So, who here LURVES Windows Phone? Put your hands up, Brits Nokia's cheap Lumia handsets helped Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system to a nearly nine per cent share of the UK market - but for all the Finns' efforts, the Lumia is still a rounding error in the United States. The data comes from a Kantar Worldpanel poll of buyers globally in the second calendar quarter of 2013; the …
It still puzzles me why they bothered pushing out WInPho 8 when they haven't bothered to do any big marketing or push out updates and / or any kind of improvements to it. There are a few main areas they need to improve on vastly (music player, multitasking, keyboard to name 3) and a lot of small tweaks they could make. Unfortunately anyone that owns a WP handset has no idea when or if these will be worked on.
It feels like MS have adopted the old Nokia stance on updates where you never knew if your phone was getting an update and even if you did have an update available it rarely did anything you would care about. It also feels like MS are treating WP in general as some big experiment to see just how little effort they can put into something without it blowing up massively in their faces. It's very frustrating to see especially when WP is rather good in general use.
Looking for a reasonable deal on a new phone when my iPhone 3GS started dying, I ended up with an HTC 8X. I find it preferable to my work supplied iPhone 5. Herself went for a Lumia 620. We're both very happy with our phones, they work well and the OS makes iOS and Android look and feel rather, well, 20th Century. OK, I have some apps that I can't port across (ditto some music, bastard, bastard DRM), but otherwise the transition was fine.
It always entertains me when any piece of tech gets criticised by the sad juveniles who have either never used it, just have an irrational hatred of it (or the company who produces it) or who's experience is dated and irrelevant (or any combination thereof). I would suggest they grow up (or get a life), but that would seem just a touch unlikely.
It's not irrational to hate Microsoft. Bug ridden Microsoft software has wasted my time in the 70's,80's,90's,00's and Win8 is currently bringing it's daily dose of disappointment in the 10's. 30+ years watching their abusive business practices also gives some perspective.
Hardly juvenile either, though appropriate when I fought Microsoft BASICs many problems back in the 70's.
I'm really pleased with the performance of my Nokia 620 windows phone. It's a great little camera for happy snapping. Its also a great free turn by turn sat nav. (all the free maps of Europe anyone) Email is functional, and I can open word, excel or powerpoint files, as well as PDF's.
It also uploads all my photo's to my skydrive account, so they are backed up straight away.
I don't use much out of the App store myself, but I know my son does on his winphone as well.
He wanted one after seeing and using mine, and loves it.
I also had an older Nokia 800 winphone that the screen broke on. That was great, and I managed to replace the screen myself for about £40.
I think it's like anything. if you are in a product stable (Google / Android, or Apple, or Microsoft/Nokia) for many services, then it makes sense to keep and use the products that integrate with the ones you already have, and use.
To me, the match with Nokia and Microsoft was a good combination.
I am a tight fisted person who replaces phones as rarely as possible. When I do, I tend to buy what I consider to be the most future proof model. This tends to work out at an average spend of around £120 a year on phones, which I consider acceptable, especially when the old ones can be passed on.
Nokias used to be wonderful things on which you replace batteries and cases with ease. I have put new batteries in ancient ones and passed them to people who just wanted a dumbphone+text. The WP8 Nokias look to be disposable after a year or so, and the small amount of RAM and lack of expansion suggests that there is no future proofing built in - at some point in a relatively short timescale they are likely to be unable to run an OS upgrade. Just like early Androids, in fact.
Nokia lost a sale when the 920 turned out to be a huge brick with unremarkable battery life, no expansion, locked in battery and tiny RAM. I suspect that the villain in the piece lives in or near Redmond.
I'm sad that BlackBerry is going down the toilet, because the BB 10 models look as though they should be good for several years both of use and software upgrades. But they are currently stuck between cheap and expensive, with nothing that anybody would buy in the middle ground.
Why don't we discuss the basics more as opposed to raw features.
For example how easy or fast it is to post to Facebook, or find an app, or make a call.
