windows Phone - who's tried it?

Electroshadow

Electroshadow

Electroshadow

Associate
Joined
12 Dec 2006
Posts
1,384
Recently had my android phone pack up on me again which seems to be one flagship model a year now since end of 2009. So this time as I'm walking around the phone shops in mentally lowering my price range all the time (due to house move. Plus I really want a nexus 6).
Thinking maybe I should get a stop gap phone for a few months this is when I noticed WP prices and specs which seemed well speced and cheap.

So I picked up a Lumia 630 which I thought was ok but no the lack of ram and bad screen was a deal breaker even at £57. Returned and swapped for a l
Lumia 535 for £79. Very surprised with this mobile the 1gb of ram and semi HD screen is so much better even with the rubbish cpu. But WP 8.1 doesn't seem to need much hardware to run well....

Now I'm surprised that I like and dislike WP as I thought it would be a straight write off due to lack of apps. Saying that I would have thought there wo.uld be more as wp apps are easy to create. Managed to make 2 to suit my needs this morning.

Anyone else true wp or been impressed or totally dissatisfied wi th it?
 
I've got one - really like the UI but same old story for me, lack of apps etc. Saying that, they updated Spotify last week which was a massive improvement.
 
Worth trying to have a go a Making one, was a lot easier than android using the developer centre.

I will try it for a few months, am tempted to buy a high end model. But I think part of the beauty is the cheapness of the handset and fluid ui.
Have to wait and see what flagship phones are announced for windows 10. Hoping a new Lumia 1020 replacement is in the works
 
Been stuck with a WP for work for almost 2 years. WP8 is utterly terrible. It fails at even some of the most basic things and just drove me insane. The 8.1 update improved it a lot but it was far too little far too late. Its dire.
 
I think I quite like it due to the fact it seems more like a phone. Where as android has just got so big and difficult to keep up with.
Plus the fact that I can fully delete all social media from the phone and still have full function seems worth it to me.

The few offical apps I have found have actually been as good as android or slightly better.
 
I had a windows mobile phone for.... less than a day. I didn't like it. Loved the screen, loved the device itself but not the OS.

If Nokia had gone for Android, I think they'd still be around.
 
im not sure what it is but I quite like windows phone even though everything says go back to android. But then I would want a £500 Nexus 6 to enjoy it fully. yet with windows in happy with a £70 phone strange:rolleyes:

quite like the simplicity of it.

maybe it because im turning away from being connected to everyone all the time..... thought about getting an old buttons only phone lol :)
 
Skeeter said:
Been stuck with a WP for work for almost 2 years. WP8 is utterly terrible. It fails at even some of the most basic things and just drove me insane. The 8.1 update improved it a lot but it was far too little far too late. Its dire.
Click to expand...
Ouch, WP8 does suck pretty bad :p

I have the Verizon variant of the 930, the Icon which due to a combination of MS being incompetent and carriers in the US being a bag of male chickens is still on Lumia Black firmware - great for a supposed 'flagship' phone :p

Installing Preview for Developers helps, but it breaks BTLE. I picked up a cheap BTLE heart rate monitor around New Year and reverted to 8.0 so it would work....the HRM worked fine except the miCoach software for 8.0 constantly shut down in the background and lost GPS so rendering it useless for distance tracking..FFFFUUUUU. So now I'm back on 8.1 with a useless HRM waiting (im)patiently for them to approve Denim.

Not to mention the lack of Glance, notification center or nLED which is just retarded in a phone that hasn't even been out a year (thank God for Preview for Developers!)

I love the phone itself, great hardware that runs butter-smooth, camera is great and it stands up pretty well among its peers (G2, S3, Moto X, Z2) etc. The apps situation is pretty dire with US bank applications actually being removed quicker than they arrive and you just have to filter out any reports about cool new apps or games, or updates to existing apps because they either never appear or will appear a year down the line when things have moved on considerably.

IMO if you are in the low-end market a Windows Phone can be pretty compelling, but in the flagship category there isn't really any compelling reason to get one - it's not like there is any OS lock-in really as most of MS apps can be had on the other platforms in better versions anyway :p
 
ive come from android to a win 930 got on release date, I love it. yep there aren't as many apps but the os and whole set up works way better for me. I have a nexus7 for the other apps but cant see me going back to android phone anytime soon
 
I came to my Lumia 830 from a N5, and i love it, All the app's i used i can get , the battery life is better for me, camera is really nice, I now use the Barclays banking app which i couldn't do before as i always ended up rooting.

Cortana work's really well, I've also used voice to text which i found more reliable than Google, WP isn't for every one that's for sure, but for what i need/use it's perfect.
 
