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

[Joe920]

Just came across a thread complaining about acting on phone numbers in messages etc. Looks like people are not crazy about how WP10 does this.

Does anyone have experience with how this works in Android and iOS? Kind of the same, worse, or notably better?

Ironically, I wasn't able to copy and paste the thread link here, had to do it on my PC afterward

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

Day one with my new Google Pixel. My impressions thus far is that this is overall better than my 950. It's fast, like extremely fast. I never even thought my 950 was slow until I got this phone. I don't think I've ever seen a phone this fast in my life. Clearly there's a lot of optimized power under the hood. I'm not really an app guy. I'm big on getting things done. All of the Microsoft apps are on Android and to be honest they are indeed better in a lot of ways. Pages I had issues loading on edge load perfect on the Bing app. Issues I had with OneDrive no longer exist. Even this Tapatalk app is way better now. So far the biggest drawback I see is the keyboard. The virtual keyboard on my 950 was a lot better. Microsoft needs to bring their keyboard over because I would use it for sure. I'm still learning the OS but thus far I like it. Being able to run two apps at the same time in multitask is amazing. I've replaced the main stock Google apps with Microsoft apps and to be honest I think if Microsoft just put more attention into Windows phones it could be the smooth experience I'm getting from Android at the moment. This is only day one so there's still more setting up to do. I'll follow up later with more info.

 

[mattiasnyc]

Personally I get the sense that NFC payments work better on the others (don't use it, so not sure).

This is vendor and technology dependent, and doesn't solely rely on MS Wallet / NFC.

For example, my local grocery store recently switched out their card/nfc payment terminals, and previously using NFC meant I had to sign on the screen after it registered my debit card, but now it requires my pin code instead. I don't care for that actually to be honest. The same evening though I went to the local Duane Reade, and there I only had to hold up the phone, authenticate using iris scanner, and then it was done; no signature or pin required.

So it appears to vary, and I think there's a limit to how much we can credit or blame MS for how the technology is implemented. All i can say is that it works, and it works well, but differently depending on the store/vendor.

On another general note I would add this: There appears to be more than a bit of a double standard when comparing platforms. Personal experience is fine but it is personal. And some people have certain preferences and will therefore perceive an issue differently depending on what platform it is on. Poor battery management on Android or OSX isn't really a big issue, but it's a disaster on W10M. Likewise, the explanation I've seen for the former is that it's just a temporary issue that will be fixed (a good thing) yet a temporary issue on W10M is a bad thing because 'issues keep popping up with updates'.... even though the same is true for iOS for example (or OSX).

So it's just very hard to make a comparison because it's really hard to pick an issue and then evaluating it fairly and equally on different platforms.

 

[mattiasnyc]

Day one with my new Google Pixel. My impressions thus far is that this is overall better than my 950. It's fast, like extremely fast. I never even thought my 950 was slow until I got this phone. I don't think I've ever seen a phone this fast in my life. Clearly there's a lot of optimized power under the hood.

Well, at this point we should remember two things:

The Pixel has a Snapdragon 821, and the Lumia 950 an 808.
The Pixel is new and the 950... how old? I honestly don't know... a year+?
The Pixel is $650 unlocked, and I just saw the 950 for $330

So again we have to be clear with our comparisons. What would I expect for a phone that is almost exactly twice as expensive?

Certainly some things need to improve on an OS level, but other things simply lie outside of that.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

Well, at this point we should remember two things:

The Pixel has a Snapdragon 821, and the Lumia 950 an 808.
The Pixel is new and the 950... how old? I honestly don't know... a year+?
The Pixel is $650 unlocked, and I just saw the 950 for $330

So again we have to be clear with our comparisons. What would I expect for a phone that is almost exactly twice as expensive?

Certainly some things need to improve on an OS level, but other things simply lie outside of that.

Ummm... Ok. I'm aware the Pixel has a better CPU, more ram and a higher storage capacity. Also the 950 was not always under $400 dollars. It's just interesting to see such a huge jump from one flagship to another. Even if they matched hardware the Pixel is so much more stable it's night and day different. My 950 would get stuck trying to do things as simple as adjust brightness.

 

[Joe920]

It's just interesting to see such a huge jump from one flagship to another.

I think MS could at least make WP10 feel a bit zippier by working on the animations. The GPU in phones like the 950XL is plenty fast, but getting to the task switcher by long-pressing the back button seems to take an eternity.

