WHy do you use windows phone? Any easy way to get a feel for it?

[mike208]

Thinking of switching from android to windows phone cause I like the live tiles and how they work, or at least how I think they work, lol. I am on verizon(not great for windows phone future perhaps) and was considering buying a new lumia 735 or used icon to play with. Just not sure if I am ready to drop $200 bucks just to try it out. I've been reading reviews and forums, but wanted to get a feel for why "you" chose windows over android or iOS? What do you like, what do you dislike?

Also is there any good way to get a feel for windows phone without physically using it? I've tried reading reviews. But between windows 8, 8.1, cyan, denim, update 1, etc, etc, and now windows 10 its hard to get a feel for it from reviews. As I said I like the ideas of live tiles, but how do they compare to android widgets? Does the SMS have a live tile? That will show you your most recent text without having to go to the action center perhaps?

What else do I need to know?

 

[Nicholas Maguire]

I chose Windows Phone because I love the entire user experience. I think it's the most fluid, gorgeous, and simplest mobile OS there is. I love the integration with my PC, and the stuff Windows 10 brings to the table (like sending text from PC, etc). To me, Windows Phone is the only mobile OS I truly enjoy every second of using. It's not locked down like iOS (example being forced to use iTunes for iOS), yet it's more simple. It's beautiful, and personal.

Windows Phone live tiles can show recent articles from news app, show the weather information, notifications, etc, but you can't interact with them like Android's widgets (though I guess that's coming sometime in the future, probably a year from now). I don't know if the SMS app shows actual texts because I always use the smaller sizes for it. PS: Windows Phone is awesome and the Lumia Icon and 735 are both amazing devices.

 

[noersetiawan]

I just bored of Android, and couldn't afford iPhones at the moment, so Windows it is. What I like is it's different, its UI suits my taste, and it just works as a smartphone, what I dislike is the (Lumia) phones are way more expensive than Androids, outdated hardware, and platform limitations.

The best way is watching YouTube review, visit trylumiaphone.com , or just go to physical Store to try them at Sunday.

Difference between Live Tile and Android widget is that they are more limited, they can only show information, but you can't interact with it directly, tapping one will launch the function (open the app, stop music, turn on flashlight, etc), the good things are they consistently with the OS design language and they doesn't consume battery or slow your phone down.

First check the apps availability, second, if you love to hack your phone, Windows is not your best choice. Windows Phone is hackable, but it's really limited compared to iPhones and Android.

SMS does have Live Tile, small and medium shows unread messages count, large also display last received SMS content.

735 or Icon? Icon definitely.

 

[jpling]

The only thing I can think of that may frustrate you will be lack of google services. Gmail/contacts/calendars syncs nicely. I personally switched my files to one drive and use one note instead of keep. Word instead of docs. Microsoft makes their services for all platforms so I can switch between them all. I use android mostly for my phone but I switch between them all frequently. Windows/android/ios-iPad and have all my files and personal digital needs at all times. If you print a lot from your phone get (kumoprint) asap. Metrotube for YouTube. 6tag honestly is the best instagram app ever and I miss it when I use my gs6/lgg3/htconemax. I do miss scrollable widgets on windows but not to the point of obsessing over it when I carry my 1520/930/640xl. Windows mobile is fluid and I'm using the current build of w10 on all my windows phone. Get pocket file manager to manage all your cloud services box/gdrive/others and local storage as well if needed (think ESfile explorer on android). If you are a heavy (app of the moment) type of user you may get frustrated very quickly. Everything else just works and looks beautiful while doing it. I won't tell you it's better because it's not in a lot of ways but it is in a lot of ways. They all have their place in my world. (windows phones,laptop,desktop,dell tab.. Android phones,tabs,.. Chrome book...ipad...2 Ubuntu lappys)

 

[xandros9]

I will probably try to get back to you on the rest of your post, but as for actually trying Windows Phone, you can probably get away just fine with a cheap 635, despite that phone not being on Verizon. Actually, I'd take a look to see if the Lumia 822 or 928 are available if you need something you can try with cellular capabilities.

