Hi - potential switcher back to Microsoft from Apple

[farskija]

Hey, OP, any more thoughts/updates since your last post? I am currently a Z10 user and I think I know what I would miss by switching to WP8 but I am tempted to try the 928. I would miss the ability of having "phone calls only" when I plugged in the phone at night, volume controls for multiple items, and closing individual apps. I like the Zed 10 but WP8 is peaking my interest...

 

[evilrob]

Hey, OP, any more thoughts/updates since your last post? I am currently a Z10 user and I think I know what I would miss by switching to WP8 but I am tempted to try the 928. I would miss the ability of having "phone calls only" when I plugged in the phone at night, volume controls for multiple items, and closing individual apps. I like the Zed 10 but WP8 is peaking my interest...

Nothing more to report, really - I think I covered it all above.

I've had the phone for 3 weeks now - and have very few, if any, complaints. I'm still holding off making any judgements on battery life because I'm using it far more than I used my iPhone so although I run it down to about 30% towards the end of the day, I suspect that's because it's still a new toy and that will level out over time. I've not yet exhausted the battery during the course of a day.

I've also not yet been awoken by any noises from the phone overnight, so my "one volume setting for everything" complaint has not yet been a problem.

You will be able to close individual apps when the latest GDR3 update is rolled out (or sooner if you want to install it manually yourself - I'll wait until the official rollout as my phone is brand new so I don't want to do anything that might affect the warranty). I'd forgotten I was annoyed about this, actually - I've overcome my app-closing OCD and just let the OS get on with it; not had any random crashes or slowdowns from having too many apps open - it seems to manage itself fine.

Overall, I'm much happier with Windows Phone than I was iOS.

 

[Pinchscape]

I've just done a similar thing - I've always been a Microsoft developer, and over the years became more and more frustrated with the poor quality windows laptops on the market, and the crapware I had to spend hours uninstalling - which used to drive me bonkers. I ended up spending ?2400 on a top of the range Dell and couldn't have been more disappointed with the build quality and, yes - more crapware. In my frustration I purchased a MacBook Pro to run Windows via bootcamp - and it was just fantastic, and I decided then it was apple laptops all the way. Having been seduced by Apples great hardware it wasn't long before I had iPads and iPhones, and was an apple only guy.

Because I write Windows software, I had always been keeping half an eye on the Microsoft marketplace, and over the last year or so it has made me very excited. I was trying to use my Mac to try and re-invent myself as an IOS developer, then thought No! why not jump ship to Windows and write software for that platform. I've spent the last 6 years writing windows WPF/Silverlight apps which are the predecessors of Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps, so things couldnt be easier !

Ive just sold all my apple kit on ebay, and now have a Surface Pro 2, and a Lumia 625, and couldnt possibly be any happier. The umia 625 was under ?200 which is completely incredible for such a great bit of kit.

You wont regret switching from apple to microsoft - Im certainly very happy

 

[evilrob]

I'm over the moon so far; with both the OS and the phone itself. The Lumia 920 in white always turns heads. I get someone come up almost every day asking something along the lines of, "Wow - what's that; looks awesome!"

 

[evilrob]

OK, had a Windows Phone for over a month now. The Nokia Lumia 920 is the best phone I've ever had - I'm completely sold on Windows Phone OS. I don't miss the iPhone at all.

Only news is I bought one of these Nokia DC-16 portable battery chargers:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...ag=hawk-future-21&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU2209390

I had a particularly heavy day out and about with lots of calls / Skype etc, and managed to get down to around 20% by about 3pm having come off charge at around 6am; thought it might be a good idea to have a backup so I don't get caught short in future.

Just waiting for the 2520 to come out and I'll report back on how I get on with a Microsoft tablet instead of my iPad.

If you haven't checked the 2520 out yet, I think it's going to be awesome! Take a look over here:
Nokia Lumia 2520 - - Nokia - UK

 

[Catalin Dan]

I'm curious now, why are u choosing Nokia tablet over the surface 2? I also want to purchase a tablet but I can't decide between the two



Sent from my Lumia 920 using Tapatalk

 

[evilrob]

I'm curious now, why are u choosing Nokia tablet over the surface 2? I also want to purchase a tablet but I can't decide between the two

I was also torn, but I made my decision based on:

1. My experience with the Lumia phone; would expect a similar level of build quality.
2. It will look awesome next to the phone.
3. The faster processor (2.2ghz Snapdragon 800 vs 1.7ghz Nvidia Tegra 4).
4. Brighter screen.
5. Slightly smaller dimensions/weight.
6. I prefer the (optional) folio-style keyboard case with additional 5 hours battery life and USB.
7. Built-in LTE.
8. Nokia exclusive apps.

 

[evilrob]

OK, so it turns out Nokia couldn't get their act together here in the UK - couldn't get a white 2520, couldn't find anywhere with a keyboard case actually in stock - so I got impatient and bought a firesale 128Gb original Surface Pro - with free cyan touch cover (which will be going straight on eBay) and ?10 Windows Store credit for ?443.41 delivered - pretty much what it would have cost to buy a new Surface 2 64Gb. No-brainer, I think.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Still loving the 920 and Windows Phone in general.

