W10M User Reviews and Impressions!

[HoosierDaddy]

And I know this is picky, but why do you swipe left to delete an email but right to delete a notification?

One was coded by a Democrat and the other by a Republican?

 

[AzurAccess]

I've been using a Lumia 735 for the last year (convert from iOS), and while I love WP8.1 (update 2, Denim), I've been eagerly awaiting the new 950 for its faster processor and superior camera. So the new phone came over the holidays. And I hated it so much after 2 days that I immediately returned it and have reverted to my 735. This was not a case of not liking the new 950 and its W10Mobile just because it's new or different, but because it's clearly (IMHO) inferior. Here's my summary of what's wrong with Windows 10 Mobile as run on the Lumia 950:

Phone -
Cheap side buttons, very poor feel.
Indifferent styling and colors.
Washed out screen colors & display.
Still has audio jack on top.

OS -
Despite nominally fast processor and ample RAM, apps often open slowly and there is lots of lag throughout user experience. Often worse than on my Lumia 735. (NB: I did a fresh install, not restored from backup.)
Poor use of screen real estate: Icons are crude and clunky given the size and nominal quality of display available. Especially bad:
OneDrive - much worse than WP8.1
Mail app looks worse, missing functionality.
Feels like entire interface has been dumbed down, made more childish
Icon and font design: muted and dull compared to 8.1. Also, fonts are often too small or too big, and UI is not as well integrated. In many places words are cut off at bottom of screen despite plenty of room available.
Contextual presses don't work or are non existent as compared to WP8.1. Overall feel is clumsy
Unlock buttons don't highlight when touched.
Settings are harder to navigate methodically: wrong headed attempt to show related settings doesn't permit backing out to same location you started, hence cannot work down settings in comprehensive way
Quick access settings are flawed: rather than taking you to, say, Wi-Fi so that you can select/change network, now the quick access buttons act as on/off toggles. To get access to the actual function you have to take a longer route.
Several settings that used to allow live tile views, like data sense and storage sense, are no longer available.
Many settings are no longer available to pin to start, eg. Call Block.
Edge browser: Dreadful and half baked.
Favorites don't transfer from WP8.1;
Missing functionality: Swiping back and forth between pages doesn't work.
Many other issues, like swipe writing doesn't work in Edge despite it working elsewhere in OS
Camera:
Despite supposed superior ability, nothing special is apparent (maybe due to poor screen quality, see above).
Non intuitive control of camera operation, eg. Live capture taken when it's not intended.
Phone and message apps: Often long lags in receiving notifications
Weather app: Now shows next three hours on live tile rather than next three days, not as useful.
App Store is dreadful, way worse!
Many apps choose hamburger menu convention when they don't need to. Older style felt more natural
Office suite: While it can be nice to be able to edit docs from phone, most usual use case is simple viewing. Now to view you're in editing mode by default - dangerous! It was better under WP8.1.
Some apps aren't available in new OS.
Thumbnail photos are now round instead of square in people app, example of stupid change for change sake.
Maps are terrible! Whereas old Here Maps worked well new replacements don't do same things, and details are washed out (inexplicable given the nominally superior screen). The maps look bad.
Music app, Grove: Maybe ok, but interface is very different and it wasn't clear that my music collection was intact or fully available as before.
Photos app: loses favorites, so can't use them for live tile. Not as good since less control over what shows on live tile.
Windows Hello isn't practical, should've been finger ID.

General comment: many of the clear deteriorations in the new phone OS are probably an artifact of trying to implement a single OS across all devices and form factors, which in turn suggests this single OS approach is flawed, at least with respect to use on a phone. I doubt Continuum will be more than a gee-whiz item, and so it's a case of the tail waging the dog, sacrificing phone utility for an imagined but not actual nor useful integration.

Reposted from Lumia 950 "unhappy camper" thread

 

[Svein Otterlei1]

As of today I'm abandoning the sinking ship named "Windows 10 Mobile" (If I ever get back, depends on Microsoft)

After being introduced to Windows Phone 8.1, which had the same userfriendly interface as known from Nokia, my impression is that Win 10 Mobile is developing in the wrong direction. A lot of different functions, good and useful for some, useless or not needed for others.
Menu system is far from being as userfriendly as 8.1, but one need to live with changes.
What pisses me of most, is the different functions, and the possibility to choose whether you want it or not.
Message center: A good thing IF it can be user specified what to show or not. Messages: Now including both Skype and (Facebook Messages ?) allthough those can be found in their respective Apps. When I receive an SMS (I thought it was) and opens, just to find 37 Skype messages until I found the SMS.............for Gods sake, this is not what I need in Messages. This came as a default, after an upgrade.
SO PLEASE MICROSOFT: Whatever function YOU want to give ME, Please let it be an OPTION , not a DEFAULT that cannot be deleted or deactivated.
I thought the purpose of the Insider Program were for Microsoft to listen to us as users, but lack of feedbacks gives me the impression that YOU don't care at all.
At this very moment, my personal impression is: Windows 10 Phone are doomed to fail, and will be added to the list of failures, as Windows ME and Vista.

