Help needed! Debating whether to switch to WP

[jdhooghe]

I got a 920 back in November when they first came out and during that time I found that Microsoft didn't do much of anything to change the OS for the better. I got rid of that in February and it sounds like the same issues that were plaguing the platform then are there now. I read up on the Amber update and well...lackluster to tell you the truth. I was with BlackBerry from February to just now and they did more for their OS than Microsoft...well, it isn't even a fair comparison. Microsoft hasn't done anything really. I mean, you can't even set a custom notification natively. With BlackBerry in dire straights, I had to leave and go to android(Got an HTC One) and am in love. I will go back to BlackBerry if they pull through.But I've never had a phone with this quality before. I was a bit apprehensive as HTC has not been great about phones(including the 8X) but they really outdid themselves with this one. Anyway, you have 14 days to take back the phone if you don't like it. I would say try it but just know that Microsoft still has not picked up the pace with WP8. You will get frustrated as I did. They will drag their feet. Apps are lackluster if you are into them. Anyway, just my two cents. If you have any questions, let me know.

 

[m3kk]

You didn't explain what problems you had ...maybe its less important to others etc, pls?

 

[_Emi_]

I got a 920 back in November when they first came out and during that time I found that Microsoft didn't do much of anything to change the OS for the better. I got rid of that in February and it sounds like the same issues that were plaguing the platform then are there now. I read up on the Amber update and well...lackluster to tell you the truth. I was with BlackBerry from February to just now and they did more for their OS than Microsoft...well, it isn't even a fair comparison. Microsoft hasn't done anything really. I mean, you can't even set a custom notification natively. With BlackBerry in dire straights, I had to leave and go to android(Got an HTC One) and am in love. I will go back to BlackBerry if they pull through.But I've never had a phone with this quality before. I was a bit apprehensive as HTC has not been great about phones(including the 8X) but they really outdid themselves with this one. Anyway, you have 14 days to take back the phone if you don't like it. I would say try it but just know that Microsoft still has not picked up the pace with WP8. You will get frustrated as I did. They will drag their feet. Apps are lackluster if you are into them. Anyway, just my two cents. If you have any questions, let me know.

sure, lets ask to someone like you who used the OS for what? 3 months? lol... please... and apparently all you know its "Microsoft here, Microsoft there" again, please... go back to your android phone and don't try to sound like you know what you talking about.

 

[lippidp]

I'm an Android user and I'm debating whether to switch to WP, the main reason is I want the Lumia 1020 because of it's stunning camera and Xenon Flash BUT i'm worried because reading online it seems top apps like Plentyoffish, Ebay, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter etc are poor and nowhere near the Android or iOS Standard.

Plus reading news about HTC's Windows Phone market share dipping below 5% makes me feel like Windows might die sometime in the next year or two? Will the apps get better? will more and more apps be made for this platform? that's one of my biggest worries and i'm not sure what to do.

Thanks.

Don't listen to us. IDC predicts WP will be kicking *** by 2015.

 

[broar94]

sure, lets ask to someone like you who used the OS for what? 3 months? lol... please... and apparently all you know its "Microsoft here, Microsoft there" again, please... go back to your android phone and don't try to sound like you know what you talking about.

You know that MS has been very slow in updating right? We're still waiting for notification center, rotation lock, better music features, etc. Its in infant stage is what the jdhooghe says and apps are still not as good as the IOS/Android counterpart. He can share his opinion you dont have to stomp it just because you have a bias for windows phone. Admit it and walk away lol

 

[N_LaRUE]

You know that MS has been very slow in updating right? We're still waiting for notification center, rotation lock, better music features, etc. Its in infant stage is what the jdhooghe says and apps are still not as good as the IOS/Android counterpart. He can share his opinion you dont have to stomp it just because you have a bias for windows phone. Admit it and walk away lol

You're going to find generally two types of people on this forum. One type is a person who feels WP suits their needs 100% as is and is happy with whateve MS puts into WP. They find WP uncluttered, uncomplicated and it 'just works' for them as is. The other type is someone who came from another platform, likes WP, hates it's lack of features and apps but really wants to keep WP because they like the look of it and see it's potential, as long as it eventually gives them what they want.

