Waaay back in early November, 2011, I posted this complaint list to ZDNET for things that were making my Windows Phone experience excruciating. Four years later, it's still pretty excruciating, but I wondered if maybe it's come farther than I give it credit for. And so, I just thought it'd be interesting to see how many of the really basic and necessary fixes I mentioned way back when are actually fixed in "the last version of Windows." Here's my original post:
There is a lot that is excellent about Windows Phone. It is, overall, the most coherent smartphone OS. That said, it is probably that way because it came the latest and hasn't had to tack on all kinds of functions, one at a time, like Android has. Furthermore, there are some serious shortcomings it needs to overcome. Without addressing the following things, there is simply no way one can reasonably recommend Windows Phone to serious users (and note that my only phone is a Windows Phone).
1) Multitasking. Get some. What exists on Mango doesn't count. Not. Even. Close. Please see webOS if you need any help.
2) Make email not suck. I should be able to edit the content of a reply or forward. I should be able to reply or forward from an account different than the one I received my email in. I should be able to browse for and attach any kind of document I have on my phone, from an office file to a PDF to an MP3, picture or video.
3) Make some kind of notification system. Right now I can get "toast" notifications from any app, but these disappear after a few seconds and once they do, there is no way to get them back again. On the lock screen, only the built-in applications for phone, email and messaging can leave a persistent reminder. This needs to be opened up to all applications, and there needs to be a way to get right to the relevant application from the lock screen. Please see iOS' lock screen and webOS' notification system (although this is probably impossible to tack on at this point).
4) Open up live tiles. MS' own apps can do things like trigger a counter when the lock screen is lifted. 3rd party applications can't do things like that. The live tile is a widget by another name. Treat it like one or get squashed by Android.
5) Hardware. Improve it. I don't care that WP runs like butter on single core chips. I don't care that 800x480 is still a respectable screen resolution. Open up the platform so that hardware vendors can innovate -- or at least just slap WP on their latest Android handsets. The simple fact -- often touted by WP enthusiasts -- is that not even the absolute latest and greatest Android handsets run nearly as smoothly as WP when navigating the OS. But these same handsets do play smoother, higher resolution games, etc., because of their better CPUs and nicer screens, and because of...
6) Native applications. Probably MS is waiting for Win8/WP8, but there has got to be a way to get native applications that will run on both systems *today*. If I can run native Windows programs on Linux using WINE, I should be able to run native WP7.5 programs on WP8 when it eventually debuts.
And here's my opinion of where we stand today: 1) Multitasking still sucks. It sucked on W7. Sucks on W8/8.1, and looks to continue right on sucking in W10M. Except for a few services that are permitted to run in the background, WP still really can't multitask. 2) The new Outlook email app in W10M is a marked improvement over the disastrous email client in W8.1. At the absolute minimum, the fact that I can now edit the contents of a reply or forward is a game-changer. Add to that much better attachment handling, and that's a huge step in the right direction. I'd still like to be able to switch which email client I use to handle a reply or forward, but that's not such a huge deal. 3) Notifications are now pretty darned good. They're not as powerful as on Android (or even iOS), but B+ just for existing. 4) Live Tiles are still pretty much pointless. The notification center is much more useful as a "glance and go" utility than the Start Screen. MS demoed interactive Live Tiles a while back, and unless and until we get something like that, the W10M Start Screen will remain a poor shadow of Android's launcher. 5) With the exception of the aging One M8, there isn't a single good WP on the market. That said, the existence of that device has shown that it's at least possible for vendors to "slap WP on their latest Android handsets." I am more tantalized by the possibility of an Intel "Surface Phone" so I am withholding judgement on this point until I see if it comes to fruition sometime soon. 6) While WP applications still never run as well as their Android counterparts on similar hardware, I think that is just poor coding and lousy APIs. Projects Astoria and Islandwood may do a lot to close that gap. So, I'm optimistic! Univeral apps is also a potentially groundbreaking idea.