SO PLEASE MICROSOFT: If any MS representatives reads this, OPEN YOUR EYES; AND EARS...................or crash and get abandoned. R.I.P

 

[Josh Harman]

To spare you of a long winded rant, like from those with issues and that I think are full of sheet...
Windows 10 is working great on my 950. I love it.

 

[Svein Otterlei1]

I've been using a Lumia 735 for the last year (convert from iOS), and while I love WP8.1 (update 2, Denim), I've been eagerly awaiting the new 950 for its faster processor and superior camera. So the new phone came over the holidays. And I hated it so much after 2 days that I immediately returned it and have reverted to my 735. This was not a case of not liking the new 950 and its W10Mobile just because it's new or different, but because it's clearly (IMHO) inferior. Here's my summary of what's wrong with Windows 10 Mobile as run on the Lumia 950:

Phone -
Cheap side buttons, very poor feel.
Indifferent styling and colors.
Washed out screen colors & display.
Still has audio jack on top.

OS -
Despite nominally fast processor and ample RAM, apps often open slowly and there is lots of lag throughout user experience. Often worse than on my Lumia 735. (NB: I did a fresh install, not restored from backup.)
Poor use of screen real estate: Icons are crude and clunky given the size and nominal quality of display available. Especially bad:
OneDrive - much worse than WP8.1
Mail app looks worse, missing functionality.
Feels like entire interface has been dumbed down, made more childish
Icon and font design: muted and dull compared to 8.1. Also, fonts are often too small or too big, and UI is not as well integrated. In many places words are cut off at bottom of screen despite plenty of room available.
Contextual presses don't work or are non existent as compared to WP8.1. Overall feel is clumsy
Unlock buttons don't highlight when touched.
Settings are harder to navigate methodically: wrong headed attempt to show related settings doesn't permit backing out to same location you started, hence cannot work down settings in comprehensive way
Quick access settings are flawed: rather than taking you to, say, Wi-Fi so that you can select/change network, now the quick access buttons act as on/off toggles. To get access to the actual function you have to take a longer route.
Several settings that used to allow live tile views, like data sense and storage sense, are no longer available.
Many settings are no longer available to pin to start, eg. Call Block.
Edge browser: Dreadful and half baked.
Favorites don't transfer from WP8.1;
Missing functionality: Swiping back and forth between pages doesn't work.
Many other issues, like swipe writing doesn't work in Edge despite it working elsewhere in OS
Camera:
Despite supposed superior ability, nothing special is apparent (maybe due to poor screen quality, see above).
Non intuitive control of camera operation, eg. Live capture taken when it's not intended.
Phone and message apps: Often long lags in receiving notifications
Weather app: Now shows next three hours on live tile rather than next three days, not as useful.
App Store is dreadful, way worse!
Many apps choose hamburger menu convention when they don't need to. Older style felt more natural
Office suite: While it can be nice to be able to edit docs from phone, most usual use case is simple viewing. Now to view you're in editing mode by default - dangerous! It was better under WP8.1.
Some apps aren't available in new OS.
Thumbnail photos are now round instead of square in people app, example of stupid change for change sake.
Maps are terrible! Whereas old Here Maps worked well new replacements don't do same things, and details are washed out (inexplicable given the nominally superior screen). The maps look bad.
Music app, Grove: Maybe ok, but interface is very different and it wasn't clear that my music collection was intact or fully available as before.
Photos app: loses favorites, so can't use them for live tile. Not as good since less control over what shows on live tile.
Windows Hello isn't practical, should've been finger ID.

General comment: many of the clear deteriorations in the new phone OS are probably an artifact of trying to implement a single OS across all devices and form factors, which in turn suggests this single OS approach is flawed, at least with respect to use on a phone. I doubt Continuum will be more than a gee-whiz item, and so it's a case of the tail waging the dog, sacrificing phone utility for an imagined but not actual nor useful integration.

Reposted from Lumia 950 "unhappy camper" thread

I couldn't agree more, even though I've had the Prewiew Build (Insider Versions) Rest In Peace Windows 10 Phone.

