Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[mikepalma]

So I am pretty.close to making the move to iphone due to my abject disappointment w W10M & 950xl In looking at iOS store it seems all the MS apps that I need are there, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, Cortana, plus of course any 3rd party app ever desired. .

So, besides Live Tiles, what will I miss?

 

[Pete]

Re: Switching to iOS, what will be missed?

Us.

You might also miss the start menu and the app list - you'll end up with a fixed grid of apps across many screens, forcing you to make app groups if you want to limit the number of screens to scroll across.

As you know, the apps on iOS appear to be supported better from the major companies (eBay and Amazon get updated fairly regularly, where they never do on Windows). The downside of the app store is the sheer volume. If you want to find a fairly simple WiFi scanner for example, you'll be presented with a bewildering array of apps that don't really do what you want them to do.

There's ups and downs to each OS, and I don't think any of them are perfect.

 

[mikepalma]

Re: Switching to iOS, what will be missed?

Us.

You might also miss the start menu and the app list - you'll end up with a fixed grid of apps across many screens, forcing you to make app groups if you want to limit the number of screens to scroll across.

As you know, the apps on iOS appear to be supported better from the major companies (eBay and Amazon get updated fairly regularly, where they never do on Windows). The downside of the app store is the sheer volume. If you want to find a fairly simple WiFi scanner for example, you'll be presented with a bewildering array of apps that don't really do what you want them to do.

There's ups and downs to each OS, and I don't think any of them are perfect.

As i mostly just use the MS apps mentioned above, I wonder if they work effectively on iOS, or if there.are greater advantages on W10M? Thanks and of course you will be missed...

 

[Pete]

Re: Switching to iOS, what will be missed?

And before making the jump, I'd really advise you to take a good long look at some Apple customer forums and see what users are complaining about for iOS.

Oh, and you'll miss expandable storage. You can't put an SD card into an iPhone - Apple want you to pay a huge premium to get the larger capacity devices.

 

[flitchtag]

I too am making the switch back to iOS. Live tiles were fun but don't offset the problems on the official W10 builds.on the 950XL. Outlook and OneDrive actually function better on the iPhone believe it or not. No too sure about OneNote, but Cortana works very consistently, unlike on the 950XL on which it crashes.

Funny, but the MS apps being available on the iPhone actually make it an easier move than one might expect...

 

[mikepalma]

Re: Switching to iOS, what will be missed?

And before making the jump, I'd really advise you to take a good long look at some Apple customer forums and see what users are complaining about for iOS.

Oh, and you'll miss expandable storage. You can't put an SD card into an iPhone - Apple want you to pay a huge premium to get the larger capacity devices.

Thanks Pete. I pretty much use OneDrive for everything so the SD card isn't a big deal. Unless OneDrive is less functional for iOS?

 

[Pete]

I don't think it's less functional (it's just a website with storage after all). The only issue is connectivity I guess, but if you're tied into OneDrive anyway, there's no real issue. Your challenge is really whether the Apple core apps will play happily with your cloud storage setup or whether they'll lead you into buying an iCloud plan.

 

[mikepalma]

I don't think it's less functional (it's just a website with storage after all). The only issue is connectivity I guess, but if you're tied into OneDrive anyway, there's no real issue. Your challenge is really whether the Apple core apps will play happily with your cloud storage setup or whether they'll lead you into buying an iCloud plan.

Yea, true. I will want the photos to auto upload to one drive at full res. for example...

 

[Pete]

Yeah. You'd need to log into iMore, MacRumours, or some other Apple centric forum to ask these questions.

The odds are that you'd need some kind of third party app that scans your camera roll and syncs. And obviously here, you're running a risk of exposing your Microsoft Account credentials to a third party app. And of course, developers would never, ever abuse authentication guidelines....

