My trip from iOS (iPhone 6s) to Windows 10 (Lumia 950 XL).

[mikepalma]

Apple is light years away from Microsoft when it comes to user experience.

This must be a joke.

 

[CherokeeTX]

I have been flirting with switching from my iPhone 6S and tried a 950XL last week.

One thing I noticed was that you need to sign out of iMessage with the SIM card still in your iPhone. I initially signed out of iMessage after I moved the SIM over the 950XL and had no end of issues with undelivered texts. I started again, signed in to iMessage again, reset and updated the 950XL, etc then signed out with the SIM card still in my iPhone, gave it 5 mins with both phones off, put the SIM in the 950XL and everything was working perfectly (well, the texts were being sent and received as expected).

It may or may not help but I thought I'd mention it.

Or you can just go here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage

 

[dajma00]

Dear, go to insider fast and get the preview release. There will be a few issues, but you will enjoy the new features such as double tap the task bar to turn off screen, new messaging from Win10 PC etc.

 

[hasasimo]

Apple is light years away from Microsoft when it comes to user experience.

Couldn't agree more... I'll take Microsoft any day.

 

[microsoft111]

I bought a 950 XL from Microsoft store at the end of December 2015 and then tried to get working with AT&T but, escalated supported said it wasn't supported. They couldn't get data working. Which is a different issue. Microsoft store folks said to do factory reset but, it didn't help. I returned and went with AT&T 950. Worked great with no issues. They did issue new SIM with the phone.

 

[CherokeeTX]

Since Microsoft is offering the Lumia 950/950 XL with a "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" I decided to take the plunge and give it a try. I got my 950 XL and 950 today and decided to make the XL the primary device and list the 950 on eBay. If it sells then I got an XL for ~$150-20, not too bad. Was going to take a weekend challenge and see if this could become my daily driver.

Turned on the phone, logged into my account(s) and upgraded to the latest version. I then started to install and update the apps....

I know that there is a rather large app gap (especially with banking apps and games) but the essentials were there: Hulu, Netflix, Uber and even some of my vacation apps like Delta, Hilton, Marriott. But that's where things started to become a problem. I went to the Store and every time I would try and type an app in search, the keyboard would appear then disappear. This happened over and over and I couldn't search for anything. Then the store crashed.

This started to happen a lot...A LOT, but I got the apps installed and customized my home screen to make it my own.

I can deal with a few crashes and thought nothing of it. I finally popped my SIM card in and then things start to go bad...fast.....

Next time I would suggest reading the quick start guide before using this or any other device. It clearly states that inserting the sim cards (and SD card if needed) should be the very first thing done before turning on the phone for the first time.

This BOGO promo jump started my switch from iOS and I set up both phones (in addition to switching out my AppleWatch and iPad Pro for a SP 4 and MB2) and the experience has been nothing but fantastic.

 

[hasasimo]

Next time I would suggest reading the quick start guide before using this or any other device. It clearly states that inserting the sim cards (and SD card if needed) should be the very first thing done before turning on the phone for the first time.

This BOGO promo jump started my switch from iOS and I set up both phones (in addition to switching out my AppleWatch and iPad Pro for a SP 4 and MB2) and the experience has been nothing but fantastic.

This worries me... I've set-up two 950 XLs for family members that are currently out of town, without a hitch so far. I'll be seeing them later this week, at which point I'll insert their SIM/MicroSD cards. Hope things don't suddenly go bad.

 

[sab0tage]

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to start the phone without the SIM in.

 

[newnews]

I disagree with this. If you are coming from low end phone, you can try low end WP. If you are from high end phone, for sure you should try high end WP handset

 

[hasasimo]

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to start the phone without the SIM in.

Oops. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

 

[slotti]

Quick note on the sim before starting. So me too got the 950XL on the BOGO deal (already sold the 950 - in less than 12hours, granted I only asked $300), and I did start the phone without my card in it (my fault for not reading the quick start). Even ran software updates and everything. Had the same on the store, keyboard crashed. VVM wouldn't show...bad experience. So I decided let's give it another try and did a restore to factory reset (with my sim card in it). All good for now (only 18 hrs on it). I had the sim card in by accident on the reset, since it did not think it would have any impact, but after reading all of this, it makes total sense.
App gap, yes...is this annoying? Yes. But still, my wife switched to an iPhone, and yes she has all these fancy apps on it, but the overall experience is stil nicer on WP (at least to my liking). She installed her weird google assistant (since Siri wouldn't want to do what she wanted it to do), and still, Cortana told me that her flight would be delayed before she even got a phone call from the airline...by the time Cortana told me her flight would actually be canceled, google finally came around and told her it would be delayed. Siri was silent.
Just saying, no hate her for any environment, but you simply got to stick with what works best for you at a given time.
I do agree that it is pretty sad that the office package works better on the iPhone than my XL, but compare the office package on the XL against the native iOS mail and note apps.....

