Hello windows, goodbye iphone... goodbye windows, hello iphone again

[bobo616]

Hello windows, goodbye iphone... goodbye windows, hello iphone again

Well, I was an iphone 4 user and then I was a lumia 820 user and now I am an iphone 4 user again, let me tell you why. But firstly I must add the hardware on the phone was very good but the Windows OS didnt fit with me. The reasons are below, some of these can be worked around but not all.


Negatives

Unable to save apps to the SD card, this means I only really had 5gb for any apps

Unable to edit video at all on the phone via the OS or via an app, not even able to trim it, as video and photo are one of the more important things I use this was the deal breaker

Unable to put my videos of my kids in a private area, again as I am a private person I didnt want any app or person who may get hold of my phone being able to access these videos

Being forced to use the cloud for things such as backups, some people want to I personally dont but I think it should be a choice rather than being forced to.

Unable to restrict on an app per app basis if they can access my contacts, photos, location etc. I know you get to review this before you install but once you have installed you dont get this option again, apart from the location settings.

Unable to add contacts or calendar items without them syncing across to my outlook account, again some people may want to access these details from multiple places, I dont and I want the choice.

Unable to assign individual or group contacts different text alerts, I used to be able to do this years ago on my Sony C902 but it took Apple years to do it and it seems WP has followed.

If I dont hear the text alert I will only be aware of it the next time I look at my phone, IOS reminds you 3 times and this is very useful for somebody as forgetful as me.

The keyboard doesnt seem to auto suggest throughout the OS, sometimes it does other times it doesnt. You also arent able to add or view the custom dictionary or add to the autocomplete suggestions, although this did seem to learn after a while.

Unable to select all text using copy and paste.

Unable to select a different search engine in Internet Explorer rather than just Bing or Google, again being a private person I prefer to use a search engine such as Startpage.com or duckduckgo but there is no way this can be done. There are also very few browsers in the store to choose from with very few options to control in any of them.

Unable to see how much mobile\cellular data my phone has used, this isnt massively important to me as I am on an unlimited plan but I should be able to check it and although a few people suggested some apps such as call credit,Counters and data Sense(Not here yet) none seem quite right.

Unable to see how much space an individual app is taking up, some apps may only be a few mb to start with but they can grow such as Twitter, I want to be able to see where my space is going, especially if I cant put apps on the SD card.

Unable to show the status bar at all times so I cant see how my battery or signal is all the time (I know I can tap the top of the phone to show this, and there was a good live tile for the battery level) but this again is simple stuff.

Poor resolution of text in any of the web browsers, this was not due to the phone as other same size text was fine in other areas but it must have been done to give faster loading times.

Lack of apps to choose from, I dont use many but I do need a choice and that seems to be sadly lacking with very few reviews on most apps.


On the positive side

I loved the actual display and animation of the OS, it felt fresh and very intuative.

I loved the Live tiles, brilliant to see what the weather will be like without going into the app.

I liked the overall consistant look of all the apps.

I liked the idea of kids corner.

I liked the idea of having Office on my phone when needed.

The phone itself was very quick, although a little lag when pressing the camera button but it felt very nice in my hand and I definitely like the screen size compared to the iphone 4.

I didnt get a chance to try the wireless charging plate as mine never got delivered but it wasnt something I was too fussed about but I am sure I would have ending up using it.


In conclusion I think this OS could work very well for some people who need or want to be intergrated heavily into the windows eco system such as syncing across multiple

devices but this is not what I need but it also feels as though the OS is still very immature, I am sure a lot of the issues I have will be addressed quite quickly but I am not prepared to wait for these changes as I dont have the need to use an OS that doesnt deliver my needs yet while I have one in IOS that does it already although with a dated interface.

I am very interested in the new Blackberry 10 OS and I will be posting a question on there to see if it will be an option in a few months time and before anybody says why consider them if you are so happy on IOS, it is really because although all the options are there in IOS the interface seems quite old and I really want a bigger screen but I dont feel the iphone 5 gives good value for the money. I am not interested in Android due to the fact that it seems sooo easy to download malware as there is no direct vetting of the apps in the same way IOS and windows (Possibly RIM?) do.

I may return in time if Windows phone addresses these issues in the future and I hope it does as I really want to have a real choice of different operating systems not just Android or IOS.

P.S Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this and to answer any of my questions regarding Windows Phone in the past.

