Initial thoughts on Windows Phone 8.1?

[KrisJoeEll]

Hello! does anyone know if the tickbox for disabling only the sounds for notifications is still present in 8.1? in 8.0 it was in sound settings where now we find disabling/enabling system alarms, i really liked it because i uas able to leave just the ringer and/or mail sounds on,now i have to go thru every app in the notification settings and set to ring/vibrate/push,but if i have 4 chatting apps i can't go all day and change those,i've written a THREAD about this but...no answer,and it's been a few days now ) thx

You can tap the icon next to Ringer+ notifications drop down menu when pressing the volume button to mute and unmute.

 

[ajj3085]

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

Ya I'm not sold on the action center either. It was overwhelming in android and would be on 8.1 if you couldn't banish apps from notifying.

Everything I wanted to see was already there via live tiles, not sure why a notification center was needed.

 

[ajj3085]

Something that WP8.1 did not fix....... random reboots of my L920.... just happened again while the phone was simply lying on my desk: shuts down and reboots by itself without me touching it.

It's only the 1st time since I installed WP8.1, but that's 1 time too often already (to WP's defense it's probably my Lumia that's defective but unfortunately Nokia never wanted to acknowledge this and now the guaranty period has expired...)

Mine does that too, but only ever at work. I think some em field or something causes it, its never happened except at work. Usually it doesn't happen while charging either.

 

[yaro da yaar]

Please vote for this feature as this is mostly needed that is sleep timer

http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/foru...suggestion-box/suggestions/5797193-sleep-mode

 

[SpareBot]

For all german speaking users: I summed up my 5 day experience so far on my Blog:

Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview: Mein ausf?hrlicher Erfahrungsbericht | DeathMetalMods

In short:

Positive:
- Swype-Keyboard: WOW!
- Reading Mode in IE11: Very good, should be standard in all browsers
- Homescreen with third row and background image surprisingly nice looking
- Action Center, at least we got some kind of notification center
- VPN and week view (looooong overdue)

Negative:
- Action Center and Volumecontrol doesnt fit into basic WP design and seems rushed
- USB-OT and Dateibrowser still missing
- Tastatur (Cursor) still buggy and "Mark all" still missing

All in all WP 8.1 delivers but and my first thoughts are positiv in general. I hope the 930 will follow soon and most of all: get them apps coming!!

 

[mariusfilip]

thanks,but before whan i needed to just hear if i get an email or important call,i wasn't obliged to hear all my notif....will get used to it i suppose,thx again

 

[mozman68]

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

Ya I'm not sold on the action center either. It was overwhelming in android and would be on 8.1 if you couldn't banish apps from notifying.

Everything I wanted to see was already there via live tiles, not sure why a notification center was needed.

Live tiles don't tell me who emails are from, they don't tell me the detail of Instagram notifications, they fill up my screen with quick buttons that are now hidden in the notification center....I love it.

 

[cuwe]

The action center lags when there's too much notifications . Microsoft should combine the notifications or other brilliant ideas .

 

[TechFreak1]

The action center lags when there's too much notifications . Microsoft should combine the notifications or other brilliant ideas .

I've not noticed any lag in the action centre - get a tonne of WhatsApp notifications for example I just woke up and I had 276 WhatsApp notifications... the action centre was buttery smooth as I scrolled down the list. So care to elaborate how many is too much?

 

[GeoDru]

This is the buggiest WP release I have seen. It bricked my 920 (display won't even come on, must be related to battery issues others have reported), and based on all of the other comments on this site and the MSDN forums, this release has a lot of issues to be worked out. Microsoft and Nokia support have been no help whatsoever, they just give you the standard spiel. I've been a WP fan since day 1 and I have to say I'm really disappointed. Not to mention some of the features that have been removed (especially all of the people hub functionality). It's unfortunate because there are a lot of good features with this release but my experience has been poor - I've worked with a fair amount of beta software but it has never rendered my device completely useless.

 

[m3kk]

I hate the new browser, I can't stream videos in full screen on any site now. Only YouTube videos have a fullscreen button. Feels like browsing with my Xbox 360 all over again

 

[colinkiama]

Have you tried double tapping

 

[m3kk]

Have you tried double tapping

Yeah didn't work

Sent from my Nexus 4 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[luke_grech1]

Has anybody noticed if the other storage issue has been fixed when updating to 8.1 ? Some are saying that it got erased but just want to reconfirm with you guys who updated to 8.1. I am currently facing big problems as my other storage is clogged up to 3GB on my Lumia 720 with 0bytes left of free space

 

[dorep]

Hello,

About action center:

I would add Cellular data to toggle.
They could add this option to the menu. On the one hand it would be a life saver for us (who turn it on and off 10 times a day because of battery life). On the other hand, I don't see why would it bother other people, who don't need it if there is an extra option to chose from. It only further increases the flexibility of the OS.

