Windows Phone users: opinions wanted

[DBMaster]

You can't get "real" Chrome for WP, either. That seems like more corporate infighting than anything else. I have found the apps I want, for the most part, in WP's store. (i.e. Bank of America, American Airlines, MTA - NYC subway maps, Fandango, IMDB, etc.)

But, you will find that when you see apps advertised they will often only be advertised for iOS and Android.

So, the earlier statements about WP apps not being as available and rich are still true. So, your satisfaction with the OS will depend upon how big of an app fan you are.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
On my Android platform, I can't even get the Chrome browser as an app; what an irony!


You can't? I have Chrome downloaded from the Play Store on my Android-powered Acer tablet. It seems that I now have two browsers, "Browser" and "Chrome". "Browser" is still the stock browser that comes with Android.

 

[DBMaster]

Chrome/Android/Google - same company.

Microsoft - NOT Google. There are app versions of Chrome, but no native version for WP.

iOS - I do not know. I happen to own a Windows phone and an Android tablet.

 

[OVERKILL]

Yes, there is an IOS version of Chrome.

 

[Vikas]

I have HTC EVO View Sprint tablet and I don't recall the Android version it is running. I also refuse to upgrade it to later version even if it were available. That is probably the reason Chrome browser can not be installed. I get "This app is incompatible with your device." error.

 

[Hokiefyd]

There is an iOS version of Chrome, but it may not be based on the Chrome web engine. Or at least, I presume this based on the reason that Mozilla says that there is no iOS version of its browser...

Article on Venturebeat.com

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
I have HTC EVO View Sprint tablet and I don't recall the Android version it is running. I also refuse to upgrade it to later version even if it were available. That is probably the reason Chrome browser can not be installed. I get "This app is incompatible with your device." error.


I bet that's it. I couldn't put Chrome on my Droid2 phones, which were running either Froyo or Gingerbread (I forget). Our Acer A100 runs 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

 

[sciphi]

IIRC there's a built-in QR reader. Search/Vision brings it up. Built-in GPS is pretty good, but does suck battery life. Weather.com app works well, and updates quickly. Adobe's PDF reader zooms well, and works quickly. Not sure about the calculator doing metric conversions, as I've not played around with it.

Also not sure about the auto-BCC for email since I don't use it. It does do manual BCC and pulls up the contact when typing, which is handy as anything.

 

[DBMaster]

Yes, there is an included bar code and QR code reader as well as a music listening tool to identify songs/artists. All work pretty well. I found the weather app to be somewhat buggy, but recall that I have one of the cheapest windows phones.

I do not use my phone for email so I cannot comment on that.

 

[Smcatub]

My Windows phone is terrible. The screen is fine, the WiFi and cell reception is fine, the processor is fine. I love the UI; it looks good and is functional. Now the bad:

The OS is glitchy (all of my songs get 'phantom replicas' for example - I'll have a copy of "Sympathy for the Devil'. They next day I'll have two but only one will be playable. Then I'll have three. Then four. So I need to manually clean my music up all the time and delete the 'phantoms').

The browser sucks. It's IE. It won't always show the mobile version of pages, although my Kindle will (could be a problem with the sites, so maybe I can't blame IE). I don't like the interface, and it crashes pretty frequently. There are no good browsers in the app store. They're either IE reskins with the same problems, or have other flaws.

The GPS app is far inferior to Android's.

There are no good apps. With Android I had tons of good, free apps. With Windows the free apps are generally terrible, and they paid ones not much better.

I want very badly to go back to Android, and I will be getting a Nexus as soon as I can afford a new toy.

If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll answer them.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

What brand is yours?

 

[Vikas]

Can I use a cheap windows phone (e.g. Lumia 521) overseas? Usually there are deals available on no-contract Windows/Android phones but I do not know if they are locked even on overseas providers.

 

[Tegger]

UPDATE! Finally!

The market sort of ended up making up my mind for me. It turns out that there is (or was, at the time) just ONE smart phone that was compatible with my hearing aids. ONE. That ended up being the Nokia Lumia 635 with Win 8.1. This means I ended up with a Windows phone anyway.

It's an inexpensive phone ($200 without contract). No flash. No front camera. Some features are absent from this phone that are present on more-expensive Windows phones, such as double-tap to unlock.

It took me five months of searching to find this one single compatible phone. For this reason, my provider gave me the phone for free and is allowing me to continue indefinitely with no contract (with a cheaper, better plan than before), so that I can keep looking for a more-expensive phone that's also compatible.

Seems to work acceptably well. Many fewer good apps available than with iPhone. There's NO way to do a local backup of the contents of the phone: Backup is automatic, is done only online to the cloud via Outlook.com, and only backs up some of your content. No confirmation dialog when deleting email messages; hit delete and pray you never want to call it back.

Automotive Bluetooth is not great. Audio is sometimes choppy, whereas the old BlackBerry was clear all the time.

Battery life is amazing. Battery lasts all day even when connected to Bluetooth and with lots of use. I'm impressed.