because, while the number of games is admittedly much lower than on iOS or Android, and WP does get new games from say EA and Gameloft later, there are still plenty of excellent Xbox games available (approximately 160 Xbox games for Windows Phone 8 right now, and many on the way, and thousands more games if you don't care about Xbox integration). In short, there are more than enough awesome games to keep any gamer busy for quite some time.

 

[Ruben Aceves]

I own the Lumia 521, my very first WP8 and I am an ex android (JellyBean) and iPhone user. That being said, I really enjoy the overall usability. I honestly think you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Euell Gibbons]

I was in the exact same boat as you, I loved hacking my Android phones for a few years, and it was fun to play with different looks/launchers on Android. (Even used the WP8 launcher for a while!) But at the end of the day, none of my Android phones were very good at the PHONE part of being a phone. They were slow and laggy at best, and got slower and laggier as time went on. I got tired of all of the monkey business, I just wanted my phone to WORK!

I never cared much for the live tile look of the Windows phones, but went ahead and made the switch anyway.

So I bought a Lumia 822, and have truly enjoyed it ever since. There is an occasional missing app here or there, but in general none of them are that important. I also would like a notification LED, but again, not really a deal-breaker.

The thing that sucks the most about Android phones, IMHO, is that your are pretty much required to buy the most expensive models to have decent performance. The mid/low end models are absolute turds when it comes to performance. And in 2 years when your contract is up you will need to upgrade to the latest flagship again, because your previous flagship phone is now too slow. It's a great circle for Samsung, et. al, but not so great for the consumer.

And FYI, the Samsung Ativ S has been rooted and hacked now, there is even a custom ROM now available. So if you decide to switch and want to keep your options open regarding hacking, you will want to pick that phone. I don't know if the Nokia phones will ever be rooted successfully.

 

[stalemate1]

I use an HTC Rezound. It is complete junk. I also have a Nexus 7 tablet though and although it is not as unstable as the HTC, it is still too unstable for me. Makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

Wow you must have rooted the daylights out of it to get it that bad, I still have an HTC EVO 3D that is still running strong and reliable after almost 2 years, though it should be noted that I'm not rooted. (i may have a hiccup once in a blue moon but I quickly resolve the issue as its some poorly compatible app) I too will more than likely be switching from Android to Windows...all the hours I spend personalizing my phone is making me go bonkers, then I've got to put in a little maintenance here and there such as moving apps to sd card and cold reboots now and then.

 

[William Mjema]

Just moved from Samsung Galaxy S2 to Lumia 625. I am not regretting the move!

 

[anon(123856)]

I think none of the WP8 phones have led notifications, which is a pretty big fail..

Yeah, I forgot to mention this in my post but a notification led would be awesome.

 

[GloriousGlory]

I've used my Lumia 1020 for a couple months now coming from an iPhone4s. At first I thought it was a good move until I realized how many quality of life issues WP8 has.

I just recently started using a Samsung Galaxy Note III and I will tell you right now with full confidence that WP is just too far behind. All I used to care about is that my phone works and that I can take great photos, but there is just far too many issues with WP8. I'll be more than happy to write up some and you can pass judgement for yourself.

I think it's appropriate that you hear both the pros and the cons, and from what I've read no one has given you any of the real quality of life cons.

- No finger seeking in videos, music, podcasts.... You have no idea how much this bugs me.. you literally have to just repeatedly tap or hold down the reverse or forward button like you're controlling a tape deck. From my research it has been an issue that was reported since early 2011 and they still have yet to address it. It is almost 2014 guys, come on.

- No shortcut to close apps that are running in the background. So you can bring up a list of what is running by holding the back button... but you can't close them. You literally have to just mash the back button about 20 times before they all end up closing. It's archaic. The new Windows update has added a feature of closing apps apparently, but I had to deal with this issue and the update isn't available yet unless you have a developer account.

- No forward button on internet explorer... If you hit the back button you have no way of going forward without making a custom bookmark or going through the browser history.

- Poor volume controls. The ringer and media volumes are connected. If you use your phone as a music player, you'll most likely have to lower the volume for headphones, but by doing that it also lowers your ringer volume to whatever you have the headphones set to. What's equally worse is that if you have headphones on, the ringtone won't even play through the headphone, it still plays through the phone's speaker.

- No shortcut to go between silent and vibrate mode. You literally have to hold down the volume button until its down to 0 or go through the system settings to turn off vibrate.

- Complete lack of developer support/apps. No real explanation needed here. I have never been an app person. I've only downloaded what I felt was essential on my past iPhone... but even finding a good GPS program was a chore on WP. Nokia's default GPS couldn't even find most of the small/local businesses I searched for... Waze found EVERYTHING I needed on iOS/Android without a hitch. The worst part is that about 80% of the apps I downloaded (not to mention the windows store is really archaic itself) had ads or some other kind of intrusion to try to force you into buying a premium version. I understand that this happens on the other platforms too, but due to the fact there are a lot of developers, you can usually find one without all that mess even for free and the ones with ads are usually voted low. On the windows store the ones with ads are even 5 star rated..

- Lack of customization.. Yes you can make the tiles small, medium, or large.. you can also change the colors of them, but why won't they let you change individual tile colors, or make a shortcut that has multiple tiles in one square... change the background color to anything other than white or black. WP8 has little to no customization outside of tile colors and sizes.

- A lot of apps hide your clock and/or battery life indicator.. Really irritating having to go back home to check. There's also no official battery application that shows you what features or apps are draining the most. The battery life on WP8 seems really archaic due to live tiles... sometimes it's decent, sometimes it drains like a mad man... people will just say "reset your phone" because there's basically no diagnostic tools available.

- Facebook chat integration in People hubs does not work properly. Seriously, go look it up. If you try to chat with someone using the people hub, it doesn't sync properly and messages don't get sent or received constantly. It's a load of mess that you're better off disabling.

I'm not going dwell any further into the negatives, there's enough there. I guarantee I can come up with another page of issues on WP8. I understand this is a WP Forum, but I believe it is fair to introduce a person to both the good and bad side of things to give him a fair view of what to expect.

TL;DR - WP8 has a lot of quality of life issues. Most issues have been reported and have yet to receive any fixes. The platform has very limited developer support and customization options.

I've used the flagship phones on Android (note 3), iOS (iphone 5s), and WP (lumia 1020). I'm not going to bother posting which one I felt was the smoothest, but I can tell you that WP is not any smoother than the others.

Edit:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/17/microsoft-remote-desktop-apps-ios-android/

Does anyone else not find this hilarious? Windows 8.1 has remote desktop apps for iOS and Android... but not for Windows Phone.. This is the kind of frustration I'm talking about.

 

[coip]

Yeah, I forgot to mention this in my post but a notification led would be awesome.

Personally, I hated that LED notification light in Android. I much prefer the Glance screen notifications that are coming in GDR3/whatever the next Nokia update is called. In the same vein, regarding a notification center, Iwrote this in another thread, but I'll say it again here:
I honestly don't get why people are craving a notification center. I hated the notification center of Android. It was always full, always blinking, making me check it and all it had was a bunch of stupid notifications for apps I rarely cared about. Windows Phone is much better: the apps I care about are pinned on the Start Screen, near the top. If there are notifications, I can see them and I can choose to open it and look at it or not. This is much better than being a slave to a drop-down notification center that always has notifications.