iPhone or Windows Phone
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
I've been using the iPhone line for a few years now and it works fine. As a Windows developer I tried to go with Microsoft's solution back when it was Pocket PC, etc. but became frustrated because they kept changing the rules. I also didn't care for the Metro system so I quit trying to work with it. I simply decided that in the Microsoft ecosystem I'd remain a developer so far as Windows was concerned but for my mobile usage I became "just" a user. I feel like I chose correctly. The whole thing works fine. I'm not a fanboy of either ... just got used to Apple's mobile solution that's all. Microsoft is very strong in Enterprise level solutions, not so much in mobile. I see Apple the opposite way; strong in mobile, not so much in enterprise level. MS should stop trying to be "another Apple" and just keep doing what they do best which is not so much consumer level, IMHO.
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
I have a Lumia 920, Wife as an iPhone 4s.. my view. as other have said, stick with your chosen ecosystem. But if you're unsure, the advantages I get for having Windows Phone *Glance - see texts/emails/missed calls without actually turning screen on/off all the time *Wordflow - the keyboard is WAY ahead of iPhone, many times I can just tap on the list of words at the top... *Tiles - similar to glance, why do I want to open apps for every bit of info? I don't. *OneDrive/One note syncing, I really really like this. *Xbox integration/apps... these are almost always of very good quality, so saves a lot of time finding a game that's actually worth playing Advantages she has for having iPhone *App for our bank to check balances etc. I would really like this (they did a blackberry app FFS!!) *siri everywhere... he's built into the keyboard, which is great if you can't spell something, he's there... the Win Phone mic isn't always shown/isn't on the keyboard. Maybe Cortana will address this. *always first to get the latest apps. *always first to get the latest apps. <- takes up 2 points! And finally, don't believe what people say about a) iOS is simpler to use, or b) it just works.... I often need to figure stuff out for my wife and get emails etc. to work.
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Did you try changing the Bluetooth setting for your car? worked for me, came with last update. Settings->Bluetooth->Advanced->tick box.
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
As others have said, those aren't your only two choices. I got a Galaxy S4 when they came out and quite like it. Disclaimer: this is the first smart phone I've ever owned, so I can't give a comparison review for you. I think I'm pretty unusual in that I helped develop a phone app at work before ever running one myself. Also I'm not a heavy-duty user. Seems like it makes doing things like email, texting, calling, etc easy, and their store has the apps I need for banking, credit cards, etc, so it's quite sufficient for me.
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I've had a couple of iPhones over the years (3GS, 4S), and they are good, solid products. I dislike Apple's closed eco-system, amongst other things, but I can't levy criticism against the iPhone product that you haven't already heard before. It worked, did what I needed to do, and didn't fuss too much. For various reasons and disagreements with how Apple does things, I decided to switch to a Windows Phone last year. I got a Nokia Lumia 1020 (the one with the goofy big camera in the back - it's an AWESOME camera though, MUCH better than any other phone camera I've used.). It was interesting to me how different it did everything than iOS did. But more or less the same comments as the iPhone - it does everything I need to do, and does it well. I especially enjoy the ability to write apps for my own phone in C# (I tried once to write an app in Objective-C... I'd rather chop off my fingers than try again - I find it to be an unpleasant language and eco-system to develop in). I also get more freedom with my Windows phone - it's not nearly as locked down as the iPhone is. You may hear some people say "but AppleStore/Android store has more apps than Windows!", but at this point they're all mature enough that all the major functionality you may desire will be there. If something isn't there, then as noted earlier it's pretty easy for me to write up an app to do something I want. Regarding the "polish" query - I was surprised at how "polished" WP8 was - it has some rough edges, no doubt, but it feels like the lack of polish critique is overstated. I have just as many critiques about iOS as I do about WP8, they're just different critiques. WP8.1 looks to address most of them, and I'll download and install it to my phone soon (waiting to do so until it looks like it's solid). Personally I would consider the platforms nearly on par for most everything you would want to do with your pocket computer/phone - it's really a matter of preference about which eco-system you would like. I for one love my Nokia. My wife has an iPhone and is keen on changing over to a WinPhone for her next one after playing around with mine a while - she prefers it to her iPhone. YMMV.
