Am I nuts for wanting to do this? (android to WP, etc.)

[WanderingTraveler]

WP "the dark side?" I'd say it's the reverse, Android is the "dark side." :winktongue: The 925 is a gorgeous phone, and it's just like the 920, only with that stunning AMOLED screen and that sixth camera lens. As for the switching carriers part, T-Mobile is the only carrier I've been with and I've been with them for 11 1/2 years now. I think you should enjoy them, especially now with the UNcarrier thing they've got going on.

But, considering how most of us use a dark theme, we are the dark side.

Fear our wrath! /s

 

[MikesChevelle]

Yeah that is for sure one concern I have to think about. I definitely do like the 928 as well too I was just trying to get out from under the Verizon contract thing I guess. Anyway thanks for all the feedback everyone. Definitely gives me a lot of things to think about and keep in mind.

Do a combo of both, the 928 is a factory unlocked world phone and I believe has the bands on it that T-Mo uses. Buy it and use it on T-Mo

 

[flyinion]

Do a combo of both, the 928 is a factory unlocked world phone and I believe has the bands on it that T-Mo uses. Buy it and use it on T-Mo

I thought about that because a friend at work actually did just that. The only thing is, from what I've read it will NOT work on T-Mo's LTE bands and their LTE is supposed to come to my area in about a month or less. However if I decided I could live with HSPA, I could get the phone now anyway which also gives me a few months to use it without ETF'ing my contract (ends in December but was going to bail around August anyway) and if for some reason I ended up not liking WP8 it would be really easy to swap back to my current phone I guess.

 

[MikesChevelle]

I thought about that because a friend at work actually did just that. The only thing is, from what I've read it will NOT work on T-Mo's LTE bands and their LTE is supposed to come to my area in about a month or less. However if I decided I could live with HSPA, I could get the phone now anyway which also gives me a few months to use it without ETF'ing my contract (ends in December but was going to bail around August anyway) and if for some reason I ended up not liking WP8 it would be really easy to swap back to my current phone I guess.

Double check that, I had one for a few days before going back to my 920 and I thought I saw LTE a time or two. I know for a fact i have seen my ATT branded 920 get LTE in some spots in town

 

[flyinion]

Double check that, I had one for a few days before going back to my 920 and I thought I saw LTE a time or two. I know for a fact i have seen my ATT branded 920 get LTE in some spots in town

As near as I can tell, the 928 uses LTE on 700Mhz, and T-Mo uses 1700/2100 for LTE. It looks like the 928 supports W-CDMA on 2100 but not LTE. I don't know really how all those frequency bands work though so maybe someone else can help out there. Here's the list of bands as pulled from the 928 specs on the windowsphone.com site (verizon's site listed things very generically)

• GSM 850; GSM 900; GSM 1800; GSM 1900; W-CDMA 850; W-CDMA 900; W-CDMA 1900; W-CDMA 2100; LTE 700; CDMA1x; EVDO Rev A w/ Rx diversity

Actually just found this (on this site no less) when searching for the 928 working on T-mobile LTE. http://www.windowscentral.com/full-speed-ahead-nokia-lumia-928-may-pick-aws-support-verizon So it looks like eventually it will be possible after a software update. I guess the other concern would be if I buy a Verizon phone and use it on T-Mobile, how does it get software updates since I'm not on Verizon anymore and I know they don't come directly from MS.

 

[garak0410]

I went from iPhone to Android to Windows Phone and will most likely stay with Windows Phone...I, like you, am a Zune Fan...and as much as I like this phone, I do need to brief you with my experience with XBOX Music:

I've been sticking with XBOX Music for a while now but it has become almost unusable:
Syncing To Phone - In this day and age of "limited" data, cloud music makes little sense unless you plan on being in a lot of Wi-Fi spots. I like music on my phone. However, syncing is getting WORSE. Not only do I have to use the aging Windows Media Player to make my playlists but the latest "Desktop" Windows Phone app the other day deleted my music on my phone and even if I uncheck, sync and re-check my playlists, it will not re-sync. So, I decided to do it the hard way by downloading to my phone, adding music to NOW PLAYING and then saving the playlist. However, if I come to an album listed as "In Collection", I cannot download it to my phone. So basically, I have to go back to the PC and manually copy of music over to a folder. Oftentimes, the album Art is messed up. Yeah, there is a nifty third party app to help with the album art but we shouldn't have to do this. I want to be able to, on the fly, download an album to my phone and not have to battle with the sync issues and the "in collection" issues.

