Windows Phone 7 or Android for me?

[GekkoAce]

I like Pandora, but since I've had my WP7 I haven't missed it much. I use Zune Pass, but like you said, it's a bit expensive. I also use Last.FM. I've heard Spotify is fantastic, but I haven't tried it yet. Also, someone else pointed out; Pandora is likely coming after Mango is released.

WP7 will most likely never have Flash. Adobe is even dropping Flash and replacing it with an HTML5 development kit called Edge.

If you live in the US then there's a law that mandates you're able to return your phone (if it requires a contract) within 30 days, as long as it still works (don't drop it in the toilet or something). So, whichever OS you pick, you can always change your mind.

I recently picked up an At&t Nexus S from Best Buy. I loved my WP7, but I wanted to understand why everyone likes Android. I returned it after 13 days and got my upgrade elegibility back no questions asked. I'm just waiting for the Nokia Sea-Ray to come out now.

If you get a non-Mango phone there's a really simple tutorial on XDA that will show you how to install Mango before it's released. I followed the instructions on my Focus and Mango is AMAZING comapred to NoDo.

 

[archer75]

I did pick up an android phone as it was free, one day only. So I thought i'd grab it and see what it was all about. So far not too impressed. Something as simple as getting my podcasts on there and organized is a chore.
I miss having one central app like itunes to sync everything easily from one place. I'm having to use different methods to get my podcasts and ebooks on there.

I'm hoping that process is easier for a windows phone. I know there is a windows media connector for the mac which looks like it will sync podcasts right from itunes. I'm not crazy about the zune software on a PC and would prefer to have it sync with itunes there was well.

How does one get their own ebooks from their desktop onto a windows phone?

I still have 28 more days to return this phone if it doesn't work out. I can always pick up a focus for free or a HD7S for $50.

 

[L3vi]

Which Android phone?

 

[baseballbert]

WP7 is the way to go

Pros: screen, fast, easy to learn, home screen tiles are nice to have, not an iphone, light, nice design, comfortable to hold, good call quality, takes great pictures, email easy to integrate, fast web speeds, good speakerphone, apps load in the background (dro

Cons: app store missing a few key apps that I use (Plaxo/Square), but I'm sure they will show up in time. Ringer, even all the way up, is a little hard to hear. That's about it really.

Summary: This is a great handset. My wife played with it for a little while, and she liked it quite a bit. "Its a lot lighter than my iPhone. I like it."

I was getting tired of iOS and the shrowd of secrecy over the iPhone 5. After several hours of research/playing with the phone, I chose WP7 over Android and iOS. I really like the home screen layout and the way you can customize it. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but I'm switching OS platforms, so I expected as much.

It has been pretty intuitive in terms of the phone functions the way I'm guessing it will as I try to get to know it. That is key. That's one of the things I didn't like about Android. I'm not interested in massive customization, and having to jump through bells and whistles to get things done. This platform is very user friendly and I'd recommend it.

The proof this OS is cool is that one of the college students I work with said "my friends has one of those phones, its sick." So, there you go. 18-22 year-olds think WP7 is cool, and that's a hard demographic to impress!

 

[archer75]

What I really want to know about WP7 now isn't so much the features, i've seen those, it's syncing. It's all about getting my data on the phone. Does anyone have any experience with mac syncing and getting your podcasts on the phone? I know I can subscribe and download directly on the phone, I can do that as well on my android. But I sync with many devices and use them for different purposes so I want one central location to sync from. Up until now that's been itunes and it's worked well. The WP connector for mac is supposed to be able to sync those podcasts. But as i'm finding with podcast syncing on android all the episodes just get jumbled together and it makes navigate my shows very difficult.

I have yet to find anywhere about how to get ebooks on it.

How well does the google account in mango integrate into the phone? Will the phone, with a google account, integrate google talk? texting via google voice? Into the various aspects of communication and history.

 

[cdook]

With Mango I think you're supposed to be able to take the PC out of the equation. You should should be able to download podcasts over WiFi. Doesn't help you now, but yea...

You can use the Kindle app for eBooks. If you've got your own, convert them to PDF and email them to yourself and use Adobe Reader to open them.

I know there's a Google voice app out there, I think it's called gVoice, but I've never used it.

 

[archer75]

Yeah, I just want to sync from a central location. If I can grab podcasts via that location over wifi that's fine. I'm just hoping it retains last location on each podcast.