Don't know what I can add to this other than "well said"! I have a Lumia 920, and prior to that a Samsung Focus, and prior to that (only briefly before my daughter inherited it) an LG Quantum. Early on, as one would expect, the OS definitely had some maturing to do, but a solid first effort. I'd consider it to be pretty mature now though there is always room for improvement. Fortunately, I believe we are seeing a sincere effort from Microsoft to address this with reasonably frequent updates. If I were to pick 3 things, off the top of my head, that are negatives they would be: 1. MS abandoned Windows Phone 7 users too quickly. There are too many features that are available only on the Windows 8 platform and a number of the new apps (such as Snapchat and Pinterest just recently released) require v8. This isn't the end of the world as I have WP8, but my daughter has WP7 and this is a major annoyance for her because she's a bigger app user and there are some apps that she likes ("needs") that just aren't available on WP7. MS has been more loyal to WP8 users (so far). In the very least they should have done what Apple does from a marketing perspective - tell everyone they're getting the WP8 upgrade, but just make some features unavailable :). 2. Make sure the apps you expect are available. You absolutely don't need the gazillion apps that the Apple or Android stores have, but there may be some apps that you absolutely rely on or expect that aren't available on the WP platform. My bank (major Canadian bank) didn't have a WP app until last month. And, as someone else mentioned, always expect that apps are available to WP last (can't blame anyone, this is just the way it is when you make up 5% of the market). 3. Misc "polish" items... I still can't believe that the phone does not track call length in your call history. My old 1997 Nokia did that! Of course each phone platform is going to have its flaws in this category. As for the hardware and the UI - the Lumia's kick butt! And I really do like the tile-based UI, though there are some (I think) obvious improvement that I'm surprised they still haven't made (such as tile grouping or pages - like you see in Windows 8 on PC, or that appear to be in the next GDR). Good luck! Edit: I meant to mention - the integration of the ecosystem is awesome. Between your PC, phone, tablet, x-box, the ability to share settings, preferences, profile is fantastic. OneDrive and Office Apps also great. And while there aren't as many games as the other platfo
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
MehGerbil wrote:
I'm not sure what type of phone to buy.
One that makes calls would be good... :laugh: I own a Lumia 820 and I like Windows Phone, there are a few quirks that annoy me (like lack of access to the filesystem for apps), but overall, it's a pretty solid platform.
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
I had the same thought about how the Windows UI was cleaner but I went for a Sony Xperia with Android because of the cheaper price than the Nokia phones Then I found a great app called 'Launcher 8 free' which makes it look like a Windows phone.
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How did that go? On my phone (Lumia 920) it's called 'Connect in a different way to use Speech with Bluetooth in my car', and since messing about with it, I don't get text messages read out, so I'll tick it again and see what happens, it used to work.
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
Yes I may be a bit biased as I am a software developer and am able to write WP8 apps. I haven't written any apps that I have put in the store, but as a developer, whenever I do play around with the development tools, I am constantly blown away as easy and smooth the whole dev experience is and how easy it is to find code samples and help I need. Apart from that, I have never owned an iPhone or android as my main phone, I have spent many hours using iTouch devices, iPads and my wifes Android smartphone, and based on that I would never consider anything other than a Windows 8 phone. I have not ever had a single instance after over 2 years of using Windows 7 and 8 phones of things like- "why the heck is that happenning"? or "Why is this so slow" or "Thats not very intuitive". Time after time I am saying things like "Thats so easy" or "Thats cool" Especially with the recent developer preview for the 8.1 version, so many awesome additions. The only thing I can say that really erks me time and time again, has nothing to do with the operating system but with the Nokia Lumia 920 itself. The 3 touch buttons at the bottom of the phgone are so sensitive that if the side of my hand touches the very edge of that area next to the search button, and it is hard not to, the phone goes into Bing. That touch area is so sensitive that I put 15 layers of scotch tape over the buttons and it didn't make any noticeable difference. Whenever I ask people what they think of Windows phones, the most common answer I hear is that there are not enough apps. Then I ask, OK what app does it not have and usually they answer with some dumb game that they like. That tells me that when someone has it in their head that product X is the best, it is very easy to come up with reasons why product Y is not as good. You hear a lot of negative comments from Non WP8 users but very few from WP8 users.
