What Are Your Thoughts On Windows 10 Mobile VS 8.1?

[Ma Rio]

8.1 compared quite well, actually. The excellent UI and smoothness/stability, on a choice of hardware, some of which was also differentiating (camera, glance, design+colors).

Newest is best? Tell that to the vast majority who never adopted Windows ME or Vista, and stayed on 2000/XP. You can see some of the features discussed above. As someone mentioned above - 10 is at most a side step, aimed to please potential iOS and Android users with a now worse, non-differentiating UI, decreased stability and smoothness. To top that off, Microsoft offerings for hardware to run Windows 10 are 950/950XL vs. previous 920/930/1520 - I think most will agree that the designs are...uninspiring to say the least. And now everyone has nearly caught up with cameras, glance, etc.

To sum that up? A buggy OS missing apps, on cheap looking hardware? Why would I ever sign up for this to become a beta tester, or recommend it to anyone else?

I can't agree on that. All 8.1 had was that it was different - not necessarily better. And while the UI & UX changes in 10 aren't quite what I wanted, I understand that they are important because of OSes merging and all that stuff.
As for the performance and smoothness, I haven't really had any problems with that. Also, that kinda comes from the fact that the OS was really limited and basic that it couldn't stutter. And even if W10 is a bit slower, I'd rather work with a slower Photoshop, than a smooth Paint, to put it that way.
I also wouldn't call it a sidestep because of all the improvements that have been done, and please don't say they aren't that big.
While I agree that the devices MS offers are crappy, that's a story for another time, since we're talkin OS stuff here.
So as I said already, we just need some app updates, and the experience will be nearly perfect.

 

[libra89]

Day-to-day, it's whatever. I can't say there's a major improvement in W10M, but it's mostly similar, if you're not a heavy app user (which I'm not). The one major thing that I notice from 8.1 to 10 is that the new keyboard is a total ****. With 8.1 I struggled to get the words "definitely" and "probably" to work when swiping. Now, it seems like it struggles on every word shorter than 5 letters. It's infuriating to send messages with the swipe-based input now, to the point, I often find that my longer texts involve swiping 2-3 words, then tap-texting the rest as the keyboard throws a fit and refuses to properly enter a word like "could."

What phone do you have W10M on? I noticed the same with my 640, but with the 950, this issue doesn't happen to me ever.

 

[nedarata]

anybody miss here maps, lumia camera, all nokia imaging apps, gestures app, windows phone challenges, me tile, mix radio?

 

[dlalonde]

Windows Phone is gone. Windows 10 Mobile is here. That looks like an empty and obvious statement but it's actually loaded.

First, Windows Phone's UI was unique and modern. It was replaced by a kind of hybrid between Android (with it's ill-advised top left hamburger menu) and the tiles for the home screen. Now I love what they've done with the tiles, the settings and the notification/toggle drawer. Where we lost is in the apps. The unique look, the bottom controls, the beautiful backgrounds (the music hub, the photo hub, etc.). They're all gone and for shame.

Last, the hubs. A social hub was an awesome idea and was maintainable no matter what they say, they DECIDED not to put the effort to see it through (look at BlackBerry, they're still doing it on Android now). That should have been kept. The Music+Video hub which was broken in two horrible Xbox branded apps that took MONTHS AFTER public release before becoming barely usable and then changed to the boring Groove apps. Again another loss.

It's a completely new era and the old one is dead and gone. It was better then, to me anyway and I feel like Microsoft's lost the plot just to become a sort of pale Android copy. Instead of sticking with the copy without the apps, I went back to the real thing (Android) and never looked back. I still follow MS news but what made me turn to Windows Phone in 2013 (and made me an avid advocate of it for 2 years) is now gone.

 

[fdruid]

I honestly think it's a lot better than 8.1. I know because when I see someone's phone with 8.1 (there's a lot of 630s here, plus I gave my mom my old 920), there's a lot that's missing. And not only the interface which is way better, there's plently little things (and not so little) that wp 8.1 can't do. It's a really worthwile upgrade.

 

[ttsoldier]

Funny how quickly people forget.....

W10>WP8 for me...

Ya, we got some bugs and some stuff doesn't work properly... But I would never go back..

 

[anon(5325154)]

I have felt this for a long time, w10m has lost much of its predecessor's charm and character; elements that set it apart from Android/iOS and made the OS a joy to use. I used to pick up my phone and just scroll through its beautiful menus, pivots and hubs for no reason other than to marvel at their designs. The OS was minimalist yet usable especially for one-handed use.


Now the OS is utilitarian, flowing menus are all but gone and hambuger menus are everywhere. At a time when phone sizes are ballooning they've thrown one-handed use out the door and replaced it with a hacked one-handed mode. If there's nothing really setting w10m apart anymore, what's going to attract new users to the platform and make old users stay? That's the million dollar question and I'm not sure MS has a good answer to that.

