With 8.1 support dropping soon, is it worth it to still use?

[chicken7613]

I am still using Windows phone 8.1 only because I'm stuck with Sprint and there is no upgrade to Windows 10 for the Samsung ativ s neo. Have a Lumia 635 512mb that runs Windows 10 mobile, its ok. But yeah Windows 8.1 is much more stable. Wish I could get an upgrade for the Ativ s neo though.

 

[nate0]

I figured that I'll ask, because I'm curious to know.

My dad only uses WhatsApp, HERE Maps, and MSN News so for him, I think it's worth it to stay on it. 8.1 is stable, and even though Windows 10 Mobile is becoming less glitchy, I would rather not have him deal with such an experience.

What do you think? Is 8.1 still worth using if one doesn't use many apps? Are you one of these people and/or do you have a friend/spouse/associate who is one of these people?

Edit: https://www.windowscentral.com/mainstream-support-windows-phone-81-ends-tomorrow

There's not enough choices for people if they want to move to W10M. Granted stability is better, and if your a fan you see past those warts and all. Mostly die harders still use the 950 series. I'm one of them . The HP and Alcatel are the only other two phones to choose from of any quality after that.

It depends on what they use their 8.1 device for though too. Security risks are still minimal at this point. But that could change. I'd say use it till the wheels fall off. What's the worse that could happen right? Heck folks still use Android 2.1 devices out there if you look hard enough and to me that's more of a worry.

 

[ScubaDog]

Well, I'm pretty unanimous in my support of WP8.1 over W10M. I will continue to use my Lumia 1020 as my daily driver. I don't consider my needs "minimalist". W10M brings nothing to the table that's all that special (I know, because I've been testing all the insider builds on my 950, which is a crappy device all its own). I get much more stable performance and faster performance from my 1020 than I do the 950. Just last night I was TRYING to record a video of choreography for a show I'm directing and the stupid thing kept sputtering and freezing. I whipped out the 1020 and had ZERO issues. So, yes, I'll keep relying on my 1020 and WP8.1.

 

[cowboy6201]

I moved along time ago to W10M when it1st came out I got a 950 from AT&T replaced my 1020 with it, glad I made the switch, even my 1020 is on W10M as well as my 640XL.
As the builds get higher they get better and better more stable all the time.
All my Apps stopped lagging when typing in them. Now I can type with no lag.
I'm with W10M till the dying end, I refuse to give my Android buddy the satisfaction of going with android, not happening ill ho back to a dumb phone before that ever happens, and as far as Ios F... That, I hate everything Apple royally.

 

[marktravisinfo]

Switched from W10M to Android. But for taking pics + video I still use my 1020 on 8.1 regularly.

 

[anon(9645112)]

Windows Phone 8.1 still rocks....

I have a Lumia 730 which I bought just 4 months after it's launch. I upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile officially when it rolled out and used it for about a year. Windows 10 Mobile bring much needed features and apps like Instagram and more improved things like Action Center. But it is inconsistent and unstable compared to Windows Phone 8.1. The Photos app can play living images and gifs and the camera app is unified well, but the overall photography experience while using those apps is buggy. Apps like HERE suite, 6tag, mytube work well on Windows Phone 8.1. MSN News WP8.1 app is clean with no ads and only the content to enjoy. No Creators Update for older devices even though they were capable and also the firmware version isn't even upgraded to bring more stability while running Windows 10 Mobile. Also Cortana is stable and looks good on WP8.1 wheareas it's boring and little bit slow on W10M. This made me roll back to Windows Phone 8.1, thanks to Microsoft for not killing that option.
Yes, there are a lot of things that I miss now using WP8.1 like full-featured Office and Facebook, Instagram apps which are well updated to live in 2017, but I am fine with 6tag.
I will use it for my basic daily needs for few months and then switch to Android because I don't think Microsoft is interested in Windows 10 Mobile smartphones (not talking about Surface Phone but current devices)

 

[Virtuous Lumox]