What MS will bring out in the future is anyone's guess. WP8 was a big shift from WP7.8 in the terms of the OS kernnel. The only thing now is sorting it out to be competitive to other platforms and satisfying both types of people. If they fail at either one I'm expecting and exodus of some sort.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

You're going to find generally two types of people on this forum. One type is a person who feels WP suits their needs 100% as is and is happy with whateve MS puts into WP. They find WP uncluttered, uncomplicated and it 'just works' for them as is. The other type is someone who came from another platform, likes WP, hates it's lack of features and apps but really wants to keep WP because they like the look of it and see it's potential, as long as it eventually gives them what they want.

What MS will bring out in the future is anyone's guess. WP8 was a big shift from WP7.8 in the terms of the OS kernnel. The only thing now is sorting it out to be competitive to other platforms and satisfying both types of people. If they fail at either one I'm expecting and exodus of some sort.

There's a third type. Haters.

Don't let the haters cloud your judgment. Unless, of course, they have the exact same use case as you do and WP didn't fit the bill.

 

[N_LaRUE]

There's a third type. Haters.

Don't let the haters cloud your judgment. Unless, of course, they have the exact same use case as you do and WP didn't fit the bill.

I don't see many haters on here mostly those 'frustrated' by lack of features/apps. I normally see the haters on articles on news sites. But then you see haters for all platforms there.

 

[iamtim]

You know that MS has been very slow in updating right?

*blink, blink*

Let's see... Portico, Amber, GDR2, and GDR3 and 8.1 on the horizon. And WP8 hasn't even been out a full year. Slow in updating? Huh. Ok.

 

[spyderzWPC]

I don't see many haters on here mostly those 'frustrated' by lack of features/apps. I normally see the haters on articles on news sites. But then you see haters for all platforms there.

For features I only believe a couple are missing. The big one for me is custom notifications, that drives me nuts but I have learned to live without it. I work in a cube farm and all the custom notification I here around me drive me nuts. I leave my phone on vibrate simply because I think its rude for the whole office to hear your phone.

as in apps I believe more and more are coming out day by day the phone just keeps getting stronger. A lot of issues that people had with wp7 were fixed in wp8.

 

[leo74]

Having used Android iOS and WP8, here is my experience. maybe that helps you to decide if a switch is for you...
I started with iOS because it was cool at the time and to be honest, it does what it does pretty well. It is simple to use and there are TONS of applications out there.
What led me to leave iOS though was that the only way was Apple's way and the loyal fan base accepted everything without ever questioning. I vividly remember when Apple shipped the broken iPhone 4 (where you could kill every call by holding your phone and touching a spot on the metal frame) and instead of coming out saying "sorry, we messed up" the answer was: "you are holding it wrong" or " just get a cover". This behavior pretty much killed the iPhone for me.
I then switched to Android and to be honest I was pretty happy with it. I enjoyed the flexibility and the massive amount of applications. Over the time though, I realized that I really only use a handful of apps on a regular basis and that I was missing features in the OS that would make me so much more productive. On top of that, I started to experience many problems with freezing apps and randomly restarting phones. Since there really wasn't a lot of alternative I stuck to Android until last fall.
When I learned about WP8, I pretty much had the same concerns as you do. The apparent lack of major apps I used on a daily basis was quite a concern. But when looking at the OS more closely and realizing that it finally does what I was looking for to keep me productive (complete office integration, sharepoint integration, Lync on my phone....) I gave it a shot. From the fist day until now I have not once looked back to the other OS. WP8 simply does everything it does extremely well. Yes, there are some trade-offs like the lack of a notification center and some official apps missing in the store. But here is what I found out about myself: There is absolutely no reason to use an app to access a mobile site if you can just use the mobile site instead. Take facebook for instance. I get updates from the people I care about via their tiles and usually use the people hub to check on all the others. And beside that, I log in to facebook's mobile site every once in a while. I deleted the facebook app I had installed because I really never use it. I am sure that many of the sites you mentioned have decent mobile sites, so I believe a simple bookmark can do a lot for you.
As many others already mentioned, there are plenty of 3rd party apps out there, that work very well and often even better than the official apps. And truth to be told: Some apps will probably take a while before they find their way to WP8. This is the case with every new OS.
I think you need to ask yourself two simple question:
Does the best smartphone camera out there outweigh the fact that you might not have all the apps you want?
Are the apps you are missing really that important to you or are you just using an app for certain things because there happens to be one?

