One heck of a week for W10 Mobile. What's everyone feeling?

Vittorio Vaselli

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“We will continue to be in the phone market not as defined by ’s market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device,” Nadella - 6 months ago.
 

Narathan

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I'm not sure how to feel. It's a mixed bag of emotions, but in the end I still love Windows on my mobile device.

I've been using Android for a few weeks now to see if I can see why I left it in the first place, and I realized why I left pretty quickly. Sure, plenty of apps. But do I need them? And another problem with this many apps is finding a decent one that fits me. There's so many outdated apps on the Android store it's ridicilous. But in all fairness, you probably have that on all platforms.

Other issues I've experienced vary. Unexpected battery drains, loss of signal, Android system constantly crashing, ghost touches... But what bothers me the most is the lack of OS updates on OEM devices. You either have to be handy and know how to unlock a bootloader and custom flash your phone (if there's developers cooking roms) or roll the dice and hope your phone get's to see an update. We're nearing Android O and most phones still run Marshmellow, are you kidding me? And people complain Microsoft leaves their users behind when a 3 year old phone doesnt get updated anymore? I pity the Android community more for their losses in that perspective.There's a few apps I can't even use on Android because they require Android 7.0 and I'm stuck with 6.0 - and sony doesn't plan on updating this device to 7.0. No customs roms neither... So, tough luck?

Personally, I think the lack of actual HARDWARE is killing W10M at this point. The 950 got released in November 2015, nearly two years ago - and they were - pardon my language - ****ty devices. What are the real aternatives today? Just two phones - one is ridiculously expensive for consumers (HP Elite x3) and the other one isn't globally released (Alcatel). there's some OEMS trying to make low budget phones but we don't want that - *I* don't want that. I want a high-end phone that uses the latest and greatest, or at least a phone that's snappy enough and has enough juice to get me through the day. My x3 does that but its way to big in all fairness, so I went back to my 950. And that phone's battery just isn't good enough, the snapdragon 808 tanks the battery like I tank water bottles on a sunny day - pretty damn fast.

Look, I love Windows on Mobile but without decent hardware to run it on, it gets really difficult to stick to the platform. As I'm writing this I'm prepping my 650 (slower but decent battery compared to my 950) and hope I can hold out untill we get some better hardware.

It's not the future I'm worried about - what worries me is, how long do we have to wait for answers?

Sorry for the rant. Just my personal experiences.
 

dicks-webos

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My 930 got Creators as it is an insiders device. The 950 really serves me well and gets nearly daily updates on apps and very frequent OS updates too.

Will stay with this device till it breaks down.
 

ALANMAN87

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Seems like a lot of news got dumped this week on the W10 Mobile front. Most of it ambiguous, some of it a let down.

How is everyone feeling about this? We've got the Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition, an announcment that most Windows Phones have been axed from future updates (normally this is routine news but with it's 2-year update cycle that is a lot of now axed models), and even Windows Central seems to be a bit on edge with the UWP article (which was extremely well written IMO).

Do you think this is a sign of things to come? Is MS just wiping the slate clean before they take their next mobile step? What the heck has this week made you feel in regards to W10 Mobile and how MS is handling it?

I'm hopeful for the future. If the rumored surface phone either never surfaces, or doesn't take off, then I will truly feel abandoned. Microsoft has made and broken many promises, and this will be the last for me before I switch to another mobile OS. I love MS and I want to love Windows Phone/W10m, but my heart can only take so much. Do better, Microsoft.
 

uselessrobot

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I'm disappointed, but trying to be optimistic that Microsoft will give it another go. Mobile is simply too important to ignore.

My hope is that they're quietly working on a new and better successor to Windows mobile. Hopefully, next time they'll actually give it their all, get the marketing right and produce a platform that is actually successful.

For me personally, I switched to an iPhone last year and I've been happy with it. That said, I still miss many aspects of Windows phone. Occasionally I fire up my Lumia 950 to check for updates and I'm immediately reminded of why I liked the OS.
 

Nokia_Lumia

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Let's see:

Right as I was about to reply to this post on my officially updated Verizon Lumia Icon, the WCentral app crashed (overall, it is fairly slow). Not a good sign: this is where the fans reside - on this app and on this site. If this one doesn't work right, how can anything else?

Windows Mobile is overall slower and less smooth, axing features I liked about Windows Phone 8. It sucks at predictive text and swype - I just had to retype a lot of the words in this message.