No. Flat out no. I'm stuck on WP8.1. I have a Lumia 928. I never even got the last update. I'm on 8.10.14203.306. It's been so long since the last 8.1 update I don't even remember what it was called. I just know Verizon didn't give it to me. IE crashes at least 50% of the time. Crash probability goes up the longer I have a site open; like when I'm trying to read an article longer than a paragraph or two. But that 50% crash rate is based on having IE open for even a few seconds. The 5Ghz WiFi is flakey at best; has been since day 1. I know it's not the Comcast modem/router/hub thingy cause both my Xbox One & PS4 use it flawlessly. Back to the phone... The official Twitter app goes unusable, sometimes for moments and sometimes for days, on it's own for no reason I can pinpoint. Seriously, the live tiles go dim and I can't open Twitter. 3rd party works while this is happening, but most have long since lost support so I now prefer the official app... when it works. I once had to un/reinstall it cause it just wouldn't un-dim. Even when it works; it's crap. It has none of the updates including character limit improvements. The calendar live tile frequently gets stuck on a previous day. The AccuWeather live tile won't update frequently. I have to soft reset often cause the whole phone seems to get sluggish rather frequently. Yes, I've had this phone since near launch. Yes, some of these issues (and more) are likely related to age. But Windows Phone is dead. 8.1 officially. 10 has been buggy or worse since day 1. Microsoft has all but abandoned Windows Phone. Hell, Android & iPhone are more "Windows Phone" anymore than an actual Windows Phone is with all the Microsoft/Windows apps being released and/or updated on Android & iPhone first. The sooner I switch and get acclimated to the new ecosystem the better. I just can't since Verizon did away with the old New-Every-2 program and phone subsidizing. Being disabled without income means I'm stuck on this steadily dying Windows Phone until it is flatline dead.

 

[Sick Freak]

I'm not sure that MSFT ever really support WP8.x as whenever I asked them about a bug, they always told me that it was fixed in WM10 and to just upgrade. If you don't want to pay for a new phone and can deal with the bugs in WP8.1, then just stick with it until the next version. Of course, you can sometimes pick up a free phone when changing mobile service providers. :smile:

 

[PCSoftware3]

I don't think the fact that Microsoft ended support for WP8.1 really matters, when was the last time we had an (security) update?

 

[DEEP NNN]

As long as basic apps like mail, textmsg, Onenote and IE keep working, there is no need for me to give up my Lumina 1020 with 8.1.

The camera is still a goto item and HERE MAPS works perfectly.

 

[SirThoreth]

I am still using Windows phone 8.1 only because I'm stuck with Sprint and there is no upgrade to Windows 10 for the Samsung ativ s neo. Have a Lumia 635 512mb that runs Windows 10 mobile, its ok. But yeah Windows 8.1 is much more stable. Wish I could get an upgrade for the Ativ s neo though.

Right. The Lumia 635 512mb is the only Windows phone on Sprint that can run Windows 10 Mobile, and it's a bit of a hot mess. It's usable, though not entirely stable, as long as you don't update to Anniversary Update. If you do, what little stability it has goes right out the window.

I'm also on Sprint for my main phone, and running an HCT 8XT. For the most part, it's fine, though the browser is getting a little old, and is running into more compatibility issues than it used to. The biggest issue is the dwindling list of available applications. Facebook Messenger? Gone. Skype? Gone. What other apps and functionality have we lost from WP8.1?

For now, it's probably workable staying on Windows Phone 8.1, but I can definitely see the day when that's no longer going to be the case.

 

[editguy]

I alternate between my Idol and L925.
8.1 still accomplishes everything that I need.

 

[SirThoreth]

The Lumia 925 is still a fantastic phone, though mine has a slight burn-in on the screen of the bottom menu bar from IE. The only things keeping it from being a perfect phone are the lack of a MicroSD card slot and a non-swappable battery. I've got one I use with Kid's Corner as a backup phone, since my BLU lost that with Win10M AU, but if mine had had those two, I'd never have dropped it as my primary phone.

 

[artzznyzz]

I was almost entirely satisfied with the 8.1 software & L 920 hardware.

But I was on my second L 920 (first screen shattered), and it (the second) is now getting flacky and unreliable. So I've bit the bullet on a used L 950, and hoping it holds me until the 'Surface" phone is out.

 

[a5cent]

Like the WCentral staff I also prefer W10M over WP8.1, but in contrast to them I see W10M very much as a mixed bag.

WP8.1 is a slimmer and much more efficient OS than W10M is and ever will be. W10M brought OneCore (an OS foundation originally developed for desktops and servers) to mobile devices and this has objectively and negatively impacted performance, fluidity, resource consumption and battery life (in comparison to WP8.1).

In their effort to make it cheaper to port mobile apps from iOS or Android to W10M, MS also dumped much of what made WP8.1's UI unique (and particularly well suited for smartphones) and instead adopted many of the concepts used by Android/iOS (hamburger menus, non-standardized action buttons, removal of pivots, etc). With that W10M lost most of its visual differentiators. Not much remains beyond live tiles. By adopting a new UI deisgn language while still partially supporting the old, W10M also sacrificed UI consistency (although it's still nowhere as bad as what Android folks deal with).