All my ebooks are my own. I've never gotten kindle to import ebooks from any other platfrom. I'd prefer not to convert them. I do have some in PDF but most are epub's. I'm sure there must be a reader that can handle them. Can the phone pull content from dropbox? When you connect it to a desktop do you get access to the file system so you can copy and paste them over?

 

[GekkoAce]

I'm not sure about eBooks, but the new podcast subscriptions built into Mango is awesome! Even before mango I didn't have to plug my phone into my computer because Zune auto downloads my subscriptions and my phone would wirelessly sync over WiFi each time I charged it.

Sent from my Samsung Focus using WP7!

 

[GekkoAce]

I tried out a nexus s recently. I returned it and went back to my Focus. Podcasts on android were a nightmare.

Sent from my Samsung Focus using WP7!

 

[UpTownDC]

What I really want to know about WP7 now isn't so much the features, i've seen those, it's syncing. It's all about getting my data on the phone. Does anyone have any experience with mac syncing and getting your podcasts on the phone? I know I can subscribe and download directly on the phone, I can do that as well on my android. But I sync with many devices and use them for different purposes so I want one central location to sync from. Up until now that's been itunes and it's worked well. The WP connector for mac is supposed to be able to sync those podcasts. But as i'm finding with podcast syncing on android all the episodes just get jumbled together and it makes navigate my shows very difficult.

I have yet to find anywhere about how to get ebooks on it.

How well does the google account in mango integrate into the phone? Will the phone, with a google account, integrate google talk? texting via google voice? Into the various aspects of communication and history.

I'm using GVoice for Google Talk. It works pretty will. You can use IM+ for your Google talk. Both of these apps are free.

 

[Yakolev]

I am buying myself a ZTE Blade, but thats just because they are purely awesome in every single way.

 

[archer75]

Can you change program defaults on WP7? The coolest thing i've found with android is I can change default apps for various things. And unlike ios it's smart enough to know what other applications are installed and gives you the option of what you want to use for what. Or can auto associate file extensions with the appropriate app you downloaded.

 

[ryude]

Can you change program defaults on WP7? The coolest thing i've found with android is I can change default apps for various things. And unlike ios it's smart enough to know what other applications are installed and gives you the option of what you want to use for what. Or can auto associate file extensions with the appropriate app you downloaded.

No, WP7 is about simplicity. You won't find customization, but it is very smooth/fast/just works.

 

[archer75]

No, WP7 is about simplicity. You won't find customization, but it is very smooth/fast/just works.

But that is simplicity and it falls under the "just works" mantra. When the system can see what's installed and assign a new file format to that without leaving you wondering what to do. That's "just works" at it's best. The file opens merely by selecting it and you don't have to think about how to open it.
It's funny that android has flash because I need it less on that platform than others because it associates the correct app with the correct file/link(not 100% of the time, but enough, almost).

Honestly, it boggles my mind that i've been asking on both android and WP7 forums, several of them, about how to put ebooks on their perspective devices and nobody knows how. Does nobody read books? I've started with ebooks on my dell axim back in 2003 and have been using them ever since. So getting my own ebooks on my device is kind of a big deal. I know how to do it on android now, not as easy as ios but it works. Still waiting on how to do it on WP7.

While I do have an android phone I still have time to return it if WP7 is compelling enough but as of yet I haven't figured out how to do the things I want to do with it.

 

[Fleon]

Sorry, yes. I can address some of your questions. I have a couple of android phones and a couple more devices as well as two WP7 phones. I'll answer your ebook question for each.

Ebooks---
Android: I use Calibre as my ebook management software. It has the ability to launch a server (OPDS server). It's an extremely popular piece of software and there is an Android app called Calibre Library ($5) which allows you to connect to that OPDS server and download books. If you screw around with it enough, you can get it to automatically download the book to a directory of your choice and ebooks apps like the Nook app or Moon Reader can automatically pick up the book and you can start reading. It works.

WP7: Much easier to use, in a lot of ways, but fewer options in the app store. A couple of notable ones are Freda or ABookReader. Both connect to your dropbox account and you just pick the book you want to read. Freda also can connect to the Calibre OPDS server and you can search/download books that way. The dropbox thing is dead simple, however and works very well. I prefer this, as it is completely cross-platform and I don't have to spend 1-2 hours every times I reset my Android device trying to figure out why books don't seem to get picked up.


It sounds like Flash is pretty important to you; in that case you are probably better on Android since it's really the only mobile solution with Flash. In reading how your need for flash is alleviated by apps, it comes to mind that one neat thing that WP7 does (Android can, as well, but it works less frequently) is that, when you go to a website with an associated app on your phone, it pops up a thing suggesting you run the app. BBS websites are particularly good at this....