So, in short, even though I am growing increasingly frustrated with this OS, it seems as though it has, in many ways, substantially improved. But there's a lot of work still to do.
There is a lot that is excellent about Windows Phone. It is, overall, the most coherent smartphone OS. That said, it is probably that way because it came the latest and hasn't had to tack on all kinds of functions, one at a time, like Android has. Furthermore, there are some serious shortcomings it needs to overcome. Without addressing the following things, there is simply no way one can reasonably recommend Windows Phone to serious users (and note that my only phone is a Windows Phone).
1) Multitasking. Get some. What exists on Mango doesn't count. Not. Even. Close. Please see webOS if you need any help.
2) Make email not suck. I should be able to edit the content of a reply or forward. I should be able to reply or forward from an account different than the one I received my email in. I should be able to browse for and attach any kind of document I have on my phone, from an office file to a PDF to an MP3, picture or video.
3) Make some kind of notification system. Right now I can get "toast" notifications from any app, but these disappear after a few seconds and once they do, there is no way to get them back again. On the lock screen, only the built-in applications for phone, email and messaging can leave a persistent reminder. This needs to be opened up to all applications, and there needs to be a way to get right to the relevant application from the lock screen. Please see iOS' lock screen and webOS' notification system (although this is probably impossible to tack on at this point).
4) Open up live tiles. MS' own apps can do things like trigger a counter when the lock screen is lifted. 3rd party applications can't do things like that. The live tile is a widget by another name. Treat it like one or get squashed by Android.
5) Hardware. Improve it. I don't care that WP runs like butter on single core chips. I don't care that 800x480 is still a respectable screen resolution. Open up the platform so that hardware vendors can innovate -- or at least just slap WP on their latest Android handsets. The simple fact -- often touted by WP enthusiasts -- is that not even the absolute latest and greatest Android handsets run nearly as smoothly as WP when navigating the OS. But these same handsets do play smoother, higher resolution games, etc., because of their better CPUs and nicer screens, and because of...
6) Native applications. Probably MS is waiting for Win8/WP8, but there has got to be a way to get native applications that will run on both systems *today*. If I can run native Windows programs on Linux using WINE, I should be able to run native WP7.5 programs on WP8 when it eventually debuts.
And here's my opinion of where we stand today: 1) Multitasking still sucks. It sucked on W7. Sucks on W8/8.1, and looks to continue right on sucking in W10M. Except for a few services that are permitted to run in the background, WP still really can't multitask. 2) The new Outlook email app in W10M is a marked improvement over the disastrous email client in W8.1. At the absolute minimum, the fact that I can now edit the contents of a reply or forward is a game-changer. Add to that much better attachment handling, and that's a huge step in the right direction. I'd still like to be able to switch which email client I use to handle a reply or forward, but that's not such a huge deal. 3) Notifications are now pretty darned good. They're not as powerful as on Android (or even iOS), but B+ just for existing. 4) Live Tiles are still pretty much pointless. The notification center is much more useful as a "glance and go" utility than the Start Screen. MS demoed interactive Live Tiles a while back, and unless and until we get something like that, the W10M Start Screen will remain a poor shadow of Android's launcher. 5) With the exception of the aging One M8, there isn't a single good WP on the market. That said, the existence of that device has shown that it's at least possible for vendors to "slap WP on their latest Android handsets." I am more tantalized by the possibility of an Intel "Surface Phone" so I am withholding judgement on this point until I see if it comes to fruition sometime soon. 6) While WP applications still never run as well as their Android counterparts on similar hardware, I think that is just poor coding and lousy APIs. Projects Astoria and Islandwood may do a lot to close that gap. So, I'm optimistic! Univeral apps is also a potentially groundbreaking idea.
So, in short, even though I am growing increasingly frustrated with this OS, it seems as though it has, in many ways, substantially improved. But there's a lot of work still to do.
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