Cloud - The music cloud is pretty much unmanageable. Granted, I've been able to create "cloud based" playlists and access them over my devices (PC, Surface, Windows Phone) and it works fairly well. However, album art and even backgrounds and artist info is very spotty when playing on the phone. Playlist creation is quite cumbersome compared to the aforementioned Windows Media Player or even Zune Player. And there is really no way to manage the cloud music. Sometimes, I'd like to play all but for example, I'd like to exclude Christmas music that is in the cloud. In addition, I have music not in the XBOX Music Store that I'd like to send to the cloud. How do I get it there? Since syncing is a joke, I need it in the cloud. No, no real way to do this.

Playlist Limits (Cloud) - 1000 Songs. Really? 1000 Songs. OK, on the XBOX Music App, I can select multiple playlists and it will play them in Shuffle mode just fine. On the phone, I have to add each one to NOW PLAYING. On the XBOX? Nope...limited to one playlists with 1000 songs or less.
I've pretty much given up keeping some kind of order to my music anymore. Trust me, I've tried and tried over the months since XBOX Music was released but given the sync issues I had recently with the Desktop Windows Phone app, I'm done. I'll listen to my cloud playlists on the XBOX Music app but we need something like the Zune Player. It manages our music much better than the current applications. I am still hopeful for a fix but don't see one soon, even with Windows 8.1

I was never an iTunes fan but if Microsoft is going to win over iPhone fans, the music portion HAS to get fixed.

 

[TechFreak1]

Can you clarify?

HTC 8S and HTC 8X owners have been totally buggered by the other storage issue. Also the HTC App that allows you to see how much space Apps are using, as far as i know it currently doesnot allow you to clear up temporary files.

See below thread as an example.
http://forums.windowscentral.com/htc-8x/222945-how-do-you-clean-temp-cache-prefetch.html

 

[neo158]

Nuts for wanting to switch, no. Just remember that Windows Phone isn't perfect and does lack a lot of apps that Android has but give it a try and see if you like it.

 

[flyinion]

Nuts for wanting to switch, no. Just remember that Windows Phone isn't perfect and does lack a lot of apps that Android has but give it a try and see if you like it.

Thanks. Yep I realize there may be some stuff missing, but remember in my OP I said I was also picking up a N7 tablet when the 2nd gen hardware hits soon to keep the Android stuff. I'm just thinking WP might work better for what I need from a smartphone side of things

 

[jp1024]

For me, the lack of apps isnt a big issue, I use very few on android, those I do use are free because I just dont trust the google marketplace, and for those I do use, there are mobile site equivalents.

 

[flyinion]

Well, I'm really thinking of going with Verizon and the 928 if I do this now. T-Mobile I'm just not sure about their coverage if I'm out of the city, and the 16GB on the 925 has me worried at least until the "Other" problem is fixed. Based on my current usage of my current 32GB phone I should be fine, but not if the "Other" storage keeps increasing and eating space up. I tried to look at AT&T for the 1020, but even if I get the employer discount which it looks like I can, I'm still looking at $96 minimum vs. 76 on Verizon for a similar amount of voice/texts on my grandfathered in current plan + unlimited data on VZW + an employer discount on VZW. T-mobile would run me about 75-85 depending on if I can get a discount with them or not.

At least if I buy the 928 outright or on their device payment plan I end up on a monthly setup on Verizon instead of contract (so essentially what I was after with t-mobile anyway) and I get to keep my unlimited. I was definitely interested in t-mo's LTE though since it's coming here soon and would definitely be faster than VZW here which is now pretty well clogged in a few areas.