While overall I'm very disappointed with the state of the only OS I've used in the last 8 years (WinMobile 6.1, 6.5, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 - or is that 6 of them?), one positive is that Dan Rubino, after calling me a troll, is finally waking up. In the last few podcasts even he expressed disappointment about WPhone features we all liked being removed. Even he now wants Microsoft to say what the Mobile plan is, after boasting UWP and "One Windows". There are barely any UWP apps, and the whole concept is a fail if you don't have Windows 10 phones available for purchase.

Hoping for Microsoft to address the issue later this month.

p.s. With my Icon not being on the CU "list", do we believe this "list" from Mary Jo Foley? Nothing official has been stated, yet everyone treats the insider leak as an official announcement by Microsoft.
 

tofylion

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My first ever windows phone is the one I'm holding right now, a Lumia 950. I was grabbed by the camera, continuum and seamless syncing. Already using this phone for over a year now and it's working great. I seem to feel that all the disappointment and hatred I can ever have for this platform is when I read comments or articles about people hating or saying that the platform is "dead". It's pretty much not dead, as evident by more and more developers working on apps and more devoted users, or fans in this situation, contributing to it. Yes, Microsoft hasn't introduced many new features in the Creators update and yes, they don't reveal any plans for it, but for the time being, I much more prefer it over the other 2 OS's. It's been a pleasure coming into the platform and I intend to continue with it if more phones are to be made. Don't let hurt (adj) people hurt (verb) you, as mentioned in one of Windows Central's articles, and always look to the half full part.
 

Mister Wolf

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Seems like a lot of news got dumped this week on the W10 Mobile front. Most of it ambiguous, some of it a let down.

How is everyone feeling about this? We've got the Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition, an announcment that most Windows Phones have been axed from future updates (normally this is routine news but with it's 2-year update cycle that is a lot of now axed models), and even Windows Central seems to be a bit on edge with the UWP article (which was extremely well written IMO).

Do you think this is a sign of things to come? Is MS just wiping the slate clean before they take their next mobile step? What the heck has this week made you feel in regards to W10 Mobile and how MS is handling it?

I am glad these past few weeks happened. I had been expecting, for years, for MS to turn this around.

I have hung onto Windows Phone/Mobile since my HTC one. I thought, yeah, an interesting addition to the mobile space.

Microsoft, throughout the life cycle of WP/WM, has managed to squander any positive things they or Nokia were doing. All the momentum around the 920/1020 time was thrown away.

There was a really good article on here, where the author mentioned how they have become so use to the errors, the random restarts, the crashing on their Windows Phone, that they accept it as normal.

When i thought about that, i realised how much I've done that with the 950xl. I then started to look elsewhere.

I think the kick in the teeth was the Microsoft Edition of GS8. That told me everything about how Microsoft has treated their mobile phone side and the very, very loyal users.

Now i am using the One plus 3T. Here is the other kicker. Microsoft's own apps on android run smoother, faster, and look way better.

Straight away when i used the One plus and realised wow, and multitasking system that works. Rather than the same old resuming screen on windows. To put it into perspective, Microsoft hasn't even nailed multitasking properly.

Their tile system is now old. I always wanted them to merge the idea of Widgets and Tiles. Never happened. We just about got a folder system.

Even if the Surface Phone exists, the damage is too severe. I hope it doesn't exist until they overhaul their mobile OS. From the ground up. Completely overhauled. Otherwise they are screwing over the Surface Brand, which is a fantastic win for Microsoft.
 

carfs

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WM is by far the best phone OS
Not much things new on the surface lately, but for sure some work on perfecting the system - do prefer that to some "new features" that add nothing to my needs.
Used IOS and Android before (still using Android in a tablet), and honestly can't identify anything to make me switch again. A shame some apps are not available for WM, but except for a couple of them, for me it's far from a problem - do have all I need.
Haven't had any kind of issues on my 950xl (neither with updates or the lack of them).
Microsoft communication on WM has been probably their biggest mistake from the beginning, and now it became too scarce. But considering the evolution of W10 and the fact that it is meant to be "universal" among devices, do trust we shall have very good news in the future.
By the way, not ALL iphones get the latest OS updates, and there are countless Android ones with no chance of getting one - strange nobody mentions it!
As a consumer (not a "fan") what concerns me is how well a device suits my real needs, not which brand I'm pulling of my pocket! For the time being, WM is the one that suits me best.
 

deadbarney

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Feeling very conflicted at the moment. Switched back to an iPhone a year ago but never got around to selling my 930. I'm not a huge app user and I'd really like move back to WM and get an HP Elite X3. I've come so very close several times over the past few weeks. Microsoft have treated their mobile customer base appallingly and the thought of dropping a large amount of cash on something without even a hint of commitment to the platform from MS is a hell of risk. Should the mythical Surface Phone ever surface (sorry!) I'm pretty sure there will be no upgrade available on the X3, given Microsoft's willingness to throw existing customers under the bus when it comes to making the OS work on older hardware.