 

[ryude]

Sad to see you go, but I understand. I wish Microsoft put as much work into WP as Google and Apple does. The key difference is that Google and Apple gets a lot of it's revenue from their phones whereas MS isn't making anything at all. Still, if they would just stop lollygagging and start pumping money into the OS it could be the best imo.

 

[TaliZorah]

Different strokes for different folks. Getting rid of my iP5 now that I have my L822 in hand.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

You seem concerned about the cloud and your personal data. I worked in internet and network security for a year after school, your personal information is safer on trusted cloud services than it is in your wallet. Seriously, anyone still worried about this doesn't understand the lengths these companies go to protect the data and the transmission of the data.

The one major peice of advice I can give is to not use google for any personal information. They sell that **** to advertising companies and are not to be trusted. Microsoft has yet to break that trust.

 

[ousooner314]

I would actually like Microsoft to do better usability tests. Some of the features (music player for instance) are cumbersome to use, and I wish they focused more on how to improve usability. This would also reveal other features that would further improve usability (example: multiple audio profiles, etc.).

 

[tebugg]

i think you're issue with video editing could be solved with an app written by a developer. i dont know how much MS has locked down the OS to be able to make an app like this. ios and android have some nice 3rd party video apps. i hope something like mx player pro (awesome android video player) comes to windows phone. i have even emailed them asking them to consider writting a windows phone app version of their software.

 

[typhon62_1]

I glad you wrote this because I'm in a very similar boat as you. I've been on a Moto Atrix from AT&T for the last two years and before that a whole slew of WinMobile phones (HTC Diamond II was the last).
I picked up a black Nokia Lumia 920 from AT&T last Friday and like you I LOVE the hardware, its a beautiful well built phone. The OS is quick and responsive like iOS and kicks Android's "butter" in the butt.

What bugs me about WindowsPhone8 is a whole lot of little things:
There are a lot of apps, just none that I really like and most charge for them.
WP8 is missing a lot of big name basic apps like Adobe acrobat reader and DropBox, both of which I use a lot.
Tried forever to find a live tile clock that showed the time, date, and maybe the temp. All I got was tiles that launched clock programs. WTF? The tiles didn't even show the time???
I've a cheap ******* and have the 250MB data plan and the phone is eating my 250MB up 10 times faster than my Atrix. I gotten rid of any tile that updates and have turned off everything I can think of to stop the drain. Out of ideas...
The camera takes great pictures, but its SLOW as ****. It takes the picture a second or two after the screen is touched.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I REALLY wanted to like this phone but I'm just having a hard time. I'm going to give it another week or so and then if I still don't like it I'll sell it online and try out a unlocked Nexus4.

Like bobo said, thanks for reading this and look forward to any help, replies, or insults!

 

[ryude]

I glad you wrote this because I'm in a very similar boat as you. I've been on a Moto Atrix from AT&T for the last two years and before that a whole slew of WinMobile phones (HTC Diamond II was the last).
I picked up a black Nokia Lumia 920 from AT&T last Friday and like you I LOVE the hardware, its a beautiful well built phone. The OS is quick and responsive like iOS and kicks Android's "butter" in the butt.

What bugs me about WindowsPhone8 is a whole lot of little things:
There are a lot of apps, just none that I really like and most charge for them.
WP8 is missing a lot of big name basic apps like Adobe acrobat reader and DropBox, both of which I use a lot.
Tried forever to find a live tile clock that showed the time, date, and maybe the temp. All I got was tiles that launched clock programs. WTF? The tiles didn't even show the time???
I've a cheap ******* and have the 250MB data plan and the phone is eating my 250MB up 10 times faster than my Atrix. I gotten rid of any tile that updates and have turned off everything I can think of to stop the drain. Out of ideas...
The camera takes great pictures, but its SLOW as ****. It takes the picture a second or two after the screen is touched.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I REALLY wanted to like this phone but I'm just having a hard time. I'm going to give it another week or so and then if I still don't like it I'll sell it online and try out a unlocked Nexus4.

Like bobo said, thanks for reading this and look forward to any help, replies, or insults!

I agree, the best feature about the phone doesn't even work correctly. Many apps with live tiles are simply a counter that updates every 30 minutes, which is useless imo. The best live tiles are the ones built into the OS. Xbox Music, Photos, People Hub, etc all have beautiful live tiles and animate in a lovely way. Now there are a few 3rd party apps with nice live tiles, but still the live tiles don't seem to update correctly. I love the idea of WP, I just wish it worked as advertised and the apps actually took advantage of it. Look at the Foursquare app, ESPN fantasy football, etc. Those apps are absolutely beautiful and adhere to the design of WP8. 99% of the apps don't look like this, they're just plain one color background with text that you can swipe horizontally.