You can not change program defaults in WP7. There are reasons for this- some of the Android malware operates by changing the default apps to non-safe applications. An example I read of this involves changing the default browser to an identical browser with a keylogger. Somewhat problematic. Moreover, the whole idea of "Apps" is less strong in WP7 than it is in Android or iOS- deep integration is more the key here. For example, instead of taking a picture, exiting the camera app, going to the app list, finding a picture editor, launching it, then picking a photo, editing it and saving it as you would in Android, WP7 performs the same operation like this: take a picture, and, while looking at that just-taken photo, hit extras and immediately launch the picture editor you want. The OS is intelligent enough to know which apps should associate with certain types of files.

Podcasts----
I don't know the exact state of Zune on the Mac, but in WP7 a PC is really rarely needed. I think the app you'd want is BringCast. Supports streaming and (maybe?) downloading podcasts. However, this is assuming that you can't find the podcast in the mobile Zune marketplace. If it's listed there, you don't have to worry at all- you just subscribe to the podcast from the marketplace and it will automatically download everytime you are on WiFi. You can also set this to download even when you are on 3G, but that's not enabled by default to save on your data connection.


Overall---
For a hobby device, I enjoy Android. I put on custom ROMs, hack it, don't worry about updates. It's fun. I just wouldn't want to rely on it. My Samsung Captivate is still lacking the latest updates, and don't even get me started on why my HTC won't update without losing half of the reasons I bought the phone in the first place.

WP7 is polished. Much more so than Android, and the UI is excellently thought out. It's more limited, definitely, but I don't mind some of the walled garden approach when I get these things in return: safe apps, apps that work consistently, ease of use, decent hardware. I don't get the first 3 on Android. And (this is a real thing) I don't have to worry about the Android malware that was discovered recording calls and sending them back to the malware writers.


Conclusion---
If flash is that important, you'll need to stick with Android. It's really the only thing there that will do it. If not, there are reasons on both sides to go with each. Power-user vs Ease of Use/Elegance/Simplicity is a start, but with Power-user you'll need to remember there is a corresponding increase in micromanagement. F

Feel free to ask any questions, I'll try to answer what I can.

But that is simplicity and it falls under the "just works" mantra. When the system can see what's installed and assign a new file format to that without leaving you wondering what to do. That's "just works" at it's best. The file opens merely by selecting it and you don't have to think about how to open it.
It's funny that android has flash because I need it less on that platform than others because it associates the correct app with the correct file/link(not 100% of the time, but enough, almost).

Honestly, it boggles my mind that i've been asking on both android and WP7 forums, several of them, about how to put ebooks on their perspective devices and nobody knows how. Does nobody read books? I've started with ebooks on my dell axim back in 2003 and have been using them ever since. So getting my own ebooks on my device is kind of a big deal. I know how to do it on android now, not as easy as ios but it works. Still waiting on how to do it on WP7.

While I do have an android phone I still have time to return it if WP7 is compelling enough but as of yet I haven't figured out how to do the things I want to do with it.

 

[archer75]

Ebooks---
Android: I use Calibre as my ebook management software. It has the ability to launch a server (OPDS server). It's an extremely popular piece of software and there is an Android app called Calibre Library ($5) which allows you to connect to that OPDS server and download books. If you screw around with it enough, you can get it to automatically download the book to a directory of your choice and ebooks apps like the Nook app or Moon Reader can automatically pick up the book and you can start reading. It works.

I do use calibre to convert books over to .epub and it works well. Never really looked at for anything beyond that. That is a good suggestion!

WP7: Much easier to use, in a lot of ways, but fewer options in the app store. A couple of notable ones are Freda or ABookReader. Both connect to your dropbox account and you just pick the book you want to read. Freda also can connect to the Calibre OPDS server and you can search/download books that way. The dropbox thing is dead simple, however and works very well. I prefer this, as it is completely cross-platform and I don't have to spend 1-2 hours every times I reset my Android device trying to figure out why books don't seem to get picked up.

Awesome. Dropbox does help make it easier.

Yeah I just found that I can use dropbox on android as well and not only will my ebook app automatically open the book it also gives me the option to download it from dropbox to the phone to store.

