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

[Joe920]

Having switched to an iPhone 6S+ months ago, it's really noticeable how hot the 950XL can get when browsing in Edge. Either the heat management is bad or Edge is inefficient. Or maybe it was just getting angry because I was browsing MacRumors :winktongue:

 

[fatclue_98]

Having switched to an iPhone 6S+ months ago, it's really noticeable how hot the 950XL can get when browsing in Edge. Either the heat management is bad or Edge is inefficient. Or maybe it was just getting angry because I was browsing MacRumors :winktongue:

My experience tells me it's the firmware and not Edge. My current x3 doesn't heat up on anything. When I had the Idol it would only get a little warm after a long Continuum session and my current Primo doesn't heat up at all. This is what I find most surprising because I've had a few phones with the SD808 (Priv, 950, G4, Nexus 5X) and they all ran hot. The Priv and 5X were the worst.

Sent from my HP Elite x3 on mTalk

 

[nate0]

My experience tells me it's the firmware and not Edge. My current x3 doesn't heat up on anything. When I had the Idol it would only get a little warm after a long Continuum session and my current Primo doesn't heat up at all. This is what I find most surprising because I've had a few phones with the SD808 (Priv, 950, G4, Nexus 5X) and they all ran hot. The Priv and 5X were the worst.

Sent from my HP Elite x3 on mTalk

Good point. But boy does the 950 XL fly. I think that is the best phone to use for an overall W10M experience. That phone is buttery smooth when it comes to navigating around the UI. You are right in how the FW is tuned. There is power settings used for balancing CPU while off and on the charger. I remember seeing a low latency setting/entry in one of the partitions files on the 950 XL, I forget which one...but haveing a low latency setting means it will use more resources to keep the pace going as long as it can. I remember sometimes I would have like 95% battery left after being off the charger 5 or 6 hours. Then as soon as I open Edge and use it for 15 min, it would drop to like 89% or so...our poor palms pay for it especially when using Edge.

I think the other half of it is the Edge browser itself. It seems Edge being a complete new browser entirely has had a long time in waiting for it to be up to par. And in that it is ridiculously bad on mobile or has been. Forget about trying to run it on a lower end phone. Unless you want to wait around for pages to re-scale/re-load/download. I can tolerate some of its shortcomings on the PC but in mobile even on the Elite X3 (at least when I was using it) would pause or stutter. Part of the growing pains I suppose.

Edit: I will add to what you said about the SD808...if we think the 950 XL got hot, the 950 was doubly worse. Like you said the 808 processor did this on many devices. I owned several 950's and even though over the year or two it got better through the updates of the OS and FW, it never went away at all. So it is very interesting to know that Acer was able to maintain it some how. Could be cooling properties of their frame for that phone along with their FW SW enhancements.

@fatclue_98,
I am curious how many if any FW updates does the Acer have in its library of updates?

 

[fatclue_98]

Good point. But boy does the 950 XL fly. I think that is the best phone to use for an overall W10M experience. That phone is buttery smooth when it comes to navigating around the UI. You are right in how the FW is tuned. There is power settings used for balancing CPU while off and on the charger. I remember seeing a low latency setting/entry in one of the partitions files on the 950 XL, I forget which one...but haveing a low latency setting means it will use more resources to keep the pace going as long as it can. I remember sometimes I would have like 95% battery left after being off the charger 5 or 6 hours. Then as soon as I open Edge and use it for 15 min, it would drop to like 89% or so...our poor palms pay for it especially when using Edge.

I think the other half of it is the Edge browser itself. It seems Edge being a complete new browser entirely has had a long time in waiting for it to be up to par. And in that it is ridiculously bad on mobile or has been. Forget about trying to run it on a lower end phone. Unless you want to wait around for pages to re-scale/re-load/download. I can tolerate some of its shortcomings on the PC but in mobile even on the Elite X3 (at least when I was using it) would pause or stutter. Part of the growing pains I suppose.