I don't know. I may still do it - it's a wonderful looking bit of kit and WM is still the best mobile OS as far as I'm concerned.
 

WPWeasel

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I'm a bit bummed out, but my new Android phone is arriving today. so hopefully that'll perk me up :D

I'm a masochist though, so I'll keep tracking the progress of the good ship WP via Windows Central until it careens over the waterfall. And who knows, maybe what's coming down the pike will revitalize Microsoft's position in the mobile space. I'll certainly be open to returning in that case, as I will definitely miss some of the WP features.
 

WPWeasel

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Feeling very conflicted at the moment. Switched back to an iPhone a year ago but never got around to selling my 930. I'm not a huge app user and I'd really like move back to WM and get an HP Elite X3. I've come so very close several times over the past few weeks. Microsoft have treated their mobile customer base appallingly and the thought of dropping a large amount of cash on something without even a hint of commitment to the platform from MS is a hell of risk. Should the mythical Surface Phone ever surface (sorry!) I'm pretty sure there will be no upgrade available on the X3, given Microsoft's willingness to throw existing customers under the bus when it comes to making the OS work on older hardware.

I don't know. I may still do it - it's a wonderful looking bit of kit and WM is still the best mobile OS as far as I'm concerned.

I did one last roll of the dice about 2 months back when I bought the Idol 4s on sale from TMobile. I was uneasy about that decision however considering the state of the ecosystem and ultimately a number of serious issues I had with the phone made the decision to return it fairly easy. I'm now glad I did, considering the spate of bad news over the last few weeks.

Personally, I wouldn't consider dropping anything more than $200 on even a high end WP at this point in time. And that's only if you're going to be at peace with the whole ecosystem potentially going down the toilet completely in the next year.
 

Jesse Venables

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Actually... over the past few years... I've been apart of the "Pry my Windows Phone from my cold dead hands" camp but some recent issues have been driving my nuts on my Lumia 950... enough to consider swapping to either a new Nokia 6 or even maybe the One Plus (pending how Paul Thurrott's recent findings are).

Some of the issues I have is Bluetooth is terrible and patchy to a point where I no longer have confidence in streaming music or podcasts... I go about a skip or pause every 20-30 seconds...

Twice over the past year, I've had to reboot/ Hard reset my phone due to Outlook just locking up.

Once over the past year I've had to reboot/ Hard reset my phone due to Groove not able to compile my Library.

Lastly, Podcast playback. The built in player is so average but it's the only one I know off that lets me store and transfer the downloads by File Manager... however the resume playback bug where is plays but the Pause button doesn't change is Annoying as and almost unforgivable... compounded by the fact I need to sign in to Subscription podcasts every time?!? Podcasts should really be baked into Groove in my opinion..


So yeah... Sorry Zac.. nothing about the App gap or Hardware here... just very subpar performance from the OS which prior to my Lumia 950, the Lumia 830 was a good phone and I'd go as far back to say my Lumia 820 was a great phone.... shame the old L820 isn't W10M compatible (officially).
 

Wevenhuis

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Seems like a lot of news got dumped this week on the W10 Mobile front. Most of it ambiguous, some of it a let down.

How is everyone feeling about this? We've got the Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition, an announcment that most Windows Phones have been axed from future updates (normally this is routine news but with it's 2-year update cycle that is a lot of now axed models), and even Windows Central seems to be a bit on edge with the UWP article (which was extremely well written IMO).

Do you think this is a sign of things to come? Is MS just wiping the slate clean before they take their next mobile step? What the heck has this week made you feel in regards to W10 Mobile and how MS is handling it?

I think the galaxy S8 is only part of the story. But the latest news has left me with a bitter taste for windows 10 mobile and the future windows 10 ecosystem.
 

sph0308

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I think MSFT should require all employees to use Windows Phones as their primary driver for work. Maybe that will incentivize them to bring whatever they find lacking to the W10M platform
 

smallmountain

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I'm so over Windows Mobile right now. Microsoft has never been as committed to Windows Phone as I had been for the last 4 years or so until last Fall when I finally moved away from Windows Phone. I will join the rest of the world in ignoring Windows Mobile until I see a Super Bowl ad advertising that Microsoft has new devices and is going all-in on phones for the first time in company history.
 

Sargon Aelther

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All I want from W10M is Network Drive / Share support and a default app setting. That's something I've been waiting for ages. How can they expect to appeal to enterprise without these features? Android obviously supports all this.
 

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