Poll : How Much do you rate WP8 On a scale of 1-10 ?

[WP7_Genius]

Unit converter and battery tracker are in the app store. You'll not find either of these on iOS or Android without going to the app store. Both iOS and Android have the same as WP8...a battery icon. In fact, the app I use, "Battery", gives me more relevant and useful information moreso than any Android app I had. Not to mention the live tile. Plus, the app has quick toggles to wifi, gps, etc.

And seriously? T9? Who still uses T9? Use your T9 and I'll text circles around you with either the touch screen keyboard included or the talk to text dictation.

Not trying to blast you, but the few things you mentioned are the same as any other OS. Neither iOS nor Android have T9 (maybe Android if you get one with a physical keyboard). Now a keyboard like Swype or Swiftkey or Androids swiping built-in keyboard would be useful.

For me, I gave it an 8.

I keep my opinion free of the app market. I don't look at phones solely based on the app market. Besides, of the 1,000,000 apps on iOS, a) you'll never use a finger nail size of them, and b) how many farting apps do you need? Point being, a lot are poorly written, useless, copies of others, or riddled with malware (I'm talking to you Google Play Store). However, I would expect that WP could at least get the official native apps. Conversely, a lot of the native apps on other OS's aren't even that great. Third party companies often make better apps than their owner!

So my 8-scale is based on the fact that WP8 has some great innovation.
- I actually prefer the Live Tiles over widgets. Widgets eat a lot of battery. Live Tiles are simple and don't drain the battery.
- The apps are nicely stored. In iOS you must side scroll through pages of apps until you remember where you put that one app (or search). In Android, tap the app button and then scroll to your app until you find it. In WP, side scroll to the list, tap a letter of the app you want, voila! I've owned Android and iPhone and WP, to me, has the quickest app search.
- I also find this simpler to use than iOS or Android. Big tiles (or small if you prefer) with an endless seam of whatever you put on your homescreen. Even besides giving you the number or unread, the icons themselves (live tiles) give additional information. In Android, you need the icon AND a widget. In WP, your icon IS your widget. Good luck getting any of this in iOS besides unread count.
- AWESOME for integration with MS. I have Exchange email at work with Office products. This was a no-brainer here for me.
- What's wrong with the lockscreen? You get images of your choice as the background (photos, Bing, Weather, etc) and your pertinent information such as unread email, text, calendar, etc. You don't get that in iOS and in Android you have to get a third party app. In WP, it's native. And, for me, I don't need orientation on the lock screen. I have a L928. The screen is big enough and my eyes are smart enough to see something turned 90^...or, how about if I just hold my phone vertically?
- People hub. This. Is. Genius. I LOVE the history feature. I also love that I don't even need to open a FB app to see what my friends are doing on FB! Not to mention that if I pin a contact to the homescreen, the live tile gives their newest posting and any "NEW MESSAGE" that might be waiting.

So for me (notice I keep referencing my OWN opinion) it has features that pulled me away from Android and iOS. Sure, it could use some work:

- web integration with OneNote. Why we can't save an IE webpage directly to OneNote FROM IE is beyond me.
- attach things OTHER THAN photos and NOT having to go into Office to do it.
- text wrapping in IE (try pinch-to-zoom and you have to move the screen to see the rest of the text)
- ability to speak punctuation. Try saying, "I need milk comma eggs comma and bread" and that's exactly what you get. iOS and Android at least could recognize punctuation during dictation.

Also, while I miss Google Now and Siri in being able to command my phone "wake me up in a half hour" (etc), I've found Maluuba is a great alternative. I used Maluuba on Android and loved it. It was great that WP has this app. You can even select your TV service (DirecTV here) and then ask it what's on HBO tonight. I just thought WP would implement something like this.

ALSO, I really researched this phone (L928) BEFORE I bought it. I read articles. Watched videos. I knew what I was getting into and it's limitations. So, before any of you jump ship, I would encourage you to research your potential new phone-home. Watch videos. YouTube has thousands of comparison videos. Read articles. GO INTO THE STORE! I played around with this phone in Verizon several days before I decided on it. And if you're in fact on Verizon, take advantage of their 14-day return policy.

Sorry for the long post, but it just seems a lot of people blindly accept things or are quick to judge the entire system all because WhatsApp isn't available yet.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[Martin Y]

there are a few billion shortcut apps for the settings you mentioned.

Shortcuts can help a bit, but aren't necessarily a solution.