Only new app that's made it onto my Start Screen and in use daily is Quiet Hours:
Quiet Hours | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United Kingdom)

Automatically silences your phone at a specified time (e.g. midnight) and puts your volume back up again at a specified time (e.g. 6am)

Also become addicted to Wordament.

 

[evilrob]

Surface Pro turned up this morning - first impressions are good. Looking forward to having Desktop and Phone versions of the 2Day app.

Currently installing update 8 of 80...

 

[evilrob]

An hour later... 62 of 80...

 

[evilrob]

After finally getting all the updates installed, upgraded to 8.1, all my software installed, accounts/passwords set up - I'm happy to report that the Surface Pro is brilliant. I think I might like it more than my Macbook Air (and that's saying something!)

I might post a list of decent Modern UI apps if anyone's interested? I've tried, kept and rejected loads!

 

[Catalin Dan]

I would love a suggestions list...I'm always looking for new/useful apps for windows 8.1

 

[Saksham Sharma]

After finally getting all the updates installed, upgraded to 8.1, all my software installed, accounts/passwords set up - I'm happy to report that the Surface Pro is brilliant. I think I might like it more than my Macbook Air (and that's saying something!)

I might post a list of decent Modern UI apps if anyone's interested? I've tried, kept and rejected loads!

yeah do put up a list, i haven't found many apps worth my time yet on windows 8.1... I love my Wp8 but haven't seen many great apps on 8.1. Do post !

 

[evilrob]

Okay, here's my setup - apps highlighted in green are my 'outstanding' picks, those in red I binned off:

---

Desktop apps:

• Bitdefender Total Security - self explanatory; works, no discernible performance impact - occasionally pops up annoying notifications like 'in Laptop mode' which you don't seem to be able to disable
• Photoshop CC - self explanatory; nice and speedy on Surface Pro - user interface is crazy small on the Surface Pro's HD screen though
• Office Professional 2013 - self explanatory
• Visio Standard 2013 - self explanatory
• iTunes - self explanatory
• Spotify - self explanatory; horrible touch experience, doesn't scale to HD well - not optimised for touch at all, but better than the web-player which stops playing unless your web browser is the front-most window - no integration with the volume pop-up (so you can't skip tracks backwards or forwards)
• CCleaner - useful tool to clear out junk - everyone should have this
• 1Password - password manager; yes there are free alternatives - I like this one because having read the developer's blog, I'm confident they know what they're doing when it comes to encryption.
  [*]Breevy - text snippet expander - as above really; there are free utilities which do a similar thing but I like this one and I don't mind paying for it - it works the way I want it to, I'm happy with it.
• Virtualdub - video processing tool - I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about this or handbrake
• Handbrake - video processing tool
• Google Chrome - looks horrible if your text display settings are set to 150% scaling (the default); you can fix this either by changing your display settings to 100% scaling instead, or as follows:
  
  1. Right click Chrome shortcut/taskbar icon and choose "Properties." (if you do this on an icon in you startbar, you'll need to right click again on the one that says "Google Chrome.")
  2. Click Compatibility tab.
  3. Check box for "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings."
  4. Click OK.
  5. It will render pages using tiny, practically unreadable fonts, but you can change that in Chrome Settings under "Show advanced settings" --> "Web Content" --> "Font Size."
  6. Enjoy. (you can do this for other apps that show up comedically big too - like the Adobe Creative Cloud updater helper)
• Sublime Text 2 - brilliant code editor

---

Metro UI apps:

Social:

• Facebook - probably the least worst Facebook client of any platform; certainly much better than the official Windows Phone one - I like flipping it into portrait mode for faster newsfeed reading; loses the left and right menu bars
• Twitter - clean, simple, does the job; if you're a power Twitter user you may need to look elsewhere (I am not, so can't recommend anything I'm afraid)
• Skype - clean, simple, does the job.
• IM+ Pro - multi instant message protocol chat client - not pretty, but largely works
• Viber - clean, simple, does the job - I like being able to transfer calls between devices running Viber (start a call on PC, fire over to Mobile if required). Not as polished as Skype, in my opinion.

Shopping:

• Amazon - ordered 3 or 4 things using one-click; seamless if you already know what you're looking for - probably still prefer using the website for product discovery to compare different options / find the best deal etc.
• eBay - slick, seems to work.
• Tesco (UK grocery delivery service) - works much better than Ocado below
• Ocado (UK grocery delivery service) - can't actually manage your shopping basket, but does have a nice live tile telling you when the next available delivery slot is, or how your order is progressing if you've made one via the website

Photo:

• Adobe Photoshop Express - simple photo enhancement tool, works
• Fotor - another simple photo enhancement tool - allows you to do some pretty nice filters, effects, collages etc - worth checking out. (not as slick as Photoshop Express obviously, but you can do some cool stuff with it)

Video:

• Netflix - slick, works; drops into SD more often than I'd like - this is probably more to do with my internet connection (although it doesn't happen so frequently on the Apple TV so... jury's out on this one)
• TVCatchup (may only work in the UK) - horrible interface, does the job though
• 4OD (may only work in the UK) - bit buggy and frustrating to use, largely plays the content you want though; sometimes randomly resets back to the beginning of what you were watching.
• Demand 5 (may only work in the UK) - better than the 4OD app
• Hyper for Youtube (seems to work better than MetroTube) - I like the download features and the fact you can set it to default to 1080P when available.
• MetroTube - Youtube app - using Hyper instead. I love with Windows Phone version of this app, but it's not as magical on Win8.
• Blinkbox from Tesco - UK movie store for rental/purchase, really slick user interface.