 

[aubreyq]

There are a lot of apps, just none that I really like...

What do you mean by this exactly?

WP8 is missing a lot of big name basic apps like Adobe acrobat reader and DropBox, both of which I use a lot.

There's an Adobe Acrobat Reader app and Dropbox viewer app, at least in WP7. Maybe not in WP8? That sucks and it's entirely Microsoft's fault if that is true.

Tried forever to find a live tile clock that showed the time, date, and maybe the temp.

Maybe there isn't a large demand for this kind of app? You can get time and date from the lock screen, plus a background weather lock screen wallpaper if I'm not mistaken. Also, doesn't the start screen always show the time on the top of the screen? How often do you need to see the time?

I've a cheap ******* and have the 250MB data plan and the phone is eating my 250MB up 10 times faster than my Atrix. I gotten rid of any tile that updates and have turned off everything I can think of to stop the drain. Out of ideas...

Try the Lumia 920 forums. Other Lumia 920 owners should be able to help you out, there.

The camera takes great pictures, but its SLOW as ****. It takes the picture a second or two after the screen is touched.

That kind of sucks.

I REALLY wanted to like this phone but I'm just having a hard time. I'm going to give it another week or so and then if I still don't like it I'll sell it online and try out a unlocked Nexus4.

I won't lie, Microsoft definitely rushed Windows Phone 8 to coincide with the Windows 8 launch. That could be the reason as to why you are not getting what you expected. Hopefully you end up with a phone that meets all of your needs.

 

[typhon62_1]

What do you mean by this exactly?

There's an Adobe Acrobat Reader app and Dropbox viewer app, at least in WP7. Maybe not in WP8? That sucks and it's entirely Microsoft's fault if that is true.

Maybe there isn't a large demand for this kind of app? You can get time and date from the lock screen, plus a background weather lock screen wallpaper if I'm not mistaken. Also, doesn't the start screen always show the time on the top of the screen? How often do you need to see the time?

Try the Lumia 920 forums. Other Lumia 920 owners should be able to help you out, there.

That kind of sucks.

I won't lie, Microsoft definitely rushed Windows Phone 8 to coincide with the Windows 8 launch. That could be the reason as to why you are not getting what you expected. Hopefully you end up with a phone that meets all of your needs.

Hi aubreyq!

What I meant by "There are a lot of apps, just none that I really like..." is I want a Facebook app from Facebook but have to grab a MS app for it. I want a PDF viewer from Adobe, again, not a MS viewer. DropBox,...

I didn't know the pictures I was taking was being up loaded to SkyDrive, so that's some of my data problems. I think I have it set to WiFi only now.

And yes, I know there is a clock on the lock screen, but I'd love to have a tile that had it too. The clock on the unlocked screen is very small and hard to read (I'm 50)...

Thanks for the reply.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

Hi aubreyq!

What I meant by "There are a lot of apps, just none that I really like..." is I want a Facebook app from Facebook but have to grab a MS app for it. I want a PDF viewer from Adobe, again, not a MS viewer. DropBox,...

I didn't know the pictures I was taking was being up loaded to SkyDrive, so that's some of my data problems. I think I have it set to WiFi only now.

And yes, I know there is a clock on the lock screen, but I'd love to have a tile that had it too. The clock on the unlocked screen is very small and hard to read (I'm 50)...

Thanks for the reply.

I'm getting tired of seeing this crap. Whining about the app quantity and selection. We get it, you get it, Microsoft gets it, the little kid down the street gets it!

What you're not getting is that developers need an incentive to develop for a platform. Money usually does the trick. If you want Facebook to make their own app (not that the Microsoft app is bad, it's decent in my eyes), give them a reason too. Tell your friends to buy WP8, tell your mom to buy WP8, tell everyone to buy it.

"If you build the install base, the developers will come"



NOTE: Adobe Reader is just a reader. If the Microsoft one allows you to read the same documents with no problems then what the **** is the problem? We're not talking about Adobe Acrobat here, we're not making pdfs, only viewing them. The Adobe reader was terrible anyway.

