Contemplating moving from Android to Windows phone

Big Lar

I have at the moment the Note 4 and am considering of moving to a windows phone.

I work mostly on PC, using office 2013/16 and my thinking would be that the windows phone would integrate in well with my working environment, every so often I find myself on the road having to pull out that laptop as the android phone will not cut the mustard.

The general use of the phone is work related so I am not worried about watching video/playing games or anything like that.

I wonder if anyone here has made the move and would have the pros or cons to moving and what kinda phone should I be going for to have the same specs as the note 4.

Thanks.

JamesTC

Big Lar wrote: »

I have at the moment the Note 4 and am considering of moving to a windows phone.

I work mostly on PC, using office 2013/16 and my thinking would be that the windows phone would integrate in well with my working environment, every so often I find myself on the road having to pull out that laptop as the android phone will not cut the mustard.

The general use of the phone is work related so I am not worried about watching video/playing games or anything like that.

I wonder if anyone here has made the move and would have the pros or cons to moving and what kinda phone should I be going for to have the same specs as the note 4.

Thanks.

Went from Android to Windows back in 2012 and back to Android again earlier this year.


In terms of hardware specs the Lumia 950XL would compare quite well with the Note 4 but the OS won’t be as polished, less apps and some of those apps that are there won’t be up to date as the Android or iOS equivalent.


Pros
The 950 and 950XL support continuum, which would be its unique selling point, it allows you to use your phone as a desktop on supported apps and with the use of the dock to plug in keyboard mouse, monitor or TV etc.
The OS is nice to look at it and easy to use, the high end devices always have great cameras.


Cons
While the OS is improving its still not there, and that is not acceptable, for years the OS has been one big update away from being right but it never gets there, you are always in beta, fine for a second phone (I use a lumia 930 as my second phone) but not on a main device.
Apps, as mentioned above you get less apps and less updates for the apps you do have, simple things like banking apps are not always available, this have been the case since Windows Phone 7, they said it would be better with Windows Phone 8, it wasn’t, then Windows 10 would bring universal apps and app bridges to port iOS and Andorid apps, still no improvement, the app gap is as bad as ever.



Personally I would stick with the Note 4 and just download the office apps for android, if anything I would consider replacing your laptop with a Surface (3 or Pro 4 depending on your budget and needs) and use that when limited by android.

Antar Bolaeisk

JamesTC wrote: »

...snip...

This is pretty much spot on, the hardware is great, and it offers great flexibility in terms of additional storage and dual sims. The camera on the 950, last time I checked, was second to none; my friends are constantly in awe of the pictures I can take on it (plus, I'm a sucker for the living images feature).

The OS on the other hand, is still very much an active Beta, more so than Windows Phone 8 and 7. It's only just starting to become release ready now and is pretty much the reason Microsoft have had to kill off the Lumia brand.

Big Lar

Thanks for the advice lads, the continuum looks fairly neat and I think that it could do a lot for me. I dont think that the lack of apps will be an issue and may have a go at the 950XL.
I will let ye know how I get on.

beauf

I'm not a big user of apps, but some of the ones I did use, have stopped working and are no longer supported.

The bigger issue is the OS is very buggy. I've been using it for about 3yrs, and its always been 2 steps forward, three back.

Microsoft attention is now on getting users onto its apps on IOS and Android. They need that larger user base for there products and services.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/15/11441994/microsoft-outlook-android-wear-smartwatch-support

_Kaiser_

Bear in mind that Continuum is not the full Windows desktop experience - ie: it'll only run what's available in the Windows store. You can't just install anything you like as you would on a laptop.

I have used several Windows phones in the past few years (all higher end stuff like the 920, 930 etc) but gave up last year and went back to Android as I got tired of the "coming soon" approach to fixing or including things that should be standard, the app gap (not just missing apps but quality - even MS's own apps work better on Android), and of course Win 10 is a never-ready beta where stuff will be changed or removed without much warning.

The 950 I wouldn't rate as a Note 4 equivalent. The camera and spec might be good on paper, but the device quality isn't as good and of course most of the mobile networks have little to no interest in Windows Phone anyway.

I'd stick with what you have or get a S6 Edge+ or S7 Edge with the MS apps you need (office, OneDrive, Outlook etc) rather than investing in a platform that MS themselves seem to be abandoning

Big Lar

At this stage the negatives far outweigh the positives so that's the end of the Windows phone idea.
Thanks very much for the advice lads.

Antar Bolaeisk

Big Lar wrote: »

At this stage the negatives far outweigh the positives so that's the end of the Windows phone idea.
Thanks very much for the advice lads.

It's sad, Windows Phone should be great, and certainly when it works it's brilliant but there's just too many gaps between what it should be and what it is.

Big Lar

Indeed, MS seems to have really slipped up as it would/should have tied with the desktop envoirnment seamlessly.