My windows vs Android experience

[Drael646464]

I have an iPad, an Android tablet, and a Surface 3. My Surface 3 is by far the best tablet that I have ever had. I even like it more than my laptop. I will stay with
Microsoft Surface products for a very long time. I work in IT and can tell you we use them there too and they are excellent for Desktop Support.

There's no real comparison when it comes to tablets IMO.

 

[fatclue_98]

I think we can all agree that an OS is not just an app launcher. A small part might be the user facing layer, but an OS has far, far more going on under the covers. I think the terminology might be causing some confusion.

I am going to be ebaying my iPhone 7 Plus after today, and looking seriously at the BB KEYone. Short version: Siri hung after I asked it for directions...so I rebooted only to find 11, previously unknown voice messages. Some related to my tax returns. I'm done with my 6 mos. Apple experiment.

Calling iOS an app launcher may be oversimplifying things a little but it's closer to the truth than most would be comfortable with. The freezing has been a more frequent issue lately than at any time I can remember. My wife's 6S+ froze while viewing a photo requiring a soft reset. My own 6S+ has been freezing on Mail which is disturbing since the problems (so far) have been on their core apps. If it was 3rd party apps it would be more palatable since 10.3.1 is fairly new. One of my PMs has been having problems with his Apple Watch which he claims is a new phenomenon. I've never owned one so I have to take his word for it.

Good luck with the KEYone and make sure you report your experience. When the price drops, I'll be giving it a long look. That's code for I want one but the wife's giving me "the look".

 

[aquavitae72]

Hello all, this is my first post ever so I'll try to make it short and too the point. A little over 2 years ago I switched from Sprint to Verizon and with that I took a chance on a Windows phone. I went from an htc m9 to the Lumia 735. Yes, it was quite an adjustment, but not like you may be thinking. After having lots of problems with calls dropping, getting texts a day later, I decided wanted a service and a phone that actually worked. After lots of due diligence I decided a Windows phone was worth a chance, after all I didn't care about megapixels or gaming and my eyes were getting messed up from watching too many shows on a 5inch screen. I got a phone to be a phone, not for entertainment. Fast forward to yesterday, I switched my recently purchased unlocked Moto G4 play back to my Lumia 735. The moto g4 play is a good phone but it just wasn't the same as the phone and OS I had grown to love. The HTC m9 was a great phone too but I had come too realize that just because a smartphone had all the bells and whistles, with the price tag to go with it, didn't make it the right phone for me. The phone was too distracting. All I needed was a phone to receive and make a call, send and receive a text, send and receive an email, tell me when and where my kids activities we're going to take place. Oh, and tell me some news. The thing that made my decision to hang on to my Microsoft Lumia 735 with Windows 10 mobile was a little assistant named Cortana. Cortana reads incoming texts to me and helps me reply to those texts hands free while I'm driving. I'll never have to take my eyes off the road to reply to my family. That feature should be the industry standard.
Please don't take my Windows 10 mobile away. It saves lives.

 

[dorelse]

Calling iOS an app launcher may be oversimplifying things a little but it's closer to the truth than most would be comfortable with. The freezing has been a more frequent issue lately than at any time I can remember. My wife's 6S+ froze while viewing a photo requiring a soft reset. My own 6S+ has been freezing on Mail which is disturbing since the problems (so far) have been on their core apps. If it was 3rd party apps it would be more palatable since 10.3.1 is fairly new. One of my PMs has been having problems with his Apple Watch which he claims is a new phenomenon. I've never owned one so I have to take his word for it.

Good luck with the KEYone and make sure you report your experience. When the price drops, I'll be giving it a long look. That's code for I want one but the wife's giving me "the look".

That's funny, we're having iPhone issues this weekend again...I've got 2 iPhone 7+'s that now need repair. The digitizer won't recognize the letter 'r' or a ',' on the keyboard, 2nd 7+'s power button is stuck down again. So...that's a 2 time failure on 1...and another one down. Totally disappointed. I won't really get the 'look' since we own all our phones...just an ebay sale and viola...money for the KeyONE.

 

[PerfectReign]

I came from Android to W10M, so what does that tell ya? Couldn't be happier with my choice.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

That is unusual. I keep waffling. I was an Android ****** for several years. Now using my Windows phones. Still have am S6 tho. Both suck in different ways.