Also, what does that tell you when Microsoft is making all these apps eh? That the developers of these services care about you as a WP customer, or that Microsoft cares about you? Clearly, Microsoft is putting in a solid effort to fill in the blanks. Quit being a whiny jackass.

 

[Edwincnelson]

Just to be clear there is an official FB app and there is a very functional 3rd party dropbox app call box files.

 

[Joelist]

You do realize this poster probably never actually had a Windows Phone. When you see one post fire and forget like this, and especially when he goes to an ecosystem that also does most of the things he is complaining about, the odds are its a troll.

 

[Edwincnelson]

Yeah but still...

 

[bobo616]

I can assure you I did have the phone and I am no troll, just an honest consumer who wasn't happy with the product. I asked a lot of questions before I purchased this phone but it didn't live up to my expectations. I hope your phones are right for you but this isn't right for me. I only posted for information for other interested parties so if they have similar concerns they don't waste time purchasing a phone.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

I can assure you I did have the phone and I am no troll, just an honest consumer who wasn't happy with the product. I asked a lot of questions before I purchased this phone but it didn't live up to my expectations. I hope your phones are right for you but this isn't right for me. I only posted for information for other interested parties so if they have similar concerns they don't waste time purchasing a phone.

The world ends when facebook doesn't notify me in real time ...except that my 920 has been notifying me right every time.

 

[snowmutt]

I can assure you I did have the phone and I am no troll, just an honest consumer who wasn't happy with the product. I asked a lot of questions before I purchased this phone but it didn't live up to my expectations. I hope your phones are right for you but this isn't right for me. I only posted for information for other interested parties so if they have similar concerns they don't waste time purchasing a phone.

I appreciate your thoughts and criticisms. The vast majority of us can tell the difference from trolls and those who are generally a little disappointed with their WP experience. There is a small community of other OS fans who jump on here just to talk trash. I do not understand that. I enjoy talking on this community, but have better things to do then to justify my life by assailing other OS's. But, hey. Whatever.

I have been trying hard to see where MS could take this OS I enjoy, and I see a ton of ways that WP could incorporate more functions into it's abilities. But, as much as MS wants this ecosystem to grow, WP is not a continuance of Windows Mobile. It was a new, built from the ground up platform. It was released in October/November of 2010, which makes this 2 years old and the third version, as I count Mango as the second. Where was iOS in it's second year as far as functions? Where was Android? WP has the problem of competing with established, mature OS's. They have all but announced that they had to get WP 8 to market and a ton of the functionality they wanted in WP8 wasn't included.

Would we have been better off if they slapped more functions on and it would have been buggy and laggy? Or worse? I am seeing a lot of good reviews for WP8, and most of the devices are getting thumbs up as well.

WP is still not for everyone. In fact, if you are a consumer who dislikes live tiles, it will NEVER be for you. If you are already invested in the Apple ecosystem, it will NEVER be for you. But as updates, firmware improvements, more devices, and more development for the Windows environment occurs, it will be for a ton of others.

I am very grateful to bob616 and typhon62_1 for giving it a try and giving an honest assessment. That neither said they hated it is a great sign. Actually, both regret they did not have the tools they wanted, because they enjoyed it.

I see that as a great overall sign for the growth this coming year and the OS in general in the future.

 

[Mike Johnson1]

BObo I think I am in the same boat. I actually really like the phone I just can't get by without TuneIn or SiriusXm app. I have a 45 minute commute each day to work and everything I listen to are on those apps. I might list my phone on ebay today and if I can get close to the 450 I paid for it, I might take it and run.

 

[Winterfang]

I'm getting tired of seeing this crap. Whining about the app quantity and selection. We get it, you get it, Microsoft gets it, the little kid down the street gets it!

Apparently they don't. Because we still don't have an official youtube/facebook two years after the Os was born.

 

[brmiller1976]

The one major peice of advice I can give is to not use google for any personal information. They sell that **** to advertising companies and are not to be trusted. Microsoft has yet to break that trust.

+10,000

People don't understand this at all. I know lots of people who won't use Facebook sign-in for anything because of privacy concerns, yet who use Google services for EVERYTHING they do online. And they just won't listen to me about it -- I guess they'll have to wait for a major privacy breach or shocking "insight" about themselves shown through ads before they concede.

All is not perfect in Microsoftland, though... Microsoft regularly reads through the content on your SkyDrive (including private content) to check for "unauthorized content types."