Got an Android Phone Afters Years of Being With Windows Phone. Experience Inside!

[Josh Aguilar]

Intro: Hey, My name is Josh and I have been a Microsoft fan for a while now. Ive been coming to Windows Central for a while, when it was still called WPCentral. I recently had the opportunity to get a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+. Bellow are thoughts I have about Android from a long time WP user.

Situation: I have had a Lumia 925 on T-Mobile ever since it came out. My brother had the S6 Edge+ and gave it to me to try out when he got his new phone. Ive been using it for about two days now. I "Microsoft-ified" it by downloading every MS app I needed, I am even giving the Arrow Launcher a try.

Thoughts on a Samsung Android Phone from a Windows Guy: Android (at least the Samsung experience) is cluttered to me. The joys of setting up a new smartphone is hampered by the fact that the phone has plenty of bloatware that has to be either deleted or disabled. Plenty of the apps overlap because Samsung continues to build poor alternatives to the official Google apps. Samsung Browser is a not acceptable compared to Chrome (or Firefox or any other half decent browser). Why does Samsung bundle the lesser Samsung Music app when Google (the first-party developer) has a far superior Music app. The worst offender in a long list of pointless, lesser, bloatware apps from Samsung is the S Voice personal assistant. Why Samsung continues to bundle the worst personal assistant I have ever used with their phones is completely beyond me. S Voice is slower and more robotic than even Google Now, S Voice has a downright lazy and ugly user interface and can only be described as bloatware expecially since Google ships Google Now with the phone. There are more than enough examples of Samsung bloatware but the worst part is that you cant get rid of of most of the bloat, only "disable" it, but even then it's still on the device taking up storage space. Side Note: I can forgive Samsung Pay because of the different, proprietary tech that allows payments on the S6 Edge+.

Thoughts On the Android OS: Once you sift through the garbage of bloatware and sluggish UX Touchwiz you start to find the Android OS. The OS feels complete and fast, faster than my Lumia 925 (2+ year old phone vs a phone that came out a couple of months ago, but still). The app selection is indeed bigger than on WP but that fact means very little to a guy who only uses a set amount of apps. Some of the apps are indeed better than their WP equivalent, Facebook comes to mind as well as the official Instagram app. But some are, surprisingly, not. Groove is a great deal better on WP, the Android app is atrocious. The third-party YouTube app MyTube! in the Window Store is leaps and bounds better than the official Google made YouTube app on Android. The third-party Instagram app 6tag in the Windows Store is way better than the official Instagram app in either the Windows Store of the Play Store. Microsoft services seem to work fine on an Android phone but I catch myself wanting to go back to the familiarity of the strict Microsoft ecosystem that is Windows.

What Windows Mobile Should Take From Android: The Fluidity of Android is pretty great, even with Touchwiz UI built on top I can see Android as really fast. A bonus is that apps don't have to reload every time you use the multitasking. A mobile payment solution is a huge one. Windows Mobile needs, in my opinion, a NFC payment system similar to Android and iOS. Sideloading apps, because who doesn't want the Pornhub app?

Conclusions: My short affair with Android has left me wanting my Windows Phone even more (even my 2+ year old one). Android may be fast but it isn't cohesive like on Windows Mobile. Android may have extensive customization but the simplicity of the Windows Mobile customization options are (again, in my opinion) more important than a lush option of customization. It's the old "quality over quantity" thing. I find myself missing my Windows Phone. I miss the ability to play YouTube videos audio in the background without having to pay a monthly subscription or use a hack. I miss the ability to hold down the touch controls on my Parrot Zik's and have Cortana start in listening mode (It doesn't work with Cortana as the personal assistant on Android, holding down the touch panel does nothing).

TL;DR: I tried Android and found that I liked Windows Phone better despite my WP being 2+ years old. If you do go Android, don't get a Samsung phone, get a pure Android experience.

Thoughts, Comments, Concerns?

 

[xtremez]

Interesting take. I have similar experiences although slightly different. I'll try to use the same format as it gives quite a nice structure to follow the thoughts and opinions.