For example, I use the 'Battery' app which gives shortcuts to the settings for WiFi, GPS etc. If I want to save battery power by switching between a home/office profile (WiFi on, GPS off, Bluetooth off, 3G off) and a commuting profile (the exact opposite) which normally takes a combination of 19 swipes and taps, using those shorcuts only reduces that task to 15 taps. Not so impressive when you add it up.

OK, it's somewhat quicker than that implies since you no longer have to read the list* of System Settings to find the ones you want, but it's still not convenient enough that I'd actually bother to do it while walking to and from my car. If I could tap Profiles > Office or Profiles > Car or Profiles > Train then I'd do it.

* Oh, and that's another gripe: why on earth isn't the system settings list in alphabetical order? It seems to be completely random and you just have to memorise where everything is. What am i missing here?

 

[Kenny G Jr]

You're right about doing research about your phone 1st before buying it. With so many videos online and so many carriers leaving demos in their stores, it gives anybody an opportunity to see what and how these smartphones work. Thanks for expressing your opinions on the all the phones that you've had, and not just one OS. I was considering getting a nexus device, but now I appreciate my LG Quantum (7.8) WP even more. ;-)

 

[trickym81]

I gave it a 6, but it's more like a 6.5 in my eyes. Honestly, my Xbox Music Pass and Nokia are the only reasons I'm staying with Windows Phone right now. Nokia makes excellent phones and they're doing a good job at adding software and features that are missing from WP7. I've loved Nokia phones for many, many years so I'm sticking with them for now. Microsoft has disappointed me. I believe Windows Phone has a lot of potential, but it's not living up to it right now.

 

[Sanjay Chandra]

Funny , WP8 has the rating of 8 for majority of users

 

[gab1972]

You're right about doing research about your phone 1st before buying it. With so many videos online and so many carriers leaving demos in their stores, it gives anybody an opportunity to see what and how these smartphones work. Thanks for expressing your opinions on the all the phones that you've had, and not just one OS. I was considering getting a nexus device, but now I appreciate my LG Quantum (7.8) WP even more. ;-)

No problem. I just thought researching the phone would be a no-brainer. I can't think of too many things that I've bought where I didn't do at least *some* research on it. The internet has a plethora of information when it comes to gadgets. CNet is good with a review and video, but it's word-of-mouth that normally pays dividends. People will be quick to tell you if the battery sucks or if the camera is the best they've had. And I don't mean going to an Android site to read about an Android phone. 90% of the comments are going to have good things to say about Android because that's what they have and (let's all admit here) for the most part we're all fanboys of whatever brand is in our pocket. You'd be better off reading comments from like Amazon or carrier forums. Then take all of that info, watch some comparison videos (phonedog does a good job of this) and then go an look at the item. I do this with everything. Plus, take into consideration that if you're getting a REALLY good price for something ($99 for the L928 at Verizon), it most likely means they're getting ready for something else or they can't sell that many of them (I'm talking to you, HTC Facebook Phone).

Anyways, just research before you buy. At least then you can't say you didn't know what you were getting into. I knew the WP market doesn't have many apps before I bought my L928 - because I researched. I knew it didn't have the latest update and probably wouldn't for a while after the L1020 came out - because I researched. Knowledge is power.

 

[11B1P]

8.

*Needs better music sync
*Needs the big apps (not for me, I don't care about Pinterest, Instagram, etc, but I know a lot of people do)

There are a couple things I wished the FB app did, but I have more important things to worry about.

- Closing apps. This is where WP shines over BB, Android and ios. WP DOESN'T need to have an X to close the app, the os is smart enough to manage the apps for you. If you're a user from another platform, please give this platform some honest usage time. I don't want an X because every other os does. This is what makes WP different. You obviously were looking for something different when you came here, well this is but one area WP is different.

 

[Fade_z]

I'd give it a 6, too many basic features missing, OS not stable enough.

 

[gab1972]

Funny , WP8 has the rating of 8 for majority of users

Good catch. Hopefully that means that by the time WP10 rolls around, we'll be golden. And if they release WP11...?? Euphoric mind blowing?

For me, it's the Porsche of phones I've owned. The Porsche 928 was (and still is) one of the sexiest cars. Porsche 928...Lumia 928... Coincidence? I think not.

 

[gab1972]

I'd give it a 6, too many basic features missing, OS not stable enough.

