Dumping Windows Phone. Where to now?

[Rocket-Boy]

Funny I came from iOS and Android and I absolutely love WP.
For interest sake what is it you dont like about WP?

 

[Rocket-Boy]

I already have the "new" Windows Phone update... But this thread is pretty senseless now since I'm not going the Android route anymore... Due to some personal reasons I have to stay with this phone for at least a year. I don't really like that since the specs are very low, but I don't have a choice. A bit busy now, I'll reply later with exactly why I don't like WP.

The low specs might have something to do with it, I have a Lumia 1520 which has awesome specs so maybe that is what makes the experience so good for me.

 

[roguemat]

I already have the "new" Windows Phone update... But this thread is pretty senseless now since I'm not going the Android route anymore... Due to some personal reasons I have to stay with this phone for at least a year. I don't really like that since the specs are very low, but I don't have a choice. A bit busy now, I'll reply later with exactly why I don't like WP.

If you were changing to another R2500 phone then you're still in low-spec territory. Even if the Android device specs were to outweigh your Lumia, the OS is heavier.

 

[Kitt3h]

If you were changing to another R2500 phone then you're still in low-spec territory. Even if the Android device specs were to outweigh your Lumia, the OS is heavier.

Hi Matt

Yes, I agree. There are exceptions though. For example, the Acer Liquid E3. When it gets KitKat (apparently mid August) it should run pretty good. But I digress. I have to keep using my Lumia 520 until at least the end of 2015. Complicated financial reasons. So I might as well make peace with it. That said though, I tried loving it for 9 months. I really wanted to love the OS and phone. I'm always supporting the underdog in everything, and I wanted to support WP too... I don't want to be too negative, since this is the lowest end. But for interest's sake, here is why I don't like WP.

First off, apps. I don't care what other people says, this is just my experience. Official apps are rare. Companies just don't care about WP yet. And where there are official apps, they rarely are any good. WhatsApp for example is buggy and slow beyond belief. Got worst in the last major update. For example it used to open the photos hub in the app immediately. Now when I tap on attachment and photos, I have to stare at a black screen to at least 20 seconds. That really sucks. And the Tapatalk app closes itself everytime I minimize it. I tried replying here with that, but it lost my reply so I'm on PC now. But back to apps in general. In some cases, there are 3rd party apps for a service or company. Rudy Huyn does this pretty good. Oh and our local WP super star, the one and only RogueCode. the only real worthwhile apps are those made by the passionate people. Your BoB app is great. I just hate opening store and not finding something. The lack of official Google apps also sucks.

Then there is data use. I have no idea how it manages it, but every month it uses around 200-300MB for itself. Listed as "System" in Data Sense. We live in a rural area, no telephone lines, nevermind ADSL. We have to rely on Mobile Data, and even though Afrihost manages to provide 10mbps HSPA, at unbelievable prices, it still isn't free. It costs me around R30 a month in data just for my phone. That's excluding app or system updates.

Notifications in the action centre don't go away when opening the app. I always have to swipe them away manually.

Limitations, limitations, limitations.

Not to mention the limitations.

Oh, and don't forget the limitations!

3rd parties don't get access to certain parts of the OS and file system. Still can't send a mp3 through WhatsApp, or any other app.

Sometimes when trying to share a picture in the Photos it just doesn't display all the apps that can be shared with, no matter what you do.

Any camera app takes at least 10 seconds to open, whether it's already open in multitasking or not. I've lost countless opportunities.

The following problems are more specific to the 520:

Audio quality through headphones is terrible. No equalizer. It's so hatefully terrible in fact, I use my old Symbian Nokia C7 for music playing. At least it has proper audio hardware and software.

Screen brightness is laughably low even on "high".

The volume-increase button broke without me ever using it.

But... Not all of it is negative. The 520 is very very robust. I have seen some of them dropped and abused pretty badly, without even picking up a scratch. The camera is pretty good for a low end devices, as long as there is good light. Screen is responsive. It can handle some resource intensive apps, when it manages to open them.

WP is not all that bad everywhere either. MS is really trying to improve it and I have to give them credit for that. The new Lockscreen app is a great example. Clever things, like Cortana. Cortana is immensely useful in some cases. I frequently use it for reminding me to do things. Like "Remind me to feed the dogs when I get home" is really helpful. It also just hit me that I wanted to ask you something about building a remote switch with Arduino, so I asked her to remind me to email you about that when I'm done working.

To be honest, I think the biggest problem is that I want high-end hardware, with a low-end budget. So for all the WP fans, I didn't mean to come over all that negative. Just a bit frustrated.