Sent from mTalk

 

[fatclue_98]

That's funny, we're having iPhone issues this weekend again...I've got 2 iPhone 7+'s that now need repair. The digitizer won't recognize the letter 'r' or a ',' on the keyboard, 2nd 7+'s power button is stuck down again. So...that's a 2 time failure on 1...and another one down. Totally disappointed. I won't really get the 'look' since we own all our phones...just an ebay sale and viola...money for the KeyONE.

I'm getting the look because I just bought the Priv and the S2 watch.

 

[anon(50597)]

I'm getting the look because I just bought the Priv and the S2 watch.

Roses? Dinner? What's it gonna take?

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

 

[fatclue_98]

Roses? Dinner? What's it gonna take?

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

Tickets to Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias in December. That's the beginning.

 

[anon(50597)]

Tickets to Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias in December. That's the beginning.

Well, that's better than Julio Iglesias so I'd say you're doing OK.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

 

[ckeledjian]

I've been a Windows fan from the beginning. I had several windows phones and even the zune (yes, zunehd is still the most beautiful player in history). I understood the MetroUI, featuring content, fonts, interface elements hidden from view. I lamented the introduction of the hamburger menu, but got the sake of consistency and to please dumb users that don't like to adapt, i accepted it. I accepted that some apps were not available. Many could be accessed via web, do no big deal. I kept my phone on insider updates and followed every new feature.

But my 950 was aging and Microsoft was more selling Samsung S8 at stores. Moreover, it was clear that MS was skipping the smartphonef industry, so i made the jump and got a Samsung S8+. First off, beautiful hardware. No longer the plastic look, these phones look luxurious. And the screen.... Nobody beats Samsung at screens in any size. The phone itself comes with many features, iris recognition, fingerprint, face, edge screen, etc. Samsung apps and launcher are more polished, with the exception of that Bixby assistant which is slow and pretty much useless. And this brings me to my main complain....

A Samsung Android phone is a battleground for supremacy between fierce competitors. Coming from the tranquil fields of Windows, where everything is consistent in terms of UI, it was pretty annoying. Samsung wants you to use their email and calendar apps, Google wants you to use theirs, Microsoft has Outlook as well. None are as perfect as mail and calendar for Windows mobile. None. Same battle occurs for the default SMS handler: Facebook wants to be default, Samsung has its own, Google had its own and soon Skype will be an option too. Whichever you choose.. compromises. Either you lose UI consistency, or some functionality Very frustrating.

In Windows mobile, all my contacts synchronized from Hotmail and work accounts. In Android, there are duplicates and bits of info for every contact from Samsung accounts, Google and exchange, and STILL i can't get automatic synch of contact pictures from Facebook, longer in Windows phone, without having to use a third party app. It took me hours to clean my contacts.

It is just like the Themes.... Thousands of options and none are fully satisfying and consistent. Some things are better than Windows, besides app availability: Google maps had better info and keeps your timeline. If you book flights and hotel and receive email confirmation, those locations appear in "upcoming places". It integrates Uber and Lyft as options for navigation. But i miss that Windows maps had all integrated the 3d 2d interfaces... Google maps satellite view is 2d and you have to go and download Google Earth for full 3d. Bizarre.

And then the notifications. It is not possible to assign a custom notification sound to a specific app. In Windows i had Skype for business sound different from SMS, from Facebook, from WhatsApp. You can only customize the SMS sounds, all others share same sound. Ludicrous. And there are so many useless notifications, is like spam, i keep turning them off. Windows was clearer.

I miss the Live Tiles, of course. But overall, is a sad thing for users not to be able to have the consistency that Windows desktop+Windows mobile provided. One email app, one calendar, one assistant, one streaming music service. All sharing the same UI and basically same features. It is a disservice to customers to have these ecosystem battles, adds redundancy and complexity for no reason. I hope Microsoft moves is pieces right fit the next communication device (augmented reality) and we can drop this smartphone nonsense and go back to simplicity.

 

[fatclue_98]

I've been a Windows fan from the beginning. I had several windows phones and even the zune (yes, zunehd is still the most beautiful player in history). I understood the MetroUI, featuring content, fonts, interface elements hidden from view. I lamented the introduction of the hamburger menu, but got the sake of consistency and to please dumb users that don't like to adapt, i accepted it. I accepted that some apps were not available. Many could be accessed via web, do no big deal. I kept my phone on insider updates and followed every new feature.

