Why windows phone?

[Andrew POstings]

I've used android pretty much since it came out (and recent devices include the gFlex, Note 3, G2, Nexus 5, S4, HTC One m7... I also use iOS devices (iPhone 5s).I'm now using a Nokia 1520 and loving it. The screen is excellent and ultrareadable in bright sunlight, the size is great as a phablet, camera is very good (and the large screen helps), battery is great. I find the windows UI fresh and dynamic. And I've found all the types of apps I need.

 

[Nerdy Woman]

As some of the other replies have mentioned several features, your decision should be based on what is important to you.

How do you use your phone? i.e., my daughter uses her phone like a Gameboy and MP3 player, my husband thinks his is an e-reader with phone functionality, and I use most of the features on mine to stay connected with my clients via email and text, as well as collaboration via OneNote and Office.

How deeply are you enamored with Google services? If you love Google docs, maps, etc., you'll want to stay with Android, specifically a Google Android device, not a forked Amazon OS.

How much does your privacy and security concern you? From Google's own website, "Google is a business. The revenue we generate is derived from offering search technology to companies and from the sale of advertising displayed on our site and on other sites across the web." In fact, for FY 2013, $50.5 BILLION of their $59.8 BILLION in revenue came from advertising. Google users are not their customers, they are their product.

Personally, I love the way OneDrive syncs my phone and laptop without my having to do anything to make that happen... Especially nice is the integration with Office desktop apps -- being able to save a file directly to OneDrive, and open it later on my phone. And I love the way Bing apps sync between phone and desktop versions, without having to register on some 3rd party website.

 

[trivor]

There have to be dozens, if not hundreds, of threads on this topic already in the forum. If you did a search for "switch to windows phone" or similar you'd probably end up with a full days worth of topics to review about this very subject. That being said, best advice I can give you is just go play with one. People can tout this feature or that feature but you're the only one that can really make that decision. If you think you'll like it just go ahead and use your upgrade to get it. You always have 30 days to immerse yourself in it and then return it and get something else if you find you don't like it.

Sure wish I had 30 days to try it out - Verizon has been 14 days for at least 2 years. 14 days is definitely not enough time to find any faults a particular phone may/may not have for someone.

 

[fatclue_98]

Sure wish I had 30 days to try it out - Verizon has been 14 days for at least 2 years. 14 days is definitely not enough time to find any faults a particular phone may/may not have for someone.

Those 14 days are for getting comfortable with your device and the OS. You're looking for warranty issues. If a phone craps out in less than 30 days you got yourself a ripe lemon.

Sent from my LG Intuition using Tapatalk

 

[s2mikey]

There have to be dozens, if not hundreds, of threads on this topic already in the forum. If you did a search for "switch to windows phone" or similar you'd probably end up with a full days worth of topics to review about this very subject. That being said, best advice I can give you is just go play with one. People can tout this feature or that feature but you're the only one that can really make that decision. If you think you'll like it just go ahead and use your upgrade to get it. You always have 30 days to immerse yourself in it and then return it and get something else if you find you don't like it.

Great advice and it's exactly what I did. Messed with a Lumia 635 in Boston while on vacation at a Microsoft store and it didn't take long for me to think "hey, this is pretty cool". I have always used tracfones and flip phones so the whole idea of a smart phone was new to me. I had not been tainted by previous beliefs or opinions like most others have. I do own an iPad Air and love it but I am not an apple fan boy. iPhones are way too expensive off contract anyways. Screw that!

So, we were looking to replace our home phone and our tracfones all at once. We purchased two AT&T Lumia 520's and have the GoPhone monthly plans on them. Loving everything about it. The phones themselves were cheap to buy but are good quality. The OS is slick and responsive. And, they work great as just a phone which is our main usage.

I can see heavy gamers or photography users wanting to stay with the other options. But, for us, we are using the phones as talking and texting devices for the most part so having a million apps to choose from doesn't mean much to us. I have a few news apps installed and maybe a game. That's it. So for us, WP and Nokia filled a perfect niche. I hope it grows and gets more popular. The low end Android phones are atrociously terrible and Apple doesn't do cheap anything.

 

[chezm]

The only disadvantage of Android over Windows Phone:
- micro management, too much like a mini pc
- most bloat-ware is not easily removable on non-stock Androids
- Some apps in store are malicious (unsafe)

9That's all I can honestly think of, otherwise Android is an excellent mobile OS. I am with Windows mainly because of aesthetics and design.

 

[DER1996]

I don't know if it's already been said but hee goes :
Why windows phone ? Because Competition is good ! Even though Android feature wise was a lot more advanced than WP feature wise ( the difference is less with WP , but still is there , mainly because of rooting ) Without the competition and the difference from WP 7.5+ , Android would have never considered the UI and the general user experience to be a priority , heck Androids would be stuck with an interface reminiscent of GB and a very similar user experience with a few features reserved for the geeks among us ; and beautiful design improvements in iOS 8 and Material design which are more or less inspired by WP would have never existed . Disagree ? Read articles , Use windows vista , go to eye doctor to get a cure for the Bsod-blindness , re-read this paragraph ,repeat if necessary .

