Help - Bored of the 640XL - What does the future hold?

[Bazza1603]

HI,

I'm starting to sick of lack of apps available for Windows mobile. I love the phone as its very reliable and just the right size. The camera.at times I am disappointed with.

Are there any new phones in the pipeline, or should I jump to Android? Any suggestions on a phone

Many thanks

Barry
.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

Well, it's looking bleak at the moment. New phones are slowly making their way to market, but the app situation will most likely be the same for a while. I'm tinkering with my Windows Phones at the moment, but my daily is a Nexus 6P...not having any issues with finding apps.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

HI,

I'm starting to sick of lack of apps available for Windows mobile. I love the phone as its very reliable and just the right size. The camera.at times I am disappointed with.

Are there any new phones in the pipeline, or should I jump to Android? Any suggestions on a phone

Many thanks

Barry
.

the 950 and 950xl have better camera apps, the best according to some. New phones are the ones being announced by other manufacturers such as hp, acer, moly, nuans etc

 

[Guytronic]

I'm starting to sick of lack of apps available for Windows mobile. I love the phone as its very reliable and just the right size.

How long have you had the 640XL?
I'm kind of in Windows mobile stasis myself.

There's a few good looking phones coming up from Alcatel, HP then the Acer Jade Primo is already on sale.

Hang in there...

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I agree. There are a few new models that are interesting to me, but there are a couple of crucial apps that I use on a daily basis that aren't available (1st nor 3rd party) in the Windows Mobile app store. I'm very interested in the new 7" models that are starting to pop up, but the apps, oh, the apps....

 

[Guytronic]

but the apps, oh, the apps....

Sad but true.
After a while the gap becomes much too wide to avoid...

 

[Chintan Gohel]

When you start getting bored with a phone, perhaps you need to look at it differently. You need to be motivated to try new things
Try landscape photography
Timelapses - the battery life is great for that
Try a different theme on the phone
Try new features that you have never thought of (yesterday I tried out onenote on pc, still deciding what to do with it)
Get a new cover
Design a new cover (my brother does that using cardboard, wood, plastic etc)
So much to do

 

[Bazza1603]

I have had it for 13 months. Have recently changed the cover to blue...and it worked for 24 hours.

Even the apps that we have are not as good due to the lack of features compared to the IPhone or Android version.

 

[stevemind66]

Sad as it seems....Apps are the only reason people buy smartphones these days! Oh and a good camera . Maybe I'm one of the few(cause I'm older) that I don't obsesses over apps? I have a few games I use when I'm having a crap, wait for bus/trains or bored! I certainly don't need a app to switch my kettle or start my car....... Enjoy life

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I agree. I'm older, too, but there are two work-related apps that I have to have access to that W10 doesn't have. It's unfortunate, but it's the way the cookie crumbles for some of us.

 

[Guytronic]

I'm sixty three and a relative smartphone infant.
Apps for security and convenience have won me over + I like varying platforms.

 

[LuxuryTouringZone]

"Help - Bored of the 640XL - What does the future hold?"

The future for 2016 holds the flagships HP Elite X3 and Acer Liquid Jade Primo, while 2017 will give you the Surface Phones and several others that were announced. Hang in there!

 

[patcherd]

Let's hope the non Lumia made phones will bring ddtw and glance as standard features. After having these features, i missed them on non Lumia phones that didn't have those features. That for me is a big deal more so than any app issue. I'm perfectly satisfied with windows OS.

 

[libra89]

I have had it for 13 months. Have recently changed the cover to blue...and it worked for 24 hours.

Even the apps that we have are not as good due to the lack of features compared to the IPhone or Android version.

Have you tried Windows 10 Mobile? Upgrading/updating could be interesting. Doing it kind of gave me a new life to my 640 for a little bit.

13 months is a while though, I have to agree with the other suggestions.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Sad as it seems....Apps are the only reason people buy smartphones these days! Oh and a good camera ��. Maybe I'm one of the few(cause I'm older) that I don't obsesses over apps? I have a few games I use when I'm having a crap, wait for bus/trains or bored! I certainly don't need a app to switch my kettle or start my car....... Enjoy life

I don't think age really plays a part in things when it comes to apps. It comes down to what you want/need as an individual.

On W10M a lot of people say they get by with websites for the most part. Thing is, not all websites are mobile optimised, or work with mobile at all. That's where it falls down sometimes. Also the app can make things a bit easier to use.

What's nice about having app selection is being able to try things out even if that apps isn't one you'll keep, at least you can trial it.

The other thing as ScienceGuy has pointed out, a lot of companies use apps that aren't on W10M.

Windows has a lot of interesting things about it and I hope it continues to get better but I had to move on for the moment as I just wanted apps that Windows didn't have. I'm pretty agnostic in my view of OS and I do like Windows but it simply doesn't suit me at this point in time.

 

[Pete]

I'm starting to sick of lack of apps available for Windows mobile.

If this is your main issue, then buying a more recent Windows Phone (or any Windows Phone in the foreseeable future) won't change the situation.

If you want apps, then Apple or Android are your only realistic choices.

 

[Pete]

On W10M a lot of people say they get by with websites for the most part. Thing is, not all websites are mobile optimised, or work with mobile at all. That's where it falls down sometimes. Also the app can make things a bit easier to use.

I've always maintained that a well-crafted mobile website can enable far more users than apps can. However, it's probably easier for development teams to code and maintain apps than code web sites that can work on all device sizes. Of course, the developers can always fall back to the reason that more people use their apps (on two platforms) than use their website.

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

I am also using 640 XL. (1 year and still going)
It is my second Windows Phone after 630.
I never get bored, because 8.1-10, TH to RS.
Every single update makes the phone feel brand new as though it was bought yesterday.

Now for the apps.
Its just the simple question of what you need vs what you want. (As N_LaRUE pointed out)

I have all my friends using other platforms. But I do not feel crippled with this OS as I have all the apps that I need for my daily use.
I do not need high end games, I can live without it as I do gaming on PC. I do not need google services, I hardly use them except for youtube.
I have never felt the need to go back to android.

Now I am not saying that you will never get bored. If you use your phone as your only device, then chances are that after sometime you might get bored.
Unlike playstore, there are no tonnes of unique apps to try out in Windows store.

But then in the end even if you did own a phone on the other platform and all these new/unique apps will end up getting uninstalled after sometime.
Only a few will end up in your appdrawer that you might use in your daily life.

 

[Pete]

It might be worth pointing out that although the Apple/Android app stores have a lot more apps, they also have proportionately more bad/knock-off apps as well. So much so that it's difficult to find good apps unless you know what you're looking for.

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence - it's also waist deep and full of brambles.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I've always maintained that a well-crafted mobile website can enable far more users than apps can. However, it's probably easier for development teams to code and maintain apps than code web sites that can work on all device sizes. Of course, the developers can always fall back to the reason that more people use their apps (on two platforms) than use their website.

Actually development of websites is a lot easier these days to tackle different screen sizes. Frameworks like Bootstrap help a lot with that. So technically, it's not really that difficult to accomplish a good mobile website.

What I find though is that some websites do it better than others. Some just use Bootstrap and have their website setup as it is on a large screen. Doesn't always work. I think web design and usability on different device screens has some ways to go still.