Why I'm Rolling Back to 8.1 - for now

[fekish]

If the managed to get rid of the lags: Loading.... and Resuming... would be perfect!

 

[Jason Gilbert]

Yes, I had the exact same experience on my 830. I had used W10 from the beginning and generally liked it, but I couldn't live without mobile hotspot so I went back to 8.1 I like the visuals in W10 better, but switching back reminded me just how smooth 8.1 is. Also, in terms of functionality, I don't think that W10 adds much on the front end. I understand that it puts the OS on the same footing as W10 for tablets and PCs, and I understand why that's important for Microsoft's strategy, but I honestly feel like the dirty little secret is that WP 8.1 was already pretty good and that W10 doesn't add that much to it besides some new visuals and better integration with the other platforms. It's a big deal for the desktop crowd, but mobile? Not so much.

I like Windows on my phone and I'll continue to stick with it as long as I feel like it's a viable OS that will be adequately supported. I think I get iOS levels of design expertise with Android-like power and flexibility (hey, look, a real file system!), MS hardware is top-notch at low prices (the 640 for $80 is a steal), and I like have "real" Office on my phone. I hope MS has something something coming up this fall that will just knock everyone's socks off.

BUT (and you knew there was "but" coming, didn't you?), I do see some worrying signs that it's headed for Blackberry territory. I think that reading between the lines MS put the Windows group on notice that they have until sometime in 2016 to move the needle in a significant way on Windows mobile adoption, and I haven't seen any evidence that the needle is moving. I was surprised when T-mobile dropped the 640. People have been screaming for a decent Windows phone on T-Mob for a long time and they finally got one. (Yeah, I know, it's not the solar-powered Lumia 1030 you've all been waiting for, but it's cheap, colorful, and and it works well.) If it was a simple supply-and-demand problem they could have reduced the price to match AT&T at $80. Instead they dropped it, which makes me think that they just didn't see any hope for it. I think there's been too many delays, too much bad press, and while I think WP is better than iOS or Android, I'm not sure that it's so much better that most people are willing to give up what they're already attached to.

My 830 will serve me well for a while yet to come (hello replaceable battery and MicroSD card), and a 950 XL will be very tempting, particularly if there is some Continuum magic that lets me plug it into an adapter and turn it into a for-real desktop. But I'm realistic enough to see the warning signs, and if things go downhill quickly there are some compelling budget priced Android phones out there, too.

Well, this went on longer than I intended. Also, FFS, will someone PLEASE fix the Netflix app for the 830?

That is all.

 

[yardmanflex]

What a load of crap..ur complaining about a unfinished OS..your not a dev so u don't need to be using win 10 at this point. Worse as ur daily driver...that just dumb.:angry:

 

[jhildy73]

I put it on my L640, had it on for a day and went back to 8.1, It seemed very sluggish to me. Like android sluggish which never happened on 8.1

Did the same....had it for a day and went back..apps where crashing and as it WAS fast it did randomly lag.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

What a load of crap..ur complaining about a unfinished OS..your not a dev so u don't need to be using win 10 at this point. Worse as ur daily driver...that just dumb.:angry:

Me? You're not specific in your mindless ranting.

 

[fekish]

Unfortunately today realised that Fitbit does not connect with Windows 10. Here we go again with a rollback...

 

[ajj3085]

I suspect its slow because its a debug build which isn't optimized and has a lot of assertions. Release build will be optimized.

 

[pramodkumarca]

I suspect its slow because its a debug build which isn't optimized and has a lot of assertions. Release build will be optimized.

but when ....end of this century?

 

[ajj3085]

but when ....end of this century?

How should i know? its easier to figure out how to fix things with debug builds, so when they are done fixing the bugs they want to fix.

 

[erichunt]

First let me preface that I am aware this is a unfinished, preview OS. With that said... I too rolled back to 8.1 after months of struggling with the latest 166 and 512 builds.

I will say that the developers have been doing a great job and bringing Windows 10 Mobile up to snuff, but its the little things that pushed me away. The two second delay for the clock and notifications to show up when pressing the power button, come on guys really? Its not like this is an alpha build, why are we reinventing the wheel and breaking solid components this late in the game?

Loading........

Other things like photos not auto-uploading to OneDrive... which was once an easy task in 8.1 is utterly broken in 10. Having to manually upload photos to OneDrive is taking the "smart" out of this phone. Even with setting this up in OneDrive, I could not get one photo to upload with success. Yes I know that it's a preview app on a preview build (and I am sure it will be fixed at some point), but its a serious flaw that would prevent me from upgrading to 10 in the future if not corrected.

Resuming....

Another item keeping me from using Windows 10 Mobile is how they handled sharing content like photos or videos. In Windows 8.1, you could easily share a photo or video and it would auto-compress the media based on how you were going to share it. In Windows 10, good luck sharing your uncompressed 72 meg video file by email.... I would have to manually set the encoding before recording a video or grab the video over USB, upload to OneDrive and share uncompressed. I would rather "set it and forget it" (Ronco-style), leaving me the option to auto-compress later when shared. This missing feature is a deal-breaker coming from 8.1, and sadly if they don't plan to implement the full 8.1 feature-set into Windows 10 Mobile... I can't justify upgrading. I personally do this so often I couldn't bear using 10 any longer.