 

[Blade800]

WP 8.1 was definitely snapier and W10 on old hardware is **** seriously. But once I got a phone which comes with W10 preinstalled (L650) the OS is much snappier and especially after Anniversary update. With a phone for 120 ? its really fast, the only complaint I have is the lagging/stuttering action center while swiping down or up when there are notifications. Its not as smooth as rest of the OS.

 

[a5cent]

Funny how quickly people forget......

I don't think anybody is forgetting anything. Most of the issues criticized in this thread were already being criticized over a year ago, when we had just switched from WP8.1 and everything about it was still fresh in our minds. Back then the standard response to these types of criticisms was to just wait it out, as W10M was still an early insider preview (ahem). Well, we've waited it out, and few of those early criticisms were addressed. It's that simple.

 

[a5cent]

I don't know guys, for me it's quite simple. Windows 10 is newer, thus is better. I mean, this is the age of progress, isn't it?

I could not disagree more. Being "new" has absolutely no value in and of itself.

Progress is great if it comes with improvement. Progress is worthless if it's just about being new without improvement. Don't get me wrong. I do think W10M is an improvement overall. It's definitely not better in every way however. In some specific ways it's objectively and decidedly worse. That's the gripe many here have with W10M.

Yes, 10 is not perfect (though it's 95% there for me), but the advantages outweight the disadvantages without a doubt.

You're stating that as a matter of fact, but whether that's actually true depends on how much each of us values those advantages and disadvantages! IMHO there is no right or wrong judgement here. Depending on how each of us use our personal devices and which aspects we deem important, I think it's completely valid to arrive at very different conclusions on how good W10M is and whether it's overall better or worse than WP8.1.

For me personally, W10M is better overall, but at the same time (with its androidesque UI and shedding of all WP specific innovations) it's lost everything that initially drew me to WP7 and WP8. IMHO the improvements in W10M do manage to make up for its disadvantages in comparison to WP8.1 (although barely), but for me personally, W10M no longer makes up for the disadvantages it has over iOS or Android.

I really can't believe so many of you are stil wanting 8.1 back.

This you've completely misunderstood. Nobody wants WP8.1 back. What people actually want is a W10M that is an improvement over WP8.1 in every way, rather than just in some ways, in particular:

• metro had some issues, but rather than throwing out all of the metro design principles, I would have liked to see MS improve upon and add to them.
• regain the fluid smoothness WP once exhibited (even on low end WP7 hardware)
• be more efficient rather than slower
• be more stable rather than frequently unreliable
• keep pushing UI and mobile innovation rather than becoming an androidesque clone.

Alas that's not going to happen, but I think that's what people actually wanted. What we actually got was W10M.

 

[Aamir Mustafa]

W10M is catching nicely to WindowsPhone8.1. There are many new features and improvements over 8.1. I m using it on L430 and my performance boosted with W10M and there are no loading/resuming screens and multitasking improved also.

 

[Keith Wallace]

What phone do you have W10M on? I noticed the same with my 640, but with the 950, this issue doesn't happen to me ever.

I have a 950.

 

[libra89]

I have a 950.

Ooh okay, thanks for answering. In that case, I agree with you actually. It seems like I have to start to type the whole word before it catches on.

 

[dlalonde]

I could not disagree more. Being "new" has absolutely no value in and of itself.

Progress is great if it comes with improvement. Progress is worthless if it's just about being new without improvement. Don't get me wrong. I do think W10M is an improvement overall. It's definitely not better in every way however. In some specific ways it's objectively and decidedly worse. That's the gripe many here have with W10M.



You're stating that as a matter of fact, but whether that's actually true depends on how much each of us values those advantages and disadvantages! IMHO there is no right or wrong judgement here. Depending on how each of us uses our devices and what was important to us, I think it's completely valid to arrive at very different conclusions on how good W10M is and whether it's overall better or worse than WP8.1.

For me personally, W10M is better overall, but at the same time (with its androidesque UI and shedding of all WP specific innovations) it's lost everything that initially drew me to WP7 and WP8. IMHO the improvements in W10M do manage to make up for its disadvantages in comparison to WP8.1 (although barely), but for me personally, W10M no longer makes up for the disadvantages it has over iOS or Android.



This you've completely misunderstood. Nobody wants WP8.1 back. What people actually want is a W10M that is an improvement over WP8.1 in every way, rather than just in some ways, in particular:

• metro had some issues, but rather than throwing out all of the metro design principles, I would have liked to see MS improve upon and add to them.
• regain the fluid smoothness WP once exhibited (even on low end WP7 hardware)
• be more efficient rather than slower
• be more stable rather than frequently unreliable
• keep pushing UI and mobile innovation rather than becoming an androidesque clone.