 

[hasasimo]

Quick note on the sim before starting. So me too got the 950XL on the BOGO deal (already sold the 950 - in less than 12hours, granted I only asked $300), and I did start the phone without my card in it (my fault for not reading the quick start). Even ran software updates and everything. Had the same on the store, keyboard crashed. VVM wouldn't show...bad experience. So I decided let's give it another try and did a restore to factory reset (with my sim card in it). All good for now (only 18 hrs on it). I had the sim card in by accident on the reset, since it did not think it would have any impact, but after reading all of this, it makes total sense.
App gap, yes...is this annoying? Yes. But still, my wife switched to an iPhone, and yes she has all these fancy apps on it, but the overall experience is stil nicer on WP (at least to my liking). She installed her weird google assistant (since Siri wouldn't want to do what she wanted it to do), and still, Cortana told me that her flight would be delayed before she even got a phone call from the airline...by the time Cortana told me her flight would actually be canceled, google finally came around and told her it would be delayed. Siri was silent.
Just saying, no hate her for any environment, but you simply got to stick with what works best for you at a given time.
I do agree that it is pretty sad that the office package works better on the iPhone than my XL, but compare the office package on the XL against the native iOS mail and note apps.....

Were you restoring a previous backup when you did the initial set-up sans SIM card? Just curious... that may be more of culprit than set-up without a SIM card. I say this because I've noticed some people having some issues restoring from their WP 8.1 backup. My XL setups sans-SIM have been fine so far. I'm worried about what may happen after inserting the SIMs later this week though.

 

[Panos Athanasiou]

i rly dont get how many devices are problematic and many are not xd try a factory reset and see what phone it is like AT&T or something because some devices didnt get the firmware update that fixed all these problems as i remember:/ too bad. Well i would use the 950 phone for main the XL is so big.. xD

 

[maxmin]

I have to agree with the statement that iPhone just works. MS has had 3 major rewrites to their OSs since Win Mobile (before Win M 7). Each one was a full stop redo, not just upgrades. It has made for a very erratic user experience. Buggy releases, built in app inconsistences, and just plane constantly changing the way things are done. Apple has had a fairly sound basis for their OS for quite a while and made mostly incremental improvements.

The hope for us Windows fan boys is that Win 10 will finally become a stable platform with a bright future.

 

[explosive0]

Apple is light years a̶w̶a̶y f̶r̶o̶m̶ ahead of Microsoft when it comes to user experience.

Fixed

 

[tgp]

Apple is light years a̶w̶a̶y f̶r̶o̶m̶ ahead of Microsoft when it comes to user experience.

Fixed

To be honest I wasn't sure which way he meant it!

 

[slotti]

Originally posted by hasasimo

Originally Posted by slotti
Quick note on the sim before starting. So me too got the 950XL on the BOGO deal (already sold the 950 - in less than 12hours, granted I only asked $300), and I did start the phone without my card in it (my fault for not reading the quick start). Even ran software updates and everything. Had the same on the store, keyboard crashed. VVM wouldn't show...bad experience. So I decided let's give it another try and did a restore to factory reset (with my sim card in it). All good for now (only 18 hrs on it). I had the sim card in by accident on the reset, since it did not think it would have any impact, but after reading all of this, it makes total sense.
App gap, yes...is this annoying? Yes. But still, my wife switched to an iPhone, and yes she has all these fancy apps on it, but the overall experience is stil nicer on WP (at least to my liking). She installed her weird google assistant (since Siri wouldn't want to do what she wanted it to do), and still, Cortana told me that her flight would be delayed before she even got a phone call from the airline...by the time Cortana told me her flight would actually be canceled, google finally came around and told her it would be delayed. Siri was silent.
Just saying, no hate her for any environment, but you simply got to stick with what works best for you at a given time.
I do agree that it is pretty sad that the office package works better on the iPhone than my XL, but compare the office package on the XL against the native iOS mail and note apps.....

Were you restoring a previous backup when you did the initial set-up sans SIM card? Just curious... that may be more of culprit than set-up without a SIM card. I say this because I've noticed some people having some issues restoring from their WP 8.1 backup. My XL setups sans-SIM have been fine so far. I'm worried about what may happen after inserting the SIMs later this week though.

Was the back up.

 

[jlabelle]

Hey, I like all tech, but favoritism aside, iOS is a better experience.