It sounds like Flash is pretty important to you; in that case you are probably better on Android since it's really the only mobile solution with Flash. In reading how your need for flash is alleviated by apps, it comes to mind that one neat thing that WP7 does (Android can, as well, but it works less frequently) is that, when you go to a website with an associated app on your phone, it pops up a thing suggesting you run the app. BBS websites are particularly good at this....

Yeah on android i'm finding I need flash less because it tends to open links in the appropriate app. Certainly more than ios ever did. It seems to know what file extensions go with what app and it just does it. And sometimes i'm given options as to what I want a link to open in which is nice.

For example, instead of taking a picture, exiting the camera app, going to the app list, finding a picture editor, launching it, then picking a photo, editing it and saving it as you would in Android, WP7 performs the same operation like this: take a picture, and, while looking at that just-taken photo, hit extras and immediately launch the picture editor you want. The OS is intelligent enough to know which apps should associate with certain types of files.

I don't need to edit photos on the phone, i'd transfer them to my desktop if need be. However my camera app on android has editing built in so I can tweak all from within the same app I took the picture with.

Podcasts----
I don't know the exact state of Zune on the Mac, but in WP7 a PC is really rarely needed. I think the app you'd want is BringCast. Supports streaming and (maybe?) downloading podcasts. However, this is assuming that you can't find the podcast in the mobile Zune marketplace. If it's listed there, you don't have to worry at all- you just subscribe to the podcast from the marketplace and it will automatically download everytime you are on WiFi. You can also set this to download even when you are on 3G, but that's not enabled by default to save on your data connection.

I do have a similar app on android. However because I do sync podcasts with multiple devices I like to use itunes to manage it and then distribute from there. The WP7 connector software for mac looks like it will work for that exact purpose. It pulls from itunes and I see a podcast section in the screenshot. Without a phone I can't test it though.
Syncing podcasts from my desktop onto android involves more manual steps to get it organized on the phone the way I want.

I just discovered the swipe keyboard on android and for the first time I can finally type on the damn thing! I suck at touch keyboards, even on my ipad so this is a god send. Does WP7 have a swipe keyboard?

I've also discovered a google voice app for android that allows me to place and receive calls over wifi for free. This is beneficial because my cell signal at my home can fluctuate a great deal so being able to use my home network makes for more reliable calls here. Is there a similar app for WP7?

Navigation works great on android with google maps. I know WP7 gets a navigation boost with mango. Have you tested that yet?
Google maps in android for navigation is nice because i'm able to layer various things onto the map while navigating, such as restaurants.

 

[Fleon]

Swipe- no. I have swipe on my Captivate. Love it, so much better than the stock Android keyboard. I find, however, that I do even better on the WP7. The keyboard is just like any of the standard touchscreen keyboards but as long as I trust it to autocorrect, it works 90% of the time. I actually get about 10wpm faster on the WP7 than with Swipe. The auto-correct is just that much better than other touchscreens I've used. But I agree, swipe is very cool.

Google Voice exists on WP7, but does not allow voice calls. This may change with Mango and, of course, MS just bought Skype. There's a Skype client already announced for Wp7, but I expect unparalleled skype integration with the next WP7 update.

Navigation is not so great out of the box in Mango. The maps are good- great in fact (my opinion based on look and feel, not on content. The content is there, of course, it just looks better on WP7) The stupid thing is that the directions aren't exactly automated turn-by-turn. It will ding when it's time to turn, and the voice directions are actually a bit better- they give more notifications than Android and more details. However- and this is the idiotic part- you have to then tap the screen to get it to move to the next set of directions. I know this is a licensing issue with the map providers, but it sucks.

However, there is a very decent solution for $5 in the marketplace called Turn By Turn navigation which makes it a very good gps that can even download maps prior to leaving to save on data and to prevent problems if you go out of 3G areas while driving.

---

There is a very nice feature in Mango called local scout which does a very good job of finding restaurants around you. You can also tap and hold on a place on the map to see what restaurants/stores/etc are nearby. It's very elegantly done- a bit better than the Google implementation but the quantity of content is slightly worse.

 

[archer75]

Thank you again, very good info. I have been watching videos of mango demos to get a feel for the features but there isn't much out there on the nitty gritty of it. Just the stuff on the surface.


Any other cool things about wp7 you can think of please share!

 

[Fleon]

That's the great part of Mango. Unlike Android, you don't have fight your way to getting it to work. It ... just works. And it works quite well.

Since you ask, here are some things that I like about it:

Lockscreen shows unread txts, mail, next appointment. Some Android builds do this, not all.