Please define "unstable". ?? This baffles me. Unstable, by definition, would mean that the OS constantly changes or fails altogether constantly.

 

[Moustache321]

Right now, I'm giving a 5. But that's only right now. The reasons are:
-others memory bug: I have less than 1 Gb left, because of that 3 Gb of "others".. hope that ANY UPDATE could give the solution for that
-the miserableness of toast notifications (currently): whatsapp, nor kik, nor fb chat, nor fb don't work. There's a massive delay with toasts, they show up even FOUR times when the message is already read
-the missing features of fb app such as group editing or adding a video to group or seeing birthdays
-integrated fb chat doesn't work at all.. I don't recieve messages, messages won't be sent.. Very frustrating

+the whole os.. so smooth, eye pleasing and easy and fun to custom
+great apps and games already available (even insta via Instance)
+ProShot!! great
+the idea of integrated fb chat :C I'd love to see it working like in wp7
+people hub
+hope there's updates coming (and features such as cortana, notification centre etc.)

So, 5 right now but the minuses are eating the last 5 at this time.

UPDATES UPDATES UPDATES MS! Otherwise great job with my lumia 820, Nokia!

 

[jwaisanen]

6 out of 10. Calendar is garbage, no proper notifications, no FM radio support (yet), no home/lock screen landscape orientation, pathetic NFC support, no way to close background apps (like Pandora), and miscellaneous bugs here and there.

There are a lot of good things, and the user experience is smooth so if some of those big items above were fixed then it could be a very good OS.

 

[phasar]

Please define "unstable". ?? This baffles me. Unstable, by definition, would mean that the OS constantly changes or fails altogether constantly.

Having to do a hard reset every other month, because the lock screen/ live tiles won't update, who has time for that? How many people have returned their phone because of the Wheels Of Death? How can they promote their live tile/lock screen feature when it is the most unreliable feature of their phone? I can't remember the last time I received a notification, and I'll be dammed if I ever do another hard reset.

 

[Memitim]

Having to do a hard reset every other month, because the lock screen/ live tiles won't update, who has time for that? How many people have returned their phone because of the Wheels Of Death? How can they promote their live tile/lock screen feature when it is the most unreliable feature of their phone? I can't remember the last time I received a notification, and I'll be dammed if I ever do another hard reset.

Never done a reset since I got my 620 5 months ago and my live tiles and notifications work perfectly fine

 

[phasar]

Never done a reset since I got my 620 5 months ago and my live tiles and notifications work perfectly fine

That settles it than, I'm imagining things!!!

 

[stiflingcobra]

For me coming from Android in a Desire HD I'd give it a good solid 7 at the moment... That's on a Lumia 820. Not missing Android at all tbh and looking forward to the potential things such as FM radio..

 

[quantum tao]

Eleven

 

[Sanjay Chandra]

This will be my "first and last" WP.Its not because I didn't like WP or WP is bad (I rated it 9/10 If u remember and I rate Android/iOS also 9/10)

I am on Apple Eco-System from past 3 years (in the form of iPod Touch and iPad).Not going to leave that one.Its simply because there is iTunes store for my country while no xbox music.Bing services don't not work here properly.I will be switching to OS X as well.Windows 8 is nice but its very badly implemented.

Real Reason for this thought is that , Windows OEM's are garbage.

I enjoyed more being on Apple's eco system than Windows mainly because of Apple's support and Apps etc. and presence of Apple in the form of Appstore , iTunes and services etc.

I won't be switching right away though , Probably I will be switching in 3-4 years.

Only reason I use WP is because of Nokia.

 

[Chregu]

I gave it a "Good".

Actually I really like the OS and my HTC 8X. However I miss better IMAP support, VPN, a calender which isn't just laughable and other things like this. And the slow pace of Microsoft drives me crazy.

The sad truth at the moment: Sportify out of Beta really makes me wanting to buy an Android phone or even an iPhone. I got a subscription because of the "final" version, and now I feel limited by the app - no radio for example, that's just mean; and it really can't do much more than playing music - and limited by the phone. I only have 16 GB to begin with and no SD slot, and the "other storage" is now at 4.8 GB. I think it's time for a hard reset, and hence this causes even more frustration that Microsoft seems incapable of fixing this bug.

A HTC One seems very tempting now.

 

[jailman]

A solid 7.5 because no notifications center ( at least currently ) and messaging delay there is huge delay in receiving messages and notifications