Re: All Those Switching from a Windows Phone to another device (including Windows Phones), Post Here
Well, it's been a fun three years but I am moving on from Windows Phone until it matures and does what I need my smartphone to do. I'm not a hater and/or ****** of any particular operating system, but don't really care for Android. I've picked up an iPhone 5C for $45 with free downloads for iMovie, iPhoto, Numbers, Pages and Keynote.
The biggest reason for my move is the app situation that just seems to steadily NOT improve significantly on Windows Phone. Having stuck with WP from an HTC Surround WP7 through my beautiful red Lumia 920, there is still an incredibly huge disparity between the available apps.
Live Tiles was a big draw for me and are supposed to replace a unified notification center. Unfortunately, the tiles update every hour or so at best or in the case of most 3rd party apps, not at all. I still keep my Lumia charged and play on it, and was dismayed this morning that my Amazing Weather app says it's 10/10 @ 10:41PM and my Super Calendar app shows Friday Oct 11, 1013. Other tiles I have pinned such as Facebook and Voxxer have a little number in a circle in the top right corner of the tile. What kind of "live update" is that? Isn't that what we criticize iOS and Android about? Hell, my iPhone running iOS7 has a clock and calendar icon that keeps real time & date. You can even watch the second hand move and keep time. With the seeming inability for my Lumia to perform updates on my "live" tiles, it makes the glaring lack of a unified notification center even more painful. Especially if you miss a non-pinned app buzzing a tone on WP8.
As far as the camera goes, daytime shots are pretty even between the two, though as I expected-the Lumia 920 takes much better low-light shots sans flash. With flash on, there isn't a huge difference. On the other hand, I have to hand it to Apple with the panorama shooting. It works flawlessly and cranks out great panoramas with a simple-to-use interface whereas the Lumia almost always causes ghosts, artifacts and blurring.
As far as user interface goes, I think it's trendy now to bash the grid of icons interface that iOS and Android use. I personally have no issues with it. I prefer pages of icons that I can arrange as I see fit to a 10-mile long alphabetical list on WP8. I've always wanted Microsoft to add a folder option to group similar apps but they refuse to do it aside from the "Games" folder. Why can't I create a "system tools" or "photography" folder to group my programs? iOS allows this which I find very handy. I also like the ability to customize my backgrounds on iOS. For those that say you can't even see the background images well through the icons, you can arrange them as you like and can leave blank spots or even leave the first page blank except the bottom row as one of my friends is fond of.
Microsoft insists that the signal and battery meters disappear from the screen, but the capacitive buttons never dim or shut off. This makes no sense to me. I also find the random battery drains, even in airplane mode with all apps closed and no background tasks enabled infuriating. When I go into work, I turn airplane mode on. When I come out eight hours later, I may have 95% of my battery remaining or 20%. Why?
As for what I miss from my everyday iPhone use, I miss the larger, more sensitive screen. I miss the dedicated search button and I miss the wireless charging. Though in more recent phones like the Lumia 925 and 1020, the wireless charging is not built-in and requires a special shell. To me this is @$$-backwards since it is one of Lumia 920's strongest selling points.
So, that's my story. Please don't flame as it's pointless. I look forward to this OS (hopefully) maturing and filling my needs.