How does WP stack up against iOS and Android as an OS (so apart from the app gap)

[princeegli]

I've had all three....and windows is the best for ease of navigation,taking notes,....and the very best in YouTube apps.....you can download YouTube videos,and play while phone is off,on same app.....you have to jump through hoops on android and apple

 

[Tarequl Islam]

Windows Maps is the fatal blow i guess.

 

[princeegli]

Windows Maps is the fatal blow i guess.

Here maps is where its at.....and here drive are great

 

[xandros9]

Here maps is where its at.....and here drive are great

Well you can't get those on W10M and frankly, I have found their POI databases vastly inferior to Google's, or even Apple Maps. The only major advantage is 100% offline maps. And you can get HERE on both iOS and Android as well.

 

[Joe920]

So to summarize until now, unless I'm overlooking any other main features, it really doesn't seem like WP as an OS is significantly behind iOS and Android. Nice.

How about screen projection? For Airplay on iOS, does that only work over Apple TV? I can project from my 950XL to my Roku wirelessly, and I guess to any miracast enabled device, or via a Wireless Display adapter? Does Android allow anything similar?

 

[princeegli]

Well you can't get those on W10M and frankly, I have found their POI databases vastly inferior to Google's, or even Apple Maps. The only major advantage is 100% offline maps. And you can get HERE on both iOS and Android as well.

Here works well for.me in georgia....probably main reason Im staying on 8.1 ,win 10 is just not.ready yet

 

[buffalosolja]

I minor thing I remembered today: in WP you can easily get to bluetooth and wifi settings by just long-pressing their toggles in the action center. I don't think there's a similar quick way in iOS, or is there is, I haven't found it.

Wow I have been using a while and didn't even know this!!

So to summarize until now, unless I'm overlooking any other main features, it really doesn't seem like WP as an OS is significantly behind iOS and Android. Nice.

How about screen projection? For Airplay on iOS, does that only work over Apple TV? I can project from my 950XL to my Roku wirelessly, and I guess to any miracast enabled device, or via a Wireless Display adapter? Does Android allow anything similar?

Android allows mirror cast but is limited (can't to MS office apps) tried to do a comparison with my wife on this.

Here works well for.me in georgia....probably main reason Im staying on 8.1 ,win 10 is just not.ready yet

GA native as well and my wife has android now we usually use my gps to get around but I am on w10 and it has gotten a ton better.

 

[Joe920]

Android allows mirror cast but is limited (can't to MS office apps) tried to do a comparison with my wife on this.

When you say mirror cast, do you mean ChromeCast ? Seems like that's indeed limited to 'cast enabled apps'. So I guess this means that all three OS'es have something similar: cast the screen to enabled receivers. So I'd say "WP competes" for that one. I've added it to the list, thanks!

 

[Joe920]

Another one to add to the list: file browser. The other day I moved a whole much of mp3 folders from SD card to the phone memory using Explorer on the phone. Granted, it resulted in a 'moving files' popup with no 'cancel' and no percentage indicator, but other than that, it's great to have. I'm sure Android does this (right?), but iOS certainly doesn't.

 

[libra89]

Another one to add to the list: file browser. The other day I moved a whole much of mp3 folders from SD card to the phone memory using Explorer on the phone. Granted, it resulted in a 'moving files' popup with no 'cancel' and no percentage indicator, but other than that, it's great to have. I'm sure Android does this (right?), but iOS certainly doesn't.

Yeah, Android does but iOS does not, you have to use iTunes or an app for that.

 

[Daniel Stevenson Sutton]

So my 10 pence worth is: I have been using Windows phone for the past 2 years. It has its gripes but I loved it. When it came time to replace my battered old Lumia 830 the 950 HTC was the obvious choice...until I discovered my other half had already gotten me one for my birthday (November). So until then I took her IPhone 6s (she has just gotten a 7). I like the 6s and there are some nice features here too. But still a Windows phone fan I think. The OS has a lot of potential just needs some touches. The App gap is not an issue: but they need to get developers to invest in their apps. I use FB, twitter, Instagram. Done. But there are features missing from all three; it also has to be said that Apple has nailed interactive notifications, which Microsoft needs to work on. I think Windows is the better platform in the end. But no harm at looking at what the others have gotten right.

 

[Joe920]

The OS has a lot of potential just needs some touches. .... Apple has nailed interactive notifications, which Microsoft needs to work on.

So apart from the app gap, what touches do you think WP needs? And what is better about the notifications on iOS? I'm trying to list all main differences in the OP, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[Joe920]

Another thought: does either of the three big players allow 'default open' options for certain file types, or 'open with' from within the file browser? (that rules out iOS) I know Win10 does it, but in W10mobile it seems more restrictive.

The other day I used Explorer on my 950XL to locate and play an mp4 file. Having found the file, I wanted to use 'open with ..' to open it in VLC or Moliplayer. I couldn't find a way to do it. I know for pdf's downloaded in Edge we get a choice. What gives? And how do Android and iOS do it?

