OK, so a dramatic title gets some clicks, but the point I wanted to make is that I do not find any of the new WP8 devices especially appealing. They are for the most part nicely designed, and it's a good line up, but none of them offer much more than they have to. "Features" seem to be things like a better camera, more storage, or dedicated internal chips. How exciting.
If one of the manufacturer's wants my money then they're going to have to address the problems with my current phone (Omnia 7) and give me a reason to upgrade.
For starters, I'd like an LED that blinks when I have a message. Better yet, since WP8 is suddenly all about colour, give me an RGB LED like on the Xperia X1.
Give me USB host. My old phone had USB host which let me plug my old phone into the car to diagnose engine problems. That was useful. It would also be useful to copy things from flash drives.
I do not like capacitive buttons, and I'm not alone. Will someone put regular buttons on a phone again?
How about a second camera button that just takes a photo? No loading of camera app, or other UI. Take a photo, now, quick! Just use infinity focus, I need this picture.
Put a switch on the side for Wi-Fi. Are switches so unfashionable that we really need to pin a tile or go through a menu just to flick Wi-Fi on and off? I'm nearly always in the middle of something when I want to turn Wi-Fi on, so a quick way to do this would be welcome.
Do not integrate the battery. What if my phone crashes? How am I going to get it back on quickly if I can't cut the power? And what if I want a spare battery or a larger battery? I really couldn't care less if there's a line on the back where the battery cover comes off. And if that makes the phone ?50 cheaper, so much the better.
And on a slightly less conventional note, if someone made a WP8 phone with a 12 key T9 keypad, they'd have my attention. There was a time when I could text without looking and with just one hand, but now I have to push these tiny on screen keys and the predictive algorithms are actually worse.
Finally if Microsoft can't get over their hang-up about call recording, and refuse to integrate call blocking, then I'd be interested in phone that implemented its own solution. Whatever happened to Samsung's call blocking app?
Oh and Miracast please.
What I don't need is NFC. I'm not really interested in LTE either. I'd rather have better coverage at OK speeds - and a WiFi switch.
Am I on my own here? Does anyone else want some features that just aren't available? Smartphones are going the way of fridges - no innovation at all.
If one of the manufacturer's wants my money then they're going to have to address the problems with my current phone (Omnia 7) and give me a reason to upgrade.
For starters, I'd like an LED that blinks when I have a message. Better yet, since WP8 is suddenly all about colour, give me an RGB LED like on the Xperia X1.
Give me USB host. My old phone had USB host which let me plug my old phone into the car to diagnose engine problems. That was useful. It would also be useful to copy things from flash drives.
I do not like capacitive buttons, and I'm not alone. Will someone put regular buttons on a phone again?
How about a second camera button that just takes a photo? No loading of camera app, or other UI. Take a photo, now, quick! Just use infinity focus, I need this picture.
Put a switch on the side for Wi-Fi. Are switches so unfashionable that we really need to pin a tile or go through a menu just to flick Wi-Fi on and off? I'm nearly always in the middle of something when I want to turn Wi-Fi on, so a quick way to do this would be welcome.
Do not integrate the battery. What if my phone crashes? How am I going to get it back on quickly if I can't cut the power? And what if I want a spare battery or a larger battery? I really couldn't care less if there's a line on the back where the battery cover comes off. And if that makes the phone ?50 cheaper, so much the better.
And on a slightly less conventional note, if someone made a WP8 phone with a 12 key T9 keypad, they'd have my attention. There was a time when I could text without looking and with just one hand, but now I have to push these tiny on screen keys and the predictive algorithms are actually worse.
Finally if Microsoft can't get over their hang-up about call recording, and refuse to integrate call blocking, then I'd be interested in phone that implemented its own solution. Whatever happened to Samsung's call blocking app?
Oh and Miracast please.
What I don't need is NFC. I'm not really interested in LTE either. I'd rather have better coverage at OK speeds - and a WiFi switch.
Am I on my own here? Does anyone else want some features that just aren't available? Smartphones are going the way of fridges - no innovation at all.