I have a samsung galaxy note 2 and because they have a permanent battery and no SD slot I decided to go to Windows Phone. But, my main reason, and I don't see anyone talking about this at all, is that I want a phone that interfaces better with Microsoft Office and the contacts in Outlook. I was actually excited to be able to open a Word document or an Excel file without having to use a third-party program.
Well, this is one of the main points to me, I see it should be a major advantage to be inside the Windows ecosystem first hand. And not only for Office, but yeah, the whole ecosystem is definitely the most serious and productivity-oriented. Light years away from Android and iOS, however you look at it.
However, after reading this I'm a little hesitant on making the switch. I use Google Maps all the time and it's great and Google search seems to be far superior to any other search, although I have not used Bing in ages.
It's not. Bing is equally good as a search engine in every respect. And might be even better as an engine overall. It feeds a lot of the competition's services, and behind Cortana, for example, it works as a intelligent network of related content. it's not just searches.
I am also concerned about the bank application. I was told I could use the standard web rather than phone site but we know sometimes the layout of that website, with dialog boxes, prevent you from entering data.
With bank apps it depends a lot of how the bank cares for their customers. Mine recently made a WP app. I don't care enough for having it, it's definitely not a point I'd take into account for choosing a smartphone/OS. I see people make a big fuss about it though. I do my banking stuff from my desktop or my Surface, and that's that. But well, I do think the web version should suffice.
I am also concerned about battery life with the active tiles in Windows Phone.
This won't be a problem, at all. In any case, Android is known for having lots of background processes which drain resources and battery. No wonder they resort to apps that kill processes, look this up. Windows is well optimized and Lumias are not resource-hogs, battery life should be normal in any modern Lumia.
Besides, live tiles do not take a lot in terms of processing power and/or battery life.
This entire posting is being dictated into my phone and I also like swipe for typing.
Windows Mobile 10 supports speech entry wherever you can type. It's a new feature that I expect to work well, being that it's based on the same great voice recognition that powers Cortana.
So I was gung ho about getting a Windows Phone and now I am not so sure. So many of you are saying bad things about it.
I read your post and decided to take my time to make a response to your questions, because I see all the negative bias towards WP in this thread that it's uncalled for and unfair, and I realized that people like you could be influenced by it.
WP it's not as bad as the OP makes it look. It's not bad, it's a great OS, that it's also growing and maturing, and did that much faster than IOS and Android. It's simply that some people do not like it. But it's mature enough as it is to stand toe to toe with any of the other two. Except for the so called "app gap", which as you might have noticed if you read the whole thread, it's HIGHLY subjective and depends on personal use. I have never felt it myself, at all. Never once said "oh, I need that app, it's a shame it's not out for WP".
I think that you'd be well within the Windows ecosystem with a Lumia, and I highly recommend that you get on board or stick to it.
Apple is pretentious, and runs morally questionable practices, we already established that. Samsung devices are not very well built and IMHO Android is a complex mess. I say wait for the release of Windows Mobile 10 and give it a try, you won't regret it.
I've been rocking my Lumia 920 since it came out, and it still works really well, considering its age. I'm planning of buying the new flagship as soon as it comes out, but there's also a lot of good Lumias currently being sold in every price range.