 

[sumton]

Nothing you won't miss anything in fact you will get better Microsoft apps on ios Microsoft made it easier for Windows Mobile users to switch to iPhone instead of making windows mobile a top priority and bring more users to the platform they decided that Microsoft customers should just switch to ios and Android

 

[DomScatterbrain]

If Microsoft don't release any decent new gadget (or at least some good news) by the end of this year, I'll definitely switch platform. As a fan since WP7, I'm almost at my limit!

 

[libra89]

Yea, true. I will want the photos to auto upload to one drive at full res. for example...

I'll be glad to tell you my experience, if it will help. The iPhone has been my DD with occasional switching to various Androids and my 640 on Insider for months now. OneDrive (and Outlook too) is excellent on iOS. For the most part, you can have images upload there directly instead of iCloud. I don't even use iCloud at all. It's not as instant as it is on Windows Phone but it will upload. iOS makes it easy to set other services as primary. For example, I never have to open the mail app to read mail. I get an Outlook notification and I read it in Outlook.

My contacts being hosted in Outlook is also great, because again, you can carry that to the iPhone.

Check these great links out on how to make it all work:
iPhone for the Windows Guy: Getting Started
iPhone for the Windows Guy: Use Your Microsoft Accounts


As for what you'll miss, as said, you will miss customization. iOS is the bare bones of customization. You can change your wallpaper, lock screen, rearrange your icons, and use a 3rd party keyboard like Word Flow, which will allow the swiping that you are probably used to. SwiftKey does the same, along with GBoard. That's about it. If you're anything like me, you'll miss having a phone that can be any color you want (or truly different). And no, it's not the same experience with a case. That's what people like to make you think. The only way to try to get there is with a case.

Me missing that is what has me going back and forth so much. I love how simple things work on iOS but the customization makes it hard for me to be content.

Some people here might say, oh that doesn't matter, or that it's not a big deal. This is one of those things that is very person dependent.

 

[mikepalma]

Excellent information. Thanks very much. I don't customize very much, so colors etc aren't a huge concern relative to the OS stability and functional camera app that I need...950xl camera app has been horrible, and w10m official has not been fun for a DD, especially on what I thought was a flagship...

Again thanks for the great info on Outlook and OneDrive

 

[libra89]

Excellent information. Thanks very much. I don't customize very much, so colors etc aren't a huge concern relative to the OS stability and functional camera app that I need...950xl camera app has been horrible, and w10m official has not been fun for a DD, especially on what I thought was a flagship...

Again thanks for the great info on Outlook and OneDrive

You're welcome! Let us know what you think when/if you decide to go that way.

Edit: I slipped my sim back into the 640 just because I wanted to try the new update. Guess what now? The ESPN app is supposed to be my substitution since At Bat doesn't show the whole notification. What good is this if it doesn't push any notifications, even after I allowed it to. I have tried a hard reset, it just doesn't work. This is annoying. It seems like it's always one app for me, lol.

Had the crazy idea to try a 5x again because it's on sale for $229 at B&H for today only. Here goes...lol

 

[jdballard]

Re: Switching to iOS, what will be missed?

You can't put an SD card into an iPhone - Apple want you to pay a huge premium to get the larger capacity devices.

Apple makes you pay a premium even for smaller capacity devices.

 

[mikepalma]

You're welcome! Let us know what you think when/if you decide to go that way.

Edit: I slipped my sim back into the 640 just because I wanted to try the new update. Guess what now? The ESPN app is supposed to be my substitution since At Bat doesn't show the whole notification. What good is this if it doesn't push any notifications, even after I allowed it to. I have tried a hard reset, it just doesn't work. This is annoying. It seems like it's always one app for me, lol.

Had the crazy idea to try a 5x again because it's on sale for $229 at B&H for today only. Here goes...lol

Well I got a loaner iPhone 6 Plus. First impression is the smoothness of the UI. Scrolling is like butter compared to w10m. You weren't kidding about the apps. So many more features for those few apps that I use.. Also the MS apps are much more feature rich and better quality too, which is kinda shocking!

