Convince me to Trade my 4S for the Lumia 800.

[mmaman]

Also not to be another doom and gloom guy but is the OS even catching on? I dont even see commercials for it anymore, I have yet to see 1 person with one in public and im in New York, all these doom and gloom story's, it sucks cause I love this OS and want it to do well, not necessarily be #1 but just do well in general.

 

[mmaman]

Yeah I mean, if I buy for example the Focus S. What exactly will I miss on Apollo? Dual Core and HD display? I know the Focus S is going to get Apollo, it's a second generation device.

I don't really know what HD display means, since I haven't saw one yet.

In all honesty its all opinions but HD displays are AWESOME! the screens of today (wp7 specifically have a res of 800x480 and HD displays are 720p which is 1280x720, see if you can check out the Galaxy Nexus one day in person it looks fantastic (it is also amoled making it look even better at that) so HD display is worth it, as far as dual core, its good for games and running movies and what no but WP7 runs fantastically so its all good.

 

[Winterfang]

The OS is catching on. I see commercials all the time, I however will say that first gen devices had being moving much better than second one, at least in here.

Well my carrier is getting the Galaxy Nexus in a couple of days, so I'll keep my eyes peeled. If it's that good then I'll might wait until..November?

Yeah I don't think so, I can get a Lumia 900/Titan II, Samsung Miracle, LG Unicorn or whatever and then sell it and use my Bonus Christmas money to get a new one. My device is from 2010, that's ancient.

 

[HeyCori]

Windows Phone isn't worth getting until:

1) There's at least 200k apps, including all the big name company apps like Pandora, etc.
2) Apollo is released
3) Nokia releases more handsets with screens that are bigger than 4 inches.

1 - Why not 400k, or 500K? What if there's only 150K, would you still turn people away? 200k might be your theoretical number but that's not something that can be applied to everyone.

2 - Do you have a list of all the changes coming in Apollo? Oh please, share it with the rest of us.

3 - Heaven forbid someone wants a screen smaller than 4 inches.

If your opinion is that people shouldn't buy a WP then why are you here? Judging from your post record you're shaping up to be a wonderful sourpuss that can't wait to spend his entire time here complaining.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Winterfang]

He is partly right though Sawwwnik.

Though personally for me, Windows Phone will be complete once the Lumia 900 comes to the states. My major problem was the lack of LTE, that really made WP7 seem behind. Funtionality wise, WP7 offers 80% of what I want.

 

[mmaman]

He is partly right though Sawwwnik.

Though personally for me, Windows Phone will be complete once the Lumia 900 comes to the states. My major problem was the lack of LTE, that really made WP7 seem behind. Funtionality wise, WP7 offers 80% of what I want.

To be honest with you I cant think of one thing besides 32gb that I would need from the 900, screen is big and res is good (hd would be nice but wvga is good), camera is great, lte, build and looks are fantastic (att logo is wack lol), ffc, proc is good, ram is good, honestly what else do I need?

As I said the 16gb only irks me but im sure I'll adjust. Just gotta manage my music.

 

[Zumanity]

Ok so in my area there are like 3 people who are willing to do the trade, Im just not sure though.....

here are some random thoughts (might be a lot and in no order):

1.it is very weird, in one end I love the look, font, smoothness of WP7 but at the same time it seems like its a little TOO simple? Like at least on IOS you can put backgrounds and stuff, I dunno.

2.How is the camera on the 800?

3.I hear some complaints about pentile display? Whats all that about?

4.Let me look at my phone, heres what I use the most:shoutcast radio, netflix, pandora, last fm, paypal, ebay, flashlight, nba game time, justintv, and a bunch of random games.

5.I hear the apps are getting higher and higher in count, but im not expecting it to have the amount or quality of games that IOS has.

6.Are there a lot of free games? And I hear that WP7 apps are more $$, whats up with that?