Anyway, combined, the above has reduced my enthusiasm for Windows on mobile devices considerably. W10M also has a few benefits though. It has a much more condensed UI, meaning MS has reduced font sizes and redesigned all their built-in and downloadable apps so as to fit much more content into the same amount of screen real estate (for elderly people this might be a drawback). W10M also brings quite a few new (but mainly small) features. One of the few really big changes is the update from IE in WP8.1 to Edge in W10M. Edge is so much better that it alone is enough to make me switch to W10M. For me, the other big issue with WP8.1 is that Skype is no longer supported. That too is enough to make me switch.

If you don't care about any of those benefits, then I don't think there is much reason to update from WP8.1 to W10M.

 

[TuanLVT]

well whatsapp wont be working on windows phone 8.1 soon anymore

 

[SirThoreth]

well whatsapp wont be working on windows phone 8.1 soon anymore

Say what now? When/where was that announced? I saw that they were discontinuing support for Windows 8.0 later this year, but not 8.1.

 

[xFalk]

I would actually prefer W10M, but I'm stuck on Verizon with my Lumia 822. Even with 8.1, the phone is a workhorse. Just keeps going and going. Have the original battery from almost 5 years ago. I have a dozen or so apps that I use regularly that I'm happy with (Cortana, Netflix, Facebook, Fitbit, maps, news, weather, Duolingo, Enpass, Untappd, Videobrary, Insteon and myTube). I don't have any need for Snapchat, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and so on. I don't see the sense in buying a 2 to 3 year old phone so I can have W10M though. So I'll stick with my 822 until it dies or until Microsoft releases some mysterious ultimate mobile device to the world, which ever comes first.

 

[Roccy]

I still have my inlaws parked on 8.1. They have a Lumia 635 and a 640. I wouldn't put them on 10. I'm keeping my eye on this as some of their apps are likely to start getting borked.

That's the same path my wife and I followed. Interestingly, I switched from Android 4.4 on an Asus Padfone X after I saw how well WP 8.1 worked on the 635 for my wife as her first smart phone after years of feature phones. I was getting fed up with the constant need to buy newer Androids just to get security updates, and the general issue of Google's snooping.

I chose WP 8.1 for my wife to use as her first smart phone after reading up on how it worked, and concluding it would be far less confusing than Android due its simple elegance, and the lack of so many duplicating apps being an advantage.

After seeing how well it did a lot of the basics (i.e. calling, texting, and the PIM functionality of Outlook for email and calendar, plus nice apps for camera, navigation with Here Drive and Waze, other useful apps such as Weather Bug, VLC, etc, I tried if for myself on her 1st 635 after I replaced the screen she shattered in an "oops moment" (got her a new 635 for $50 at a local MS mall store since she needed a phone ASAP). Then I saw a $70 deal for a 640 at the MS store, and quickly upgraded to that, and was hooked (got wife one awhile after that for $60 after she got a bit envious of my bigger/better 640 ;-} )

After WP 10 came out, I picked up a 3rd 640 on clearance at Best Buy for $30 to test that out. These were outright purchase prices for quite good hardware that would have cost a good deal more for equivalent Androids.

Over the last year or so, as I have seen how MS has progressively abandoned Windows phones overall with the half-hearted Win 10 "upgrade", along with a less user-friendly UI (for me at least - wispy fonts and tiny controls/less control), and its issues with ever fewer apps (Waze has not been updated in a long time as compared to the Android version with about 4 or 5 in the last 1-2 years, for example, and others have simply disappeared), plus the greater Google-like snooping, and the imposition of mandatory updates that render the phone unusable for an hour or so at rather unexpected times, I am not much interested at all in continuing to deal with MS and its ways WRT phones.

However, as long as the 640 hardware, and the apps my wife depends on keep on working with WP 8.1, neither of us has any intention of switching her away from it, and only if, as you noted, the apps start failing, will that be the end of her Windows phone usage of any sort, and I will have to switch her to Android as I have done - UGH for both of us then!

Meantime, WP 8.1 is not "dead" for my wife - it is simply "stabilized" ...

 

[RJ Priest]

I'm still using Windows Phone 8.1 on my Lumia 1520. It does everything that I need it to do, and would be perfect if Rudy could update 6tag, and Microsoft could update the Facebook app to include the latest feature set.

To this day, I still love the People Hub, Lumia Camera with audio capture from the HAAC microphones, and the HERE suite of navigational apps, and most importantly, the Metro design UI and SQUARE profile pictures.

I have countless cool apps which I never use (I often wonder how many are no longer offered in the store?). Talk, text, the occasional email, social media, navigation, calendar, and Cortana seem to be all I really need.