Has anybody noticed windows 10 mobile has actually gotten really good lately?

[greedo_greedy]

Let me add too that Windows 10 Mobile has gone a long way in terms of performance from the first time I installed it September last year.

The problem though or maybe I'm just demanding is that fixes don't come quick enough (I know we get new builds every month) however, it's nice when we can feel a tangible improvement with every build lol.

Still it is more reliable now but there still is room for improvement.

 

[EspHack]

So, iOS is less hungry? Sure I read somewhere on here (could be wrong, usually am), that the Apple chip architecture was pretty much specific to the way in which iOS was set up, and by Apple overseeing the entire process from the chip to the hardware to ensure optimisation gave favourable results. I guess that's what you we're basically saying anyway? I've had a couple of iMac G5's in the past for DJing, and they always offered the most reliable and stable performance. As you state, it's probably the way the OS, or iOS is coded for optimisation.

Thanks Ascent! Long time no converse. ;-)

it helps a little, but if you go back a few years, when microsoft cared about wp, at least a bit, you see their range of underpowered 3rd party phones outperforming everything else on the market, smoked by wp! and when it came to smooth operation and stability WP was the one to beat, even iOS seemed buggy in comparison, thats what the world's biggest software company is capable of

yea you can argue w10 is more complex and whatever, but you can replicate all its functions on wp7-8 and it would still perform as fast and reliable as ever, just at exponentially higher costs

and those hoping the "creators update" will finally make this mobile OS competent, have you ever thought that apple and google will just sit there? by the time w10m reaches their current user experience standards, they will be on to the next level

 

[ttsoldier]

It's gotten worse for me..But then again I use a low end device (lumia 640) ..

It's been a while since I did a hard reset.. Think I need to get around to that...

Oh god, Windows 10 is turning into android.

 

[libra89]

It's gotten worse for me..But then again I use a low end device (lumia 640) ..

It's been a while since I did a hard reset.. Think I need to get around to that...

Oh god, Windows 10 is turning into android.

Haha, yeah. I got tired of hard resetting my Lumia 640 for being so sluggish and glitchy. It's kind of annoying.

 

[kristalsoldier]

There was a definite performance improvement with the latest cumulative update to 14393. My 1020 "seems faster" and on par wit WP8.1
According to allaboutwindowsphone RS2 is even faster than RS1. I think the Creators Update is where W10M will finally be a really awesome OS

Contingent on they also improve battery life else it would pretty much be useless!!!

 

[TLRtheory]

My launch day Lumia 950 never really gave me problems from a functional/stability standpoint... and neither did the Lumia 950XL I recently upgraded to (sans one update that made my camera exceptionally unreliable which came and passed in a matter of a couple weeks).

Still though, I'd definitely agree that WM10 is getting better. AU brought our NFC payment back (which was a HUGE deal for me) and in a manner where Google can't just buy it and rip it off our platform as they did with Softcard (did they even do anything with that acquisition aside from snatch it from WM?). Then just today they resolve one of my biggest grievances as SMS relay in Skype brings that iMessage-style messaging uniformity to all my Windows devices.

Unfortunately, my dream to see Xbox-empowered gaming grow on Windows 10 Mobile gets further away as Microsoft retrenches from the mainstream mobile market. I've found apps to pay my bills, get me where I need to be, organize my life, entertain me and improve my professional life... but Microsoft's missing out so hard on the opportunity to make W10m their "Xbox Portable"... which is sad, 'cause the first time I got an achievement on my phone that counted towards my actual XBLA GamerScore I kinda flipped my lid.

 

[abhishek singh21]

its building up slowly but steadily, fast ring has become more reliable as the base of windows 10 or call it the core is very stable now and everything now is been prepared or built around it or on it. Hence no major device breaking bugs which we saw during early builds of windows 10 mobile n 2015.