The 735 is a fine phone, but a bit much for just a test driver. Also see the LG Lancet.

 

[Steve Adams]

I use windows phone because I hate apple products, sold every apple product like 3 months of owner ship (about 3000.00 worth). Android is buggy, laggy, and NOT user friendly or enjoyable. Blackberry when I used it was on bb8, on the 8130 pearl. Then I tried windows phone and LOVE IT. the ONLY issue I have is apps. I wish all the apps on android were available on windows phone. Other than that issue, windows phone is a superior operating system to the rest.

 

[mike208]

Thanks all for your opinions, keep them coming. I found a used icon for 150 with supposed 7/10 cosmetic quality. I think I can live with that and hoping thats a general grade with the possibility it could be even better. And the ebay seller has great ratings and according to their site will seemingly do what it takes to get a good rating, so if its scratched up beyond what i think 7/10 is, I think they will work with me. Excited to see what its all about

 

[Mike Nelson5]

The Icon is a great phone although limited no SD card support and no glance screen has 32 gigs built in with cloud storage though. I use WP (Lumia 1520 has same internals and camera as the icon) because it's smooth, simple and fast and the Lumia phones have great features built right in and the icon camera can compete even with the latest and greatest phones just released. The icon will get w10m so your covered there. I say go for it keep in mind w10m is still in development so if you decide to download the developer builds and things don't work right that's why. I would say keep the phone on 8.1 for now nothing wrong with that 8.1 is very nice and simple and it just works get a feel for wp and how it works. If your coming from either Android and Apple I think you will love it.

 

[mike208]

The Icon is a great phone although limited no SD card support and no glance screen has 32 gigs built in with cloud storage though. I use WP (Lumia 1520 has same internals and camera as the icon) because it's smooth, simple and fast and the Lumia phones have great features built right in and the icon camera can compete even with the latest and greatest phones just released. The icon will get w10m so your covered there. I say go for it keep in mind w10m is still in development so if you decide to download the developer builds and things don't work right that's why. I would say keep the phone on 8.1 for now nothing wrong with that 8.1 is very nice and simple and it just works get a feel for wp and how it works. If your coming from either Android and Apple I think you will love it.

I definitely plan to stick with 8.1 for now. I figured that will get me some new stuff to keep it fresh when I do decide to move to windows 10. I was a bit worried about the no SD card support, but I should be able to make it work. I am currently on a 32GB phone with a 16GB SD, and at points one or the other was getting full. But I have a lot of spur of the moment apps that I download and then never use, and a bunch of photos that I should be backing up elsewhere anyway. I don't carry a lot of music or videos with me on my phone. So I hope with a little diligence I should be able to survive with the 32GB internal. I'm assuming since I am not buying the phone new it probably doesn't come with any free storage on one drive, unless MS gives some away to anyone who signs up, I will have to check on that I guess. It will be interesting trying to transition from google to microsoft. Luckily I don't get many important emails to my gmail account, so not having push email for gmail shouldn't hurt me too much I think, although it will still be missed.

 

[mike208]

So I got my icon a few days ago. The case is in immaculate condition, unfortunately the screen is a mess. 3 quarter inch scratches and a bunch of hairline scratches, if thats a term. But I only notice them when the screen is off, so I'm not too worried about it. I got it sort of set up and have been using it, but I feel kind of lost and don't know what to do with it, so I haven't done anything crazy with it yet. I will say so far my feelings on it are kind of meh. I've stuck with 8.1 as I heard the most recent w10m build for it is breaking video recording audio(mono rather than stereo and bad audio at that). I feel like I prefer androids email app, the windows facebook has some missing features, so I just pinned the full desktop facebook site. My bank app is not available which I knew, so again I pinned the banks site. The calendar only seems to display one event per day, not sure if I am missing something or if thats normal. I am looking into alternatives. Gmail app is my biggest missing google app, but the email app works. Maybe more the devices fault rather than the OS(it is used) but the battery life seems ok if all I do is send some texts and check emails. But even medium web browser or a few rounds of candy crush and it barely makes it through the work day. Not a huge deal as I can charge at my desk if needed. I felt like I couldn't get the news app to cater to my interests(user error maybe) so I switched to flipboard. Cortana seems cool, I hadn't really put google now to much use on my android, but I usually don't need it for tracking flights or things like that. It was nice to know how long it would take me to get to work, but I don't work during high traffic hours, so I usually knew how long it would take anyway. So far I have mainly used cortana for reminders which is very helpful. Oh and the keyboard, sure its "swype" like functionality is good. I use swiftkey on android and having number, common symbols as long press keys rather than having to hit the symbol key, press the key I want and hit symbol again, thats a lot of wasted time.