#firstworldproblems

 

[libra89]

I reread this thread and I realized that we did a disservice in forgetting two things.

One sweet thing that WP has (on W10M) is the event reminder when powering down your phone. The "Don't forget" instead of goodbye is a nice touch.

Android has the scheduled turn on and turn off time though, which is also a nice touch too.

 

[xandros9]

I reread this thread and I realized that we did a disservice in forgetting two things.

One sweet thing that WP has (on W10M) is the event reminder when powering down your phone. The "Don't forget" instead of goodbye is a nice touch.

Android has the scheduled turn on and turn off time though, which is also a nice touch too.

To be fair, I don't power off my phone enough for that Don't forget thing to matter but the sheer thoughtfulness of the feature makes me want it.

And also worth noting that out of all the Android phone's I've used, the only one that had the scheduled power-on/off feature and it was a $10 Alcatel, interestingly enough.

 

[libra89]

To be fair, I don't power off my phone enough for that Don't forget thing to matter but the sheer thoughtfulness of the feature makes me want it.

And also worth noting that out of all the Android phone's I've used, the only one that had the scheduled power-on/off feature and it was a $10 Alcatel, interestingly enough.

Fair point.

Wow, just one? It's weird how some have it and some don't. Come to think of it, the Honor 8 I have might be the only phone that I have had this with. I really liked how if I was using another phone, I can disable the alarm so that I don't have 2 alarms in my ear the next morning.

 

[mattiasnyc]

Ummm... Ok. I'm aware the Pixel has a better CPU, more ram and a higher storage capacity. Also the 950 was not always under $400 dollars. It's just interesting to see such a huge jump from one flagship to another. Even if they matched hardware the Pixel is so much more stable it's night and day different. My 950 would get stuck trying to do things as simple as adjust brightness.

Right, but again, at some point we need to start comparing apples to apples. I could take the phone I left behind (LG G2X) and compare that to the 950 I switched to, and simply note that I with 99% certainty had far more and far worse problems with that old phone compared to the 950, and that the improvement likely was far far larger than the one you just experienced. So, obviously, does that tell us how awesome the 950 is or how bad my G2X had become?

For example: Not once have my 950 gotten stuck adjusting brightness. If the OS, Win 10 Mobile, is the cause for your phone getting stuck when adjusting brightness, why doesn't that happen to everyone on the same phone / OS? Makes no sense.

 

[mattiasnyc]

I think MS could at least make WP10 feel a bit zippier by working on the animations. The GPU in phones like the 950XL is plenty fast, but getting to the task switcher by long-pressing the back button seems to take an eternity.

#firstworldproblems

Good hashtag, I agree.

I think this is an area though where you're likely to find some disagreement because whereas apps not crashing is a pretty objective minimum standard the amount of time this should take is entirely subjective, within reason. I'm betting if it's too short a lot of users will complain that when they're attempting to go back it'll trigger the task switcher instead. Know what I mean? I personally have no problem with the time it takes now, and I would likely be ok with it being a bit faster.

 

[Joe920]

I think this is an area though where you're likely to find some disagreement because whereas apps not crashing is a pretty objective minimum standard the amount of time this should take is entirely subjective, within reason. I'm betting if it's too short a lot of users will complain that when they're attempting to go back it'll trigger the task switcher instead. Know what I mean? I personally have no problem with the time it takes now, and I would likely be ok with it being a bit faster.

Agreed on everything, but for the task switcher I think it's too lethargic. Compare it with the response for the long press on the start button. I haven't read a single complaint about that one being too fast, and it's tons faster than the task switcher. Looks like there's room for tweaking.

 

[anon(50597)]

Good hashtag, I agree.

I think this is an area though where you're likely to find some disagreement because whereas apps not crashing is a pretty objective minimum standard the amount of time this should take is entirely subjective, within reason. I'm betting if it's too short a lot of users will complain that when they're attempting to go back it'll trigger the task switcher instead. Know what I mean? I personally have no problem with the time it takes now, and I would likely be ok with it being a bit faster.

Agreed. It's not like it lags or anything. It works perfectly fine.

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[mattiasnyc]

Agreed on everything, but for the task switcher I think it's too lethargic. Compare it with the response for the long press on the start button. I haven't read a single complaint about that one being too fast, and it's tons faster than the task switcher.

Fair enough, if it's good enough for one it is for the other. No real reason for there to be a difference as far as I can see.