Intro : I'm Kevin. Background i'm actually a huge BlackBerry fan, from legacy to BB10 i never thought that i would have switched an opportunity came up for me to picked up the OnePlus One (with the intention of selling it to make a quick buck). Ended up replacing my Z30 with the OPO (Z30 went to my wife).

Situation : That move actually made me more open to the idea of trying a different OS (not being an iOS fan, the next available choice would be Windows Phone). My wife got me a Lumia 535 as a spare device. I've used the Lumia on bursts/stints like 2 weeks in a row kinda thing. I've tried Microsoft-ing my OPO just like yourself, the launchers, every available service that Microsoft came out. My intentions of doing that were so that when i switched to the Lumia device or if i made the move to Windows for good it would be a seamless transition. (i.e. OneNote for Evernote)

Thoughts on Windows Phone from an Android Guy :I actually really like how the Live Tiles work, it's just enough customization without going through too much nitty gritty and it displays enough info to get by. I have yet have the opportunity to use a Premium Lumia device as a daily driver so i do believe my verdict/experience would be different. As currently i'm comparing a premium Android to a budget Lumia. (i'm inclined to believe that it does make a difference between premium and budget)

1. App Gap :I've never bought the app gap as a problem, i'm not really an app junkie. However, some apps that are only available on iOS/Android. Once you have gotten use to it, although it is not a deal breaker; it can be a convenience that you never hope to get used to. Although there are some workarounds i've seen around Windows Central to create shortcuts that link directly to the browser, it's not really the same experience.
- The apps that are available on both sides, Windows usually get it slightly later or at all when compared side by side.
- As 3rd party apps get better on all platforms, the tight integration between Windows Laptop and Windows Phone is not something i'm not making full use to enjoy (like Microsoft Phone).

2. Premium or Budget : What i can commend Microsoft is that gap between Premium & Budget for Microsoft is closer compared to Android. It's alot less fragmented but that's also because Android is everywhere in that sense. Some of the issues like when i scroll the full menu view, the Lumia 535 has the tendency to experience slight stutter and it's not as fast. So as i've mentioned, I wonder if it's something that a Premium device i.e. 950/950XL (i'll probably holdout for the rumoured "Surface Phone")

3. Universal Windows Apps : For me this is hope for the future, I personally really want Windows to hit this out of the park because i feel that for the benefit of consumers there is room a 3rd player and Microsoft is well placed to achieve that. Alot is being placed on the Universal Windows Apps, but i wonder if anyone can share their experience on it and has it greatly benefited them. What i've noticed, is the Universal Apps on Desktop do not necessarily create a better user experience compared to what users are already having on the browser.

Conclusion : I seem to be on the other end of the spectrum, maybe cause i didn't encounter a Samsung/Asus/Lenovo, heavy skinned device. So perhaps that's where the experiences are on the opposite end. I mean the 920 is considered a Premium in his own regard 2 years ago.

Side Note : I did try Cortana on my OPO, however maybe it's a custom ROM thing that Now On Tap/Shazam doesn't seem to work when it's enabled, so i switched back to Google Now. It still does give better search results than Bing A.T.M. and also I can't maximize the potential of Cortana due to region restrictions.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling, been meaning to type the whole list out for awhile now.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Just a comment on the universal apps thing - I have a small number of apps with half for photography and image editing.

What I have seen is that navigating settings in the pc is very similar to phone. I intuitively know where to find which setting in the pc because I've seen them on the phone

Other apps like groove and photos app look similar

 

[Jeff Erson]

I'd love to read every opinion here. Subscribed!

 

[xtremez]

I see! But what about the functionality of those Universal Apps compared to the say the web version or legacy app if any?

But good to know that it's a good experience from your feedback so far!

 

[michail71]

I just made the jump yesterday to a note 4 that I was able to get for free. At first and on occasion I still find android a bit cluttered and confused but with some work that can be improved. The biggest downside is there are no notification badges.

Today I discovered Microsoft's Arrow launcher and I really love it! It's kind of a direction Windows Phone 10 could have gone in. I tried a few other launchers and they were rather tragic examples of bad UI design. I hope to see it improved and some bugs fixed with some widgets.

App availability is such sweet relief!