 

[Kitt3h]

The low specs might have something to do with it, I have a Lumia 1520 which has awesome specs so maybe that is what makes the experience so good for me.

Yes, low specs is probably the reason. See my reply to Roguemat for the full saga on why I don't like WP.

 

[roguemat]

Hi Matt
First off, apps. I don't care what other people says, this is just my experience. Official apps are rare. Companies just don't care about WP yet.

Are there any specifics that you are missing?

WhatsApp for example is buggy and slow beyond belief. Got worst in the last major update.

Now when I tap on attachment and photos, I have to stare at a black screen to at least 20 seconds.

This is definitely not normal. I've sent feedback through to the WP product team.

But back to apps in general. In some cases, there are 3rd party apps for a service or company. Rudy Huyn does this pretty good. Oh and our local WP super star, the one and only RogueCode. the only real worthwhile apps are those made by the passionate people. Your BoB app is great. I just hate opening store and not finding something.

Ty

Then there is data use. I have no idea how it manages it, but every month it uses around 200-300MB for itself. Listed as "System" in Data Sense.

Did this happen before 8.1 DP?

Notifications in the action centre don't go away when opening the app. I always have to swipe them away manually.

Apps need some time to start supporting the 8.1 specific stuff.

3rd parties don't get access to certain parts of the OS and file system. Still can't send a mp3 through WhatsApp, or any other app.

They're opening up more and more API's, but yeah, it is a valid point as of right now.

Sometimes when trying to share a picture in the Photos it just doesn't display all the apps that can be shared with, no matter what you do.

Sounds like something I saw with 8.1. Did you have the problem before 8.1?

Any camera app takes at least 10 seconds to open, whether it's already open in multitasking or not. I've lost countless opportunities.

Try out the Nokia Camera BETA app. Might speed it up a bit. And if you have the new lockscreen beta then I found that slowed my camera down a lot.

To be honest, I think the biggest problem is that I want high-end hardware, with a low-end budget. So for all the WP fans, I didn't mean to come over all that negative. Just a bit frustrated.

I think it is a mixture of this and possibly some 8.1 issues that will get ironed out.

 

[Kitt3h]

Are there any specifics that you are missing?

I missed BBM, but I have the beta app. Lots of bugs and very slow, but it works and they are fixing the bugs. Currently missing all of the official Google apps, especially Google Hangouts. Can't think of any others now.

This is definitely not normal. I've sent feedback through to the WP product team.

Thanks. It's kind of frustrating to say "Wait let me send you a picture/video" to someone, with the emphasis on the wait part. Before the major update it used to open immediately.

Did this happen before 8.1 DP?

Yes, but it did not use as much. It used to use around 30-50mb a month but I've been on the DP since getting my phone (a few weeks before 8.0 GDR2 came out) so this might not be the case for normal users.

Sounds like something I saw with 8.1. Did you have the problem before 8.1?

No. The sharing options used to be consistent, at least consistent for every album. Not all of them had all of the apps. Now I can open any album, check the sharing options, close photos, open it again, same picture, and chances are good I won't get the same list. Mostly WhatsApp and Twitter that disappears.

Try out the Nokia Camera BETA app. Might speed it up a bit. And if you have the new lockscreen beta then I found that slowed my camera down a lot.

Thanks. I have the normal one, will the beta tonight. I also have the new lockscreen beta, but it makes no difference in my case.

I think it is a mixture of this and possibly some 8.1 issues that will get ironed out.

Like I said, they really listen to users and go through a lot of trouble to iron out bugs and fix problems. Overall I am positive about WP's future, I just got a bit tired of supporting this underdog. But there's always hope and I hope they fix the problems.

 

[Azg]

The Moto G is R2850 from Orange, and would definitely give you a better experience than the Lumia 520. As others have commented even with WP you will get a better experience once you upgrade from the Lumia 520

 

[Kitt3h]

The Moto G is R2850 from Orange, and would definitely give you a better experience than the Lumia 520. As others have commented even with WP you will get a better experience once you upgrade from the Lumia 520

This http://store.orange.com/za/mobile-phones/sim-free-phones/acer-liquid-e3-duo-black-258752/ is going to get KitKat around mid August, and beats the Moto G in my book. For anyone still interested, all is not lost. I might just spend R1600 to do a screen replacement on a Galaxy Note II that I'm getting for free because the owner doesn't want to pay Samsung R2500 to fix it, and has no DIY electronics experience.

 

[Dr@g0nic]

Currently missing all of the official Google apps, especially Google Hangouts. Can't think of any others now.

TBH I don't believe official google apps will ever happen.

 

[Kitt3h]

TBH I don't believe official google apps will ever happen.