 

[LMKz]

Here's my list of irritants, just about ready to try Android, Microsoft have had soooo long to get simple software right:

• When trying to navigate to a message, hangs with "Resuming..." quite often
• Every update replaces Lumia camera tile with crap MS camera tile
• Edge sucks in that you can't use swipe keyboard properly (can't delete and sloooow)
• Edge occasionally crashes with a blank screen, refresh doesn't fix.
• Outlook mail (where do I start), uploads and downloads of attachments are unbelievably slow, even for small files. Terrible and slow rendering of HTML emails. Live tile mail count gets stuck sometimes. New messages sometimes don't notify. etc etc big steaming ****.
• Prefer old calendar, which was awful in its own right. How hard can this be?
• Photos app takes a while to "sharpen"/load images when zoomed. Old app never had this problem.
• Battery life is absolutely terrible on my 1020
• Can't search for a song that's playing (maybe I just can't find how??)
• Search button (not Cortana) just generally worse in general, can't pinch zoom on image search.
• Slow to opens messages, emails, Messenger etc compared to 8.1
• Facebook app absolutely sucks incredibly badly
• No snapchat
• People app is slow

That's all I can think of for now, MS should be ashamed of themselves frankly.

 

[Koen C]

MS should be proud of "no snapchat" ;-)

On Lumia 640 : Works perfectly, some minor improvements will be appreciated but overall: Very happy W10-user.

 

[P1ng0fDeath]

after 2 months or so using W10M on my 930, i feel like its performance has worsened. It now takes longe to open some apps, like FB Messenger, and it's not so fast when multitasking anymore: sometimes i see 2 ou 3 seconds of black screen after switching to an app. Feels like the old days of Android.
Anyone else experienced this?

 

[falevics]

Using Lumia 950 for a month. Came from Android on S5 Neo. Fantastic phone. Faced some OS lags, but nothing general. I was just surprised how bad support on W10 is for FB and FB Messenger. Its weird to use EDGE for FB browsing on phone costed 550? )) but in general, I am satisfied. Waiting updates and increase of stability of OS. And also hope battery drain will be fixed.

 

[Florin_Anghel]

after 2 months or so using W10M on my 930, i feel like its performance has worsened. It now takes longe to open some apps, like FB Messenger, and it's not so fast when multitasking anymore: sometimes i see 2 ou 3 seconds of black screen after switching to an app. Feels like the old days of Android.
Anyone else experienced this?

ay! ay! same here! The longer it stays untouched (no reboots, soft resets) the slower it gets.
I feel like I am in the android eco system, on a 2 months basis - reset! :-/

 

[P1ng0fDeath]

ay! ay! same here! The longer it stays untouched (no reboots, soft resets) the slower it gets.
I feel like I am in the android eco system, on a 2 months basis - reset! :-/

yep. If it'll now behave like this (hope not), i might just well go to Android. The performance and stability WP8 offered was the main reason for me to stick with the platform. Hope they'll fix it if it is a OS issue in fact.

 

[nitroin]

To me W10M is a huge step ahead in regard of SO interoperability and functionality but a huge step backward in term of identity and continuity...

But...

But after I while (and re thinking) I agree that those step backwards are not because of the OS but only because of the apps that are preshipped and that in the past were absolutely fine and consistent.

An example could be with mail, contacts and sms. Those represent a step back in UI, consistency and speed:

• outlook under settings need the removal of some white pixel here and there (dark theme)
• sms app is generally slower than previous iteration (was faster on LG E900 and WP7) (with Snapdragon 400 I often see the loading page...)
• contacts has an alphabetical sorting that is designed completely different to others implementations (ex app list)

But I think it's the correct direction for MS, since the functionality has proliferate all over the place (in those apps too).

They need some polish and a new, clean and attractive, device line up.

 

[alexBuzias]

I can't believe a feature that was mentioned since like...2008 or earlier for windows phones still won't be delivered. I'd really like haptic feedback on keyboard. I don't want to get people mad like "wtf i hate that haptic feedback ****, i just turn it off instantly on any phone" just make it toggleable, but I think it's not a really major feature but it would make a great impact with many users that like this. Just my opinion, WP has a great keyboard and this is all it's missing, for me at least, at the moment. Keep on the updates and improvements coming

 

[colinkiama]

I can't believe a feature that was mentioned since like...2008 or earlier for windows phones still won't be delivered. I'd really like haptic feedback on keyboard. I don't want to get people mad like "wtf i hate that haptic feedback ****, i just turn it off instantly on any phone" just make it toggleable, but I think it's not a really major feature but it would make a great impact with many users that like this. Just my opinion, WP has a great keyboard and this is all it's missing, for me at least, at the moment. Keep on the updates and improvements coming

I'll post this in the feedback app.