I really like Windows Phone. But have gone back to Android, it is just more useful for me.

Things the kind of VPN I need won't work for Windows Phone. Plus internet explorer whilst improved and generally great has issues. I was trying to look up something on the Odeon website and one of the drop down buttons had issues.
 
I've got a work one, it's awful.

I just use my personal phone for everything instead and it sits in my desk drawer, it's basically a paperweight.

Utter garbage!
 
insane200 said:
I came to my Lumia 830 from a N5, and i love it, All the app's i used i can get , the battery life is better for me, camera is really nice, I now use the Barclays banking app which i couldn't do before as i always ended up rooting.

Cortana work's really well, I've also used voice to text which i found more reliable than Google, WP isn't for every one that's for sure, but for what i need/use it's perfect.
Click to expand...

Was going to write almost the same statement!!! :D

Except I came from the Nexus 4, and I use the Lloyds App :D :D

I love the Battery life!! My N4 would be down to 50% battery by lunchtime (with most Notifications turned off) and need a charge on the way home and plugging in immediatly I got in!... the Lumia 830 is still on 85% by 5pm when I go home and I've everything still switched ON! :cool:

Wouldn't go back to Android now!! even contemplating getting a Surface to replace my Nexus 7 ;)
 
The UI is slick, they work well, regardless of hardware, my 520 still works extremely well as a spare/gig/camping phone.

Most apps are there which I want with the exception of amazon prime and now TV. Yeah it doesn't have google, but the Nokia map, navigation apps are brilliant so don't really need them anyway. best in built app is Here Transit, use it often.

Hopefully w10 being much less coding and much higher usage as desktop version is free upgrade, will hopefully close the app gap.

The biggest issue for me is lack of phones. They need Samsung and others and MS need to release more phones, sill no 1020 update, 930 was a mediocre update.

And yes battery life on my 1320 is amazing.
 
Last edited:
Glaucus said:
The UI is slick, they work well, regardless of hardware, my 520 still works extremely well as a spare/gig/camping phone.

Most apps are there which I want with the exception of amazon prime and now TV. Yeah it doesn't have google, but the Nokia map, navigation apps are brilliant so don't really need them anyway. best in built app is Here Transit, use it often.

Hopefully w10 being much less coding and much higher usage as desktop version is free upgrade, will help close the app gap.

The biggest issue for me is lack of phones. They need Samsung and others and MS need to release more phones, sill no 1020 update, 930 was a mediocre update.

And yes battery life on my 1320 is amazing.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this, had my 1520 over a year and find it to be great.
 
I'm on android at the moment with a oneplus one, also had a WP hiatus last year with a Moto X 2013 but for the most part I've been on WP since the start, first with a HTC Mozart and I still have my 925.

I'm not really an App person so everything I wanted was available and the OS is so slick, I don't think I've ever had any kind of crash or blip and the battery life has always been good, for me anyway. I've got 8.1 on my 925 and it's a great phone, just wish MS would get their finger out and release Update 1, I've been down the PfD route and came out of it a while ago but they just seem to be really slow releasing it, it's a CV variant as well so I'm not waiting on any carrier.
 
Funnily enough I took delivery of a Nokia Lumia 735 this week as a work phone. This in the same week I've transitioned from iOS (iPhone 5S) to a new Moto Nexus 6.

As my first experience of WP its been intriguing to compare to the bigger mobile OSs. Its main uses for me are simply to sync with work email and calendars. I do find the tiles a backward choice as a main GUI, and other basics seem to be missing. But the hardware has a nice form factor and the 4.7" screen is actually quite nice.

I'm not sure I would buy this over Android or iOS though.
 
I have a Lumia 635, I actually quite like it.
I like it smoothness and simplicity for e-mails/texts/calls.

My outlook app on my htc one has never worked properly.
Getting this back up phone has divided my phone use totally:

E-mails for example all Lumia, the e-mail apps are better, smoother no lag and update quicker compared to my htc one.

The internet loads quicker compared to my htc one, so for a quick google I use this a lot quicker on cellular, marginally quicker on wifi.

Easier connection to my pc, htc via usb has always been twitchy for me.

My contracts up soon on my HTC one, for a brief moment thought windows may be the way to go for replacement.

However I keep going back to the HTC for my apps! mainly car searching apps!
 
Everyone seems to like it for its simplicity and if I borrow the line from apple 'it just works'.

For me is replaced android for the moment when I leave the house, one reason being battery life. But I so pick up an Android device when I get home for the apps.

Anyone know of replacements for.
Nowtv
Gumtree
Video Streamer for chromecast or xbox? I was using localcast or bubble.

I'm not sure if its the lack of apps on WP or if The store just can't search / navigate properly
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom