Just played with the Icon, have some questions for you old WP users...

RichHowerton

New member
Jan 1, 2013
156
0
0
Visit site
To answer some of your questions...

Notification light - There isn't a single Windows Phone that has this feature that I know of. Unfortunately the glance feature by nokia is lacking on the icon but this is the closest thing to a notification light.

Quick settings - It is true that there are no quick settings as of right now. There are apps that I use that let me do that for now. This should make you happy though, in Windows Phone 8.1 there is a slide down notification menu that will let you access all of the things you are talking about with the ability to change them to the settings you use most.

Calender - The weekly view you speak of is not available right now but this is also something confirmed for Windows Phone 8.1 coming in April.

App Stability - Apps like Spotify that have never had an update are definitely more likely to crash but I rarely see crashes on the Windows Phone platform to be truthful.

True Calender 8 has week view and a week agenda view...available in the store
 

reidbp

New member
Feb 19, 2014
24
0
0
Visit site
Keyboard on WP is regarded as the best by many tech sites. You cant replace keyboards. Sounds to me like you want to stick with android.

Thanks Micro, I liked the keyboard layout, just felt the auto-correct-selection was slow and that adding to the dictionary was weird.
 

Tjarren

New member
Apr 17, 2011
272
0
0
Visit site
To me it sounds like you're taking quite a glass-half-empty approach to WP, which means you WILL be disappointed. If you focus more on the things that it does great and/or better than the others, you will be much more satisfied. It's all about perspective at this point.
 

reidbp

New member
Feb 19, 2014
24
0
0
Visit site
To me it sounds like you're taking quite a glass-half-empty approach to WP, which means you WILL be disappointed. If you focus more on the things that it does great and/or better than the others, you will be much more satisfied. It's all about perspective at this point.

Could you go into detail on what it does great and/or better than others? That was kind of my point of this post because I didn't find much of anything when I was using the Icon, and disappointed in other areas. I'm really not here to rain on WP fan parade, I wanted the phone, It just wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm hoping to be convinced.
 

Rainmarie

New member
Jan 9, 2014
49
0
0
Visit site
WP does have toast notifications for certain apps. It lights up my phone for breaking news and such. I would love it do it for email and texts but alas it doesn't do it. As for apps you can take a look at the real estate online. That's what I did and saw what I needed. Maybe I didn't see Hotdog Bush or PNC Bank, for example, but I did see Pandora. It's okay if you decide not to get the phone. I have had my 1520 for 2 months now and fell in love with it.
 
Last edited:

IdemanEric

New member
Dec 23, 2013
109
0
0
Visit site
Disclaimer: I am buying the Icon, switching from many years of happy Android life simply because I like change and everything else in my life is a Windows 8 device. With that said... Does it not frustrate everyone that every time I see a "cool new feature" of WP it is something that you would figure would have been S. O. P. years ago? Microsoft is a pretty big tech company... I don't get it. Either way, I would like to know if anyone is a long time Android user that switched and was and still remains... Happy. I think the reviews are clearly biased so I'll wait for my own evaluation. I just don't want to end up saying "the only advantage is the camera."

Posted via the WPC App for Android!
 

reidbp

New member
Feb 19, 2014
24
0
0
Visit site
Disclaimer: I am buying the Icon, switching from many years of happy Android life simply because I like change and everything else in my life is a Windows 8 device. With that said... Does it not frustrate everyone that every time I see a "cool new feature" of WP it is something that you would figure would have been S. O. P. years ago? Microsoft is a pretty big tech company... I don't get it. Either way, I would like to know if anyone is a long time Android user that switched and was and still remains... Happy. I think the reviews are clearly biased so I'll wait for my own evaluation. I just don't want to end up saying "the only advantage is the camera."

I messed around with the camera today when I was using it and similar to reviews it was slow. Even turning flash off and lowest quality setting, it was slow. Even on my relatively old GS3 it takes pictures so fast many people aren't used to it and barely realize they took a picture. NOW, on the flip side, I like being able to snap a bunch of pictures in a row because "one will turn out good." I didn't snap a single picture on the Icon today that wasn't solid (even though I was in a well lit mall, and could have taken 5 pictures on my GS3 in the time it took to take one on the Icon.) So I'm not sure the speed would be an issue to me at all.
 

DennisvdG

New member
Feb 25, 2013
1,091
0
0
Visit site
Disclaimer: I am buying the Icon, switching from many years of happy Android life simply because I like change and everything else in my life is a Windows 8 device. With that said... Does it not frustrate everyone that every time I see a "cool new feature" of WP it is something that you would figure would have been S. O. P. years ago? Microsoft is a pretty big tech company... I don't get it. Either way, I would like to know if anyone is a long time Android user that switched and was and still remains... Happy. I think the reviews are clearly biased so I'll wait for my own evaluation. I just don't want to end up saying "the only advantage is the camera."

