First lets start with my history. I say my first smartphone was an SPV C500 and I moved through to the SPV C600, MDA compact III, HTC HD2, Samsung Omnia 7, HTC 8X and finally Lumia 650 (which is some ways is a step back from my old HTC 8X). So its fair to say I've been with a Windows based platform for a long time.
I work for a company who offer tv, broadband, phone and mobile services and I get some decent perks, one of which is half price mobile phone, but their choice of phone has historically been limited and the past couple of years offered no Windows Phone devices.
In the past few years I wanted to upgrade my phone but as they no longer offer Windows phones I was "forced" to go android. For 2 years I got an Android flagship phone and ended up sending it back.
I found the Android layout unintuitive.. Rows of ugly icons with no continuity of style or functionality. I tried a few widgets in an attempt to recreate some sort of home page, but it just looked terrible. Either the widget was an afterthought and had no useful purpose or it seems to be completing for your attention like an obnoxious web advert.
I then found the lack of continuity annoying. This may be just a different ways in which Windows and Android works but this doesn't help the annoyance any less. For example is when viewing text messages. On Android, when I press the back button at the bottom of the phone, some times it takes me back to my text messages screen and sometimes it takes me back to the phone's home screen. Sometimes I find myself when wanting to view a text message, opening up the messaging app, noticing Im viewing a previous message, I press back, go back to the home screen, open messages which then opens to the main messaging screen.
I found this in several applications.
The there is the minefield of apps. I downloaded an app which would speak the time every 5 mins. The app was a gps testing app as I was questioning the accuracy. The app wasn't open at the time nor was it listed in the running apps, nor was there is no mention that it would do this nor was there any options to turn it off.
Another example of minefield apps, I local pizza place has their own app to order food, to avoid having to pay Just Eat their large cut. However installing the app it asks for permission to my, Bluetooth, contacts, location, photos, device information, microphone to name just a few things. Why does a small app to order pizza want access to my photos, microphone, contacts and Bluetooth?
In the end I thought, is this phone worth the £500 it currently sells for, and is it worth the £700 its going to cost me over the span of the contract? And the answer is not even close.
As a phone or communication device, be it phone calls, text, emails etc, I found the device terrible. Its lack of continuity between throughout its functions is way behind Windows Phone and iPhone.
Its always known the downfall of Windows Phone is the App Gap. As I understood it, several years ago Microsoft could have gone down the route of super compatible with android apps or its own UWP. UWP is a good idea in principal there are very few apps that will work well or are even required to work on a console, tablet, phone and PC.
After 10 days, I called my mobile provider saying I wanted to return the phone and I've gone back to my Lumia 650, which is under powered, poor camera and has some missing features. I will miss a couple of apps from android and miss the potential of using some I didn't try.
However these apps were not a good enough reason to put up with muddled, confused and patchwork of user interface and experience.
Im sticking with WP while I can. I hope that MS swallow their pride and open the possibility to use Android apps on their OS as I see this is the only way the Windows Phone platform can survive.
I work for a company who offer tv, broadband, phone and mobile services and I get some decent perks, one of which is half price mobile phone, but their choice of phone has historically been limited and the past couple of years offered no Windows Phone devices.
In the past few years I wanted to upgrade my phone but as they no longer offer Windows phones I was "forced" to go android. For 2 years I got an Android flagship phone and ended up sending it back.
I found the Android layout unintuitive.. Rows of ugly icons with no continuity of style or functionality. I tried a few widgets in an attempt to recreate some sort of home page, but it just looked terrible. Either the widget was an afterthought and had no useful purpose or it seems to be completing for your attention like an obnoxious web advert.
I then found the lack of continuity annoying. This may be just a different ways in which Windows and Android works but this doesn't help the annoyance any less. For example is when viewing text messages. On Android, when I press the back button at the bottom of the phone, some times it takes me back to my text messages screen and sometimes it takes me back to the phone's home screen. Sometimes I find myself when wanting to view a text message, opening up the messaging app, noticing Im viewing a previous message, I press back, go back to the home screen, open messages which then opens to the main messaging screen.
I found this in several applications.
The there is the minefield of apps. I downloaded an app which would speak the time every 5 mins. The app was a gps testing app as I was questioning the accuracy. The app wasn't open at the time nor was it listed in the running apps, nor was there is no mention that it would do this nor was there any options to turn it off.
Another example of minefield apps, I local pizza place has their own app to order food, to avoid having to pay Just Eat their large cut. However installing the app it asks for permission to my, Bluetooth, contacts, location, photos, device information, microphone to name just a few things. Why does a small app to order pizza want access to my photos, microphone, contacts and Bluetooth?
In the end I thought, is this phone worth the £500 it currently sells for, and is it worth the £700 its going to cost me over the span of the contract? And the answer is not even close.
As a phone or communication device, be it phone calls, text, emails etc, I found the device terrible. Its lack of continuity between throughout its functions is way behind Windows Phone and iPhone.
Its always known the downfall of Windows Phone is the App Gap. As I understood it, several years ago Microsoft could have gone down the route of super compatible with android apps or its own UWP. UWP is a good idea in principal there are very few apps that will work well or are even required to work on a console, tablet, phone and PC.
After 10 days, I called my mobile provider saying I wanted to return the phone and I've gone back to my Lumia 650, which is under powered, poor camera and has some missing features. I will miss a couple of apps from android and miss the potential of using some I didn't try.
However these apps were not a good enough reason to put up with muddled, confused and patchwork of user interface and experience.
Im sticking with WP while I can. I hope that MS swallow their pride and open the possibility to use Android apps on their OS as I see this is the only way the Windows Phone platform can survive.
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