Screen Resolution problem with wp8

[jacasch]

Im really disappointed with the lates releases of wp8 devices. for example lumia 720 and even the 820.
why isnt wp8 able to handle a 1080p screen and why isn't nokia putting at least a 720p screen in their mid-range phones.
At this point i dont have a wp8 device but i'm really thinking about chaging from iphone to wp8, but there are just those little things that always stop me from doing so.
1. screen resolution (biggest problem for me) actually i would be fine with 720p but the the 920 is to thick and heavy for me, and i dont like the 8x from htc.
2. itunes match. I really apreciate itunes match because i can stream my music and whats way more important store it over the air on my phone. In my eyes thats one thing that is missing in xbox music. Yes you can stream music for free but i dont have unlimmited traffic ;(
3. lack of apps (actually i dont really care because its just a matter of time until for example unity will be able to export for wp8.

What do you think about the low screen resolution and the missic over-the-air-streaming-storing-ability of wp8?

 

[Muessig]

Hey Jacasch welcome to the Windows Phone Central forums!

1. Screen resolution on a Windows Phone is a touch different to something like an Android or iPhone because the WP UI has been designed to work really well with lower resolutions. The WP7 and some of the WP8 handsets run at 480x800 which to other handsets may seem a little silly but used on a Windows Phone you really don't notice it from day to day. Sure in WP7 you have to convert your video first, which Zune automatically does if I'm not wrong, but in general day to day use I never really found it to be a problem. The screens were generally made well enough and had good enough displays that reading smaller text like through IE wasn't a problem either. The higher end WP8 phones have been bumped up to 720p resolutions or slightly higher (as is the case with the Lumia 920) and the experience for video streaming and viewing is better and clearer when viewing higher bitrate content but, again, due to the unique UI design on Windows Phones you honestly don't notice it outside of videos or games, which the newer releases support anyway. If you've not already done it, I'd try going down to your local phone store and playing around with an existing WP8 handset and seeing if the displays and the UI are a problem for you. coming from Android myself I'll admit I was a bit concerned about this at first but in practice it makes little to no difference. Who knows if Microsoft will up the limit to 1080p or even higher in the future.

2. iTunes match. I'm not a big iTunes user but it sounds like you can stream your music over the air on your phone and even store that music on your phone. I was under the impression you could play your music over the air on Xbox Music but it sounds like you might not be able to store that music -- I'm willing to bet this functionality will be patched in sooner or later. There's always the option of manually transferring the music onto your phone from your computer, but I know that other apps such as Spotify will let you create playlists and download those playlist songs to your phone for offline play. Hope this helps!

3. The 'App Gap' is getting smaller and smaller and hopefully one day soon people won't be able to use this as a concern when considering WP8. The 'Blue' update coming to WP8 handsets sometime later this year / early next year is rumoured to make all apps that work in Windows 8 on a PC/laptop just work in a WP8 device and vice versa. More often than not you'll be able to find alternative apps that provide the same if not better functionality than other OS counterparts on the WP8 store. Take a little look around these forums and you'll find a load of recommended apps you might want to try out!

Hope some of that helps you!

 

[WavingReds]

1080p is just an illusion of human society's "want" for better things even though the eye cannot distinguish after certain amount of pixels. Oh a 4.5" phone and under, it's pretty much useless and wasteful.

1. Cost will go up? Battery will be ****ty? I'm sure Nokia didn't add certain things in mid range or lower end phones it's so they can hit every price range that they planned to do while trying to make a profit. The weight is that heavy? The Otter Box defender for an iPhone 4 adds 52.06 grams to the phone, makes it bulky, ugly and thicker. So you probably need to work your hands out more than =/
2. Nokia Music is your friend but I don't stream music anyway.
3. If you don't really care then why even mentioning it at all.

 

[ajua]

Screen resolutions are overrated once we gor past 720p IMHO. 1080p on devices under 5" is a bit overkill and a battery concern.

The image quality of all 720p devices I've seen is really great. There's no need for 1080p, specially on platforms like Android where the devs seem to not care for tablets and bigger resolutions. At least, that's the case with many popular apps.

OEMs are putting bigger batteries to account for those screens and LTE and what not. I would love to have longer lasting batteries on 720p devices. My 8X would last longer on a single charge.

The OTA music streaming maybe a concern for some. I think it could be implemented on future updates. Meanwhile, we have streaming in Xbox Music and you can use Spotify that, I believe, can download songs for offline playing.