Overall I think the looks of the lumia 800 are awesome! better then iphone! As far as whats holding me back its mainly 2 things: The OS its self, on one end it looks amazing, but I question if it will last or catch on (it seems it hasnt as of yet) and 2 memory, 16gb is kinda annoying especially since I have 32gb with my iPhone....are putting AVI and Divx files on WP7 hard? Also aside from no FFC (dont care too much tbh) anything else missing?

1) The Operating system is designed to be radically different in looks from iOS or Android. Otherwise it would just be another copy of the original designer, iOS. It might seem simple, but if you invest time into actually studying how your phone OS works and helps, its on par or beyond iOS/Andr (ex, time it takes to do an everyday task).

2) Nokia is known (or they say they are known) for their quality camera designs and optics. The Lumia 800 is 8MP with Carl Zeis. I haven't tested it my self, but it looks good. Not sure if the Carl Zeis does any real improvements other than the fancy name, but oh well.

Also as a side note. Since you're in the U.S, I'd recommend going for U.S market phones, such as the Lumia 900 or even the HTC titan. The Lumia 800 seems geared toward the European audience, which in many countries in the EU, are not keen (or dont really care) about front facing, CPU etc etc. Since you're on the 800 I'll talk about that (which is just hardware differences, the OS is virtually the same on all WP phones).

3) Pentile Display - The controversy surrounding this (to what I understand at least) is that the claims of pentile (i.e making better colours) can be debated. Pentile is a trademark of Samsung, so they use it mostly. It's basically saying that Pentile uses the green pixels the most, which is most sensitive to the human eye. But the controversy is if pentile really does improve images by using that method. Again I'm not an expert on this, just have a basic understanding. Honestly you shouldn't even worry about it. It's not a defined technology yet, and people may actually see the other displays much better.

Thanks Felon, corrected argument about Pentile - http://www.phonearena.com/news/Supe...AMOLED-to-the-PenTile-matrix-and-back_id18700

4) Windows Phone 7 is a new Operating System in terms of how it functions. It's a new eco-system and Microsoft as a whole company is developing a new eco-system that drives them towards their future goals. Microsoft has always been a company that sort of jumps in behind everyone else (in terms of new ventures, the PC Operating system has always been Microsofts strong suit, and they usually are first in announcing things for that), and in some/most cases ends up ahead. This is probably because they watch whats happening, and adapt/offer good or better products. Hate or love Microsoft, they are the biggest name in software. You might say they "copy" other companies. But in all honesty the goal is to offer better solutions and innovative ideas to make solutions better. That's not copying, just offering better stuff. Apple has done this very successfully.

Windows Phone 7 is reported to have around 60,000 apps. Thats pretty amazing for a new system. I always see people commenting saying "well it does not have as many as Apple or Android". Well duh, that's really obvious. Apple never started with over 100k apps, they built their way up over the years. Apple was the first one to offer an "App Store" thats why their app store filled up so quickly. Companies saw a potential profit yield and went after it. Then Android came in, they grew slower, but again they were #2, so companies saw an opportunity. With Microsoft, I can guess that the CEO and high ups were looking at this market trend, and saw Windows Mobile fall flat, they studied some more and built an OS system that's different from the leaders, and works in different ways. So now the Marketplace is growing, and you see companies jumping in to make a yield in profit. Give it time, it'll be up there.

Sorry for going on a rant, now to your apps.

Shoutcast Radio - Not that exact name, but the OS has many apps such as TuneIn that serve as great, or even better alternatives.

Netflix - Yes (free app)

Pandora - No, but many alternatives such as MetroRadio, TuneIn, Slacker, etc. (The official Pandora should be coming in the near future)

Last Fm - Yes (free)

Paypal - No (no alternatives worth using, and when I say worth, I mean safe and with the authenticity of PayPal standards)

eBay - Yes (Free)

Flashlight - Yes (many + free)

NBA Game Time - Not the exact name (but many alternatives that are free and very good - Such as NBA Pro)

JustinTV - No (my personal opinion is this is a horrible stream service)

Random Games - Tons - Xbox Live offers some free games, mostly paid, and there is a free category for Free Games (many which are excellent) - See here http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/games?list=free



5) The OS of Windows is different, compared to OS. Quality is set by the hardware of the phone, so since windows phone is offered on many different smartphones, the quality might differ. iOS is only on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. All iPhone 4S's are the same (except for capacity).

