Initial thoughts on Windows Phone 8.1?

[AymanWP93]

Such a great update. I was excited all day and now i'm even more happy !!!

Here's my review :

1- Notifications Center is really a great feature , now all the incoming whatsapp and fb messages show up to me quickly.
2- I love the 3rd column ( Lumia 920 ) , now i can manage to access some Live Tiles easily , i used to have a pretty long start screen with over 50 Live Tiles ...
3- The Start Background is a beautiful way to customize your phone and it looks more beautiful than ever.
4- The New IE11 is just WOOOOOW. So fast , So smooth , plays video directly without lock screen , now i feel like i'm running a PC Browser. It's Just WOOW. Absolutely Perfect. But I hope UC Browser devs will be able to take the new WEBGL / HTML 5 capabilities of IE11, because IE is still lacking in terms of download management and UI.
5- Love The New Podcast App since i watch them a lot. Good organisation , easy minimalist UI , Good Search Engine .
6- The New Windows Store App has better details , better UI , app history. Makes it easier to find good apps.

Still , i have some questions.

After i installed the 8.1 update , The Music App doesn't show artist pictures in the background. Normal ?
No Data Connection Quick settings on Action Center , why ?
There's no more background tasks menu on system settings , so i don't know where i can activate/deactivate background tasks ( for live tiles updating ) ...

But Overall , a very good update with a lot of new functionnalities , i feel like i have a brand new phone

 

[Lundon44]

Finding some of my accounts stuck in a never ending "syncing" status since the upgrade. And this has drained my battery 30% in the last hour. Soft reset doesnt do much as they go back in to syncing.

Also initial impressions show some lag in some areas. Whatsapp seems a little laggy now going back and forth into it and writing messages. The new Xbox Hub is very laggy for me and my avatar is laggy also.

​Still testing..

 

[Jack Janik]

First impressions with WP 8.1

Volume slider! Data Sense on AT&T! Notification center! It takes hours though and it nearly drained my battery..

 

[crav4speed]

Re: First impressions with WP 8.1

Data sense will probably be removed with official AT&T WP8.1 update

 

[ammoiz]

Third columns on Lumia 520 is okayish! I think I should buy 1320 or 1520

 

[dlalonde]

Slower?

Is it just me or the 8.1 update is a little slower and mon sluggish? I'm on an HTC 8s. Anyone else notice this?

I did a hard reset but it still slower that before...

 

[Ankit Nawlakha]

Re: Slower?

Nope!
It was slower in the initial stages! Give some time to your phone to set everything up!
And then it *seems faster* than WP8!

 

[FFugue]

WP8.1 is awesome, but the new Music app is really bad... Since it's an app now it takes a while to load the app, and then when you go to your music collection it takes a really long time to load the list of artists or albums if you have big collection. And everytime you launch the app it has to reload the music collection... I'm sad...

But on the good side, Podcasts now work in Canada!!!!

 

[adam220891]

Re: Slower?

slower on my 521

 

[waidosas]

Re: Slower?

slower on my 720

 

[Jack Janik]

Re: First impressions with WP 8.1

Data sense will probably be removed with official AT&T WP8.1 update

I hope not..

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

Re: First impressions with WP 8.1

Love it on my 1520.
For some reason Cortana did not show up on my 1320 though. Any body have any ideas as to why?

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

8.1 reminds me of why I hate Android....

I love the update but that one feature that does bug me is one of the many reasons I dislike Android...that Notification Center.

On one hand...I like it and it feels better than the Notification Center on Android since I last used in 2013

On the other hand....It bugs me because ALL THOSE notifications are there and with my Work appointments(I do modeling and casting calls and auditions so I have a lot of emails plus school, family and personal) not to mention texts....I definitely feel overloaded.

My Action Center looks VISUALLY Better than Android's mess but I am literally overloaded.

Goodness knows what will happen when our apps can then launch in the notification Center...OVERLOAD XD

 

[hermantj]

Re: 8.1 reminds me of why I hate Android....

I love the update but that one feature that does bug me is one of the many reasons I dislike Android...that Notification Center.

On one hand...I like it and it feels better than the Notification Center on Android since I last used in 2013

On the other hand....It bugs me because ALL THOSE notifications are there and with my Work appointments(I do modeling and casting calls and auditions so I have a lot of emails plus school, family and personal) not to mention texts....I definitely feel overloaded.

My Action Center looks VISUALLY Better than Android's mess but I am literally overloaded.

Goodness knows what will happen when our apps can then launch in the notification Center...OVERLOAD XD

You know what? You can SET IT the way you want. Don't want mails to appear in it? They don't. Don't want your calendar to appear there? It doesn't.

 

[GunplaGamer]

Re: Just when you thought 1020 couldn't get better.............. 8.1 !!!!!!!!!!

Holy cow, swype style keyboard, drop down notifications, individual volume control with vibrate toggle. Extra tile sizes..............I almost took a vacation day at work just to play with it all.

Yeah lol Keep on getting distracted at work playing with everything. lol

 

[abhishake620]

should have waited ......

somehow i feel i should have waited ...i know i know it was me who took the plunge ...but now 8.1 does not feel like home, everything is scattered here and there store is not working .music is horrible (app) .cortana is good and the only thing that keeps me going..... i feel all this wait and somehow a bit disappointed ,dont get me wrong it is big update but just does not feel like home anymore maybe as we use it i will get the hang of it........atleast till store loads nothing can be done......... anyone else feels its too early to use the preview and should have aeaited for the official update .?

 

[Ashish Saraf1]

Finding some of my accounts stuck in a never ending "syncing" status since the upgrade. And this has drained my battery 30% in the last hour. Soft reset doesnt do much as they go back in to syncing.

Also initial impressions show some lag in some areas. Whatsapp seems a little laggy now going back and forth into it and writing messages. The new Xbox Hub is very laggy for me and my avatar is laggy also.

​Still testing..

How did you get FB to display updates in notification center

 

[Jack Janik]

Is there really no volume profiles?

 

[NickMon68]

Re: should have waited ......

No don't think its too early at all, and as they say you get what you pay for !

 

[mozman68]

Re: First impressions with WP 8.1

Data sense will probably be removed with official AT&T WP8.1 update

Everyone keeps saying that...but stayed when it was added as part of iOS?