Seems like we only focus on a check list of features and not whether or not a device is any good at the things all smartphones do, because they are core to the experience.
I believe you meant to type 'how fast it is to uninstall the Facebook crapp' ;)
By and large any recent smartphone is good enough at the 'things phones do' that it doesn't merit mentioning. It's no longer a differentiator.
Orlowski used to endlessly bang on about the supposed superiority of WP7's people hub/unified messaging (or whatever it's called). Even he's given up flogging that dead horse, WP wasn't first with the idea and some of us don't find the implementation or concept superior anyway. Where software's involved your idea of 'working well' may be radically different to mine.
I love my lumia 920.
Its a great piece of kit. Battery life is generally 2 days ( I have all background programs off!).
Fab camera, some good apps, some GREAT apps and some utter dog eggs...
Windows phone 8 is slick, smooth and generally a joy to use. Not without issues mind, poor text editing /copy/paste etc.
Poor SMS grouping options (unless i'm doing it wrong).
No FM tuner!! Coming in an update soon apparently. TuneIn App claims to have support for it. It doesn't.
linked media/ringer volume!?!?!? Design Fail at basic level there guys!!
Great screen, nicely weighted, good flash, good phone..Clear audio in and out.
Great product nay-sayed by a load of non-users...
Despite the wide choice of handset makers and their various offerings,
I still havnt found a new phone to meet my needs, even tho I can afford just about any of them.
I just cant understand why the makers havnt analysed the many different types of usersand cater for the wildly different needs out there.
For example, on one side theres the office worker, whose enviroment is generally quiet, clean, and weather proof, On the other side theres the, lets say the blue collar worker, out in the wet,or noisy, dirty world for whom the office type handset would be quite unsuitable.
Anyone in the latter category, using say a digger or lathe or other machinery, has to concentrate on what he is doing, and doesnt want any of the smart phone features when hes at work.
What he does want is,
A good loud ring, a good loud speaker, a bright screen, a foldable design like clamshell or flip phone, so when in his overalls the screen and a PROPER full sized Querty keyboard is protected, a big batttery, , a solid tough case that will withstand a lot of dropping or misuse and waterproof.
Well, theres not one made . If there was Id have found it. And dont suggest the Blabkberry as the k/board is just for 5yr olds.
I ran a survey recently amongst a lot of people I know who use a dumb phone. I asked why havnt you upgraded to a big screen smart set?
The answer without exception was that it didnt do what their existing set would do, and they dont like the glass keyboards.
In addition there is an older age group who grew up without mobile phones or the internet, whos learning was done from the written work in books.
Those books had the format of black type on white paper, with an index at the beginning with a list of what in each chapter.
Now Nokia designed their 9210i communicator around this layout, for the business user. And it works a treat.
Can you get this layout with android? I dont think so , nor WinP 8 or on the Iphone.
I do dispair of the handset makers for their lack of innovation for the market differences.
Shame really, there missing out on a lot of customers.
As in so many other walks of life, one size doesnt fit all.
Frustrated in Dorset.
The aim for manufacturers of most consumer technology is to appear "cool" and appeal to the 18-30 demographic. It's odd, because that student/post-student/mortgage/starting-a-family period isn't one I associate with having much spare cash, but I'm sure they know what they're doing.
...after being impressed with a friend's 920. I really like it, but then again it has replaced a creaky old Android 2.1 Orange San Fransisco (ZTE Blade).
The only thing that is bugging me at the moment is the way that the keyboard doesn't pop up when I hit the search button. Maybe I need to change a setting somewhere, but it is a pain to have to press the search button AND then tap the Bing search bar at the top of the screen before I can start typing.
Otherwise, it is a very fluid OS. It seems to require less horsepower than equivalent Android devices. I'm sure my quad-core Nexus 7 isn't quite as smooth as my dual-core Lumia 925.
Then again, I've never claimed to know anyting about phones. I just really want something that is good for making calls and texting, and the excellent (for a phone) camera on the 925 is a bonus for me. Looking forward to Nokia Pro Camera arriving with the Amber update!
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