 

[libra89]

I think there should be a conversation about how each OS handles non-native email accounts like an Exchange kind of deal (i.e. using an account with a Gmail address on Windows phone, using an outlook email address on Android).

In my experience, iOS is truly plug and play. I can send emails, add/delete contacts, and create calendar events in the Outlook app which will be mirrored on the server. When adding accounts, it automatically makes it to be an Exchange account, which is important for being able to have continuation.

Android in my experience is extremely varied on this. I have had phones that I have added my Outlook address as Exchange account and it was just bad with my contacts appearing and disappearing (looking at you Sony) to phones where it worked better. On my current Android phone of choice, it works well but using the built in email app sends double replies, regardless of if I am in a weak signal area or one with strong WiFi.

How does this work with Windows Phone/Mobile? Is it more friendly than Android, close to the level of iOS, or better even?

 

[mattiasnyc]

When I got the G2X I started with the included email client (this was years ago) and then switched to a 3rd party one. That one worked well for a while but I soon got problems sending mail. I didn't get duplicates but it wouldn't send at all - but only from some accounts. When I set up the 950 and Outlook it synced to my three emails perfectly right away.

Contacts on the other hand I think are handled better by Google than MS Outlook web. My issue has so far been that when combining accounts it becomes hard to understand the underlying architecture and interaction between the various services and therefore it's hard to deal with duplicates and merging information etc. I'm not sure the blame can be laid squarely at MS' feet, but at the very least the "clean up" function on the (web) contacts page is just not that great.

So, email works well for me so far, on the phone and on the web, and contacts are a bit annoying if one is trying to clean it all up, and I can't really put my finger on just who's to blame yet....

 

[libra89]

When I got the G2X I started with the included email client (this was years ago) and then switched to a 3rd party one. That one worked well for a while but I soon got problems sending mail. I didn't get duplicates but it wouldn't send at all - but only from some accounts. When I set up the 950 and Outlook it synced to my three emails perfectly right away.

Contacts on the other hand I think are handled better by Google than MS Outlook web. My issue has so far been that when combining accounts it becomes hard to understand the underlying architecture and interaction between the various services and therefore it's hard to deal with duplicates and merging information etc. I'm not sure the blame can be laid squarely at MS' feet, but at the very least the "clean up" function on the (web) contacts page is just not that great.

So, email works well for me so far, on the phone and on the web, and contacts are a bit annoying if one is trying to clean it all up, and I can't really put my finger on just who's to blame yet....

That's really interesting. All of my emails are hosted on Outlook so I wondered how it was on the flip side.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I can't explain what I mean by theme but I am all about harmony. For the sake of it, I prefer for icons to look like they go together.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

After a few more days with my new pixel phone I can say that notifications and the on screen keyboard is better on Windows phone. Androids notify you about everything. The flexibility of these notifications are not as good as W10M at all. Some cannot be turned off at all. The other thing there seems to be no keyboard as good as the Microsoft keyboard. Ironically Microsoft has an android keyboard and it really sucks. It's clearly not a W10M clone. No swipe, doesn't suggest more than 3 words when typing and missing a few other features. Really weird. I do like that you can change the keyboard to get what you like but thus far I haven't found any that fully match the W10M keyboard feature for feature.

 

[slivy58]

How does this work with Windows Phone/Mobile? Is it more friendly than Android, close to the level of iOS, or better even?

Overall Outlook for WP/WM has worked reasonably well for me although emails don't always display properly and the overall interface feels, well, lacking and somewhat bland compare to its iOS/Android counterparts. If comparing against the other two platforms, for me, it ranks on the bottom.

Do have a problem on my Androids where a couple of IMAP accounts won't send, they appear to do so but recipients never get them, receiving end works as it should. Only happening on, wait for it, Outlook for Android w/the native email apps working flawlessly. Gone through many steps in trying to resolve but continues to elude me so pretty much concluded that a "bad update" is the cause, problem does appear to coincide with Outlook's last updated.

iOS has always performed well and although different switching between it and Android feels seamless, sadly can't honestly say the same for WP/WM.

 

[Joe920]

After a few more days with my new pixel phone I can say that notifications and the on screen keyboard is better on Windows phone. Androids notify you about everything. The flexibility of these notifications are not as good as W10M at all. Some cannot be turned off at all.

Nice, I forgot about notifications and customizability. I recall when I used a Fire Phone for a bit, there was no way to show a notification counter on icons (the poor man's live tile..). Is this also the case on a Pixel? Or are there now counter overlays on icons as part of the OS?

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