As I stated, I am not looking back because there really is nothing I miss.
And as for market share:
WP is here to stay, at least in my book. I come across many, many professionals every day and to be frank, most of them have no idea what my L920 is. But each and everyone of them asks me about it, plays with is and tell me that this seems so much better than what they have now. The more people come in touch with the OS, the more people will switch. So if you make the switch, it is up to you (and any of us) to help keeping WP around

Whatever your answer is, at the end of the day the phone has to work for you. It does for me, so I would highly recommend WP8.

Good luck with whatever you end up with!

 

[tgzgeorge]

Having used Android iOS and WP8, here is my experience. maybe that helps you to decide if a switch is for you...
I started with iOS because it was cool at the time and to be honest, it does what it does pretty well. It is simple to use and there are TONS of applications out there.
What led me to leave iOS though was that the only way was Apple's way and the loyal fan base accepted everything without ever questioning. I vividly remember when Apple shipped the broken iPhone 4 (where you could kill every call by holding your phone and touching a spot on the metal frame) and instead of coming out saying "sorry, we messed up" the answer was: "you are holding it wrong" or " just get a cover". This behavior pretty much killed the iPhone for me.
I then switched to Android and to be honest I was pretty happy with it. I enjoyed the flexibility and the massive amount of applications. Over the time though, I realized that I really only use a handful of apps on a regular basis and that I was missing features in the OS that would make me so much more productive. On top of that, I started to experience many problems with freezing apps and randomly restarting phones. Since there really wasn't a lot of alternative I stuck to Android until last fall.
When I learned about WP8, I pretty much had the same concerns as you do. The apparent lack of major apps I used on a daily basis was quite a concern. But when looking at the OS more closely and realizing that it finally does what I was looking for to keep me productive (complete office integration, sharepoint integration, Lync on my phone....) I gave it a shot. From the fist day until now I have not once looked back to the other OS. WP8 simply does everything it does extremely well. Yes, there are some trade-offs like the lack of a notification center and some official apps missing in the store. But here is what I found out about myself: There is absolutely no reason to use an app to access a mobile site if you can just use the mobile site instead. Take facebook for instance. I get updates from the people I care about via their tiles and usually use the people hub to check on all the others. And beside that, I log in to facebook's mobile site every once in a while. I deleted the facebook app I had installed because I really never use it. I am sure that many of the sites you mentioned have decent mobile sites, so I believe a simple bookmark can do a lot for you.
As many others already mentioned, there are plenty of 3rd party apps out there, that work very well and often even better than the official apps. And truth to be told: Some apps will probably take a while before they find their way to WP8. This is the case with every new OS.
I think you need to ask yourself two simple question:
Does the best smartphone camera out there outweigh the fact that you might not have all the apps you want?
Are the apps you are missing really that important to you or are you just using an app for certain things because there happens to be one?

As I stated, I am not looking back because there really is nothing I miss.
And as for market share:
WP is here to stay, at least in my book. I come across many, many professionals every day and to be frank, most of them have no idea what my L920 is. But each and everyone of them asks me about it, plays with is and tell me that this seems so much better than what they have now. The more people come in touch with the OS, the more people will switch. So if you make the switch, it is up to you (and any of us) to help keeping WP around I agree

Whatever your answer is, at the end of the day the phone has to work for you. It does for me, so I would highly recommend WP8.

Good luck with whatever you end up with!

 

[broar94]

*blink, blink*

Let's see... Portico, Amber, GDR2, and GDR3 and 8.1 on the horizon. And WP8 hasn't even been out a full year. Slow in updating? Huh. Ok.

WP8 Came 10 months ago and we had only like what one update? And Amber+GDDR2 hasjust been rolling out. The next update will arrive only in 2014 lol . WP7 had only 7.5(Mango) ONE update in three years. Does that count? Everyone knows MS has been ignoring their own MS phone OS, while I believe the recent MS re-org might start delivering updates faster than it should be! Cheers!

 

[N_LaRUE]

For features I only believe a couple are missing. The big one for me is custom notifications, that drives me nuts but I have learned to live without it. I work in a cube farm and all the custom notification I here around me drive me nuts. I leave my phone on vibrate simply because I think its rude for the whole office to hear your phone.

as in apps I believe more and more are coming out day by day the phone just keeps getting stronger. A lot of issues that people had with wp7 were fixed in wp8.

When it comes to features it really comes down to what you personally expect from a smartphone. On the whole I don't have many issues just a couple that to me 'should have been standard' from the beginning. So I'm not the one complaining. I was stating that's what you normally see on here.