But my 950 was aging and Microsoft was more selling Samsung S8 at stores. Moreover, it was clear that MS was skipping the smartphonef industry, so i made the jump and got a Samsung S8+. First off, beautiful hardware. No longer the plastic look, these phones look luxurious. And the screen.... Nobody beats Samsung at screens in any size. The phone itself comes with many features, iris recognition, fingerprint, face, edge screen, etc. Samsung apps and launcher are more polished, with the exception of that Bixby assistant which is slow and pretty much useless. And this brings me to my main complain....

A Samsung Android phone is a battleground for supremacy between fierce competitors. Coming from the tranquil fields of Windows, where everything is consistent in terms of UI, it was pretty annoying. Samsung wants you to use their email and calendar apps, Google wants you to use theirs, Microsoft has Outlook as well. None are as perfect as mail and calendar for Windows mobile. None. Same battle occurs for the default SMS handler: Facebook wants to be default, Samsung has its own, Google had its own and soon Skype will be an option too. Whichever you choose.. compromises. Either you lose UI consistency, or some functionality Very frustrating.

In Windows mobile, all my contacts synchronized from Hotmail and work accounts. In Android, there are duplicates and bits of info for every contact from Samsung accounts, Google and exchange, and STILL i can't get automatic synch of contact pictures from Facebook, longer in Windows phone, without having to use a third party app. It took me hours to clean my contacts.

It is just like the Themes.... Thousands of options and none are fully satisfying and consistent. Some things are better than Windows, besides app availability: Google maps had better info and keeps your timeline. If you book flights and hotel and receive email confirmation, those locations appear in "upcoming places". It integrates Uber and Lyft as options for navigation. But i miss that Windows maps had all integrated the 3d 2d interfaces... Google maps satellite view is 2d and you have to go and download Google Earth for full 3d. Bizarre.

And then the notifications. It is not possible to assign a custom notification sound to a specific app. In Windows i had Skype for business sound different from SMS, from Facebook, from WhatsApp. You can only customize the SMS sounds, all others share same sound. Ludicrous. And there are so many useless notifications, is like spam, i keep turning them off. Windows was clearer.

I miss the Live Tiles, of course. But overall, is a sad thing for users not to be able to have the consistency that Windows desktop+Windows mobile provided. One email app, one calendar, one assistant, one streaming music service. All sharing the same UI and basically same features. It is a disservice to customers to have these ecosystem battles, adds redundancy and complexity for no reason. I hope Microsoft moves is pieces right fit the next communication device (augmented reality) and we can drop this smartphone nonsense and go back to simplicity.

Oh how I feel your pain. I'm a week into a reaquaintance with a BB Priv and the only reason I chose this over any other Android is because I can use the Hub and leave all other Google-ized apps alone.

 

[Abhijit Kale]

Disclaimer: This is purely opinion with some facts sprinkled in.

I actually love windows mobile, but it no longer loves me. I’ve had a windowsphone since Verizon took their good old time releasing the HTC trophy. That was fresh and actually cool compared to my aging OG Droid with the slider keyboard. Anyone that remembers those days when the people hub was awesome and the camera functionality was blazingly fast and the UI was sexy had a feeling that windows phone was something special. I converted many people in the early days to WP7 and most of them picked up a WP8 on their respective carrier. When WP8 was launched, I jumped over to AT&T so I could pick up the 920. At that point, I had 3 other family members join me on my plan with the best phone of the time.

WP8 was the start and end of something great. We saw lots of good things and many not so good. NFC payments never really came. Xbox music was a disaster. Apps came and apps went. People hub integration started to get weak until it no longer worked. The integrated Skype feature was short lived and poor. System apps (mail, people,phone, messaging) never got updates that were really needed. I can go on and onabout WP8, lots to like and lots to frown over.

Fast forward to the launch of Windows mobile 10. I believe in the concept of the mobile initiative. I think if they can pull off all the architectural feats needed to make it work it will be the best OS on the market. MS should have let WP8 live on with minor improvements for at least a year instead of pushing windows 10 mobile into the market. They could have released the 950/950xl with wp8.1 with the option to upgrade to be a beta tester, my guess is they would have sold more. I was an early adopter on the XL and I have mostly had a negative experience. My wife completely hates it. The other 4 people on my plan which consists of 3 950s and one XL really miss the apps. My parents have had 2 vehicles now where they couldn’t take advantage of core features because there was no app. The fact than an app is needed is a different argument, but it didn’tmake them happy that they couldn’t easily remote start their vehicle. My dad threw in the towel and is waiting for his android device now. In the days of 8.1 I could honestly tell people how much easier windows was over android, but I can’t do that either anymore. I could also tell them how much smoother the OS was over android, but again, can’t do that anymore. Most updated apps have a consistent enough feel.