I really feel like I need to start using more of the phone/PC integration features to get the full use out of it, otherwise I'm not sure what it has to offer me over android. Not saying I don't like it, I like live tiles for sure, just haven't found all what it has to offer me.

 

[libra89]

So I got my icon a few days ago. The case is in immaculate condition, unfortunately the screen is a mess. 3 quarter inch scratches and a bunch of hairline scratches, if thats a term. But I only notice them when the screen is off, so I'm not too worried about it. I got it sort of set up and have been using it, but I feel kind of lost and don't know what to do with it, so I haven't done anything crazy with it yet. I will say so far my feelings on it are kind of meh. I've stuck with 8.1 as I heard the most recent w10m build for it is breaking video recording audio(mono rather than stereo and bad audio at that). I feel like I prefer androids email app, the windows facebook has some missing features, so I just pinned the full desktop facebook site. My bank app is not available which I knew, so again I pinned the banks site. The calendar only seems to display one event per day, not sure if I am missing something or if thats normal. I am looking into alternatives. Gmail app is my biggest missing google app, but the email app works. Maybe more the devices fault rather than the OS(it is used) but the battery life seems ok if all I do is send some texts and check emails. But even medium web browser or a few rounds of candy crush and it barely makes it through the work day. Not a huge deal as I can charge at my desk if needed. I felt like I couldn't get the news app to cater to my interests(user error maybe) so I switched to flipboard. Cortana seems cool, I hadn't really put google now to much use on my android, but I usually don't need it for tracking flights or things like that. It was nice to know how long it would take me to get to work, but I don't work during high traffic hours, so I usually knew how long it would take anyway. So far I have mainly used cortana for reminders which is very helpful. Oh and the keyboard, sure its "swype" like functionality is good. I use swiftkey on android and having number, common symbols as long press keys rather than having to hit the symbol key, press the key I want and hit symbol again, thats a lot of wasted time.

I really feel like I need to start using more of the phone/PC integration features to get the full use out of it, otherwise I'm not sure what it has to offer me over android. Not saying I don't like it, I like live tiles for sure, just haven't found all what it has to offer me.

I don't know about the other stuff, but you can widen the calendar tile to show more than one event. Also calendar events show on the lock screen too.

 

[offroadjunkie]

I'm new to this too. Only had my HTC 8xt for a week tomorrow. My impressions of it after a week aren't very good compared to android but I'm coming from a note 3.
My best advice would be go to the Microsoft website and order a 640 at&t go phone for $60 if they still have them. You are on vzw and I'm on sprint, we're both screwed as far as decent windows phones go. So leaving vzw\sprint is going to have to happen anyway if we stick to windows phone and want decent devices.
Ok, so back to my impressions. These phones are fast and smooth. The OS is small and doesn't take up much storage at all or use much ram that's why it runs just fine on low end devices. As far as the OS goes, I'm very impressed. The major let down is the apps. I don't know of a way to check this but out of the 300,000+ apps in the store I bet only 10 of them have been updated this week. And maybe 100 have been updated in the last year. Some major apps like vine and tumblr haven't been updated in 18 months or longer. There's a little more to the app gap than just not having the latest version of angry birds, if you know what I mean.
Windows 10 is supposed to help with that. From what I gather they're making a lot of apps "universal apps". Which means desktop apps will work on win10 phones too if the developer makes it that way. Hopefully that will all come to reality in the next year but until then the app gap is huge, freakin huge.
The facebook app is a joke, the google plus app is embarrassing, maps is alright, internet explorer is painful to use and so are the alternatives. Can't change the keyboard.
I don't mean to sound like a Debbie downer here but my first week as a windows phone user hasn't been all that pleasant. I've spent more time searching the web for ways to make this thing useable than I did playing games and using social media on android. But I haven't given up yet. I plan on using this phone for a month to try and get a real feel for it. After that ill either switch back to my cracked screen note 3 or stay with this if I've learned to love it.