There are several other issues I encountered like SIM issues (losing mobile data), battery drains, random crashing, videos stutter during recording, unresponsive touch screen input, pinned websites redirect to the number 3 in bing search, app installation loops, and live tiles not updating. Just some of the few issues encountered over the past two builds, all of which I submitted feedback for. I experienced enough issues to seriously make me worry about the finalized version we'll actually end up. Thus also made me start thinking seriously about other platforms.

Then I snapped out of it, continue to tell myself "its just a preview build, its just a preview build... right?"

 

[Waylon Payne]

I've just rolled back myself... Bugs aside, I really don't like what has been done with the mail app. Switching between accounts is just frustrating.

Also it feels like they have given the OS a splash of paint and removed features. I don't see any new features that I miss from my iOS days. Notification centre is still really basic, no actionable notifications, no new lockscreen functionality.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

I've just rolled back myself... Bugs aside, I really don't like what has been done with the mail app. Switching between accounts is just frustrating.

Also it feels like they have given the OS a splash of paint and removed features. I don't see any new features that I miss from my iOS days. Notification centre is still really basic, no actionable notifications, no new lockscreen functionality.

To be fair, there are quite a few actionable notifications, you just need to press and hold.

 

[Jason Gilbert]

Or possibly me.

Hey, Yardman, both the OP and I took the time to provide some fairly specific reasons for feeling the way we do about W10, where as you just fly off the handle with dumb and angry. Grow up.

 

[erichunt]

The actionable notifications were nice, assuming they worked. The only actionable notification I ever saw was to reply to a text message. Funny thing though is when I did reply in the notification, it never sent the message nor did it show up in the message thread for that contact. Another item I hope gets a thorough review before release.

 

[Waylon Payne]

To be fair, there are quite a few actionable notifications, you just need to press and hold.

If it worked reliably I would agree with you. We could call it a beta and accept the flaws but I don't think we are going to have iOS level notifications anytime soon after launch, going by how slowly new functionality was utilized by apps in 8.1.

I could write a lot more but I don't want to be a hater.

 

[mariusmuntean]

From what I understand so far is that most of the phones that aren't on the list to update is due to there age and carriers have no plans to send out the update to old phones. But if ur phone is eligible for preview then u will be able to get the rtm via the insider program and most likely before it is released through carriers.

stop this nonsense!! has MS brainwashed you or what? 1520 is not on that list and it has the same hw as 930 and much better hw than all others on the list! so stop talking bulls***


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[mariusmuntean]

First let me preface that I am aware this is a unfinished, preview OS. With that said... I too rolled back to 8.1 after months of struggling with the latest 166 and 512 builds.

I will say that the developers have been doing a great job and bringing Windows 10 Mobile up to snuff, but its the little things that pushed me away. The two second delay for the clock and notifications to show up when pressing the power button, come on guys really? Its not like this is an alpha build, why are we reinventing the wheel and breaking solid components this late in the game?

Loading........

Other things like photos not auto-uploading to OneDrive... which was once an easy task in 8.1 is utterly broken in 10. Having to manually upload photos to OneDrive is taking the "smart" out of this phone. Even with setting this up in OneDrive, I could not get one photo to upload with success. Yes I know that it's a preview app on a preview build (and I am sure it will be fixed at some point), but its a serious flaw that would prevent me from upgrading to 10 in the future if not corrected.

Resuming....

Another item keeping me from using Windows 10 Mobile is how they handled sharing content like photos or videos. In Windows 8.1, you could easily share a photo or video and it would auto-compress the media based on how you were going to share it. In Windows 10, good luck sharing your uncompressed 72 meg video file by email.... I would have to manually set the encoding before recording a video or grab the video over USB, upload to OneDrive and share uncompressed. I would rather "set it and forget it" (Ronco-style), leaving me the option to auto-compress later when shared. This missing feature is a deal-breaker coming from 8.1, and sadly if they don't plan to implement the full 8.1 feature-set into Windows 10 Mobile... I can't justify upgrading. I personally do this so often I couldn't bear using 10 any longer.

There are several other issues I encountered like SIM issues (losing mobile data), battery drains, random crashing, videos stutter during recording, unresponsive touch screen input, pinned websites redirect to the number 3 in bing search, app installation loops, and live tiles not updating. Just some of the few issues encountered over the past two builds, all of which I submitted feedback for. I experienced enough issues to seriously make me worry about the finalized version we'll actually end up. Thus also made me start thinking seriously about other platforms.

Then I snapped out of it, continue to tell myself "its just a preview build, its just a preview build... right?"

if you look at windows 10 on PC where even now at public release still has issues, I had to reinstall it after three weeks...lots of problems...do not be so confident that the finished build ready for public will be ok.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[robw70]

No Here+ Drive and no Mix Radio so straight back to 8.1 for me!