I’ve been using android on an S8+ for a little over a week now and I haven’t missed much from Windows mobile. There are those that say android will lag after some time but my 950xl will lag some times. There are those that say the battery life will be horrible, on the S8+ it’s not (16 hours plus with some heavy usage and still over 20% left, the XL would have been long dead). There are those that will say you’ll have to factory reset to make android work again, I’ve had to do the same with mobile 10.

My take on android is the same as it is with Windows not on arm, you get what you pay for when it comes to hardware. The 300-400 dollar laptop is not as good of an experience as the high end devices. Now this is the one plus windows mobile has on android and even IOS is that it scales very nicely. A custom rom can be built for whatever hardware it’s running on, but that is rarely done, instead it’s about building more features in at the expense of performance.

Another area windows mobile really shines and probably the number one thing I miss is global theme ability. I HATE bright white backgrounds and there are lots of them in the Samsung rom. Granted MS has not been very consistent with theme support in their own apps, but 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party app makers always seem to bring it.

Maybe it’s just me but the keyboard went downhill in mobile 10. I like that I can pick whatever I want in android. I like that I can use a password manager.

SMS/MMS/Skype has been a disaster on mobile 10. This experience alone has helped push me away. On 7 and8 the experience was so fluid and that was completely destroyed. I’m using Textra on android and I like the experience that gives over the stock messaging. Skype works better on android!

Wallet on mobile 10 has been okay for me. My primary debt/credit cards were usable and the feature was reliable after some early hiccups. Android pay accepts EVERY one of my cards though. Android pay needs work in the app, it’s like it was done by the same person for both. No way to sort cards.

Iris scanner has been a pain I lived with on mobile 10. It’s FAST on the S8 and I can see if I’m holding the phone wrong which is a huge plus. (I gave feedback on this, never to be resolved)

Start screen: Yes, I miss square tiles on windows, but there is a decent replacement that the developer can make nearly perfect with some tweaks. My home screen is a nice vertical scroll with low energy widgets. Even the icons for some apps will flip and show the notification content, others show the count. Swipe to the right and then I have the vertical list of apps (this is what needs work, there’s no jump list). MS dropped the ball on interactive/exploding tiles IMO. Maybe this is coming at build this year. I think this would make the live tiles much more useful both on mobile and on desktop where I think they are useless currently. Power users don’t open their start window more than for a few seconds.

Overall look and feel of android to windows in my opinion android is better once you are past the launcher. MS destroyed the design ideas in apps, neon may bring some nice UI ideas back but nothing compares to early metro and even its later revision.
Apps: Yeah…. I wasn’t an app user on windows 10 because I couldn’t be one……. All of my bank/creditcards have an app. I can now take advantage of local store/restaurant deals. I can watch any TV I want and Chromecast has been a nice cheap addition. Push bullet solves the remote texting problem and it’s actually reliable unlike skype. Supposedly skype on android will beable to sync SMS soon though. I don’t care about games or the silly little apps. My 3 year old loves to play with the fun camera things but other than that my phone is all business. I never could get completely out of the google apps while on windows. My entire office team relies on gchat. I lived with IM+ for years and it was sufficient, but I reset my phone a few months back and IM+ pro no longer showed in the store. It’s nice having a good app for something you heavily use. There have been a number of apps I used that went away.

Stability: So far, I’d say one is no better or worse. Windows 10 mobile hasn’t won my heart for stability and speed like 8.1 did. I’ve had a few app crashes and my 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party launcher would hang a bit. I think MS just hides OS level crashes a little nicer than android.
I’m using most MS services and while there is room forimprovement in all of the apps, most offer a good experience.

Continuum/Dex: I don’t care, right now this is a pipe dream. I think the continuum experience was/is not a good one. I have a dock sitting on my desk as I type this and from time to time I’d plug into it and switch my monitor input to try it out. I guess it’s okay if I HAD to use it, but they have a long way to go. I have no doubt this will be a killer feature in a couple releases, but the 950xl experience is poor IMO. I’m not even going to bother buying the DEX hardware.

