Anyone else feel the same way I do about the current crop o devices....

[socialcarpet]

However....I know down the line (couple of months) that what is enough FOR ME WILL be here (supposedly); why buy into a contract now and have to figure out a way to get THAT DEVICE when it releases? Like I said, I was just seeing who feels the same as me. Apparently, not too many people at all (which is fine...I was just throwing my thoughts out there)....

Dual-cores and higher than 800x480 resolution aren't possible under the current OS.

It's also a safe bet I think that Apollo/Windows Phone 8 devices are not going to be shipping in "a couple of months". I could be wrong, but I suspect the earliest we are going to see a product like the on the shelf will be closer to the end of 2012, beginning of 2013. Microsoft doesn't seem to be in a hurry to push half-baked software out the door (at least when it comes to Windows Phone anyway) so I think they'll take their time with this. It's more important to get it right the first time and make sure all the support is there.

I'm sure your Lumia 710 will serve you well for a much time as it takes for Win 8/dual core phones to show up on store shelves though and I definitely understand where you are coming from here. The contract I just signed for my L900 is the first phone contract I have signed in 3 years, I was on a month-to-month with a crap Android because I didn't want a contract.

I seriously considered a 710 for many of the same reasons as you, but ultimately the 900 won me over. I decided the only way for me to really give WP7 a fair try was to get the best device I could (a lot of my Android loving friends blamed my bad experience on the choice of a cheaper phone, I wasn't going to repeat that mistake again)

 

[KingCrimson]

Huge specs are coming with Apollo.

 

[N8ter]

Again, I agree with you on NFC and I think it has great potential, but it's not going to happen any time soon. That's no fault of M$. That's the acceptance of our society.

I understand that you keep saying you WANT to have a phone with increased specs in case things pick up. Like what exactly? Do you buy a souped up vehicle in anticipation of speed limit increases or because you'll eventually want to take it to the track? Exactly what do you figure is going to happen in the 2 year contract (technically 20 months for your upgrade) that you need superior specs? Are you going to be doing something much different on your phone in the next 10 months that you can't do today? Barring low end Android devices, what can't you do on most Android/iOS phones today that you couldn't do in 2010? I'm hard pressed to find much other than some of the more modern games. My roommate's dad is rocking a Droid X, which I had 2 years ago, and I'm showing him all kinds of stuff on my Bionic that he's doing just fine on that device. Specs are truly more of a d*** measuring contest when it boils down to it.

Wanting is great. Being prepared for what may come is ideal. Reality is a different story all together. Apple has noticed this and it's working wonders for them. M$ has their plan as well, but a much broader approach. Design the OS around the hardware. What a novel concept.

The NFC is already happening for him. Why do you keep telling him it's not gonna happen soon when it already has potential to provide great value for him RIGHT NOW?

I'm not understanding your logic there, or lack thereof.

Things always pick up. Let's see what happens if Microsoft released the next XBox with only a very modest spec upgrade from the current. Both Devs and users will laugh them out of the market.

Specs are overshot on devices to give room for forward momentum in the app market. It's why Apple puts ridiculous SoCs in their iPhones even though they can theoretically still run the A4 in the 4S and get by just fine. It's not just show. It does give devices a longer shelf life before the hardware performance becomes a bottleneck.

No different than a PC, but more important because you cannot self-upgrade smartphone components the way you can in a desktop. Very similar to consoles as well. The first XB360 games really didn't look all that revolutionary compared to the latest-gen XB games, but now - years later they wouldn't be able to run on that older hardware. The devices are overspecced out of the gate to give them headroom. It's not about the OS - the OS is always expected to run decently. It's about what you run on the device atop that OS that matters, and how the devices handles the load especially a year or so after release when games and apps are a bit more demanding than what they were when it was just introduced on the market.

 

[gartnerx3]

as long as it works you should be happy with it

 

[gibbyhome]

I can kind of understand what you are saying but the spec's are not as far off as you my think they are .
to me it would be nice to have a faster GPU, but do I need it NO.. with android you do need t.
I would like to have a Gig of ram but do I need it NO... with android .. wow I can't emagin running anything with 512 let alone the new tango with 256.. android would never work.

I would like a duel core phone that is something I would want only because I would like to take videos in 1080p which you can't do with single core..

but it really comes down to win8.. now there are many things about win8 that I would rather have than a faster phone .. encription ... nokia being able to make changes to the phone api for better pic's and pritty much just everything I have heard about win8 I would rather have..
mark

Amen to this.

I could not possibly care less about NFC. As far as gaming goes, I don't play a ton of games on my phone and the Adreno 205 or whatever it is in my Lumia 900 is more than adequate for everything I ask of the phone.

No phone is future proof, I'm not worried about that.

As for signing a contract, I'm not concerned about that either. I essentially got my Lumia 900 for FREE with the 2 year contract.

Sure, Apollo and dual core processors and 11 other things will come out during the term of my contract. That happens no matter WHEN you sign a contract, it's unavoidable.

All I care about is I have a phone I love and I could not suffer through another year with my wretched Android junk waiting for NFC or plasma screens or quad-core or Apollo or any other life-changing phone technology.

I love the phone I have now. Anything that comes out between now and when it's time for me to get another isn't going to make my phone any "less good" than it was when I bought it, and in two years, Apollo and dual core and whatever other wonderful stuff is just about to come out any minute will have had plenty of time to mature and come down in price and Nokia will probably have an awesome phone for me to buy.

Between now and then, I'm not gonna sweat it.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

The NFC is already happening for him. Why do you keep telling him it's not gonna happen soon when it already has potential to provide great value for him RIGHT NOW?

I'm not understanding your logic there, or lack thereof.

Things always pick up. Let's see what happens if Microsoft released the next XBox with only a very modest spec upgrade from the current. Both Devs and users will laugh them out of the market.

Specs are overshot on devices to give room for forward momentum in the app market. It's why Apple puts ridiculous SoCs in their iPhones even though they can theoretically still run the A4 in the 4S and get by just fine. It's not just show. It does give devices a longer shelf life before the hardware performance becomes a bottleneck.

No different than a PC, but more important because you cannot self-upgrade smartphone components the way you can in a desktop. Very similar to consoles as well. The first XB360 games really didn't look all that revolutionary compared to the latest-gen XB games, but now - years later they wouldn't be able to run on that older hardware. The devices are overspecced out of the gate to give them headroom. It's not about the OS - the OS is always expected to run decently. It's about what you run on the device atop that OS that matters, and how the devices handles the load especially a year or so after release when games and apps are a bit more demanding than what they were when it was just introduced on the market.

This guy understands me. I'm not talking about needing all these things now because the OS doesn't support the features and the OS DOESNT NEED THESE FEATURES.

iOS devices run smooth and fast no matter what hardware they are on.....THE OS. Now, if I want a little more ban for my buck I'm not gonna get an iPhone 3gs (even though I know the OS runs just fine on it and I won't have problems with it...plus it's free now) because I know I don't want to waste a contract opportunity on something outdated.

My point is not necessarily the specs, but the common denominator no matter what device you get; unless you know some magic way to get out of a contract or find the newer phone you want for cheap (I have 3 kids and can't really afford a $600-700 phone just because...) the phone you sign a new contract phone is your device for the next two years. With Android it would be a tough call (especially going to ATT), but for Windows Phone it's not because you get the same experience on every device. But say they start bringing Modern Combat 3 and other high end apps to the marketplace 3 months after you signed your contract (this is a hypothetical number... I know higher quality apps won't be here until after WP8 due to OS restrictions and limitations...); although you may not be a gamer, wouldn't it be nice knowing you COULD use it If you wanted to...?

I guess it boils to people needing their new device NOW I suppose. Me... I'd rather wait around ( especially being free out of a contract now) for the reasons I've mentioned above (all Windows Phone basically have the same internals, minus cameras). If I'm signing my life away to a two-year contract to a company like AT&T (who could care less about providing timely updates since Microsoft gave carriers this power), it better on a device where I wouldn't notice the lack of an update(s) because it's THAT feature rich and nice of a device....

As it stands, for a TWO YEAR COMMITMENT, the Lumia would offer me a more colorful, larger screen, and a better camera; I have everything else the Lumia 900 has in my 710. To me, that's not worth a two commitment to AT&T....

 

[jimski]

Don't know. Got my Surround on launch day and I was still thoroughly enjoying it (after applying the forced update) up until last Friday when it was deactivated. Got the Lumia 900 because, a) I was getting a little itchy after 17 months with the same device, and b) I was eligible for an upgrade. Had I not been, could have lived with the Surround for the full two years. I love my new phone, but I didn't "have" to get it. Different story when I replaced my Tilt2. Day and night.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[Reflexx]

What's kind of ironic is that I feel as an early adopter of WP, I'm knowingly in the WP "beta test."

I enjoy the experience I have, and patiently wait for WP8. Then the REAL smartphone beta test will be over.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

What's kind of ironic is that I feel as an early adopter of WP, I'm knowingly in the WP "beta test."

I enjoy the experience I have, and patiently wait for WP8. Then the REAL smartphone beta test will be over.

lol good point. my co-worker and I said this...that WP in it's current state is beta...

 

[anotherhawkeye]

I wouldn't say that is TOTALLY true because there ARE PHONES that DO HAVE it all for me.....they just have a terrible OS lol. Put it like this....if someone figured out a way to get Windows Phone OS running PERFECTLY (the way it works now...for the most part) on a Nexus S 4g type device, I would sign a contract with WHOEVER the phone was with. )....

That's funny. I am coming from a nexus s 4g and that's a pos phone, IMHO. Wireless issues, GPS issues, crappy Os. My focus s >> ns4g.

 

[d-laybook]

I completely agree with the original poster. I bought a Lumia 710 off contract when I switched from BlackBerry to Windows Phone and I really like the phone. As I have looked at the 800 and 900 while they have been released, I have come to the same conclusion that there isnt enough of a difference between my 710 and those devices to warrant buying them outright or signing a new contract to get a reduced rate. I will wait until the next generation of devices come out and hopefully then there will be a phone that is worth signing up again for or buying outright (in my humble opinion.)

 

[Duvi]

I guess I would have to say that's a Big NO from me. Why?! Because I just signed a 2 year contract for the Lumia 900. There will always be a bigger better around the corner. You make the call when the device you can live with goes on sale. My device of choice at least for now is the Lumia 900, LTE, Windows Phone, the hardware necessary to run it, big beautiful screen, Nokia build quality, etc... So I guess I'm just easy to please.

+1

Nokia is what I've been waiting for! And I got it.

It has LTE which I wasn't expecting until Apollo. It has a FFC which I will never use, but love having that option. Has the battery life Android users dream about. The perfect size 4.3 inch screen. I'm happy.

Does it mean I'll stay w/ the 900 until my contract is up? Fat chance. I'm a tech enthusiast! I have 6 lines on my AT&T account, just for the devices.

 

[N8ter]

lol good point. my co-worker and I said this...that WP in it's current state is beta...

I think Mango is Release quality. NoDo and before were very Beta, though. Mango on Mango devices is theoretically what they should have been shooting for on release, with better devices with current-gen hardware coming out right now.

Both Android and iOS are smooth on relatively current devices (released in the past year or so), so I dunno why people are talking about "OS is so buttery smooth" as if it's some calling card for WP7. Hardware is so powerful right now that it's borderline impossible even for Android to lag on the devices coming out right now - and guess what, they cost practically the same off-contract as a Lumia 900 and will likiely be just as cheap on-contract in a few months, anyways.

Anyways, calling it Beta now is a bit disingenuous cause the OS is at a *decent* place right now.

The devices are a bit embarassing, though, and I personally could not justify that Off Contract Price they want for them, nor a 2 year contract on hardware that is almost 2 years old.

Android battery life is on par with WP7 and better in some cases (Razr Maxx). Nexus S is well over a year old now. Galaxy Nexus is the new one, and HTC WP7 devices have Wireless issues as well (didnt' Nokia just patch a data issue, and had to issue like 2-3 battery patches for the 800 cause the battery life was so piss poor?). I know I never use WiFi on my HD7 anymore because the phone constantly decides it wants to use the Data instead of WiFi anyways (and literally 100% of the time when I wake it up), leading to ridiculous battery drain especially in some buildings (like ice rinks with public WiFi access points).

P.S. Android 4.0 is a huge upgrade for Android both Aesthetically and Performance-wise. They didn't get there by only telling people the positives and ignoring the negatives. They got there because even Android users were willing to call a spade a spade, something it seems a ton of WP7 users refuse to do judging by the defenders on the Microsoft Suggestions Site (which is why I don't participate there, someone always likes it the way it is even if the changes suggested will only improve their user experience i.e. Notification Centers and things like that).

 

[N8ter]

Don't know. Got my Surround on launch day and I was still thoroughly enjoying it (after applying the forced update) up until last Friday when it was deactivated. Got the Lumia 900 because, a) I was getting a little itchy after 17 months with the same device, and b) I was eligible for an upgrade. Had I not been, could have lived with the Surround for the full two years. I love my new phone, but I didn't "have" to get it. Different story when I replaced my Tilt2. Day and night.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

Most smartphones are like that these days, cause hardware has improved so tremendously from when the Tilt was "current." Windows Mobile devices, like Blackberries, were notoriously underspecced to improve profit margins. That's why the HTC HD2 was such a huge deal when it was released. Too bad the OS couldn't really support the hardware.

But yea, especially for rather light users they can probably use the same smartphone for 3+ years and not really care. Heavy users a bit nit more tech-sensitive. There are countries like Canada where carriers have 3 year contracts as the norm, btw, so using the same phone that long is quite common in some countries.

 

[cckgz4]

I think breaking out of contract from one Windows Phone to another is pointless because essentially you get the same experience. But if you have an upgrade I say why not

 

[geeksix]

I'm glad I didn't sign a contract for my Lumia 710 (and refuse to for the 900) after reading about the 610 with NFC (not that I would sign a contract for that phone because it's still low-end). I found my 710 for 200 and am now a free agent on Tmobile prepaid because I refuse to buy a device that does NOT have at least a Front cam, NFC, and and a decent GPU for gaming (don't care about processor necessarily). I'm not a spec whore (the reason why I am with Windows Phone vs Android because Windows Phone was optimized for the hardware it runs on...not the other way around), but if I'm going to sign my life away for 2 years (especially to a crappy company like AT&T) it better be on a device that is pretty future proof.

The current crop of Windows Phones are recycled, 2 year old Android handsets with different manufacturers basically (includin the 900 when you look at the processor and GPU). I don't need an XBox 360 in my pocket, but I at least want a device that "feels good to have" and not feeling like I'm missing anything when things start to pick up (NFC support, better gaming apps, etc). I don't need these specs for current day usage, and if I could find any of the newer high end 2nd gen devices for a good price off-contract then I'm all for it. But as is... I refuse to sign a 2 year agreement for the crop of devices out now.....

Anyone else feel the same way I do...?

It's funny, I have a Windows Phone because of the low hardware.

Android is steadily becoming more usable because the hardware is finally catching up with the epic bloat. By the time Apollo comes out, and we get hardware thats better than we have now, we'll have a highly tuned OS, that will run unimaginably fast on middle specced hardware.

It always amazes me that Google's top priority isin't optimization of Android. Microsoft clearly learned their lessons from Vista well.

 

[eastbayrae]

I'm glad I didn't sign a contract for my Lumia 710 (and refuse to for the 900) after reading about the 610 with NFC (not that I would sign a contract for that phone because it's still low-end). I found my 710 for 200 and am now a free agent on Tmobile prepaid because I refuse to buy a device that does NOT have at least a Front cam, NFC, and and a decent GPU for gaming (don't care about processor necessarily). I'm not a spec whore (the reason why I am with Windows Phone vs Android because Windows Phone was optimized for the hardware it runs on...not the other way around), but if I'm going to sign my life away for 2 years (especially to a crappy company like AT&T) it better be on a device that is pretty future proof.