Edit: I will add to what you said about the SD808...if we think the 950 XL got hot, the 950 was doubly worse. Like you said the 808 processor did this on many devices. I owned several 950's and even though over the year or two it got better through the updates of the OS and FW, it never went away at all. So it is very interesting to know that Acer was able to maintain it some how. Could be cooling properties of their frame for that phone along with their FW SW enhancements.

@fatclue_98,
I am curious how many if any FW updates does the Acer have in its library of updates?

Officially, the Acer didn't get past Threshold. I have AU on mine through the Insider App but it's a process not meant for the feint of heart. But it's rock solid and every time I take a not-so-good picture on the x3, my SIM card mysteriously finds its way into the Acer. Horrible speakers are its Achilles Heel and it's the only reason why the x3 is still around.

Sent from my HP Elite x3 on mTalk

 

[HeyCori]

Decided to say goodbye to another Microsoft product. So long, Office 365. My renewal was coming up and I had to admit that I wasn't using Office enough to justify another year. My job is all Google Docs and it's easier to use what work tells me to use. At home, I've switched to Office Online for my desktop and Office Mobile for my tablet. Its a noticeable step down from using full Office. Nonetheless, it suffices.

 

[RumoredNow]

@HeyCori I could never justify that subscription model to myself. What they are selling there is the promise of upgrades and some Skype credits. Bing rewards would get you all the free Skype you want if you're into that. And with a 3 year cycle for Office to upgrade and a looooong shelf life for the product anyhow... Yeah.

I did just get a new machine though so another look at Office was in order. I never use Publish or Access and the free Outlook in a browser is so damn powerful why would anyone pay for that? What I can't do is Office online or Docs or whatever cloud based editor because I don't want to be beholden to having a connection to edit. Cloud based viewing is fine for the phone realm, but not always practicable for large screens where editing gets done when you are in an "on the road" scenario.

So I found this deal that made me pull the trigger: https://forums.windowscentral.com/m...s/465176-office-16-download-1-pc-82-72-a.html

 

[nate0]

@HeyCori I could never justify that subscription model to myself. What they are selling there is the promise of upgrades and some Skype credits. Bing rewards would get you all the free Skype you want if you're into that. And with a 3 year cycle for Office to upgrade and a looooong shelf life for the product anyhow... Yeah.

I did just get a new machine though so another look at Office was in order. I never use Publish or Access and the free Outlook in a browser is so damn powerful why would anyone pay for that? What I can't do is Office online or Docs or whatever cloud based editor because I don't want to be beholden to having a connection to edit. Cloud based viewing is fine for the phone realm, but not always practicable for large screens where editing gets done when you are in an "on the road" scenario.

So I found this deal that made me pull the trigger: https://forums.windowscentral.com/m...s/465176-office-16-download-1-pc-82-72-a.html

That is a good deal...I am fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of Microsoft's HUP, and get a full download for pretty cheap through my job.

 

[fatclue_98]

@HeyCori I could never justify that subscription model to myself. What they are selling there is the promise of upgrades and some Skype credits. Bing rewards would get you all the free Skype you want if you're into that. And with a 3 year cycle for Office to upgrade and a looooong shelf life for the product anyhow... Yeah.

I did just get a new machine though so another look at Office was in order. I never use Publish or Access and the free Outlook in a browser is so damn powerful why would anyone pay for that? What I can't do is Office online or Docs or whatever cloud based editor because I don't want to be beholden to having a connection to edit. Cloud based viewing is fine for the phone realm, but not always practicable for large screens where editing gets done when you are in an "on the road" scenario.

So I found this deal that made me pull the trigger: https://forums.windowscentral.com/m...s/465176-office-16-download-1-pc-82-72-a.html

I only recently learned the subscription model was or everyone. I thought it was set up for iOS and Android users who wanted Office on their phones and tablets. I bought an Enterprise license for Office 2007 many years ago and it's still kicking. I guess I'll be shopping for a 2013 Enterprise license soon.

 

[HeyCori]

That's a pretty solid deal. I've actually thought about buying a single license for some time but deep down I know I wouldn't get much use out of it.