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How did that go? On my phone (Lumia 920) it's called 'Connect in a different way to use Speech with Bluetooth in my car', and since messing about with it, I don't get text messages read out, so I'll tick it again and see what happens, it used to work.
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Oh right, that is rubbish. Have you tried a 3rd party app? I can't imagine why it would help, but you never know. I use Podcast Picker, and it has options in it's settings along the lines of 'when you press skip forward in your car, what do you want to do? skip track, skip forward 10 secs, etc.'. You'll be needing an app with really big buttons then so you can use it in the car! e it
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I'm thinking about getting a mobile phone. I'm not sure what type of phone to buy. I know next to nothing about these phones. I've impressions and I'll share them here. Don't get upset if you're a cultist of one sort or another - I've already admitted that I don't know. Windows Phone My impression is that these guys have a bit of improvement to make and that the experience isn't as polished as the iPhone. That said, I like the tiles - the UI, oddly enough, seems cleaner to me and I find that appealing. I also like the idea that I'll learn a bit about the Windows 8 way of doing things which might come in handy in the future. iPhone The more mature, polished experience - and yet, the UI seems clunky to me. There might be TOO much going on here and I'm not really excited about buying into the whole Apple ecosystem. Probably the better over all phone but I don't need a new religion either. I dunno... any thoughts?
I've had one Android, which I began to hate after 6 months, and my last two have been Windows Phones (7.5 and now 8). I love, Love, LOVE my Windows phone. My wife loves hers. It's easy and intuitive to configure and reconfigure, and to navigate--even for my wife, the tiles are informative for letting me know if there's a reason to open its app (number of notifications/emails/etc), and it fits well with the Windows ecosystem I'm already a part of. I do not like iTunes because it doesn't work the way I like it to, and like you I don't want to pay the Apple tax and move to their ecosystem. That might sound fanboi-ish, but believe me, I'm getting tired of Microsoft's refusal to listen to its customers, and I'd like to move to Linux some day, so I don't think I'm so pro-MS to be biased. If stuff doesn't work well, I won't use it regardless who made it. The one small bit of ugliness is the syncing application, the Windows Phone Application for Desktop that you need for Phone 8. It's simple, but not configurable enough, and doesn't give you enough info about the photos or music or photos you're seeing in its UI to know which ones you really want to sync if the file names aren't helpful. However, it's easier to use for syncing than Zune was, and not locked to the current Windows user account like Zune was. Can't speak to the iPhone experience, 'cause I've never owned one.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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I have a Lumia 920, Wife as an iPhone 4s.. my view. as other have said, stick with your chosen ecosystem. But if you're unsure, the advantages I get for having Windows Phone *Glance - see texts/emails/missed calls without actually turning screen on/off all the time *Wordflow - the keyboard is WAY ahead of iPhone, many times I can just tap on the list of words at the top... *Tiles - similar to glance, why do I want to open apps for every bit of info? I don't. *OneDrive/One note syncing, I really really like this. *Xbox integration/apps... these are almost always of very good quality, so saves a lot of time finding a game that's actually worth playing Advantages she has for having iPhone *App for our bank to check balances etc. I would really like this (they did a blackberry app FFS!!) *siri everywhere... he's built into the keyboard, which is great if you can't spell something, he's there... the Win Phone mic isn't always shown/isn't on the keyboard. Maybe Cortana will address this. *always first to get the latest apps. *always first to get the latest apps. <- takes up 2 points! And finally, don't believe what people say about a) iOS is simpler to use, or b) it just works.... I often need to figure stuff out for my wife and get emails etc. to work.
Oh yeah, I forgot about Wordflow. It's amazing how intuitive it is at figuring out what I'm going to type, often without having to type even the first letter of the next word. I've created many a long text message by only typing in one or two letters of the next word before I can choose it from the suggestion list, and sometimes no typing is needed at all because the right word is already there in the suggestions.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.