Initial thoughts on Windows Phone 8.1?

[SpareBot]

@pierreportlan

While @ECTranslating might overlook some WP8 features you seem (!!!) to not know android well. A lot of stuff you mentioned is and was never exclusive to WP8(.1) ... eg driving mode. And anyone who misses customization options on android has not digg deep enough.

My thoughts on WP8.1 havent change a lot since I installed it: very necessary updates but it still barely keeps up. LiveTiles and peoplehub are still the outstandig features but I would trade them any time for a better action center or Aaaaaapps!!

 

[prasath1234]

I understand but live tiles to work properly you have to enable that app in background which cannot be done in some phones like lumia 820 so if u do enable the apps in background battery life goes for a toss.hence i have to keep it in battery saver mode always no live tiles for me.live tiles can be enjoyed only in high battery phones.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[WinSammie]

My opinion is:

Considerably better than WP 8, getting closer to Android and iOS yet short in delivering a user experience on par with others. Keeping in mind this Dev Preview can be considered a Beta, i still have to remark the fact they still forgot to insert Traditional Chinese with Pinyin in both WP 8.1 DP and the Language Update that they pushed later. Integration between apps (like in transferring or moving files and sharing content from one to the other) is still awful; Microsoft Office still refuses to open Office password protected files, which in my case makes it useless; lack of wifi printing function (not so important but i do happen to print stuff from my phone on Wi-Fi printers); Notification centre is a huge huge step ahead of WP 8; however it still lacks the possibility to shift icons around just scrolling them in the notification box and the capacity to add multiple icons (not just 4 or 5) through a scrolling function; background customization, and customization at large to me are too limited. The background doesn't include all icons so the effect is spoiled by icons that are not compatible with it (yet). Updates on store are broken but i am sure it's the Beta. I need to push updates manually from the store menu; Photocamera is slow, especially at night (both Nokia Camera and Nokia Camera Beta), yet pictures are the best of any mobile phone i have every seen or tested. Plainly gorgeous as usual. Keyboard with swipe is now fast, terribly fast. I made a test with a few android ones and it's perfectly on par or better sometimes. OS aside, the market is short of quality, apps i need for work and the search function is terrible. A search for anything, gives tons of useless results and very little of what you need. Email lacks a one single unified point; this means i am still using 10 tiles in my main screen; disappointing but again it's a beta (but i don't think Microsoft will come with a unified mail center anywayss); Games are strong on WP, so if you're a player it doesn't disappoint. People are saying good things about Cortana. However she sucks all your personal data and you don't know where that data goes; it looks like a military bot. Gives logical answers (not always too smart) and the searches are limited by the fact Bing search engine is limited compared to Google (I never find what i need with Bing for my work; most often i get it with Google); I have also noticed that with Cortana on the battery lasted a bit less and it was strange. Eventually, i removed Cortana altogether as i don't share the idea of vocal assistants who use all your data to try to guess what you need (and let others guess too, i am sure); it's unfortunate that some functions are linked to Cortana, as i am sure people will wonder how does Cortana handles user's data, especially in Europe. I found it very odd Microsoft falls short with keyboards but then comes up with a Cortana that is useless for some markets. I type in English, Italian, French and Chinese and here i can't use Chinese in the way i need.

All in all, WP 8.1 is the best "Beta" version of an OS i ever had. Shortcomings and unappealing customizations aside, it works flawlessly, fast and strong. I had only one crash that i had to recover with a soft reset.
My opinion is that there is a major step ahead compared to the old WP8 and the Dev Preview looks better; However i still have to carry a second device to do certain things. This speaks tons on where this OS stands for now. Apart from all the above, in my opinion Microsoft lacks an ecosystem akin to that samsung has designed for the Note family. My Nokia 1520 would be a gorgeous device if it were able to handle business work like a Galaxy Note does. Unfortunately it's not the case.

A note on your email single unified point: you can unify all your email accounts under outlook.com, and then have that as a single unified point on your phone! And on your PC also. You can even choose from which account you want to send your mail!

 

[Pierre Blackwell]

@sparebot- I use to use an Android so I'm quite familiar with it. There are quite a few renditions of it depending on the brand of phone, so I will admit that there are things I don't know. My point is that WP8.1 is on par with Apple and Android. You put two Androids together and two WP together and I think you'd get a more personal impression from the WPs as far as customization goes. Can you do more with Android, ultimately, yes...do you get that sense of personalization? You see the Me tile, my friends, co-workers, and family. Then a collage of faces on my people hub. Even most iPhone and Android users agree that the WP display is the better. Bottom line, you can't say WP isn't on par because of the quantity of apps, but the quality. You can also pin the websites to the start screen. How many stories tell of WP going to Android? Now how many have gone from Android to WP.

 

[Steven Jepson]

Hey all.

I'm an old fart when it comes to Windows on a smartphone - used to be on Windows Mobile and tried a number of 'cooked' OS's. I have a Lumia 920 and love the overall quality of the phone. The OS has been, from the beginning, a welcome change from the rigidity of the iOS (just don't like Apple) and what I find the confusion inherent of Android devices. it's just very hard to find things, whereas WP is understandable within minutes of picking up the phone. Your mileage may vary...

8.1 is a great upgrade/change to the OS, but there are a few things I'm just dumbfounded with:

1) The Action Center is a nice feature, but since the MS update, you have to unlock your phone to be able to see what's on it. is this a built-in security feature? If so, I understand.
2) I LOVE Glance. It's an excellent feature. But ever since the 8.1 update, the ability of pinning notifications (emails, texts, etc.) is gone. I can put text on it, but notifications are not working. Is this a bug?
3) Facebook integration - very well thought-out, but buggy. It's very hard to post pics, where it was a snap on 8.0. And this is not a connectivity issue - I'm usually on WiFi, and my service (AT&T, beotches! ) is fine where I am (4G LTE). I also had to load the 'official' FB app and dump the Beta version, which I preferred.
4) Xbox Music. Don't get me started - I would prefer if they went back to Zune. That was a very intuitive platform, very easy to use. I had come to understand all the insanity built into XBM, and 8.1 allows you to add to an existing playlist (FINALLY!!!). But why is the playscreen so small? It makes it very hard to use the bar when toggling through a song, which used to be accomplished by merely holding down the FF/RW button.
5) Notifications on the startscreen. For some reason, I have lost my main email client notification (Earthlink). 8.1 added all my email clients on the startscreen (even if they weren't on the screen to start), so I had to clean that up. But Earthlink had been removed. I pinned it to start from my list, but no notifications. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling it...
6) Battery issues. After reading some posts, it seems that removing Battery Saver from the background helps. I've done that today, and I'll see.

Overall, this is another positive step in what I consider to be the best Smartphone OS out there. Hopefully people can help with my issues, and MS is actually reading these posts!

Ciao!

 

[mozman68]

I'm not having ANY of those issues with my 1520. :straight:

 

[Pandaz3]

I have AT&T with a Lumina 1020 for me and the Warden, hers is converted to Korean (As is her laptop, desktops and her Surface 2 (RT) tablet) so I am a little concerned about upgrading hers. Not that it matters yet as I am stuck with Win-phone. Probably teething pains with the 8.0 for now. No update available for me yet. Probably some delay because of the 41 Meg camera. I would like to try it.

 

[smchambers56]

Finally broke down and updated my 1520 to 8.1 Thoughts..WOW! Why on God's green earth did I wait so long...

 

[osars ehi]

windows phone 8.1 turned out to be something big and unexpected with many improvements, new features and so on. but there are some features i would like to see....
please vote for these features and share with as many people as you can.
actionable notification, always on cortana, picture password – Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone

What are your initial thoughts on features reported on today?

Developers leak new features included in Windows Phone 8.1 SDK | Windows Phone Central

Poll: What do you think of the new features in Windows Phone 8.1? | Windows Phone Central

 

[osars ehi]

windows phone 8.1 turned out to be something big and unexpected with many improvements, new features and so on. but there are some features i would like to see....
please vote for these features and share with as many people as you can.
actionable notification, always on cortana, picture password – Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone

 

[MartLea]

After a few days with 8.10.12393.890 I am very impressed with the WP OS. Previously I had an old Eten Gloffish M700 running Windows Mobile v 6.5. Finally scrapped the old dear and got a couple of Lumia 620's, one for me and one for my wife as they were so cheap. WP8.0 was installed and working very well on both phones which are a joy to use, great little phone with good features like front facing cam, SD Card. Loved the way WP8.0 works and big congratulations all round to the MS team.
WP8.1 is even better now and should be a great OS when the bugs/issues are fixed.
Main bugs I've found so far and commented on elsewhere are:
- WiFi connection to home router is much worse now, it was excellent with 8.0
- Battery performance is worse than with 8.0
- HTML5 Video element not always working due to some major changes - MS aware of this I believe
- Storage Sense, Storage Check and even Nokia Storage Check Beta all report different storage information levels (just one good app for this please MS)
- Battery Saver always shows time since last charge as less than 1 hour.

 

[gmfeld]

I am new to 8.1. The physical search button which used to bring up Bing Search and Bing vision now brings up Cortana. What it i still want to use Bing Vision to scan a codebar, etc.? I read an article by Paul Thurotte who says Vision should be there when I launch the camera (what a pain that is to get to Vision), but it's not there, I don't see any lenses when i hit the menu button in the camera app.

 

[gmfeld]

I am new to 8.1. The physical search button which used to bring up Bing Search and Bing vision now brings up Cortana. What it i still want to use Bing Vision to scan a codebar, etc.? I read an article by Paul Thurotte who says Vision should be there when I launch the camera (what a pain that is to get to Vision), but it's not there, I don't see any lenses when i hit the menu button in the camera app.

Never mind, I found the Lens button in the Camera app. A terrible place to stick Vision, what a pain.

 

[Mikersson]

I'm using windows phone 8.1 in a Nokia Lumia Amber 520 since 48 hours ago.
It Was working fine without problems. I like the improvements.
The only thing I'm experience now after I moved many apps to the SD card is:
The system get stuck for almost ine minute (some times less)
I had to move back to the phone some apps like viber and facebook and now the phone is answering much better. I will continue checking issues n improvements.
Great!

 

[wabelo]

There is some way to enable music streaming like Nokia Mix Radio, Songza, Pandora, Slack Radio, etc. in Latin American countries?
Changing region can work? (I did that with Songza but now is not available in this way) Using VPN? I don't know. :straight:
I ask this because I live in Peru and the only music streaming apps for a Nokia Lumia 1020 are AUPEO!, Soundtracker and Spotify (that only works with a premium account) :eck:.
I hope they can at least make the audio streaming apps available changing your region, do you agree with that? It's so unfair :unhappy: ... people work a lot here in Latin America to save money in order to buy a Nokia Lumia flagship for good music & photography experience.

 

[PinoyWP8]

Hi Guys,

Apologies in advance if my question is 'stupid' and if it's totally inappropriate for the forum subject. But I just want to know, the Developer's preview, is that the official 8.1 upgrade or will MS be releasing an official one? If yes, do we know or has MS released a date when? And does it includes dates per country?

 

[mozman68]

Hi Guys,

Apologies in advance if my question is 'stupid' and if it's totally inappropriate for the forum subject. But I just want to know, the Developer's preview, is that the official 8.1 upgrade or will MS be releasing an official one? If yes, do we know or has MS released a date when? And does it includes dates per country?

Not stupid if you are new to windows phone and coming from Apple.

Updates are manufacturer/carrier specific.

Microsoft released 8.1 for the developers and for the manufacturers/carriers to tweak to their specific hardware. So, Nokia will release the 8.1 update for their specific phones over the next month or so according to their statements when Windows released the preview.

 

[a5cent]

Microsoft released 8.1 for the developers and for the manufacturers/carriers to tweak to their specific hardware. So, Nokia will release the 8.1 update for their specific phones over the next month or so according to their statements when Windows released the preview.

Probably not important, but just to clarify:

The OEMs don't tweak/change anything that MS delivers. They only add to it.

 

[mozman68]

Probably not important, but just to clarify:

The OEMs don't tweak/change anything that MS delivers. They only add to it.

Semantics, but I consider "adding" to be tweaking as the experience is altered from manufacturer to manufacturer and in some cases phone to phone... :winktongue:

 

[Zer0esAnd1s]

One feature i do not like is Games appear seperately in Windows 8.1 instead of collectively coming under Games app. I have a lot of games installed and when i go to the apps installed the list seems very huge.