Lumia 930 or iPhone 5s coupled with Surface Pro 3?

[Seb_Rattansen]

Hi all

Just a request for some advice. I'm replacing my iPhone 4 and MBP Pro (2010) at the end of this year. I bought a Lumia 930 but it had a manufacturing defect so I've returned it. Although I liked the phone, I'm now having second thoughts.

What I'm most concerned about is having a seamless experience between the phone and the new laptop. I'm pretty much set on a Surface Pro 3 so I thought a Lumia would be a good bet. But because of the app gap, and because Office apps work so well on iOS (apparently), I feel an iPhone 5s might be a better choice.

So in short, I'm trying to decide between an iPhone 5s and Lumia 930 to go with the Surface Pro 3. Does anyone here have this combo? If so, can you give me your thoughts? Thanks

 

[elindalyne]

Itunes on a PC is the most horrendous experience you'll ever have. It is absolutely nothing like the experience on a mac. The Windows 10 versions of the office suite are quite good and should be pretty seamless.

By any chance was your 930 running W10M? I think you'll enjoy that more than you did Windows 8.1.

Also, what are you looking for in terms of PC/Phone interaction. With Windows 10 and Cortana you get things like missed calls on your PC and the ability to text and whatnot. Moving files around is simple, as you just drag and drop whatever you want to move into the appropriate folder.

 

[Seb_Rattansen]

Haha I've heard that. I haven't used iTunes on a PC before but iTunes on OSX is not too bad.

I was running 8.1 on the 930. I thought about upgrading but didn't want to brick the phone when I was about to send it back. I've done a lot of research on W10 though and think it looks good. I'm just worried about the app gap and don't want to be a guinea pig while everyone waits to see if developers will start porting their apps to W10. TBH I doubt they will, at least not in the short-term.

In terms of PC/Phone interaction, ideally I'd want everything to be seamless. OSX and iOS are well integrated and I don't want to lose that. But I've read some reviews that say Microsoft is still relatively new to the eco-system idea and so still has some work to do to catch up to Apple.

For example podcasts. I'm subscribed to some podcasts on iTunes and it's nice and easy to sync these up to my iPhone. On my Lumia 930 though, the podcasts app seems a bit outdated. I couldn't find some of the podcasts I wanted (climate one for example) and so I assume I would have to download it manually on the Surface Pro 3 and then drag and drop it into the Lumia somehow.

 

[elindalyne]

So, when I say iTunes integration on Windows is bad, I'm saying its really, really bad. To the point where it will randomly lock up your computer for no reason at all.. If you don't run an update, forget it. It will nag you to the end of time. iTunes on Windows was actually one of the reasons I chose to move over to WP over picking up a new iPhone.

For your podcast example... I will admit the built in pod casting app is kind of crap, but I've hard the Grover Podcast app is actually quite good and should have all your iTunes podcasts available as well.
Groove Podcast is a beautiful podcast client for Windows 10 - Microsoft News

The app gap is sort of a thing. It really depends what you rely on. Personally, there aren't really any apps that I miss from my time on iOS, but everyone is different. My suggestion to you would be to pick up a Lumia 640 and use it for a bit. They're very inexpensive and are a quality phone. If you find that it has everything you need, awesome! If not, you're taking less of a risk since the phone itself is so inexpensive.

 

[Seb_Rattansen]

In terms of the app gap I'm not someone who needs absolutely every app out there, and I don't give a damn about Snapchat.

But I do want the core apps to be the best. But take maps for example. I downloaded all the highly rated map apps on my Lumia 930 when I had it. While most were good, none gave me the confidence Google maps on iOS / Android does. Small things like, the blue compass has a bit of lag when showing your direction. And when I loaded google maps in IE, it didn't work smoothly. It's stuff like this that I worry about.

Another one is MyFitnessPal. It's available on WP but when I downloaded it, it wouldn't login through my Facebook account. All these little bugs and annoyances add up. And there is just the feeling I have picked up from research that WP is on the way out and developers aren't interested anymore.

Normally this kind of thing wouldn't bother me, but years and years ago I bought a graphics card for my PC which wasn't mainstream (i740 if you're interested and I had all sorts of problems with it. After that experience I vowed to stay within the mainstream because there's so much more support for any bugs or problems. Even though I'm sick to death of iOS and I think Apple products are massively overpriced, they are mainstream in the UK. And generally they work well...so it's hard to argue with that.

PS: That podcast app looks great. If I decide to stay with 930 I will get it

 

[Byrese]

In terms of the app gap I'm not someone who needs absolutely every app out there, and I don't give a damn about Snapchat.

But I do want the core apps to be the best. But take maps for example. I downloaded all the highly rated map apps on my Lumia 930 when I had it. While most were good, none gave me the confidence Google maps on iOS / Android does. Small things like, the blue compass has a bit of lag when showing your direction. And when I loaded google maps in IE, it didn't work smoothly. It's stuff like this that I worry about.

Another one is MyFitnessPal. It's available on WP but when I downloaded it, it wouldn't login through my Facebook account. All these little bugs and annoyances add up. And there is just the feeling I have picked up from research that WP is on the way out and developers aren't interested anymore.

Normally this kind of thing wouldn't bother me, but years and years ago I bought a graphics card for my PC which wasn't mainstream (i740 if you're interested and I had all sorts of problems with it. After that experience I vowed to stay within the mainstream because there's so much more support for any bugs or problems. Even though I'm sick to death of iOS and I think Apple products are massively overpriced, they are mainstream in the UK. And generally they work well...so it's hard to argue with that.

PS: That podcast app looks great. If I decide to stay with 930 I will get it

I'm curious... What did you decide to do?

 

[Seb_Rattansen]

I'm curious... What did you decide to do?

I ended up going with the iPhone 5s. So far I don't regret it, for the following reasons:
- The app gap (or app gap in quality to be precise) is no longer a concern
- The 5s is bloody fast compared to my old phone, and even compared to the Lumia 930. Everything happens almost instantly.
- The navigation apps are better than on the Lumia, especially Citymapper. The Lumia mapping apps were usable, just not as good.
- The camera is really good, although the Lumia was definitely better.

Everything just feels more slick, less beta. Clearly there's a psychological element here. I hate feeling like a beta tester, and I definitely felt like one using the Lumia.

Having said all that, I'm definitely getting a Surface Pro 3, so it will be interesting to see how well the iPhone works with that