 

[jonnaver]

I think my Android experience is more compelling than saying why Windows phone is better so here goes...

No, regardless of how deep you go in customization, Android is not user friendly. On top of that, Google Now is a joke. I can't even make it play a song in my collection. My 4 year old phone did that just fine. Also, the new design language won't bring any huge differentials because Android is basically Samsung to the mass market and I sincerely doubt they're changing up their design language a whole lot. Also, three keyboards are awful. Tried about 15 suggested keyboards on my m8 and none of them were as responsive as the windows phone keyboard. Not to mention the auto correct and predictions were absolutely dismal. Go ahead, get your Android phone, root it to get rid of those carrier apps that are, in most cases, an absolute blight. Oh, then install an all new music app to have something not awful. Oh, don't forget that keyboard. Hmm, launcher while we are at it? No one likes touchwiz anyway. Well, while we are this deep, let's install 27 other apps from 19 different publishers that don't really adhere to any cohesive design language and make this Frankenstein's monster kinda work well for me. Don't forget to give these apps address to every aspect of your personal life. Sure, a live wallpaper of puppies needing access to your contacts is totally viable. Man, you pieced that Frankenstein's monster together well. Hope you weren't too big a fan of battery life though since all of those are running in the background.

Wow, hyperbole much? I'm basically multi platform so I don't have a stake in any particular OS, so I can safely say without fear of any counter accusations of bias that this is more of a fanboyish rant full of hyperbole than an honest overview. I think I could even go so far as to say not one single sentence in that entire post was reasonable.

 

[NokianWP]

Haha, in my opinion user-friendliness is an overrated virtue and I would prefer functionality over user-friendliness, any day.

With that said however Android is indeed user friendly, if you don't like the sea of widgets just pin your favorite apps, that's it. No fuss and no clutter. Android isn't as hard to use as people make it out to be. Oh and some OEMs like Samsung actually give you an "Easy Mode" where you just have the essentials on your homescreen.

This is what makes Android so versatile, it appeals to the average user and the power user.

You can't put down Google Now for one thing, I mean maybe it can't play a song but it can be activated anywhere and it mostly responds instead of just giving you a written response. Plus you can activate it from any app by just saying "Ok Google" and in Android L you'll also be able to wake your phone from sleep by saying "Ok Google." For one feature that Google Now may not have, it has many features that Cortana doesn't.

I actually in some ways prefer Cortana over Google Now, thus my point that Windows Phone has a few advantages over Android and iOS.

Moving on Samsung has always differed from how other OEMs and Google design the operating system, Android 4.4 is very different from TouchWiz. And a decent amount of people really love TouchWiz, why do you think Samsung sells so well?

Android isn't Samsung to the main market and there has been a huge visual overhaul in Android L, now with a universal design language. It's looks quite amazing, go check out a video about it. It beats Windows Phone 8 in just about every way.

I've used keyboards on Windows Phone and keyboards on Android, it depends on how fast you type but I generally find that I type much faster on my Nexus 5, even gesture typing is better because I get a preview of what is being typed. So your argument about keyboards holds no value, no one has complained about keyboard touch responsiveness on Android.

The Play Music app bundled with most Android devices hands down is both faster, functional and has better animations than Xbox Music on Windows Phone. The Play Music app also has better integration with the lockscreen and notification center.

Using a different launcher doesn't kill your battery depending on what kind of launcher that you use and apps on Android may not have maintained a central design language but they were nonetheless in many places much better looking and functional than the Windows Phone counterparts.

Android also sees amazing apps that no other platform gets and the quality of most Android apps is superb.

To end your argument Android Central has explained countless times why apps like Facebook Messenger need certain permissions and even many app developers explain why as well.

If you don't like live wallpapers don't use them, it's not like you had them on Windows Phone and are gonna miss them.

And there are a lot of apps on Windows Phone that ask for your location even though they aren't used for navigation. People have also complained about this.

The simple answer is that don't download apps that ask for too many permissions, they probably won't be worth it anyways.

As far your argument about battery life goes, Windows Phone isn't known for superb battery life either, those titles are still retained by many Android phones.

 

[NokianWP]

There is a "Hey Cortana" coming in the gdr1 update for 8xx core devices. Meaning the 930/29, 1520, etc.

 

[jonnaver]

I have a very simple solution for MS to get traction for WP. Follow the sales strategy of the OnePlus One phone.

1. Make a phone with specs and design quality comparable to other flagship level phones. Regardless of whether specs matter for the WP OS the uneducated consumers still think it does. Apple can get away with not running a spec war because they've already established mass mind share.

2. Sell it for $450 or less off contract.

3. Market the heck out of the fact that they're selling a flagship level quality phone for hundreds less than all the others.

4. Win

If I was told there was a WP that was nicely built with a Nokia quality camera, 2GB RAM, quad core, a 5" 1080p display for $450 I wouldn't have any hesitancy snapping one up right away. Carrier exclusives wouldn't even matter at that price point either.