 

[mike208]

I'm new to this too. Only had my HTC 8xt for a week tomorrow. My impressions of it after a week aren't very good compared to android but I'm coming from a note 3.
My best advice would be go to the Microsoft website and order a 640 at&t go phone for $60 if they still have them. You are on vzw and I'm on sprint, we're both screwed as far as decent windows phones go. So leaving vzw\sprint is going to have to happen anyway if we stick to windows phone and want decent devices.
Ok, so back to my impressions. These phones are fast and smooth. The OS is small and doesn't take up much storage at all or use much ram that's why it runs just fine on low end devices. As far as the OS goes, I'm very impressed. The major let down is the apps. I don't know of a way to check this but out of the 300,000+ apps in the store I bet only 10 of them have been updated this week. And maybe 100 have been updated in the last year. Some major apps like vine and tumblr haven't been updated in 18 months or longer. There's a little more to the app gap than just not having the latest version of angry birds, if you know what I mean.
Windows 10 is supposed to help with that. From what I gather they're making a lot of apps "universal apps". Which means desktop apps will work on win10 phones too if the developer makes it that way. Hopefully that will all come to reality in the next year but until then the app gap is huge, freakin huge.
The facebook app is a joke, the google plus app is embarrassing, maps is alright, internet explorer is painful to use and so are the alternatives. Can't change the keyboard.
I don't mean to sound like a Debbie downer here but my first week as a windows phone user hasn't been all that pleasant. I've spent more time searching the web for ways to make this thing useable than I did playing games and using social media on android. But I haven't given up yet. I plan on using this phone for a month to try and get a real feel for it. After that ill either switch back to my cracked screen note 3 or stay with this if I've learned to love it.

Haha we are in a very similar boat. I have a cracked screen Note 4 edge. I did pick up a used lumia icon and have been using it for about a month now myself. I found 8.1 decent, but I always crave the new and exciting so I have since put w10m on it, which can be a bit more android like with some of the menus, but otherwise not a huge change. I do like being able to get more tiles, all the way up to 2 wide tiles next to each other. I have to admit live tiles were my biggest draw to windows phone. Thus far I have found them to be great at what they do, but not as amazing as I would have hoped. I am still sorting out my start screen and trying to find cool apps from what is available. I don't have a huge problem with app gap. My biggest miss is my bank app, but a pin to their website works almost as good so no biggy. I don't do a lot of social media, but I do use facebook and the app is terrible, but again a pin to the facebook site works OK. I've found that I miss sunrise calendar from android, which is really odd considering its a microsoft app that isn't available on windows phone lol. I imagine they might have one similar or maybe cortana can do it, but I like how I can put in my interests on that, like favorite sports teams and it will put their games in my calendar as events.

At the end of the day, I don't hate windows phone, but I don't love it like it seems most other windows phone users do. I'm still hoping this comes down to me not knowing all the ins and outs of it yet. WHich is why I am back here posting(although may need to look for at the w10m forum now) for what it is everyone likes about this OS. I was really excited about being able to get and reply to text messages on my windows 10 computer. Still waiting on this, and unfortunately it won't ever help me at work since we are still on win 7. I guess I am still trying to figure out what windows phone does better than android or iphone(I've yet to own an iphone, they seem too bland and customization for me so far, but I am somewhat bored with android). Right now I can use this phone as a daily driver with minimal complaints, just as I could with my android. I usually get flagship androids, so speed has never been much of an issue, although android can slow down over time, not sure about windows phone. I know everybody rates smoothness as one of the great things about windows and sure thats true. My biggest complaints are minor things that just don't work quite as well as android. Email on 8.1 I wasn't a fan of, outlook on 10 is much better. While i see everyone rave about the windows keyboard, I've found it good but nothing compared to swiftkey. Its more time consuming switching between letters and numbers, and even the long press to get numbers(which I only accidentally stumbled on) is a slower process than swiftkey. I haven't liked any of the news app live tiles so I ended up using flipboard, which i can also use on android and it annoys me that when the live tiles shows me an article and I click on it, it only opens flipboard, not the actual article so then I have to find it. And I have a few interest on there that are similar so i often have to search a few to find that article.

What it comes down to, is while I know its more time consuming to do, I can set up widgets on android that will come close to what live tiles can do on windows. So what else am I missing from windows phone that makes it better than android? I really want to like this OS over the others, I am by no means trying to hate on it. I just feel like I am missing that wow factor that others seem to have for it. But I want it lol

 

[Kavu2]

My 2 cents...
(disclosure...using W8.1)

The best OS(Phone or otherwise) would be the one that fits/works best for you. If that's Android then fine if iOS then fine...if Windows then welcome to the pool.

For me, among the things that make Windows mobile attractive as a choice are....

- UI. To me there is no comparison to Android or Apple (which both look identical)....Windows blows them out of the water. Microsoft's graphic interpretation of a tag-cloud inspired app UI has dared to posit a new idea ... form IS function and function IS form. The idea of Live Tiles AND the resizable tiles makes the Windows UI unique. More importantly, unique to you. It makes it MUCH easier to organize your apps...to make apps which are important to you more easily selectable...to access your info quicker....to actually get something done on your phone...to use it. Microsoft's original idea with Windows 8 revamp (sadly...seemingly being slowly lost in the creep of the pandering for Android/Apple converts), was to make using the phone simple...get in...get out...get on with your life. THAT is what attracted me to the Windows phone UI. I want a phone UI that is both form and function. I can never go back to playing whack-a-mole. That would be a step back in time.

- Phone/PC/Tablet integration. Again, Windows is the only OS out there that is attempting this unification. I have a Windows Phone, Tablet and PC which all allow virtually seamless transfer in usage from one device to another, not to mention UI is seamless, effortless when switching from one device to another. And with W10's Continuum, Microsoft is attempting to make even that switching...meaningless. Obviously if a person has an Apple laptop or tablet, they are not going to appreciate or view these benefits. For me this is an invaluable asset. Again, the Microsoft original model was to get in...get out...get on with your life. Windows OS provides that ability across ALL devices.

So those are the 2 main things that separate Windows OS from Android and Apple...for me. The potential to be able to access your information on whatever device you have at hand and do so in a seamless, effortless manner....and that is organized for your best/most important usage, is invaluable. It is the dream. We're not quite there yet, but close. And no other OS is even in the same ballpark yet.

For me, I don't want a phone in my hand all day long. And when it is, I want it to meet my needs as efficiently and as beautifully as possible. The Windows OS is the vehicle to make that happen. 'The dog is smarter than its tail', so why would anyone want the tail to wag the dog?

YMMV b/c of the devices or usage requirements of your lifestyle.

 

[mike208]

My 2 cents...
(disclosure...using W8.1)

The best OS(Phone or otherwise) would be the one that fits/works best for you. If that's Android then fine if iOS then fine...if Windows then welcome to the pool.

For me, among the things that make Windows mobile attractive as a choice are....

- UI. To me there is no comparison to Android or Apple (which both look identical)....Windows blows them out of the water. Microsoft's graphic interpretation of a tag-cloud inspired app UI has dared to posit a new idea ... form IS function and function IS form. The idea of Live Tiles AND the resizable tiles makes the Windows UI unique. More importantly, unique to you. It makes it MUCH easier to organize your apps...to make apps which are important to you more easily selectable...to access your info quicker....to actually get something done on your phone...to use it. Microsoft's original idea with Windows 8 revamp (sadly...seemingly being slowly lost in the creep of the pandering for Android/Apple converts), was to make using the phone simple...get in...get out...get on with your life. THAT is what attracted me to the Windows phone UI. I want a phone UI that is both form and function. I can never go back to playing whack-a-mole. That would be a step back in time.

- Phone/PC/Tablet integration. Again, Windows is the only OS out there that is attempting this unification. I have a Windows Phone, Tablet and PC which all allow virtually seamless transfer in usage from one device to another, not to mention UI is seamless, effortless when switching from one device to another. And with W10's Continuum, Microsoft is attempting to make even that switching...meaningless. Obviously if a person has an Apple laptop or tablet, they are not going to appreciate or view these benefits. For me this is an invaluable asset. Again, the Microsoft original model was to get in...get out...get on with your life. Windows OS provides that ability across ALL devices.

So those are the 2 main things that separate Windows OS from Android and Apple...for me. The potential to be able to access your information on whatever device you have at hand and do so in a seamless, effortless manner....and that is organized for your best/most important usage, is invaluable. It is the dream. We're not quite there yet, but close. And no other OS is even in the same ballpark yet.

For me, I don't want a phone in my hand all day long. And when it is, I want it to meet my needs as efficiently and as beautifully as possible. The Windows OS is the vehicle to make that happen. 'The dog is smarter than its tail', so why would anyone want the tail to wag the dog?

YMMV b/c of the devices or usage requirements of your lifestyle.

Thank you for your thoughts! Can you speak more to the "seamless transfer in usage from one device to another"? I think this was one of the main things(along with live tiles) that made me want to try windows phone. And while right now I have a windows 7 laptop at work, a windows 7 desktop at home(just haven't upgraded to 10 yet, but I plan to eventually) and my wifes laptop which I did upgrade to windows 10. I was planning to get a new tablet or laptop or 2 in 1 in the near future, which is why I'd like to make up my mind on phone OS.

 

[Kavu2]

What I mean by 'seamless transfer in usage from one device to another' is that you can set up your settings, your backgrounds your apps to all appear the same on any PC or Tablet you have. You can set it up to sync any changes made on any one of them. The phone would hopefully, eventually utilize continuum to do the same thing. I'm not 100% on this last part since I don't have Continuum on my devices yet. But with W8 you can already sync your PCs and tablets with such as your favorites, pictures, videos and documents. With the Windows Phone added into the mix you can do many of these same tasks also (ie Favorites, Pictures, Videos, Files) all accessed thru OneDrive and synced to your PC. All the syncing is done thru OneDrive. The Universal App concept will hopefully bring syncing of apps to the Windows Phone at some point as well if you want.

So bottom line, right now you can pretty much go to any PC/Tablet and have the same usage experience no matter where you are or what device you use. While this may not sound like a lot...it makes finding and using your various devices much easier...whether you're trying to go to a Favorite website or look at a document. You have the same interface (if you want) wherever you go which just makes everything you do that much easier.


For me, going from one device to another and having the same UI to deal with is invaluable. Hope this helps.

 

[DavidinCT]

Thinking of switching from android to windows phone cause I like the live tiles and how they work, or at least how I think they work, lol. I am on verizon(not great for windows phone future perhaps) and was considering buying a new lumia 735 or used icon to play with. Just not sure if I am ready to drop $200 bucks just to try it out. I've been reading reviews and forums, but wanted to get a feel for why "you" chose windows over android or iOS? What do you like, what do you dislike?

Also is there any good way to get a feel for windows phone without physically using it? I've tried reading reviews. But between windows 8, 8.1, cyan, denim, update 1, etc, etc, and now windows 10 its hard to get a feel for it from reviews. As I said I like the ideas of live tiles, but how do they compare to android widgets? Does the SMS have a live tile? That will show you your most recent text without having to go to the action center perhaps?

What else do I need to know?

Check ebay, buy a used phone...I bet you can find a ICON for under $150 if you hunt around and watch some auctions.

The BEST thing about Windows Phone is...It's different, It's not Android and it's not iOS.. and in a world full of iOS and Android devices, it's a nice change..