My thoughts on Continuum after 3 months of daily use

[Krystianpants]

I never put insider build on my Lumia 950, it only ever runs on official build. and I didn't experience too much trouble as you mention. and I actually use continuum as everyday drive now, since I always have my phone and the adaptor in my pocket all the time.

For apps continuum always ran pretty well. My argument is that in the redstone builds Edge has become much better and optimized. In the stable build it's not very fast and can be really annoying. It wasn't until later redstone builds that Edge became usable for me. I used an app called MyReader for my feedly stuff but it just didn't have a very friendly UI. Before that I used Readiy which is great but it doesn't support continuum nor windows 10. But more UWP apps have the power to really make continuum a great experience, and they are slowly starting to come. But there will always be need for a browser. I think the biggest problem with continuum is the lack of multi window. Even being able to snap 2 windows would make a huge difference but MS is going forward with the anniversary build without this feature in place. This is going to really limit productivity. I mean look at the ipad pro. They show off excel and powerpoint snappped side by side and then dragging things over. Things like that make a huge difference. Being able to look at a report on one window and then create an analysis in word based on it. Having to flip constantly just becomes a nightmare.

I think MS is really going to drag down OEMs like HP because of the lack of this functionality. It's something they really should have focused on. Next release will be redstone 2 and that's a year away. So all the reviews will no doubt focus on the fact that you can only use 1 window at a time.

Another huge problem is the mouse sensitivity. There are no settings for that. I have to constantly lift the mouse up and reposition and move it because it is just super slow. Another part which constantly confuses me is the back button being in the task bar. When I use desktop the app itself has a back button so I know exactly how to go back. Now I generally will look for the back in the app but don't see it. And I have to think about it for a bit and go "oh yah it's all the way in the taskbar".

Windows logo + tab does make it easy to switch between windows at least. But it's not really something users are being educated on and they have to figure it out themselves. MS is bad in this respect. The first time I used my 950xl I had a nice bubble tip that told me I can hide the navbar by swiping up. It was great to have this little tip right there and I knew right away what to do. MS needs more of that for their OS. Bubble tips for everything from how to re-arrange tiles, use of gesture to swipe down to action center, holding action center buttons to get to the settings. Anything that makes the learning experience quick. People don't read documents. They don't read manuals for appliances they buy and they don't read manuals for their OS. That is the majority of the consumer world and MS needs to realize that. On the fly learning is much easier. People want to get their product and just use it.

Edit: Hmm looks like MyReader got an update looks much better on the mobile version. Will have to try it in continuum sometime.

 

[anthonyng]

I was quite impressed about some of my work stuff.

Google docs worked pretty good in continuum! a web app served over websphere worked pretty good too! Pull downs and such worked! Connect with cisco anyconnect Vpn and I was actually able to do a few things I needed and be a bit productive!

Unfortunately, my sp3 dock disconnected from the network so I couldn't rdp to it anymore