 

[gerrymad]

Most of it is working quite well, but the battery life on my 950XL fast ring has been horrible for the last two builds. If I'm charging off USB on my computer it can't keep up with the drain. My car charger (2.1 amp) used to be able to charge fairly quickly even while running Waze and listening to podcasts. For the last two versions if I use the phone while charging in the car it is slowly losing ground.

 

[Joe920]

Ironically I read this thread, then tried to shut down the phone, and five minutes later I noticed the hot-pocket syndrome. Turns out it failed to shut down, and it was still on the Goodbye screen. It mostly works well, but still plenty of bugs around. Feels like at least once a day something goes wrong on my 950XL.

 

[pankaj981]

Windows 10 Mobile (the platform and experience as a whole) can only get better with apps. Its a work in progress and it does look like its going in the right direction, the builds have really become polished and fast with few bugs. Hopefully at some point when Microsoft sees the platform picking up they start focusing back on the social aspect rather than enterprise and work. And hopefully OEMs pick up the momentum and release some good high-end devices rather creating something lackluster like the Lumia 950 series.

 

[unmorphed]

People are stupid.

Not you guys, you're cool.

 

[anon(50597)]

People are stupid.

Not you guys, you're cool.

Gee thanks. I think.

 

[sidtek50]

I think for me, as someone who has followed the Lumia range on and off for a long while, the 950 I'm using is good overall.

For me, the biggest downside is that copying and pasting is different depending where you are in the OS (not consistent).

When you highlight text, we seriously, seriously need the magnifier like on iOS. That, I feel, gives you pinpoint precision. I don't feel like I've got that precision on W10M.

I want to see night mode immediately. I have no idea why Microsoft even need to question it. When iOS got it, W10M should have got it. Once you've used it it's hard to go back to a phone that doesn't have it.

Apps crash a lot - I've done hard resets, been on slow, fast, release preview and public build - and still, apps crash. It's the most frustrating thing.

Live tiles not updating - self explanatory.

Screen too bright - maybe I'm the only one who feels this but for me, the screen is blindingly bright, even on the darkest setting. If anything, this is why I'll probably sell the phone on. I keep getting headaches. Again, like iOS, we need a brightness slider. Not a % or darkest/brightest button - the lack of logic from Microsoft astounds me.

There are probably more things but for now, if that was sorted, I'd be extremely happy!

 

[Joe920]

When you highlight text, we seriously, seriously need the magnifier like on iOS. That, I feel, gives you pinpoint precision. I don't feel like I've got that precision on W10M.

You know, there used to be this cool feature where could grab the cursor, and drag down on the screen a bit without the cursor following. Basically you could move your figure out of the way to see what you were doing. Only if you moved your finger down a lot (like two full lines) would the cursor jump to the next line. I don't know when or why they killed that, maybe it was too unique. (sigh)

 

[CraigCole]

To the OP: Ummm, no, not at all, actually. If anything W10M has been WORSE lately. In my experience, battery life has gone down, there are still tons of UI inconsistencies, animations stutter, it gets hot for no reason, etc., etc., etc.

Well, the chip design is somewhat specific to iOS, but that probably doesn't mean what most people think it does. At it's most basic level it's still a standard ARM chip which is the same ISA everyone else in mobile is using. There is nothing specific about that.

At a higher level Apple has the freedom to combine SoC subsystems in ways that are best suited to their devices, e.g. if Apple designs a new phone where the pixel count of the display is doubled, then they can incorporate a GPU that completes raster operations exactly twice as fast while keeping the CPU as it is. This results in a user experience that is very consistent across devices (in terms of performance) despite the specs differing. It also makes it much easier for developers as they can ignore the performance impact that higher resolution displays otherwise have. In that way their SoCs are designed specifically for their devices, but none of that has anything to do with CPU efficiency. Apple does great work on that front too, but it's not any better than the great work Qualcomm does either. It's very much comparable.