Neither do I...

 

[roguemat]

TBH I don't believe official google apps will ever happen.

Agreed. We may see one or two but I doubt they'd ever support the whole suite.
That being said, there isn't much I am actually missing.
Google Hangouts and proper Gmail support would be nice, but for everything else we have equal/better equivalents. Like MetroTube which I think is much nicer than the official one.

 

[Dr@g0nic]

Agreed. We may see one or two but I doubt they'd ever support the whole suite.
That being said, there isn't much I am actually missing.
Google Hangouts and proper Gmail support would be nice, but for everything else we have equal/better equivalents. Like MetroTube which I think is much nicer than the official one.

I'll stick to calling it GTalk but yes... I agree, that would be nice. Even if someone could make a third party one. Which will get removed as soon as Google finds out but hey.
Also yes... MetroTube FTW!

 

[poffle]

Gonna bring this back up as i've also just thrown in the towel on WP. I still love the UI and the fluidity of it but there are a few niggles with the apps that have driven me mad.

Facebook app is the most useless thing in the world, hate it.
Line does support video calling and always takes a while to update most recent messages.
Peoples names in whatsapp groups are all the same colour, cant differentiate quickly and easily.
Internet explorer doesnt show quite a few websites correctly.
Gmail client is terrible.
Notification center doesnt auto-clear itself on occasions.
The music player is one of the worst i've ever used, even 3rd party ones are not nice.

So ya its not WP itself that i dont like just the App support :/ Onwards to my Z3 compact and back to good ol' android!

 

[Frikkenator]

I'll stick to calling it GTalk but yes... I agree, that would be nice. Even if someone could make a third party one. Which will get removed as soon as Google finds out but hey.
Also yes... MetroTube FTW!

I haven't used it myself, but a couple of people I know say jiTalk works quite well as a third party GTalk app.

 

[Lament]

Gonna bring this back up as i've also just thrown in the towel on WP. I still love the UI and the fluidity of it but there are a few niggles with the apps that have driven me mad.

Facebook app is the most useless thing in the world, hate it.
Line does support video calling and always takes a while to update most recent messages.
Peoples names in whatsapp groups are all the same colour, cant differentiate quickly and easily.
Internet explorer doesnt show quite a few websites correctly.
Gmail client is terrible.
Notification center doesnt auto-clear itself on occasions.
The music player is one of the worst i've ever used, even 3rd party ones are not nice.

So ya its not WP itself that i dont like just the App support :/ Onwards to my Z3 compact and back to good ol' android!

This, but that said im stil on WP 7.8,
Most apps suck
Facebook is useless
IE is beyond useless, no alternative browsers even worth mentioning available.
Each time you close IE, it closes all your tabs.
Keep on pressing stupid back button when i rotate the phone for easier texting (same issue on S4), i cant tell you how p1ssed i can get because of this.
You can't copy and paste most pages or phrases.
Notifications has no sounds, or im deaf
News 24 app is probably the only one i prefer above the Android alternative

 

[Johnatan56]

Gonna bring this back up as i've also just thrown in the towel on WP. I still love the UI and the fluidity of it but there are a few niggles with the apps that have driven me mad.

Facebook app is the most useless thing in the world, hate it.
Line does support video calling and always takes a while to update most recent messages.
Peoples names in whatsapp groups are all the same colour, cant differentiate quickly and easily.
Internet explorer doesnt show quite a few websites correctly.
Gmail client is terrible.
Notification center doesnt auto-clear itself on occasions.
The music player is one of the worst i've ever used, even 3rd party ones are not nice.

So ya its not WP itself that i dont like just the App support :/ Onwards to my Z3 compact and back to good ol' android!

Agreed on the bold part, I'm on android/ios. That they separated the messages app from the main app made me stop using it and just use the website instead.

 

[poffle]

yeah i resorted to that on WP, but even when i used IE on the mobile site it still didnt display correctly, used the desktop version for it. Oh well this'll have to do

 

[p51mustang]

This, but that said im stil on WP 7.8,
Most apps suck
Facebook is useless
IE is beyond useless, no alternative browsers even worth mentioning available.
Each time you close IE, it closes all your tabs.
Keep on pressing stupid back button when i rotate the phone for easier texting (same issue on S4), i cant tell you how p1ssed i can get because of this.
You can't copy and paste most pages or phrases.
Notifications has no sounds, or im deaf
News 24 app is probably the only one i prefer above the Android alternative

How can you even comment if by your own admission your using an outdated OS (WP7.8)?

WP8.1 is a very, very diffierent user experience.

 

[Arthur]

Lament, what OS are you running on your PC?