The current crop of Windows Phones are recycled, 2 year old Android handsets with different manufacturers basically (includin the 900 when you look at the processor and GPU). I don't need an XBox 360 in my pocket, but I at least want a device that "feels good to have" and not feeling like I'm missing anything when things start to pick up (NFC support, better gaming apps, etc). I don't need these specs for current day usage, and if I could find any of the newer high end 2nd gen devices for a good price off-contract then I'm all for it. But as is... I refuse to sign a 2 year agreement for the crop of devices out now.....

Anyone else feel the same way I do...?

Then don't buy it. I bought an L800 last week to tide me over until the WP8 stuff hits.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

It's funny, I have a Windows Phone because of the low hardware.

Android is steadily becoming more usable because the hardware is finally catching up with the epic bloat. By the time Apollo comes out, and we get hardware thats better than we have now, we'll have a highly tuned OS, that will run unimaginably fast on middle specced hardware.

It always amazes me that Google's top priority isin't optimization of Android. Microsoft clearly learned their lessons from Vista well.

I agree, and while I applaud Google for a lot of innovative stuff, I don't like how they always just rush to release something JUST TO BE the first to release it. If they would slow down with a lot of stuff and focus on quality vs quantity I would give Android a go again (until WP8 Apollo is released). I just hated how it didn't feel quite finished (ICS was a nice improvement but still meh....), and I never used any of the apps that it had anyway.

However, in this case, I'm leaving Android and paying the same dollar amount for 2 year old hardware basically. All 2nd Gen Windows Phones have the same GPU and CPU (I believe the same CPU...dont quote me on that) as the Evo Shift 4g on Sprint. Would anyone TODAY sign up for a 2 year contract for the Evo Shift 4g (if you were ONLY LOOKONG AT SPECS)? You would be crazy (if you only used Android anyway). Windows Phone...meh...it doesn't matter, but in the end you're still paying the same amount for older hardware....

That's how I see it anyways....

 

[eastbayrae]

It's funny, I have a Windows Phone because of the low hardware.

Android is steadily becoming more usable because the hardware is finally catching up with the epic bloat. By the time Apollo comes out, and we get hardware thats better than we have now, we'll have a highly tuned OS, that will run unimaginably fast on middle specced hardware.

It always amazes me that Google's top priority isin't optimization of Android. Microsoft clearly learned their lessons from Vista well.

Google left the optimization of the OS to the manufacturers. I don't blame Google. I hope you understand that the WP7 phones you're seeing now are 2 GEN. Apple, et all are on what? 4 Gen? Apple is releasing iOS5 this year. Technically WP is only on version .5 if you consider Mango a full version upgrade. Imagine 4th gen handsets running this OS.

 

[HeyCori]

I agree, and while I applaud Google for a lot of innovative stuff, I don't like how they always just rush to release something JUST TO BE the first to release it. If they would slow down with a lot of stuff and focus on quality vs quantity I would give Android a go again (until WP8 Apollo is released). I just hated how it didn't feel quite finished (ICS was a nice improvement but still meh....), and I never used any of the apps that it had anyway.

However, in this case, I'm leaving Android and paying the same dollar amount for 2 year old hardware basically. All 2nd Gen Windows Phones have the same GPU and CPU (I believe the same CPU...dont quote me on that) as the Evo Shift 4g on Sprint. Would anyone TODAY sign up for a 2 year contract for the Evo Shift 4g (if you were ONLY LOOKONG AT SPECS)? You would be crazy (if you only used Android anyway). Windows Phone...meh...it doesn't matter, but in the end you're still paying the same amount for older hardware....

That's how I see it anyways....

Snapdragon (system on chip) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Evo 4G that's currently on Sprint uses the Qualcomm MSM8655 which is almost two years old.

While a second gen device like the Titan uses the Qualcomm MSM8255T which is about a year old.

I don't have any bench scores so I don't know how they directly compare.