I dived head-first into this Windows Phone world, in October 2014. I have used various models on and off during the last year, and back in May I made the 640 XL my "daily driver", as some call it, and have had it that way up until now, and continue to do so. Well, I've had a LOT of time to assess the world of Windows Phone, and please allow me to make a balanced judgement, after having bought & used each of the following models, from new:
~ 630
~ 635
~ 735
~ 640
~ 640 XL
I love:
~ Cortana
~ The SUPERB battery life of the 640/640 XL
~ Camera app, and how nearly everything has a manual control
~ The keyboard
~ The minimal (8.1/8.1 GDR2) look and clean cut look which it has on the eye.
~ exFAT filesystem and the ability to record HUGE 1080p videos (1+ hr, 9-12GB or more)
What really annoys me:
~ The sheer ineptitude of Microsoft and/or FaceBook to create an app which works and uploads photos and videos without having to babysit it, knowing it will fail 99% of attempts (which it will, GUARANTEED).
~ The bizarre situation which means WhatsApp is unable to transcode longer videos into equally long but lesser quality videos, as iOS and Android allow, when sending them. What's THAT about?
~ "Loading . . . . . Loading . . . . ." (what, with ONE GIGABYTE OF RAM?!)
~ Camera app often decides to spend 5-15 mins WITHOUT button overlays, just teasing me with a camera preview but NO WAY of capturing.
~ How long the gallery takes to rebuild the image cache, and sometimes it arbitrarily decides to start doing that all over again, for no reason.
~ The lack of a native, reliable and UI consistent YouTube app (and I know this is not entirely Microsoft's fault.)
~ Various other relatively workable but niggling inconsistenties.
I couldn't care less about the "app gap" - I use a phone for life, not for squandering my waking hours chasing baddies or driving a CGI car - that's just not me, I'd rather be spewing out tens of thousands of photos - I am a CREATOR more than a consumer of "content" (ugh, that word!).
I am thinking about selling up my 640 XL and going back to the Moto G, the current iteration of which has stellar reviews. I've owned 3 or 4 of the Moto G models from 1st gen XT1032 up to the 2nd gen dual SIM, and they are superb, apart from the fact that the camera was pretty poor on them up until the 3rd gen which now has "dual tone" flash and 13MP main/5MP front cameras. I also have had a Vodafone (ZTE) "Smart Ultra 6" for the last 4 months, in parallel to my Lumia, which I use as a commander for my Roku and for beaming YouTube to Roku with/using it as a mini tablet, but I'd sell up both it and 640 XL in a heartbeat to go back to the Moto G.
By NO means is it as simple and black and white as "loving" or "hating" the Windows Phone experience - there's SO much to like, but the disappointment factor and the lack in so, so many areas just hangs around like a shadow which won't go away, and I feel Microsoft are continually treading quicksand in their attempt to force Windows Phone into the mainstream (unlike on PC, where it's superb!), and I don't have much confidence in the integrity of their decisions or where this is all going.
I am considering Moto G 3rd gen as I've had so many good months (almost a year!) with Moto G, and sadly for Microsoft, the negatives of this flailing platform kinda outweigh the positives, no matter how good those positives are, Microsoft just seem to be treading water. I'm pretty sure my mind is made up now; it's not as if I haven't given Windows Phone so much of a chance in my life + the other months on the previous devices - it just isn't a solid, workable platform, and no amount of gimmicks like "Continuum dock" and other piffle is going to persuade me, or many others, to keep persisting.
I wanted to love you, but there's so many silly things which you NEVER ADDRESS, I think I am leaving now.
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