Audio:

• Xbox Music - nice apart from the fact playlists don't seem to sync between desktop/phone - lots of music available free, though - not found anything I wanted to listen to that wouldn't play for free
• Deezer - music streaming app; really nice if you don't mind paying ?9.99 a month. Worth checking out until Spotify get with the times!
• BBC Podcasts - free, cool app to download your favourite BBC podcasts
• Radio 1 - free Radio 1 streaming app; took me a while to figure out you have to swipe up from the bottom to uncover the play button (the only control in the whole app!) Does not allow you to expand to 'wide' tile size, but the Radio 2 one below, bizarrely, does.
• Radio 2 - as per Radio 1 app above.
• Tunein Radio - listen to radio from around the world. User interface is poo. Does not seem to let you pin individual stations to your Start Screen.

Reading:

• NextGen Reader - brilliant RSS newsfeed reader.
• Flipbook - personal magazine app; reasonably slick, works OK - not as good as the iPad version
• Bing News - slick current affairs app, not found a better one yet
• StumbleUpon - really cool user experience to find interesting stuff on the 'net / waste some time
• Wikipedia - no 'did you mean?' - will only return things if you type them absolutely correctly and/or know the correct spelling of whatever it is you want to find out about
• Kindle / Nook - eBook readers; haven't decided which one I prefer yet
• John Lewis Things We Love - UK high end department store magazine

Local:

• Bing Weather (I prefer this to AccuWeather due to not having ads in your face all the time)
• TripAdvisor - works nicely, few too many gradients in the UI for my liking - would be better if it were flatter
• Foursquare - very 'Metro' UI - definitely worth checking out.
  [*]HERE Maps - really cool, but I actually prefer the standard Bing Maps app for my general map needs.
• Rightmove - UK property search, pretty nice

Cloud - not decided on a favourite yet, will probably be OneDrive though, to be honest:

• SkyDrive (aka OneDrive now, obvs)
• Dropbox
• Box

Productivity:

• 2Day - great GTD task management app; bit overwhelming at first; not pretty or slick, but functional and so far reasonably reliable. Live tile is useful in 'large' mode - shows you your next few upcoming tasks. Syncs with Windows Phone version well.
• OneNote (the metro version) - not as fully featured as the desktop counterpart obviously, but great for quick notes and sketches straight into your notebooks.
• Fresh Paint - genius art app; works great with the stylus.
• MinimaList - to-do list; looks lovely, works well - uninstalled due to ads and no way of paying to remove that I could see; will stick with OneNote

 

[evilrob]

Just a quick update: happy to report that Surface Pro will happily accept the new Sandisk 128Gb MicroSD card, comes formatted as ExFAT and provides 119Gb useable space.

The battery life is starting to get on my nerves; typically get around 4 hours out if it, but I'll get a power cover and see if that will get me through a whole day. Also quite keen to get a docking station. Unfortunately, neither of these accessories is available yet in the UK so I may have to get them shipped over from the US. Will report back when I get them.

 

[evilrob]

Oh wow... seems to be everything I love about my 920 but just a bit better in every way:

 

[Catalin Dan]

Oh wow... seems to be everything I love about my 920 but just a bit better in every way:

Exactly!! Can't wait for it to become available

 

[evilrob]

I am happy.

 

[evilrob]

So I've had the 930 for just over a week - I absolutely love it. I think its the best all round Windows Phone in terms of size, camera, performance and looks.

Best phone I have ever had, hands down.

 

[evilrob]

So this lot turned up today:

Free wireless bundle for Lumia 930 purchases before 31st July:

Buy the new Nokia Lumia 930, today - Nokia - UK

Contains:

1 x DC-50 portable wireless charging plate
1 x MD-12 portable wireless bluetooth speaker / speakerphone accessory
1 x WS-2 treasure tag
1 x ?20 Microsoft Store credit voucher

Charging plate is cool. Speaker sounds OK, not going to replace your hifi but stick it on something hollow like a chest of drawers and the bass it produces is bonkers for its size. Treasure tag is cool - you can trace its last known location, send it a ping to make a noise so you can find it if whatever you've attached it to has fallen down the back of the sofa or whatever, or set it up to make your phone go mental if you leave the house without it - I've attached it to my work pass which I frequently forget and then have to sign in at security which is at the other end of the campus, and have the shame of walking around all day with a gay 'guest' pass.

All in all, loving my 930 experience so far.