 

[beyondinfinity]

Goodbye Windows 10 mobile

Finally did it. I ditched Windows 10 mobile and went to Android. What prompted this? Well main reason was my phone started to die. After 3 years of use, my Nokia Lumia 1520 is on its last leg. First the camera started to go, OIS would activate randomly and ruin all my photos and videos. Then battery no longer held a charge, I would be reading something on the internst or watching a YouTube video and it would shut down. Once it shut down in the middle of a call so that's when I had enough.

I chose Android because one thing I hate about Apple is the way you activate the camera, it seems like too many steps just to take a picture. Whereas phones like Sony Xperia have dedicated camera button, with all the manual settings so it works very close to the camera on Win 10 mobile. I ended up getting a Sony Xperia XZ Premium, it was closest I could find in terms of camera functionality.

After using my new Android phone for a week, I still miss the following things from Win10 mobile.

Keyboard: I found the keyboard in Win 10 mobile a lot nicer. I find I am making more corrections using the Android keyboard (swiftkey)

Camera: I loved how almost all the Lumia cameras had the camera in the center. This was better because having it in the corner makes it easier for finger to get in the way of lens. I still don't get why manufacturers insist on placing cameras on the corner of phones. Centre is the best placement.

Bing: Integration with the phone was nice, and I miss the daily lock screen wallpaper

Phone Hardware: I have to admit I like the Lumia 1520 body even if it was a big phone and cumbersome to carry. It was designed really well and looked nice.

I also miss the dedicated search icon beside the home button. Android has the tasks manager (or whatever you call it - 'list of apps running') mapped to that button and the search has to be a widget instead. I don't like this and thought Microsoft implementation of the back, home, search buttons at the bottom to be more intuitive. Long press back to see running apps. And search was easier to activate because it was right there at the bottom beside your thumb.

But aside from any negatives I'm just glad I finally have access to APPS!!!!

 

[fatclue_98]

LG V20. I'm so utterly disappointed with this phone it's beyond belief. It's not a bad phone, it's just not tickling my particular fancy. The camera is every bit as good as any Lumia. There, I said it. I've always liked LG's special sauce because they're one of the few Androids where you can have a dark theme out of the box and their iteration of double tap-to-wake (and sleep). The speaker is sufficiently loud but not the greatest but then again, outside of the Idol 4S no other phone is that great either.

Yes, all the apps are there and many work better than their Windows counterpart but that's expected. What isn't expected is the core OS apps are so ill-conceived as compared to Windows that it makes you take pause. The dialer, contacts, calendar, email, calculator, clock and settings apps look as they were designed by pre-schoolers. Not the bright ones either, more like the remedial class. Two apps I was impressed with are the file manager and the gallery apps. They both had the option to load OneDrive files/pictures a la Windows which was refreshing to see (Dropbox and Box are supported as well). There's no excuse for having to open multiple apps to achieve the same result. The file manager in particular was very BlackBerry-esque in that it's quite feature-filled.

I shouldn't have to harp on pre-loaded apps so much but it's the new reality. Apps rule the roost and the OS with the best out-of-the-box experience should win right? Wrong. I'm not going to go into a lengthy comparo between Android and Windows, or iOS for that matter, because I want to stay on point and deal with this particular phone's deficiencies. Which brings me around to connectivity. The V20 supports HDMI-out via the USB-C connector so I tried to plug it into my x3's dock. It works and it doesn't work. It charges, connects to the Ethernet cable for network connection and it recognizes the wireless mouse & keyboard. Except it constantly trips between the physical input and onscreen kb. Try to type a URL and you're blind because the onscreen kb takes up half the available viewing area even though the onscreen kb is toggled off. For the Ethernet to work properly you have to pull down the notification shade and toggle data off. If you've read this far you'll see these are all unnecessary steps that you would never have to do on a Continuum-enabled Windows phone. Plug-n-play is unrivaled in the Windows camp. Since you can't do any of this on an iPhone it's not worth mentioning. Please note that after disconnecting everything you won't be able to repeat any of these tasks without a soft reboot. It's just not happening.