That is very subjective. I switched from iOs with the iPhone 4 but still have had pretty much all iPhones to-date (my wife is using iPhone) until the iPhone 6 currently (and iPad Air 2, iPad Air and 2 iPad 2) and I still prefer Windows phone / mobile (as I could perfectly purchase also for me an iPhone).

Features, well, everything has a pro and a con. I would take functionality, app availability, and support over PC like features, or HALF BAKED ideas, and poor hardware.

Agree. Where I disagree is implying that Windows mobile has poor hardware. Especially when referring to the iPhone. A Lumia 950 honestly is running circle around the iPhone in term of pure hardware.
Also, I do not know what are the "half baked ideas" you are referring to. There are great things on iOs like Safari extensions coupled with TouchID. It is really great to have LastPass / 1Password / Enpass used on the iPhone.

But there are many things where I found Windows mobile ahead, some very basic and key for a phone : social integration in the Contact application, T9 dialing mode, offline map OS wide (so whatever applications you use can tap into it), some default app can be chosen, universal back button and universal search / Cortana button (work with typing or voice for any kind of search instead of the split between Spotlight and Siri), Live Tiles and Glance...

To each their own, but there is a reason iOS is so dominant.

iOS is not dominant since a long looooooooooooong time. The iPhone was so successful because it was just so ahead of everyone else at the beginning. And when you have an iPhone that works great, why would you change for something else. I can afford an iPhone to my wife every 2 years. So why she would change ? So yes, loyalty is strong.
But even then, you see that the market share dropped to be in a very very distant position to Android, and not only because of the price because high end Android phones have a similar market share.

The device just works, works well, and gets support.

I does. No argument about that.

WP is fragmented, almost like Android.

How is it fragmented ? Microsoft / Nokia are 99% of the Windows phone and they all have the same interface, UI, support. I would say WP is almost like Apple which is a big difference compared to Android where only 4,3% have Marshmallow and more than a 1/3 are on ... KitKat !!!

You are refering to the HTC M8, a very special and niche case, where you know that culprit here is HTC (not paying for certification to Verizon for the upgrade). And honestly, complaining about Microsoft for HTC is making little sense.


I am still on 8.1 with my M8, on Verizon. I remember MS stating that updates for and to Win 10 phone would come directly from them, but that's not entirely true. The carrier still plays a major role in the release of the software.

I work very very closely with Microsoft and it's killing me to see how little they actually care about brand loyalty or follow through, and in my opinion, their user base. They talk a big game at conferences, but the execution is laughable (950 and 950XL launch, Win 10, Xbox). They get people hyped then fall extremely short. Once the attention and requests fizzle out, they're on to the next thing.

I see a much more nuanced situation. I have seen more than 10 W10M build released within a few months, I see Redstone build that are adding a lot of features regularly whereas I see virtually no change on iOS.
You said they are on the "next thing" but they are still polishing and updating W10M normal branch even if Redstone is just 2 months away.
The facts that I see are just showing me a different perspective than the people subjective claims.

My 950 with W10M and all the latest application is just SO much better than the 930 on WP8.1.

Again, please, I see a much much larger percentage of their hardware than people on this site. So spare me the "mine works just fine" or "I have zero issues" or "did you do the updates" or "TH2 blah blah blah". Issues are issues and for the average consumer, your device shouldn't need to be "looked at" or fixed, a week or month after purchase.

Yes, that is true. The launch of one device in their history was chaotic for a few weeks.
But the 950 is just running now rock solid on my side and same for my brother and oncle. But yeah, Windows mobile is doomed.

Still, there are plenty of things that I can do quicker or simply can do that my wife cannot on her 970? iPhone so this is what counts for me.

 

[gwinegarden]

I have to agree with the statement that iPhone just works. MS has had 3 major rewrites to their OSs since Win Mobile (before Win M 7). Each one was a full stop redo, not just upgrades. It has made for a very erratic user experience. Buggy releases, built in app inconsistences, and just plane constantly changing the way things are done. Apple has had a fairly sound basis for their OS for quite a while and made mostly incremental improvements.

The hope for us Windows fan boys is that Win 10 will finally become a stable platform with a bright future.

To quote another poster, whose name I can't recall "if Apple products 'just work' why do they even have a Genius Bar and why is it always so busy?"

 

[Mike Caruso]

Ya gotta wonder ...

The OP goes in to a lot of detail about the steps that he took to set up, yet conveniently misses the most basic step of first putting in the SIM. It has been well known that this will cause all sorts of grief. It shouldn't ... but it does ... so we all know better ....

Has anyone considered that the Original Post ...... and the OP's lack of participation in this thread was BAIT ?

Nuff' Said