I can tell you on my HD7 the quality is great. On games that are available for both platforms, the options and controls are very VERY similar.

Also please remember, when people say "I tell you" or "this is better" it's their opinion. In a consumer world, its based on opinion. You might like this device or OS better, but it's not the same for everyone. We perceive things, things do not perceive us. So it's always subjective. Just because I say it's better, does not mean it's better for your (necessarily).

6) Refer back to my link for free games

WP7 Apps are expensive because it's a new platform. Devs want to make as much money as they are on different platforms. So for example an app might be 99 cents on Android and 2.99 on WP7. It's 99 cents on Android because android has a much larger USER BASE than WP7, so they theoretically can make a lot of money. It's 2.99 on WP7 because the Devs want to make as much money as they would on Android, but they know that WP7 has a smaller user base, so they lift the price to compensate for that (again, i'm not an employee for any dev or software team, so this is just my opinion based on study).

Storage)

I highlighted in another post that I think the reason for 16GB storage is that Microsoft might be trying to take a different approach to their eco-system. Even though a Windows Phone has max 16GB storage at this time, Microsoft gives you 25GB of SkyDrive for free. They want you to store your pictures, documents, and other things (not sure on music) in SkyDrive, so you can use it. So Microsoft basically wants you to think like this. "Buy a 16GB Windows Phone, and add 25GB to it with SkyDrive. That makes 41GB!!!" (41 is an odd number, but then again please mind the restrictions SkyDrive might have). Now of course, we have to wait and see if this pays off. I predict higher storage and vast differences to start with Apollo is released. It's like the initial "Get your bases loaded" approach, then start targeting the normalcy's of the U.S market (64, 32 GB phones, Dual core etc). With the Dual Core thing, Windows Phone is super smooth on a single core, imagine how fast a Dual core would be with such a light OS (light as in, non-clunky, not light as in feature wise light). For me 16GB is fine. I'd love more, since I used to own a 32GB iPhone.

Time will tell

Good luck with your search.

 

[HeyCori]

^Great post.

 

[anon(27512)]

Sweet! So I'm not the only one switching from a 4S. I'm really interested in the lumia 900, but not so much in staying with AT&T. Does anyone know if Verizon will get a version of the 900? Also to the op, what made you want to switch? Boredom? That's my reason....

 

[Fleon]

Ok guys thanks. Im not completely sure what I will do but I'll wait a bit, at the end of the day I dont need crazy specs if the OS runs fast and smooth, also as far as apps, aside from the ones I listed and some games here and there I dont need much either, like I said, the tiles look a little too simple but the rest of the UI looks amazing imo, the font is wow! I'll stick with iphone for now and perhaps get the 900 when out but like I said the main problem I have with WP7 is 16gb only, I mean its not THAT bad but ive been so spoiled with 32gb.

...

BTW on a side note, I did have the focus at launch and loved it, just had to get rid of it because of missing features (which mago fixed) so I do really like the OS, just not sure if I was sold 100% on the titles, regardless it left an impression on me that has me yearning for it since launch, its just the things I listed are holding me back.

As far as out-of-the-box, I think WP7 is better than iOS. I also thought the tiles would be a bit dull, but once you find 4-5 apps with live tiles, it's a no-brainer and- in my opinion- considerably better looking as an OS. Pre-Mango, this certainly wasn't true but the last 6 months have seen major changes.

Storage is another story, but with more apps supporting Skydrive storage, it's considerably less of an issue than you might think. One thing I can do that none of my iOS friends can do is access my 100GB of photos from the phone in a native manner. They all have to launch apps, compress stuff, etc- it's much smoother for me. Add to that the integration of Office with Skydrive, the ability to play music from Skydrive, and more 3rd party apps doing Skydrive storage- the issue of space is less concerning than it would be with an Android or iOS device.

Would I have sprung for a 32GB Titan? Yes. Does it really bother me that much? No.