 

[LimeSoda]

just about ready to try Android

I did that. I wish I hadn't now. Win 10 mob needs a lot of polish but Android UI is just pants and horrible.

1) Back button does not close apps and only works in an app but not intra-apps. Have to keep closing apps everytime I use the thing
2) Completely inconsistent UI.
3) Widgets ....very poor mans live tiles
4) Apps ...yes apps....some great wp apps missing on Android

 

[P1ng0fDeath]

1) Back button does not close apps and only works in an app but not intra-apps. Have to keep closing apps everytime

actually this is becoming a trend among apps since WP 8.1. FB Messenger and W10M settings menu for example, are suspend in background tasks rather than closed when the back button is pressed. Maybe that's better; i read in some threads here in WC that leaving the apps suspended, ready for when you need them again, is better than keeping opening them everytime you need (apparently this uses less resources and therefore less power), not to mention that it's faster than "cold-starting" the app each time.

4) Apps ...yes apps....some great wp apps missing on Android

probably, but the reverse situation is worse. We're still lacking both quantity and quality. The situation is better now than some time ago, but it still needs to improve a lot.


i completely agree with 2) and 3) though

 

[WP7_Genius]

All I can say is MS has a lot of work ahead if they want this is to be successful. This Edge Browser on this 640 is terrible. It's very unresponsive at time and when I select things it doesn't work properly, some sites don't even render correctly. Maybe cause I'm using this cheap phone and I'm getting what I paid for. I wish they would let us install .exe files then this could really go far. Not sure if that's in the works or not.

 

[hokto]

My Oneplus X order arrived last Friday. I have been using Ativ S for ~2.5 years and I had no previous experience with Android OS. WP Banking apps are well covered here in Finland, but OS baked features like Cortana\Bing are completely useless. I was rather surprised that Google voice dictation understands both standard Finnish and colloquial Finnish rather perfectly. The voice dictation comes very handy when searching street names. About the only app I miss from WP is MyTube, otherwise Android apps seem to work better. Another positive thing is that Oneplus X lags less than Ativ S did on WP8.1. Modern hardware etc, so not fair comparison, but you often hear those who say "my Lumia 920 runs faster than your Galaxy S6."

 

[Jeff Erson]

Nah. Everything is slow on my aging 920. I love tje additions from 8.1 but not optimized enough for the old devices.

 

[rishabh876]

Re: Windows 10 for Phones Reviews and Impressions

Hey guys, I am the developer of KitKat Launcher app on Windows Phone Store. This app will soon be removed from Windows Phone Store. Guys at Microsoft didn't seem to like this app and have mailed me that my app is not compliant, they have further written that the app promotes another mobile platform. Frankly I am not disappointed that much as I have moved on from Windows to Android. After being a hardcore Nokia fan to a Windows Phone fan. I found that Microsoft is not at all doing anything for Windows Phone. Windows Phone 10 is such a disappointment. Insider update have nothing new and it is still very unstable on my Lumia 1020. Basic apps like Store app sucks so bad. Windows Phone 8.1 use to feel very fluid. And now that I use iPhone 6s, Nexus 6. I felt that iOS and Android are much more fluid and feature rich. Features like action buttons in notifications, images in notification, interactive lockscreen, better multitasking makes me think what Windows phone really have better now. When I switch apps windows phone 10 shows resuming almost all the time. And the Apps, they are the only thing you use on the phone. No one buys a smartphone to play around with the OS. iOS and Android apps are not just higher in number, they have a lot better quality and feature. Same official app on Windows Phone will have trimmed down features. I was happy with Windows Phone until their updates and future was looking promising but now its time to move on. Try the material design instead of metro design. I think Material design came after Metro thats why it is much better thought out. Their developer documentation of material design shows how well they have planned it. Yes Android is also not perfect, it fills up phones storage quickly but usability is still far better than WP10, I didn't find it laggy at all, I didn't find it sucking up battery rather WP10's stand by battery was pathetic when I last used it. Windows Phones used be better in cheaper devices but they are unable to retain that market as well and have released 950 that I found very uninteresting. Microsofts phone designs not look premium now. Fabula design of N9 was so cool. Nokia used to have series like Xpress music. Under Microsoft their is nothin new, just catching up. Microsoft has shown so much creativity in Windows Surface line up but nothing in Windows Phone. Only place windows phone wins is in terms of amazing developer tools like Visual Studio, Blend. They are god as compared to Android Studio. But limited API's of Windows Phone makes it a poor choice again.