 

[N_LaRUE]

WP8 Came 10 months ago and we had only like what one update? And Amber+GDDR2 hasjust been rolling out. The next update will arrive only in 2014 lol . WP7 had only 7.5(Mango) ONE update in three years. Does that count? Everyone knows MS has been ignoring their own MS phone OS, while I believe the recent MS re-org might start delivering updates faster than it should be! Cheers!

Though I don't 100% disagree with you with regards to speed of updates, it's been one of the biggest complaints. Not for brining out new features even, just fixing what's 'generally wrong' with the OS. So looking at things as it is. GDR1 was first, we're now getting GDR2. GDR3 will be out in the next quarter (so after the 'year' mark) and then WP8.1 first quarter 2014. I think GDR2 took longer because they realized there was more wrong then expected. I think GDR3 will be quicker.

 

[Mercule]

I switched to a Lumia 928, last Monday, from an iPhone and I had Android before that (and a Pre before that). I was very leery about it because, well, iOS has a ton of apps and that's pretty much the big weakness for WP, right? I'm still in the 14 day cancellation window -- I know because I went into this clutching a parachute. I didn't hate my iPhone. It's a good, comfortable platform. There are a done of apps available and I've spent more money on iPhone/iPad apps in the last couple years than on PC and PS3 software. There is no chance of me going back to an iPhone, though.

I was concerned about lack of quality games that I recognized. Last Friday, I sat down to play a game on my PS3. Ended up spending 1.5 hours playing Zombie HQ on my phone, instead. I have never chosen an iPhone game over a console or PC game. I still have some board games on my iPad (Small World, Puerto Rico) that I'll play with my wife, but that's a different niche entirely.

I was concerned about daily-use apps. I miss my TiVo app because I actually have to turn on the TV to see what's been recorded, but we cut the cord, last month, so I'm finding Netflix is more relevant, anyway. Otherwise, Zite and Pandora experiences on WP have been superior to iOS. I much prefer the WP email client to the iPhone native client, the Gmail client for iOS, or (by a huge margin) any of the email clients for Android (I think I tried all of them). Ditto for the calendar app. I've got access to SkyDrive, Box, and DropBox (sorry, don't use Google Drive). All of them are easier to work with than the Android or iOS versions -- granted, it's been a couple years for Android and this is (IMO) the biggest weakness for iOS. I also have a really nice OneNote and MS Office experience, which are even more important to me than I thought (OneNote is to Evernote what Word is to Wordpad).

I thought the live tiles were going to feel like bland, clumsy launch icons. Not so! They really do provide a ton of information and ease of use. It's like having Android widgets for almost every app -- and they generally follow the same style guidelines rather than running the risk of being individually beautiful but a discordant mess when put together.

That's my experience with my phone, so far. I came in skeptical, but I'm now more attached to my phone than any I've had since my Palm Pre, which is pretty high praise, from me. YMMV, etc. Without knowing more about specific concerns, though, all I can do is give you my experience.

 

[iamtim]

WP8 Came 10 months ago and we had only like what one update? And Amber+GDDR2 hasjust been rolling out.

And by comparison, how many updates have Android/iOS had?

WP7 had only 7.5(Mango) ONE update in three years. Does that count?

I would say no, because while WP7 and WP8 share many features, WP8 is a very different OS under the hood. Of course, one could say that WP8 was a major upgrade to WP7.

That said, I was not involved with WP7, I was an iOS guy who experimented with Android (and didn't like it). So all that I have to compare is iOS vs. WP8.

Everyone knows MS has been ignoring their own MS phone OS

You shouldn't use terms like "everyone". I neither know, nor believe, nor have seen that behavior out of Microsoft.

 

[phasar]

Personally, I wouldn't recommend WP8 to any adult. The OS is smooth and stable, but until they figure out how to fix the random battery drain issues, I would stay away from WP8. I really expected Nokia to push the envelope more on their devices seeing that they are in a sink or swim position. Maybe they expected Windows to bring more to the table than they actually did. If someone had told me that WP8 would have less features at this stage of development then my old Nokia E71, I would have laughed. But sadly and surprisingly that is the case.

 

[iamtim]

the random battery drain issues

Has that even been formally identified as a thing? It seems to me that for each person who complains about it, someone else says they've never experienced it.

 

[In Limbo]

Yes.