(To the nitpickers who will say "Skydrive doesn't let you store 100GB!" I say - I have 4 family accounts with 25GB of photos on each. I simply pin the albums and voila, there you go. Oh, and I share those albums from skydrive with family and friends, so we don't have to duplicate space constantly. Now that's cool.)

 

[Fleon]

1) T

3) Pentile Display - The controversy surrounding this (to what I understand at least) is that the claims of pentile (i.e making better colours) can be debated. Pentile is a trademark of Samsung, so they use it mostly. It's basically saying that Pentile uses the green pixels the most, which is most sensitive to the human eye. But the controversy is if pentile really does improve images by using that method. Again I'm not an expert on this, just have a basic understanding. Honestly you shouldn't even worry about it. It's not a defined technology yet, and people may actually see the other displays much better.

Tiny bit off on the pentile problem. The major issue most people see with Pentile is the pixel arrangement, not the green pixel base. In essence, Pentile displays are equivalent to displays with significantly fewer pixels- making images, text, etc much less sharp looking. Take a look at this article for more info:

Super AMOLED Plus vs Super AMOLED: to the PenTile matrix and back

 

[welsbloke]

I could not recommend the 800 based on the poor battery. I know the iPhones are not hot in this department either but this is a real issue for me to recommend that phone without at least that caveat.

If on the otherhand you are tolerant of the poor battery and for some this issue has gone away with the recent firmware updates just not for me yet then I can recommend the phone.

I can on the otherhand recommend WP7, you may not have all those apps but you have the majority or alternatives. You have plenty of map choices and the GPS is an integral part of the device in both the localscout and Nokia drive so you should be catered for.

Waiting for the 900 does not seem like an option based on your feedback. I would however suggest you could sell the phone and purchase and pocket the difference but maybe that would be a UK experience as we have both devices readily available.

I recently purchased on Ebay a second hand Omnia 7 (Still my favourite first generation phone) for ?110 delivered not tied to a network and whilst I was trawling around I noticed second hand 4S devices going for quadruple that and the Lumia 800's foing for around ?250-300 in excellent condition so you should be able to profit.

 

[Big Supes]

*Cough* Lumia 900 FTW! *cough*

 

[mmaman]

Well heres my problem specificlly, maybe you cans can help me devise a plan;

I had an iphone 4 black 32gb, I sold it on ebay for $520, took that money and bought a 4S 32gb white. All was fine, now the buyer wants a refund which im probably gonna have to give to him. Now I have $100 in my paypal, I can sell this 4S on ebay and hopefully get a lot, lets say I sell at $700-520+100=$280 I can then either sell the iphone 4 for at least 300 or just keep it until a real good wp7 comes out then sell it.

So yea lets see how much I get for the 4S first and I'll go from there. But March is not too far away for the 900.

 

[mmaman]

So I can either stay with the IP4 or sell it and get a wp right now. Whatyou guys recommend?

 

[Reflexx]

I'd wait just a little bit.

Even if you don't end up going with the Lumia 900, the Lumia 800 will likely be significantly cheaper in a few months.

 

[based_graham]

I would sell it and pick up a Lumia 800 but like what many others said wait until the Lumia 900 arrives because that phone is built for American consumers.

 

[mmaman]

So what would I miss from the 900 by getting the 800?

Bigger Screen
LTE
FFC

....and thats it? Dosnt seem like to much but still LTE should be nice.

 

[Reflexx]

So what would I miss from the 900 by getting the 800?

Bigger Screen
LTE
FFC

....and thats it? Dosnt seem like to much but still LTE should be nice.

Better screen tech
A better camera

You did mention that the camera is important to you. And the Lumia 900 will have a different, and better, camera than the Lumia 800.

I don't know if it will be as good as the N8's camera though.

 

[N8ter]

I'd stay with iPhone if you want the best monetary investment. They maintain their value much better than anything else on the market. You can almost fund yearly upgrades selling your old iPhone. That's something that had to be mentioned.

I'm over buying for dollars and selling for pennies. Are you? LOL

Sent from my HD7 using Board Express