Live Tile Groups- Omg awesome. You put up to 20 people in a group and the phone polls every 30 min (possibly 1 hour, not sure on the internals of this) and displays the most recent twitter/WL/Facebook update on the Tile. Click into this and you have a beautiful screen of tiles flipping around to show missed calls, FB updates, recently shared photos. Just beautiful and alive.

FB Calendar- Since the phone integrates with Facebook, when you get an Event invite, it puts it on your calendar. Just click into that appointment and you get the Wall posts associated with that Event, who is attending, details, and the ability to RSVP. If you respond with "not attending" it is automatically removed.

Exchange support- Seriously, Android still can't do this. I have no idea why, but I can't get multiple calendars to sync, half the time the mail is missing pieces, there's no option to download all mail. WP7 does this correctly.

Text streams- Text messages, Facebook chat, and WLM chats are all integrated in the same place. Switching between the three is seamless and the phone is intelligent in reminding you when someone isn't online with a particular service anymore.

Skydrive- works. Great hub for Office docs, other files. Links pretty well to the phone.

Office- If you haven't used Onenote, you don't know what you are missing. I take notes/pictures/voice message on pages in Onenote and it automatically syncs to my PC and to the Skydrive cloud service. I have access to every single piece of paper and note I've written in 6 years- was very handy when arguing with the car repair guy who had conveniently lost my service record.

Zune Pass- I think you mentioned you wouldn't use this, but it's a very good service. The phone is an excellent music player and combined with Zune pass you can purchase music anytime, anywhere. Neither iPhone nor Android have anything comparable.

Battery life- better than Android, definitely. Not as good as iPhone.

Photos- seamless integration with Skydrive's albums. Very nicely done. Picasa isn't quite as smooth. Again it's the difference in "app-centric" and "deep-integration".

---
There are things WP7 is missing, particularly in the wide range of apps that are available on other platforms. Personally, I've only found 1 app missing that I'd have liked to have had, but your experience might be different. WP7 is young, not as mature as the other two OS, but I personally think it's a better start and it's quite fun to see it grow. None of them are perfect solutions, I suppose, I just like WP7 more as my personal phone.

 

[archer75]

From what I understand WP7 can't support multiple google calendars. Just the main one?

Does the messaging tile display info from other sources? For example, i'm pretty entrenched in google voice. With the govoice app installed with the messaging tile incorporate texts from that app? How about chats via the IM+ app?
I don't use windows messenger or facebook chat. All my communication is texts via google voice, chat via google talk and email via gmail.

I do have a MSN email account that I am starting to use as well but it won't be a my main. I also have skydrive setup but find that more apps use dropbox so i'm kind of forced to use that.

I have not used onenote even though I downloaded the app on my ipad. I keep saying we need to move paperless and scan all my file cabinet into a digital solution but haven't gotten around to it. I also have a evernote account but haven't used that either.

Zune pass is fine and all. I just don't want to pay $15/month. And I do enjoy creating stations as they tend to have more variety than what I would put into a playlist and they are great for discovering new music. And there is no zune client for the mac. And I just don't like the zune software.
I prefer pandora. I guess I can make last.fm work for me.

At first my android had horrible battery life. There was a lot of tweaking involved. Auto shutdown apps, battery mode, killing unecessary notifications. And now my phone lasts longer than my wife's iphone 4. Took some work to get it there though!

I found a great camera app for android that is aware of other social apps on my phone and lets me send photos to a twitter client of my choice, facebook and even google+ which i'm starting to use. Very nice!

Basically I want to be able to do the things I want to do and not be tied to one ecosystem.
I like to be able to use a mac or a PC to keep all devices in sync. I like to be able to sync my data with any phone OS. So far I know I can do this with ios and mac and pc. I can do it as well with android but not as elegantly. And as you know i'm trying to understand how to do this on WP7. I like the interface so much I installed launcher 7 on my android!

I'm not sure how well windows phone plays with and integrates google services into the phone. I know there is a google voice app, I know it supports gmail and that I can chat with IM+. I'm not sure how well google calendar works with it. I'd use more microsoft services but hotmail lacks IMAP and i'm not sure how well the hotmail calendar integrates into the ipad/imac. I supposed I can always test that out.
I will also use me MSN email account for some things and when icloud launches i'll also use a apple email account. But my gmail account is my primary.
So i'm kind of all over the map!

Thanks again for your help. Your feedback is very much appreciated! The only place around here I can actually play with a working windows phone is the AT&T store and that doesn't have mango.