I would add WiFi to full toggle.
If you want to go to full WiFi settings you can still go via tiles (like till now). After all, settings in the action center are supposed to be fast (quick) right?

One thing i would like to see in toggle mode on action center is flashlight!!!
Turning flashlight on/off without the need to unlock the phone would be a life saver A feature that many phones don't have

Even this first version of action center is faaar better than no action center - that is for sure

Cheers

 

[kristalsoldier]

Well, my take on WP 8.1 has fluctuated. When I initially downloaded it, I was faced with battery issues (on a Lumia 720). I struggled with it. In the meantime, I took note of the Notification Center, which I do like. I agree that MS should allow at least 5 kinds of customizations - and that should be left to the user. Other Notification functions I find adequate. One small niggle is that the bar that needs to be pulled down to reveal the Notification Center should be a little more sensitive laterally. A little more attention to the aesthetic details of the Notification Center and its presentation would be good.

I like what MS has done with WiFi Sense. While I don't need the facility since I have unlimited data on my phone, I like the concept behind it. Perhaps, I will find I use it more when I travel which is a situation where data connections suddenly become expensive!

I also like the transparency/ parallax effect that MS has offered in their Tiles. Of course, the aesthetics depends a lot on the user, but again, I like the concept. I wish MS allows us to customize their system-centric tiles like Xbox Games (which has the ghastly green colour). I can understand why MS may not want to allow other non-MS app tiles to be customized because colours may be part of the identity of companies and/ or developers. So, it makes sense.

Going back to the battery issue, I kept reading about how a hard reset could help with the battery life issue and that was something that I was trying to avoid - call me lazy! In the end, I did the hard reset and as per my cursory testing, I think it has worked wonders! My Lumia 720 seems to boast of a slightly better battery life under 8.1 than it did under 8.0! Strange, I know, but there it is. But this is something that I will continue to monitor carefully.

Overall, I think the update has made my phone a lot smoother and fluid. The screen scrolling is buttery smooth - not that it was problematic earlier under 8.0.

Since I don't use the Peoples' Hub and Games Hub, the presence, absence and/ or modification of these features does not bother me.

I do have one significant complaint against MS with their 8.1 update though. I was planning to buy a new phone shortly, but with the 8.1 update, the logic of that buy seems somewhat diminished. Well, the only logic I can find that is not made-up is a larger screen, which is why I am waiting for the release of the Lumia 930 (Icon in the US, I believe). But there too there is a problem. Since I do rely on the "glance" feature, the absence of this from the 930 would be a problem. But let's see.

Anyways, that is my rough experience of WP8.1 - for better or for worse.

Edit: There is one negative point that I noted in WP8.1. The method of attaching files remains as convoluted as ever! I wish MS would simplify the process and allow for making attachments from within the Mail App.

 

[colinkiama]

Has anybody noticed if the other storage issue has been fixed when updating to 8.1 ? Some are saying that it got erased but just want to reconfirm with you guys who updated to 8.1. I am currently facing big problems as my other storage is clogged up to 3GB on my Lumia 720 with 0bytes left of free space

Yes. When you delete an app the other storage decreases too.

 

[cuwe]

Why is sometime I got 'Decode Error' when watching YouTube videos . It's f******g annoying !

 

[EC Translating Services]

My opinion is:

