(My) Future for Windows Phones

[Zachary Boddy]

I've been meaning to do this for a while but never really got around to it. Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about what I'd like to see from Microsoft and Windows 10. Many of these ideas are gone but below are what stuck in my head. I've come up with a new Windows phone lineup and some features I hope to see in Windows 10 for phones. Many of these may be the same specs as the current phone(as I may agree with them) and of course there will probably be mistakes.
Microsoft Lumia 4xx:
4in 480p IPS LCD screen
3 megapixel rear facing camera
Simple front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 200
1gb RAM
8gb internal
Microsoft Lumia 5xx:
4.5in 540p IPS LCD screen
5 megapixel rear facing camera with flash
Simple front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 200
1gb RAM
8gb internal
Microsoft Lumia 6xx:
5in 720p IPS LCD screen
8 megapixel rear facing camera with flash
1 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
1gb RAM
8gb internal
Microsoft Lumia 6xx XL:
5.7in 720p IPS LCD screen
13 megapixel rear facing camera with flash
2 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
1gb RAM
8gb internal
Microsoft Lumia 7xx:
5in 720p IPC LCD ClearBlack screen
10 megapixel rear facing camera with flash
5 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
1gb RAM
16gb internal
Microsoft Lumia 8xx:
5in 1080p AMOLED ClearBlack screen
13 megapixel rear facing camera with flash/OIS
5 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 615
2gb RAM
16gb internal
Glance screen
Front facing speakers
Microsoft Lumia 9xx:
5in QHD AMOLED ClearBlack screen
20 megapixel rear facing camera with dual flash/OIS
8 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
3gb RAM
32gb internal
HAAC mics
Front facing speakers
Glance screen
Microsoft Lumia 9xx XL:
6in QHD AMOLED ClearBlack screen
20 megapixel rear facing camera with dual flash/OIS
8 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
3gb RAM
32gb internal
HAAC mics
Front facing speakers
Glance screen
Capacitive stylus
Microsoft Lumia 9xx C:
5in QHD IPS LCD ClearBlack display
55 megapixel rear facing camera with tri flash/OIS/xenon flash/optical zoom
8 megapixel front facing camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
3gb RAM
32gb internal
HAAC mics
Front facing speakers
Glance screen
Waterproof design

All these phones have microSD support. The 8xx and up all have aluminum/polycarbonate designs. The 8xx and up also have physical shutter buttons. They all come in a variety of colors. The 7xx and up also come with Qi and PMA wireless standards built in.
Also, I had an idea where Microsoft could sell the 9xx series(the flagship series) directly and through carriers. There's only one phone that comes with every standard built in, and Microsoft and push it onto all US carriers at once by offering promos if you buy the phone from that carrier. A free Microsoft Band if you buy from AT&T for example. That way they can get their flagship phone on ALL carriers instead of the exclusive bull crap.
Additionally, if you buy the phone directly from Microsoft, you get customization. Let's say you're buying the Lumia 9xx. You can choose between dark and light aluminum frames, and either black, white, red, yellow, green, orange or cyan backs. Than you can buy accessories to go with it like a microSD card, a case, a Qi wireless charging pad.
Just a few ideas about phone hardware. Now about software.
First, the Glance screen. It's great, but I think it could be better. Double tap to wake should still be there, but you should also be able to control your music from the Glance screen. Instead of the traditional buttons, you have gesture control. You press your finger in the middle and swipe right to skip the track, swipe left to go back, swipe down to pause and swipe up to play. It'll look like a dot with two arrows facing in opposite directions on either side, two lines below and a triangle above. And, when you swipe from the top of the screen it turns the screen on and brings your Action Center down. This will all be optional.
Music controls should be on the lock screen. When you're on the lock screen the controls sit above the time instead of in the volume controls. When you unlock your phone they go back to the volume controls. This just makes it a little bit easier to control your music.
Multitasking. You should be able to sit two apps side by side on your screen at the same time. You should also have a shortcut in order to do this. I'm thinking one of three ways(or maybe a combination of multiple ways). The first way is to swipe from the left/left corner to bring up apps you can open side by side. However, this is sort of restrictive, and you could accidentally do this when you don't want to. The second way is to do a long press of the home key that brings up the same apps. Again, restrictive, but harder to do accidentally. The third way is probably the most feasible but means you need to have the apps already open. You open up the recent apps page and you can move apps over and if you hover one app over another(either front or bottom) it sits them side by side on the screen accordingly.
Speed up animations. The animations are pretty but can be slow sometimes.

These are all just a few ideas I've had. Kindly ignore the abundance of mistakes I've undoubtedly made, and tell me what you think.

 

[johnson_patrickw]

This makes the 9xx series look good again.

 

[oviedofreak82]

I like this idea; keeps everything simple from entry-level to premium high-end.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

Yes, I thought so too. I thought it would be better to combine Microsoft's flagship devices into one range. No more four digit phones.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

I'm glad you approve. I'm most proud of the 8xx series as I believe those specs firmly place it as low high range/upper mid range. It's the bridge between flagship and mid range. Right now there's a huge gap.