What I'm referring to has almost nothing to do with software optimization however. It's about how the OSes are designed and what their developers decided was particularly important. Android and WP/WM both have run-time environments that sit between the hardware and the app. These environments provide runtime services for apps, like memory allocation and garbage collection, security monitoring, memory defragmentation, run-time type information and a whole host of other stuff. This makes it easier to program for Android and WP/WM and makes those developers more productive, but those services come at performance cost. iOS apps don't have that sort of run-time environment, so those apps run far more efficiently, but developers are required to do more work. Those run-time environments are also what allow Android and WP/WM apps to run on both Intel and ARM chips, whereas iOS apps are limited exclusively to ARM. That flexibility is nice, but it too comes at a performance cost. None of that has anything to do with optimization, but with different design priorities and goals.

THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING THIS!!! I had no idea there was a runtime environment slowing W10 and Android down.

I would agree that lately (overall in the past 3 or so months, maybe 6, whatever) that it has gotten better but recently i have had so many bugs. Over the past few days i have had reboots, fail to display keypad to unlock the phone, screen freezes, my 950 XL has been worse than its ever been even when i had 10586.0

I totally agree with you. It's been getting worse lately and I have no idea why... My 950 has been performing poorly and I haven't changed my usage at all.

it helps a little, but if you go back a few years, when microsoft cared about wp, at least a bit, you see their range of underpowered 3rd party phones outperforming everything else on the market, smoked by wp! and when it came to smooth operation and stability WP was the one to beat, even iOS seemed buggy in comparison, thats what the world's biggest software company is capable of...

And those hoping the "creators update" will finally make this mobile OS competent, have you ever thought that apple and google will just sit there? by the time w10m reaches their current user experience standards, they will be on to the next level

AMEN! When MS cared about WP it was an amazing OS, smooth, responsive and blazing fast on even the most basic hardware. Today, an eight-core processor and gigabytes of ram aren't enough to keep it competitive with iPhones that are generations out of date.

I too have a pessimistic outlook on future updates. Windows Phone was always 20 steps behind iOS and Android when it came to functionality. It would gain 10 paces in a big annual update just as its rivals sprinted ahead another 15 steps. It really was an unwinnable race for Microsoft and us. They just didn't (and still don't) move quickly enough...

 

[sidtek50]

Agree with the post above me. Microsoft just don't move quickly enough. Most of my posts rant about night mode on iOS, and for good reason. I saw a post from Microsoft saying they're considering it but won't promise.

What's to consider?? To me, that was MS saying We'll see if we sell anymore phones before we get around to that!'. To me, the second iOS got it, Microsoft should have shamelessly copied it. I get so frustrated with Microsoft because they could have done so much better in the mobile space but they have made and continue to make poor decisions.

 

[nate0]

it is, but I realized it was mostly placebo effect after getting used to how bad it was, it feels like now its so perfect, but my gf's iphone showed me how wrong I was

just got me thinking, iphone 5s is a dual core 1gb ram device, 92x lumias are the same, yet see how they run, that iphone can keep more than twice the apps than my icon in background and resume all of them instantly, and they are richer apps to boot, steve on AAWP says RS2 is way faster, and it excites me but at the same time I'm like.. yea, it should be, its no celebration matter really, its just catching up to stuff

sure it must run perfectly on some 950's and X3s, but mind you, if you don't pay a performance penalty on w10 over 8.1 you pay a battery life one, no way around that, just imagine how long would that 950 last you if it was on 8.1

I try to never compare two platforms to each other. iOS is a whole other ball park, whole other game altogether. The way iOS manages RAM/On screen app usage is somewhat proprietary, so you should expect it to be totally unique or better in this case. The only other major closed source mobile OS out there. Truth is there is none like Windows Mobile, so either you like it or you don't. Same for iOS. Android on the other hand has so many stinking flavors out there it is insane, probably why just about anyone can like or use it.