Another neat thing that is also useful is th landscape home screen. Shoulda been a given on 950xl. I will test out the camera and photos app this weekend as thisr are super important for me.

Oh yeah, I can t get over how it never heats up and the battery life so far blows the Lumia away on side by side video playback test.

 

[anon(5383410)]

Some thoughts since switching to a Galaxy and Android:

1. MS's flow keyboard and autocomplete accuracy are superior. Like really really rrreally better. I'd say around half the time the S7 is completely off with the word suggestions.

2. Groove Music is awful and there's no excuse. Every music app I've tried on Android is better including the stock Google Play app. Step it up MS. I know that Zune code is in Bill Gates mancave somewhere.

3. It's still early but it feels like Android lags more than w10m (even Insider builds).

4. The build quality of the Galaxy, Note, Nexus and every other phone I tied in the store makes the 950 look like a Fisher Price toy.

edit: 5. Probably the most surprising to me was that Android seems to experience some of the same intermittent notification issues as w10m. Notification count icons on the home screen are sometimes inaccurate or just don't go away even after opening apps. I expected these kinds of things to be issues Google would've had down to a science since this space has been their focus for so long. I actually feel bad for trashing w10m everytime notification counters on tiles would fall out of sync or stop working completely.

So I took the bad with the good, but if they can somehow get the app situation in order (which I doubt they ever will) and get some of the more popular vendors to build some phones I'd go back. Still early but at its core I think w10m is a better OS. Put Groove out of its misery though.

 

[NadaAddict]

I prefer Windows Phone over iOS and Android, but for God's sake, get people to build some apps for it. It's really stable, easy to use, infinitely customizable, and it's "different". I'm not one who strives to be "different" all the time, but I'm not a sheep, either.

 

[dizzydevil78]

I left android for a Titan II back in the day because of the lag / ads / constant crashing of apps and bloatware that's always running. I've been through 7 Windows Phones myself of various price points and my entire family is running windows phones; but nothing has been so displeasing as Windows 10 Mobile and it's lack of stability. Even on their release build, photos crash, camera crashes, phone reboots, unable to answer calls, etc. Too many photo moments of my kids have been missed because I can't take a picture without it 1. requiring a reboot first or 2. crashing and not actually saving anything.

Yes a hard reset makes things better for a little while but the problems always come back. A hard reset is not a solution; but an admission that W10M is not designed to be a daily driver or reliable.

I now have a stable 640 again because it's running WP8. Yet the browser now hangs on almost every page visited due to the ads ( including windowscentral) making it not a long term solution either. I've given up, and am waiting for a LG G4 purchase to arrive. I hope MS get's this mess straightened out soon or the family won't be far behind in replacing theirs.

 

[mikepalma]

Well I got a loaner iPhone 6 Plus. First impression is the smoothness of the UI. Scrolling is like butter compared to w10m. You weren't kidding about the apps. So many more features for those few apps that I use.. Also the MS apps are much more feature rich and better quality too, which is kinda shocking!

Another neat thing that is also useful is th landscape home screen. Shoulda been a given on 950xl. I will test out the camera and photos app this weekend as theseare super important for me.

Oh yeah, I can t get over how it never heats up and the battery life so far blows the Lumia away on side by side video playback test.

UPDATE:

So the iPhone is extremely impressive. It simply blows away the Lumia in the above areas.

The Camera:
All I can say is Wow! First, it loads instantly and takes photos in a millisecond. Rapid fire, no problem. No crashes or stutters or delays or "Saving Photo". Man, I missed so many photos with Lumia, it's disconcerting. The quality from the naked eye seems as good in daylight and better in low light. I have yet to print side by side but will check that out too. Regardless I won't be missing any shots. The dedicated Lumia camera button is nice, but the Camera functionality is leagues better in the iPhone.

Btw, after day of heavy use battery still at 38%. My 950XL would've been on the charger twice in that same period.

Extremely impressive device (and it's a 6 vs 950XL, so the 6S is likely even better).