Alas that's not going to happen, but I think that's what people actually wanted. What we actually got was W10M.

Couldn't have phrased it better!

 

[tgp]

What people actually want is a W10M that is an improvement over WP8.1 in every way, rather than just in some ways, in particular:

<snip>

• regain the fluid smoothness WP once exhibited (even on low end WP7 hardware)
• be more efficient rather than slower
• be more stable rather than frequently unreliable
• keep pushing UI and mobile innovation rather than becoming an androidesque clone.

Your entire post was well said, and I agree. Considering the part quoted here, I believe the main reason early WP versions ran so smooth is because they were quite limited in function and features. In my experience, WP7 was the most fluid and smooth. This went downhill with progressive iterations, as features were added. At first I thought the WP OS was very efficient, but now I'm not convinced it actually was. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that if it was efficient, the reason was probably because there wasn't much there to run.

Android is often said to be inefficient, but yet on similar hardware is it any worse than W10M in speed and battery life? The only W10M device I had was a 920 upgraded through the Insider program, but that's not a good comparison to modern hardware with officially supported W10M.

 

[Ma Rio]

To be honest I think this is just a joke that's gone too far. From my understanding people mostly hate w10m because that's cool to do nowadays. Most of the arguments raised here don't really stand, and the expectations are nearly impossible to fulfil. All in all, I agree witih MS more than I do with people here, and I see (mostly) everything that's been done as an improvement, even the bad things, because they make way for more good things.

 

[a5cent]

Considering the part quoted here, I believe the main reason early WP versions ran so smooth is because they were quite limited in function and features.

This is a very common belief but it is just plain wrong. At the very least we'd have to be much more specific. The number of features/functions is irrelevant. What matters is what those functions/features do. Add a single feature that isn't well suited to mobile, and that single feature can singlehandedly make a smartphone unusable. On the other hand, we might literally add a hundred thousand configuration options to the settings menus and notice no difference at all. It depends.

Fact is, there is no single user-facing feature in WP8 or W10M that should make either any less efficient than WP7.

On the other hand, W10M is now entirely based on an OS that was originally designed for desktops and servers (hey... look at that... just like Android). That has introduced a huge amount of inefficiencies in comparison to WP7, which was based on an OS that was originally designed for (a) resource limited (b) embedded devices that must (c) fulfill real-time requirements (a very accurate description of a smartphone BTW). That's where the real differences lie. This has absolutely nothing to do with the number of features/functions.

This went downhill with progressive iterations, as features were added.

No. It went downhill as more and more components were integrated from the less efficient big brother.

At first I thought the WP OS was very efficient, but now I'm not convinced it actually was. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that if it was efficient, the reason was probably because there wasn't much there to run.

Again no. I collected a lot of empirical data on this a few years back when smartphone hardware performance mattered a lot more than it does now. Android was demonstrably and notably less efficient than WP7 (and always will be). Luckily for Android, the OS and available hardware have improved to a point where it just no longer really matters.

Android is often said to be inefficient, but yet on similar hardware is it any worse than W10M in speed and battery life?

The matter of efficiency is always relative. Compared to WP7 Android remains terribly inefficient, and always will be. However, none of my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants comparisons would lead me to believe Android is any less efficient than W10M. Quite the opposite actually.

It's not a completely accurate analogy, but I now think of W10M as being in the same position as Android was back in 2008... being adapted from a OS that was originally designed for a completely different kind of device, and with Microsoft having a long road of project-butter-like efforts ahead.

 

[a5cent]

To be honest I think this is just a joke that's gone too far.

An inability to comprehend differing opinions, or that different people have different smartphone priorities, doesn't make those differing opinions jokes. People have been raising exactly these issues for over a year now, since long before it was cool to hate W10M. Seriously, it should be obvious that this has absolutely nothing to do with hopping on the hate train.

Even if it did, you'd be well advised to attack the arguments that you disagree with, rather than the people.

 

[Ntei]

The matter of efficiency is always relative. Compared to WP7 Android remains terribly inefficient, and always will be. None of my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants comparisons would lead me to believe Android is any less efficient than W10M. Quite the opposite actually.

I have the 640 on the latest non insider update and I see no lag. What should I do to make my phone lag not including using poorly programmed apps? I am asking that cause I do not see your point even thought my phone is low end.

 

[xandros9]

I have the 640 on the latest non insider update and I see no lag. What should I do to make my phone lag not including using poorly programmed apps? I am asking that cause I do not see your point even thought my phone is low end.

Have worse luck?