 

[flackberry]

6 years on Android. Cooking ROMs, upgrading, tweaking, changing.. I'm over it.

I love my 928. Not looking back.

I do really really miss Google Maps though. Here Drive is quite the joke.

Google Maps is in the app store. Just installed it the other day.

 

[WorzelGummage]

Google Maps is in the app store. Just installed it the other day.

If you are referring to http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/google-maps/3f250218-1393-4384-8aca-b2ab5e5ac9b1 then it is Google maps in name only. The app actually uses the Here map data that is already on the phone and doesn't use the Google maps data.

A better alternative for proper Google maps with Street view is gMaps | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United Kingdom) which has a free and a paid version and actually uses Google map data.

 

[flackberry]

If you are referring to Google Maps | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United Kingdom) then it is Google maps in name only. The app actually uses the Here map data that is already on the phone and doesn't use the Google maps data.

A better alternative for proper Google maps with Street view is gMaps | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United Kingdom) which has a free and a paid version and actually uses Google map data.

Yes and you can select the google maps overlay in settings.

 

[flyinion]

I would guess what KrightonX is talking about is the Google Navigation app since he's mentioning Here Drive. So, I think I'm going to stop and take a look at a 925 today, but I'm really unsure about 16GB of storage while the "other" problem is still going on. That alone may push me to just stay on Verizon and get a 928.

 

[jlynnm350z]

Do it!! No regrets

 

[flyinion]

Do it!! No regrets

LOL which post are you commenting on?

 

[WorzelGummage]

Yes and you can select the google maps overlay in settings.

Yes but it's not a satellite image whereas gmaps does show the proper Google maps satellite view and street view too

 

[Paulo1300]

i came from the droid world.. same type of stuff, flashing roms, tweaking everything i could, etc etc..
in the end android just lags and annoyed the crap out of me. no matter what i did, it still lagged/froze, and got worse and worse with time

i always planned making the switch to wp8 (I wanted wp7 but it wasnt available on verizon at the time i got my droid - trophy came out like 3 weeks later), and now i am extremely happy that i did

but, things that annoy me about wp8:
-group texting is not available (only on verizon) - found a small workaround for this tho
-the android dialer is better because you can type T9 and it finds peoples names (i know there are apps for this, but none of them show missed calls, vmails, etc)
-notifications are lost if the app isnt pinned to your front screen
-cant choose custom ringtones for texts/emails

thats really my only issues with windows phone. i love everything else about it, and highly recommend it over android
also, the app situation is not nearly as bad as everyone makes it seem.. there are third party apps for just about everything, and official apps coming everyday

 

[flyinion]

i came from the droid world.. same type of stuff, flashing roms, tweaking everything i could, etc etc..
in the end android just lags and annoyed the crap out of me. no matter what i did, it still lagged/froze, and got worse and worse with time

i always planned making the switch to wp8 (I wanted wp7 but it wasnt available on verizon at the time i got my droid - trophy came out like 3 weeks later), and now i am extremely happy that i did

but, things that annoy me about wp8:
-group texting is not available (only on verizon) - found a small workaround for this tho
-the android dialer is better because you can type T9 and it finds peoples names (i know there are apps for this, but none of them show missed calls, vmails, etc)
-notifications are lost if the app isnt pinned to your front screen
-cant choose custom ringtones for texts/emails

thats really my only issues with windows phone. i love everything else about it, and highly recommend it over android
also, the app situation is not nearly as bad as everyone makes it seem.. there are third party apps for just about everything, and official apps coming everyday

LOL I actually had to just go look up what a T9 dialer was about and then test it out. Whenever I call someone on my android phone I just use their contact card, but now you got me thinking, can I just tap a contact card somewhere and have it dial. I'll have to check that out.

Are you saying (it looks like it) that only Verizon has the group texting problem? I actually don't think I've ever sent one and most of my "texts" are actually through Google Voice which I believe MetroTalk should have me covered there. Of course if I go t-mobile it wouldn't matter anyway. One of the reasons I use Voice for texting is I'm too cheap to shell out $20 for unlimited texts vs. the $5 I pay for 250 right now.