I have enjoyed Windows Phone/Windows Mobile since I started using it, and that is only about 3 years now. I use iphones too, my work phone is an iphone, they are fun just too plain in some ways. Honestly don't think I will ever get another android phone, unless the maker dual boots it with Windows.

 

[KrisYYC]

I bought the Lumia 950 at launch and it has been pretty smooth since day 1. The odd random reboot in the first month, but I applaud MS for pushing out updates so frequently.

My main issue is the lack of apps, and losing some apps that were pretty crucial to me meant I ended up getting an Android phone a couple months ago.... However, I STILL use my 950 about 50% of the time. I just like Windows Mobile period.

With Windows 10 gaining popularity especially with well received products like the Surface Pro 4, Surface book and now Surface Studio I hope the app situation improves. I just hope the next phone MS comes out with has camera tech equal too, or better than the Pureview/Zeiss tech on the 950/XL.

 

[Achyut Arjun]

Well, the chip design is somewhat specific to iOS, but that probably doesn't mean what most people think it does. At it's most basic level it's still a standard ARM chip which is the same ISA everyone else in mobile is using. There is nothing specific about that.

At a higher level Apple has the freedom to combine SoC subsystems in ways that are best suited to their devices, e.g. if Apple designs a new phone where the pixel count of the display is doubled, then they can incorporate a GPU that completes raster operations exactly twice as fast while keeping the CPU as it is. This results in a user experience that is very consistent across devices (in terms of performance) despite the specs differing. It also makes it much easier for developers as they can ignore the performance impact that higher resolution displays otherwise have. In that way their SoCs are designed specifically for their devices, but none of that has anything to do with CPU efficiency. Apple does great work on that front too, but it's not any better than the great work Qualcomm does either. It's very much comparable.

What I'm referring to has almost nothing to do with software optimization however. It's about how the OSes are designed and what their developers decided was particularly important. Android and WP/WM both have run-time environments that sit between the hardware and the app. These environments provide runtime services for apps, like memory allocation and garbage collection, security monitoring, memory defragmentation, run-time type information and a whole host of other stuff. This makes it easier to program for Android and WP/WM and makes those developers more productive, but those services come at performance cost. iOS apps don't have that sort of run-time environment, so those apps run far more efficiently, but developers are required to do more work. Those run-time environments are also what allow Android and WP/WM apps to run on both Intel and ARM chips, whereas iOS apps are limited exclusively to ARM. That flexibility is nice, but it too comes at a performance cost. None of that has anything to do with optimization, but with different design priorities and goals.

I hate how we can only have 7 apps open in the background, and also so much irritated with "resuming" screens. Can't Microsoft do something about it?

 

[ejbrod1]

To the OP: Ummm, no, not at all, actually. If anything W10M has been WORSE lately. In my experience, battery life has gone down, there are still tons of UI inconsistencies, animations stutter, it gets hot for no reason, etc., etc., etc.



THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING THIS!!! I had no idea there was a runtime environment slowing W10 and Android down.



I totally agree with you. It's been getting worse lately and I have no idea why... My 950 has been performing poorly and I haven't changed my usage at all.



AMEN! When MS cared about WP it was an amazing OS, smooth, responsive and blazing fast on even the most basic hardware. Today, an eight-core processor and gigabytes of ram aren't enough to keep it competitive with iPhones that are generations out of date.

I too have a pessimistic outlook on future updates. Windows Phone was always 20 steps behind iOS and Android when it came to functionality. It would gain 10 paces in a big annual update just as its rivals sprinted ahead another 15 steps. It really was an unwinnable race for Microsoft and us. They just didn't (and still don't) move quickly enough...

Have to agree with this.

W10M got bad, then got better (probably because it was so bad for so long), then got bad again. Then a little better, now, for me it has gotten worse than ever.

Device: 950
OS: 10.0.14393.448(non insider)
FW: 01078.00053.16236.35022
HW: 2.1.6.2