Posted via the WPC App for Android!
well ios and android have existed twice as long as wp, so it's not strange that wp has some catching up to do
 

muneshyne21

New member
Feb 11, 2014
337
0
0
Visit site
I got a Lumia 928 and I came from Android. There are a ton of things that I love about WP vs. Android.
-First off the contacts integration with facebook/twitter/linkedin/gmail/yahoo/hotmail accounts are really really well done. I know there may be Android apps that can do this but for some reason...it just isn't the same or done as well. The depth of integration with WP is sometimes too integrated. Photos, Contact info, posts, messages, and e-mails can all be seen in each contact you have from everything you link up to it. You technically dont even need the social apps since you even get a live feed both in the general contacts page and each individuals page. As a power social user this integration is extremely useful.
-The camera. I seriously think those that try to downplay peoples use of their camera and point out the app gap issue are just jealous. Nokia procam software and carl zeiss optics are amazing. Slower than the others but much more powerful. Its like choosing between a motorbike and a V8 turbo diesel truck. The speed is faster than any point and shoot so I appreciate the vast array of bells and whistles that go along with it. Im not trying to catch bigfoot so 1 second snapshots arent necessary. Besides there is a quick snap setting that can take 5 shot a second apart. Lowlight shots are a huge step above the rest. Why should you care? Because I realized on my facebook/instagram feed that all my friends are limited to making daylight memories. Do their lives stop at sunset or when they are inside? I think I'm the only one with just as many crisp night time action photos as daytime shots. It also takes crazy macroshots and the Xenon flash is wicked.
-Glance. Soooooooo much better than a notification light. With glance I pull out my phone a see how many missed calls, emails, messages, updates I have. Oh and the time. You'd think a constantly running screen when the phone is technically off would really drain battery. Nope and I even downloaded the beta glance background app that shows pictures.
-Updates. I think one of the greatest things about this phone is the software update set-up. I know exactly where you are coming from with the whole Update promise then burn situation. Android is notorious for this. Its partly the carriers fault too. Android in particular is limited by the carriers abillity to test and push it through. I got one major update and one minor update for my Revolution and that was in a two year period. My lumia, so far has gotten 2 major microsoft updates plus two 2 major nokia updates in 7 months and has made my phone MORE stable. Im also going to get 8.1. This isnt even the good part. Microsoft/Nokia was smart enough to break out the OS into system "apps" so updates or bug fixes can be sent separately without the need to go through the carrier. Just yesterday I got a Touch screen update that finally adds the option of turning off haptic feedback for the bottom 3 buttons. Although Apple got the best deal by bypassing carriers completely for OS updates, I think Microsoft/Nokia found a clever way to get around this issue. Larger updates like 8.1 will still need to go through the carrier unfortunately.
-Buttery smooth. Not one hiccup. I was having occasional screen freeze early on but Its been gone for a while now. Maybe this last update did the trick. Nothing lags. True the animations may mask this but I'll take a smooth animation over teeth grinding screen stutter/delay any day. I'm way less on edge with this phone. Im at the point where I take its smoothness for granted which was never the case for my previous phone.

Notice how everything sets a very strong foundation for a futureproof phone that can keep up with the times? Phone features are incidental and just a matter of time before they come. WP8.1 will bring the OS up to Android/iOS par even though I havent really run into any major issue myself and my phone will get the update The camera cant really be upgraded so it better work well in all occasions not just mid day. In terms of apps I have everything I had on my Android. Lack of apps/games is just a teeniebopper issue where they HAVE to have the latest apps or they will be chastised by their group of peers. When it comes to proprietary apps that let you control your Nest Thermostat and stuff like that, I have a simple solution to that. Program it before you go on vacation and dont forget! (Although there is a 3rd party Nest app available)
 
Last edited:

Mr Hyde

New member
Feb 28, 2013
222
0
0
Visit site
What I like about WP... (disclaimer, I never had an iPhone or an Android phone but my wife and oldest daughter has iPhone and youngest daughter had Android, she just switched to Windows)

The first thing I like is the interface. I really like the tiles. I like that I can resize them and arrange them as I want. I also like that the apps I chose not to pin as tiles are in alphabetical order. It just makes things easy to find. I like that I can pin just about anything as a tile. I created a group in the People app called family then pinned the family group as a tile. Having quick access to the family is awesome for me. I LOVE the live tiles. I like seeing the 3 day weather forecast just by looking at the tile. My calendar tile shows my next few appointments. Other tiles do their thing. Its one of my favorite features. Integration with One Drive (Sky Drive) is awesome. I like that my photos are uploaded and are available on my surface. I like the built in office applications. Having Office on my phone has saved my **** quite a few times. How can you not like having Office for free on your phone? and then there are the Nokia apps. Here Maps and Here Drive are both great apps and both are free. I no longer have a GPS unit in my car. Free GPS with turn by turn directions and Free Map Updates? how cool is that.