 

[xandros9]

So apart from the app gap, what touches do you think WP needs? And what is better about the notifications on iOS? I'm trying to list all main differences in the OP, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

hmm, well honestly W10M is still buggier. The surface is great and fluid but there's bugs that shouldn't be there. For example my GroupMe notifications are broken on W10M but not on literally every other supported platform. 10586 was a usability trainwreck (it was terrific in fluidity and battery life though) with the really small details like inferior word prediction, a crash-happy photo picker, the features that Microsoft keeps removing like Kid's Corner, Outlook Mail won't let me adjust IMAP settings, making it the only modern OS I use that won't let me setup my Openmailbox.org mailbox. (WP8.1 and webOS 2 let me do it - thankfully upgrading from 8.1 kept the right settings)

I tried to ask Cortana a question to test something that another user asked and it just kept crashing before I could type or say anything. (and this was on Redstone) It was stable earlier but something changed. On TH2/10586 Cortana would crash about every other time when searching and this persisted across hard resets and WDRT uses.

A lot of this variability and differences between users worry me.

I'll keep an eye on the situation going forward though, I need to update my experience to keep it up -to-date since 10586 is no longer modern.

Another thought: does either of the three big players allow 'default open' options for certain file types, or 'open with' from within the file browser? (that rules out iOS) I know Win10 does it, but in W10mobile it seems more restrictive.

The other day I used Explorer on my 950XL to locate and play an mp4 file. Having found the file, I wanted to use 'open with ..' to open it in VLC or Moliplayer. I couldn't find a way to do it. I know for pdf's downloaded in Edge we get a choice. What gives? And how do Android and iOS do it?

Android does it by bringing up a dialog with possible app selections. W10M sort of does it with PDFs and stuff but it varies.

 

[Joe920]

So from the edited quote below (bad practice I know), most OS issues are bugginess, and the IMAP issue. Is that a bug as well? Or just something missing?

- W10M is still buggier.
- Outlook Mail won't let me adjust IMAP settings
- I tried to ask Cortana a question to test something that another user asked and it just kept crashing
- [on open with] Android does it by bringing up a dialog with possible app selections. W10M sort of does it with PDFs and stuff but it varies.

About the 'open with', probably for many situations a 'share' command also works. iOS does have 'Open in' e.g. when certain file types are open in Safari. I'm not sure how flexible that is.

 

[xandros9]

So from the edited quote below (bad practice I know), most OS issues are bugginess, and the IMAP issue. Is that a bug as well? Or just something missing?

Oh that's not a bad practice, I do the same on lengthy posts and stuff!

Most issues are indeed bugginess. The email issue appears to me as too much faith being placed into its library of settings or just not implementing the system.

There are some other deficiencies beyond Kid's Corner like MS removing lockscreen weather, gutting glance in the AU, and minor settings or fit-and-finish. The latter probably just from the reboots.

 

[Joe920]

There are some other deficiencies beyond Kid's Corner like MS removing lockscreen weather, gutting glance in the AU, and minor settings or fit-and-finish. The latter probably just from the reboots.

I'm also annoyed by MS removing good things that set them apart. These are unique features, so of course they are only used by a small number of users, but that's no reason to cut them. Sigh.

That said, right now I'm trying to compare with iOS and Android, so I can't say much about MS' mismanagement, only about how whatever is left compares to Apple's and Google's approach. And I'm happy to say, in terms of OS it doesn't look half bad.

Now all we need is a couple of apps and a few tens of millions of users and we're golden. Sad realization: with the over $7B MS spent on Nokia, they could have given 30 million users a free Lumia 650 at full retain pricing. Or they could have used that money to sell the 950 below cost, say for $200 each. Now there's one way of building a user base. Alas, too late now.

Anyway, back on topic!

 

[tgp]

Another thought: does either of the three big players allow 'default open' options for certain file types, or 'open with' from within the file browser? (that rules out iOS) I know Win10 does it, but in W10mobile it seems more restrictive.

The other day I used Explorer on my 950XL to locate and play an mp4 file. Having found the file, I wanted to use 'open with ..' to open it in VLC or Moliplayer. I couldn't find a way to do it. I know for pdf's downloaded in Edge we get a choice. What gives? And how do Android and iOS do it?

Like xandros9 said, on Android you get a dialogue window asking which app you wish to use. You can also select to make it default. Android's method is actually very similar to how Windows desktop does it.

I do not believe iOS gives you any choice, at least when there is a native app that will handle it. I haven't used iOS 10 much yet though, so things may have changed.

 

[Joe920]

A minor thing where Android leads WP: I just booted up an Android phone for the first time in weeks. It took the Play Store about three seconds to find out which apps had updates available. In WP this takes what, half a minute at least? Not a big deal if updating happens in the background, but a notable difference for us neurotic update checkers.

Edit: hmmm, I think my 950XL saw me report on Android using an iPad, because it refuses to wake from sleep, only showing me the status bar.

 

[FXi2]

You can project to Miracast devices easily. My several year old Samsung connects to Lumia 928 and Icon both using the play to feature. However now I use the Microsoft wireless display adapter and that's great.