I’m a software developer with most of my experience on the MS Stack. I’ve tinkered with UWP andwp7/8 dev (I don’t have time to play at home unfortunately). The MS stack in my opinion is the best out there. I live in visual studio and visual studio code, nothing comes close to those products. MS can win developers over, but they won’t do it unless they have a really really good cross platform approach. Right now, Xamarmin is good, but not what is needed (My opinion) as it doesn’t help UWP properly. I think there is a plan for that to change which is why they bought them. I’m hoping xamarmin gets modified to essentially take the UWP environment as is to the other platforms. As a developer, I try to cut MS some slack. There are pieces of functionality in Windows that is probably tied to a very small team and they can only work so fast to re-architect so others can extend on it.

I’m hoping for a surface pro like movement for mobile. That would bring me back to the platform but I won’t jump in at the beginning again. I’ve been burnt too many times by either a change of plans or dropped support. I would buy a device that has a nice docking solution to a larger portable display if the x86 emulation is smooth enough, but sadly I would want the device to be useful while not docked. I’ve moved from being a cheerleader for MS to being very cautiously optimistic. Actually, I’ve been leaning more towards a pessimist though. I’ve been putting off moving away from mobile due to the monetary investment I had in windows hardware. My wife must suffer for sometime before we can afford to replace her phone.

One thing is certain, I’ll never leave windows on the desktop! I know everyone’s mileage is different when it comes to the usefulness of a device. I’ve given MS 6 years and they’ve given me some good years in return, but windows 10 is just not for me anymore.

I was also always windows lover but due to improper Customer Support from the Microsoft end, had forced me to leave the Windows Community, Now im using Samsung S7 Edge Android and i don't feel any feel good factor in it but still its really cool that, Phone wasn't hanged till i bought it, no glitches ... i have started using it from last 4 months now but really have to say ... its nice phone with everything ... i would love to join again in Microsoft Surface phone's ... lets hope for the best..

 

[EliteMikes]

My experiment with the S8 + is over.

Even with all I hate about android, the apps have made my time with the phone more enjoyable. Chromecast is a much better solution than the slow xbox one apps. Waze actually works. The apps make up for the inconsistent UI.

 

[fatclue_98]

My experiment with the S8 + is over.

Even with all I hate about android, the apps have made my time with the phone more enjoyable. Chromecast is a much better solution than the slow xbox one apps. Waze actually works. The apps make up for the inconsistent UI.

A little ambiguity there. The experiment is over would suggest you're moving on yet you heap praise on the experience.

 

[tgp]

A little ambiguity there. The experiment is over would suggest you're moving on yet you heap praise on the experience.

That got me too. It appears that what is meant is that it is no longer an experiment. It's real life going forward. I still don't know though...

 

[EliteMikes]

A little ambiguity there. The experiment is over would suggest you're moving on yet you heap praise on the experience.

Mods modified my post which caused some lost context where I mentioned my 950xl was up for sale

 

[libra89]

A little ambiguity there. The experiment is over would suggest you're moving on yet you heap praise on the experience.

I'm not him (of course) but it sounds like it started out as one but ended up being what he decided to do.
The same thing happened to me...mostly.

 

[nate0]

Quite the thread here...

If I ever had to or ever do leave my Windows mobile device for a differing brand, it's iOS just for the functionality. I saw mentioned the whole App Launcher analogy and never thought of it in that way or understood it that way, but makes total sense now. Unless I am interested in just trying out or staring at new Android hw, I have to choose an iphone for the functionality and security.

There have been several threads of this similar topic, and will always be debatable from the simplest view point all the way down into the Nth nano meter of whatever.

The only thing though that I can say Windows MOBILE/PHONE devices have completely destroyed the competition in is that they have accumulated the least amount of electronic waste in let's say the past decade...not sure why that is always in the back of mind, but it is.

 

[tgp]

The only thing though that I can say Windows MOBILE/PHONE devices have completely destroyed the competition in is that they have accumulated the least amount of electronic waste in let's say the past decade...not sure why that is always in the back of mind, but it is.

Well, this is sure a glass-half-full point of view!

 

[nate0]

Well, this is sure a glass-half-full point of view!

Think about it. One could quit there day job if they came up with an ingenious easy for sure way to recycle all the old stuff. I had known this gentleman years back who had patented a very fast method for baking out the precious metals of all the pcb's...his process did a lot more than just that, but it was energy efficient too among other things.

I have always firmly believed in the saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. So I know if I have at least 3 old devices collecting dust, then every other house out there in the US probably does too.

I had only recently just recycled my first ever flip phone I owned the trusty SPH-A460 from Sprint. Still working when I sent it away...