I know I'm a bit of a MS geek. I loved WIN 8 from the start and its only gotten better. I had the Original Surface and have upgraded to Surface 2. Surface 2 is just an awesome device. and of course the PC's with Win 8. Oh and the X Box 360 and X Box One, cant forget about them.

I know Windows Phone doesn't have the apps that iOS and Android have. WP only has about 150,000 apps. Only... that makes me laugh. I can say there are some apps that would be nice to have but I really cant say I'm overly disappointed with the app selection. WP has too many positives for me to worry about the few negatives. I currently have a Lumia 822 on Verizon. Will I upgrade to the Icon? Hard to say at this point. I really love my phone. It does everything I want and need it to do and then some. If I were to upgrade it would only be for the sake of upgrading so I could have the latest and greatest WP for Verizon. right now I'm on the fence about if its worth it to chunk out $200 just to have something new. I'll probably wind up getting the Icon but probably not on Launch day (today). anyway, that's my two cents about windows phone for what its worth.
 

Rainmarie

New member
Jan 9, 2014
49
0
0
Visit site
I have a Nexus 7 tablet and have only had several Samsung phones on Android. Never owned an apple product. With my Nexus, Surface RT and Windows Phone I enjoy both Android and Windows Operating systems. I've also tried Ubuntu. Separate topic I know.
 

Keith Wallace

New member
Nov 8, 2012
3,179
0
0
Visit site
I've been burned by the "feature coming soon" statement before but will look into 8.1 more. Thanks. Really hate no notification light though.

It was a bit annoying at first, but I don't care about it now myself. It's too bad that they wouldn't put Glane into the Icon, though. Glance now allows for the showing of notifications on the screen while the device is locked, so I can see when I have an e-mail or text (as well as my battery percentage) without unlocking the device. It's not AS handy as a notification light, but it's nice.
 

radmanvr

New member
Nov 19, 2013
620
0
0
Visit site
I used Android for 2 years. I liked it a lot. It was my first smartphone. It did everything I needed to do but everything changed when the fire nation attacked. (Joke). Eventually, it started getting slower and slower and come to find out I was not getting updates.

Frustrated, I did some research and figured out how to root my device and flash different ROMs. I went from Froyo to Gingerbread then to Honeycomb. Didn't like the keyboard for Honeycomb so had to find a different ROM that was running Honeycomb but with Gingerbread keyboard.

Loved the customization on Android it was fun flashing different ROMs and looking at what Devs (Cooks) made in the SDK (Kitchen). Jumping on Ice Cream Sandwich before it was even released to the public and then finally it happened..... Jelly Bean...... The update that made my phone terribly slow.

I owned a MT4G, 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 768MB of RAM, but it could not keep up anymore. Everything was slow. Email slow. App slow. Facebook slow. Everything slow and that was when I made the switch to Windows Phone 8.

So far I am happy with WP, I don't need to flash custom ROMs to keep up. At first I was a bit turned down by the app selection but its so good now. The customization is not as much but still enough to leave uniqueness.

My favorite thing about WP is Groups/Rooms. My wife and sister share a room with one another and we are able to update grocery list. Put evens on calendar, like bills and parties, concerts and we pretty much don't need to call each other and there is no excuse for anything because its on the calendar.

Facebook integration is good although not full feature but thats understandable. (its missing @feature, cant tag people)

Been using it 2 years now its still fast, Email fast, App fast, Jimmy Johns fast, everything fast.
 

jleebiker

New member
Dec 11, 2011
1,399
0
0
Visit site
well ios and android have existed twice as long as wp, so it's not strange that wp has some catching up to do

The problem with this statement is that those OS's have been out and there is a info about what apps work and which features people like. It's not like WP is being developed in a vacuum. Or is it...
 

radmanvr

New member
Nov 19, 2013
620
0
0
Visit site
The problem with this statement is that those OS's have been out and there is a info about what apps work and which features people like. It's not like WP is being developed in a vacuum. Or is it...

Then why did MS developed their own platform. Should just have developed apps for Android and Iphone because thats what works and what people like. They would have probably made more money this way.

They got into the game late so it takes them a bit. I think WP8 was just to get their foot in the door and WP8.1 is the real deal. Can you imagine if WP8 never came out and it was only WP7 waiting to update to WP8.1. If this happened they would be super behind because a lot of apps were possible due to WP8.
 

Similar threads

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,901
Messages
2,242,866
Members
428,004
Latest member
hetb