Before I go any further I'd like to mention that the battery life is not very good either but keeping it on the dock for extended periods mitigates this shortcoming. I'm trying to keep an open mind because I think most of the sour grapes in this post are Android and not entirely the V20. For example, when I connect my Primo or x3 via a wired connection every Windows 10 compatible printer in the network show up in the print dialogue. As of this writing, Android has yet to offer USB or Bluetooth printer support. Some OEMs have NFC printers but those are still very rare. You're left with Google Cloud and Wi-Fi if you want to print but that gets quickly eliminated if you're on Remote Desktop because Android didn't see fit to include using Local Resources with their apps. Buried in the settings is the ability to use your SD card storage with RDP but you need to know how to activate the special permissions and fewer and fewer phones are coming with expandable storage anyway.

Well that's it in a nutshell. Being a Windows guy I'm going to find workarounds if they're there to be had. But for all the grief us Windows users have to endure about workarounds to get around WM's shortfalls, I find it ironic. So the next person who claims DeX or any other desktop imitation is better than Continuum, point them to this post. I'd be more than happy to tear down their argument point by point.

 

[anon(50597)]

Got an iPhone 7 about a week ago. Love it.
Then I got to update it to iOS 11, love it even more.

 

[libra89]

LG V20. I'm so utterly disappointed with this phone it's beyond belief. It's not a bad phone, it's just not tickling my particular fancy. The camera is every bit as good as any Lumia. There, I said it. I've always liked LG's special sauce because they're one of the few Androids where you can have a dark theme out of the box and their iteration of double tap-to-wake (and sleep). The speaker is sufficiently loud but not the greatest but then again, outside of the Idol 4S no other phone is that great either.

Yes, all the apps are there and many work better than their Windows counterpart but that's expected. What isn't expected is the core OS apps are so ill-conceived as compared to Windows that it makes you take pause. The dialer, contacts, calendar, email, calculator, clock and settings apps look as they were designed by pre-schoolers. Not the bright ones either, more like the remedial class. Two apps I was impressed with are the file manager and the gallery apps. They both had the option to load OneDrive files/pictures a la Windows which was refreshing to see (Dropbox and Box are supported as well). There's no excuse for having to open multiple apps to achieve the same result. The file manager in particular was very BlackBerry-esque in that it's quite feature-filled.

I shouldn't have to harp on pre-loaded apps so much but it's the new reality. Apps rule the roost and the OS with the best out-of-the-box experience should win right? Wrong. I'm not going to go into a lengthy comparo between Android and Windows, or iOS for that matter, because I want to stay on point and deal with this particular phone's deficiencies. Which brings me around to connectivity. The V20 supports HDMI-out via the USB-C connector so I tried to plug it into my x3's dock. It works and it doesn't work. It charges, connects to the Ethernet cable for network connection and it recognizes the wireless mouse & keyboard. Except it constantly trips between the physical input and onscreen kb. Try to type a URL and you're blind because the onscreen kb takes up half the available viewing area even though the onscreen kb is toggled off. For the Ethernet to work properly you have to pull down the notification shade and toggle data off. If you've read this far you'll see these are all unnecessary steps that you would never have to do on a Continuum-enabled Windows phone. Plug-n-play is unrivaled in the Windows camp. Since you can't do any of this on an iPhone it's not worth mentioning. Please note that after disconnecting everything you won't be able to repeat any of these tasks without a soft reboot. It's just not happening.

Before I go any further I'd like to mention that the battery life is not very good either but keeping it on the dock for extended periods mitigates this shortcoming. I'm trying to keep an open mind because I think most of the sour grapes in this post are Android and not entirely the V20. For example, when I connect my Primo or x3 via a wired connection every Windows 10 compatible printer in the network show up in the print dialogue. As of this writing, Android has yet to offer USB or Bluetooth printer support. Some OEMs have NFC printers but those are still very rare. You're left with Google Cloud and Wi-Fi if you want to print but that gets quickly eliminated if you're on Remote Desktop because Android didn't see fit to include using Local Resources with their apps. Buried in the settings is the ability to use your SD card storage with RDP but you need to know how to activate the special permissions and fewer and fewer phones are coming with expandable storage anyway.