Considerably better than WP 8, getting closer to Android and iOS yet short in delivering a user experience on par with others. Keeping in mind this Dev Preview can be considered a Beta, i still have to remark the fact they still forgot to insert Traditional Chinese with Pinyin in both WP 8.1 DP and the Language Update that they pushed later. Integration between apps (like in transferring or moving files and sharing content from one to the other) is still awful; Microsoft Office still refuses to open Office password protected files, which in my case makes it useless; lack of wifi printing function (not so important but i do happen to print stuff from my phone on Wi-Fi printers); Notification centre is a huge huge step ahead of WP 8; however it still lacks the possibility to shift icons around just scrolling them in the notification box and the capacity to add multiple icons (not just 4 or 5) through a scrolling function; background customization, and customization at large to me are too limited. The background doesn't include all icons so the effect is spoiled by icons that are not compatible with it (yet). Updates on store are broken but i am sure it's the Beta. I need to push updates manually from the store menu; Photocamera is slow, especially at night (both Nokia Camera and Nokia Camera Beta), yet pictures are the best of any mobile phone i have every seen or tested. Plainly gorgeous as usual. Keyboard with swipe is now fast, terribly fast. I made a test with a few android ones and it's perfectly on par or better sometimes. OS aside, the market is short of quality, apps i need for work and the search function is terrible. A search for anything, gives tons of useless results and very little of what you need. Email lacks a one single unified point; this means i am still using 10 tiles in my main screen; disappointing but again it's a beta (but i don't think Microsoft will come with a unified mail center anywayss); Games are strong on WP, so if you're a player it doesn't disappoint. People are saying good things about Cortana. However she sucks all your personal data and you don't know where that data goes; it looks like a military bot. Gives logical answers (not always too smart) and the searches are limited by the fact Bing search engine is limited compared to Google (I never find what i need with Bing for my work; most often i get it with Google); I have also noticed that with Cortana on the battery lasted a bit less and it was strange. Eventually, i removed Cortana altogether as i don't share the idea of vocal assistants who use all your data to try to guess what you need (and let others guess too, i am sure); it's unfortunate that some functions are linked to Cortana, as i am sure people will wonder how does Cortana handles user's data, especially in Europe. I found it very odd Microsoft falls short with keyboards but then comes up with a Cortana that is useless for some markets. I type in English, Italian, French and Chinese and here i can't use Chinese in the way i need.

All in all, WP 8.1 is the best "Beta" version of an OS i ever had. Shortcomings and unappealing customizations aside, it works flawlessly, fast and strong. I had only one crash that i had to recover with a soft reset.
My opinion is that there is a major step ahead compared to the old WP8 and the Dev Preview looks better; However i still have to carry a second device to do certain things. This speaks tons on where this OS stands for now. Apart from all the above, in my opinion Microsoft lacks an ecosystem akin to that samsung has designed for the Note family. My Nokia 1520 would be a gorgeous device if it were able to handle business work like a Galaxy Note does. Unfortunately it's not the case.

 

[Pierre Blackwell]

You sound like a WP neophyte. The Action center was a much needed feature that WP needed, but the live tiles provides an experience that neither iOS or Andriod can. It's always been one of the biggest selling points for WP. I've always found customization on Apple and Android devices limted because it doesn't really encompass the owner of the phone. So you can change the background...big deal. You still have the same small icons. You can't change the sizes nor change how they display information, because there is only one way. I don't have to touch a thing on my start screen to see who sent me a text, or create a shortcut of friends, co-workers, or family members, then have those shortcuts consistently update me with the latest posts, preventing me from having to navigate through the native apps like facebook.
Having all your mail linked together was a feature of WP8, so obviously you're not familiar with how to set it up. I have my outlook, hotmail, and yahoo all linked together. It's fluid and smooth.
My phone updates apps automatically, so again, are you sure you have 8.1. I agree that the shutter speed on the 1520 is a little slow, but like you've mentioned, it takes some of the best pictures ever, which is a given being it's a Nokia. Cortana is purely Beta, so I expected a sluggish experience. It's Siri and Google now combined, and is extremely inquisitive. She can integrate with Xbox music, Nokia Here applications, activate you Quite hours, which is another awesome feature you never mentioned. Data Sense, Wifi Sense and battery life are awesome additives that iOS doesn't have, and Android isn't as detailed. Not only does it show you what your battery life is, but more importantly what is draining it. The People Hub is something that my iPhone and Android friends love.. One consolidated spot where I have my contact lists, can see live feeds from Facebook and Twitter at the same time. Integration on another level. Driving mode, a WP exclusive.
As for the Galaxy Note 3, the fact that it has the S pen is the only significant upper hand it has over the Lumia 1520. You might need to take yours back to the store. It has the biggest battery with the best lifespan. Cortana shouldn't be sucking it down like that.

Allot MS the time it took Apple and Andriod to cement themselves where they're at...the fact is that you won't need to because they've already covered more ground in WP's short lifespan. Not only is the WP ecosystem on par with it's far older, maturer counterparts, but in some ways it's better, and it's only going to get better.