Well that's it in a nutshell. Being a Windows guy I'm going to find workarounds if they're there to be had. But for all the grief us Windows users have to endure about workarounds to get around WM's shortfalls, I find it ironic. So the next person who claims DeX or any other desktop imitation is better than Continuum, point them to this post. I'd be more than happy to tear down their argument point by point.

Wow, I'm sorry about you feeling disappointed in the V20. That sucks. I'm glad that you tried it at least. You're so right, it is ironic. It gets to a point where it is ridiculous to drop a lot of change and you feel like you have to do a workaround. To me, that is something that hurts the most and it's hard for me to deal with something like this long term.

 

[libra89]

Got an iPhone 7 about a week ago. Love it.
Then I got to update it to iOS 11, love it even more.

Wait what?! How did I miss this? What made you go up in size? What color? How's battery life treating you? How do you like the "button"? Do you use 3D touch?

I know I have a lot of questions but you know this was coming from me.

 

[anon(50597)]

Wait what?! How did I miss this? What made you go up in size? What color? How's battery life treating you?

I know I have a lot of questions but you know this was coming from me.

About a week ago.
I thought I’d try the next size up. Nothing drastic.
Gold color.
Battery life is pretty good. Not as good as the SE but still gets me through the day.
Bought it used for a decent price. So far so good!

 

[libra89]

About a week ago.
I thought I’d try the next size up. Nothing drastic.
Gold color.
Battery life is pretty good. Not as good as the SE but still gets me through the day.
Bought it used for a decent price. So far so good!

Very cool! Congrats! I hope that you will continue to enjoy it.

 

[anon(50597)]

Very cool! Congrats! I hope that you will continue to enjoy it.

Thanks!

 

[nate0]

@fatclue_98
I owned the G6 for about a week. I agree with your opinion on the native dttw, dark mode, and the camera on the G6 two(too?) was excellent imo.

The one thing I could not get past though was the skin/overlay of every app under the LG UX ui control. I do not know if it was the visual design or how the functionality came across that got me more bothered. If I chose to stick it out I would eventually adapt and be ok with it, like any device, but it was not what I needed most out of a phone. Unless I can rip the keyboard, messaging app, and Outlook out of my windows phones exactly how they are and put them in an android phone, it is super hard for me to stay on an android phone for very long.

 

[fatclue_98]

@fatclue_98
I owned the G6 for about a week. I agree with your opinion on the native dttw, dark mode, and the camera on the G6 two(too?) was excellent imo.

The one thing I could not get past though was the skin/overlay of every app under the LG UX ui control. I do not know if it was the visual design or how the functionality came across that got me more bothered. If I chose to stick it out I would eventually adapt and be ok with it, like any device, but it was not what I needed most out of a phone. Unless I can rip the keyboard, messaging app, and Outlook out of my windows phones exactly how they are and put them in an android phone, it is super hard for me to stay on an android phone for very long.

It’s the little things like pulling down the notifications shade and seeing what Wi-Fi network I’m on, not just an icon showing me it’s on. Or seeing which Bluetooth gadget is connected. No icon whatsoever for mobile hotspot there either. Seriously? A separate app for VVM, c’mon man!

I’ve said many times the success or failure of an OS is its UI and how it handles the day to day basics. For all the apps in the world, Android can’t hold a candle to Windows. I’m typing this post on my iPad that I just finished updating to iOS 11. I’m seriously digging the new keyboard even though it’s about 10 years late. The file manager is not what I would’ve wanted but it’s what I expected from Apple. In other words, a half-assed attempt just to please the naysayers. Maybe HDMI-out and mouse support will come in 2027.

 

[nate0]

Excellent points! It is the attention to detail on the little things like you say. I take that for granted at times. The WOWs of the camera or the screen size with small bezels can try to smooth over the shortcoming of other devices but they are always there. Windows devices have shortcoming too. Like the "Loading...." splash screen on certain devices . Changing subj here to rant on Android... I still cannot get past all these 8GB of RAM mobile phones that keep coming forth. W10M is still 32bit and does just about everything the other OSs do, sometimes more or better, and with half the resources. . If it ever needed or could use 8GB it would slaughter the current SD competition. I won't mention the Apple devices however as Apple is another story on that discussion angle.