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Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:45 pm
by Stalin
Been a couple of years with Android and it has been a happy experience minus the battery backup.

Now, I feel like switching to Nokia 920, not that I I dont like Android but I want a change. I loved the metro interface and a mobile device with similar interface would be attractive.

Will I miss Android? (No, I dont want to keep two phone in my pocket)

Should I make the switch?

Device: Galaxy S2

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:23 pm
by ludi
You might miss the diverse and relatively mature app ecosystem, and maybe the broad customization options, but you'll gain the ability to properly view Office documents.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:08 pm
by UberGerbil
You might miss the Chrome browser also, depending on how you like it relative to mobile ie.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:23 pm
by End User
I had a look at the 920 at a Microsoft Store. The display was rather dim next to a Galaxy Nexus and an iPhone 5.

If you have your heart set on Windows Phone 8 I would wait for the next gen models:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/23/39065 ... ne-details

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:23 pm
by RickyTick
I made the switch from a Samsung Galaxy S1 to a HTC 8X and haven't looked back.

There is a learning curve, but it's fairly short and painless. I only use a handful of apps, and they were all available on Windows Phone 8, so no problem for me there. ymmv

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:45 pm
by JohnC
I have used Lumia 920 personally during a couple of months, here's what I've learned with it:
1) The camera is awesome - best low-light sensitivity I've ever seen on mobile devices. No complaints about it.
2) The WP8 seriously lacks proper apps - there's no Instagram, no Pinterest, no good Facebook app (most of the third-party apps are just "shortcuts" to FB's mobile webpage), official Twitter app sucks ass, official WhatsApp app sucks ass right now, Skype app is still in "beta" stage, no apps to view Twitch.tv streams, no good navigation apps (Nokia's own Drive+ is still very deficient) and so on. So if you're dependant on various apps - I would recommend to wait a few more months.
3) Battery life can be extremely inconsisten unless you like to do "soft resets" of your phone every day (probably WP8's fault, but happened a lot to Lumia 920 users). Lots of complaints about it in WPcentral's forums.
4) No global display orientation lock for WP8.
5) No proper notification center for WP8.
6) No independent volume settings for different apps for WP8.
7) Syncing your phone to your PC can be a pain, MS "threw away" their previous Zune client and wrote an extremely basic and buggy abomination for syncing your files between WP8 devices and PCs/Macs.
8 ) E-mail client is extremely basic and restrictive.
9) IE10 mobile browser sucks ass - doesn't work properly with many pages (which work fine with mobile WebKit-based browsers), no proper "back" and "forward" functionality (the global "back" button often doesn't work for some reason).
10) "Live Tiles" are somewhat inconsistent and apps which use them sometimes stop updating "Live Tile" properly... Happens with many apps, again there are posts about it on WPcentral's forums.
11) Lumia 920's quality is somewhat inconsistent - many people had to replace theirs because of plastic body creaking, dust under front camera's lens, light leakage (around the botton portion of display), battery issues, random reboots. Some went through 4 replacements before "finding" a good one. Again, read WPcentral forums about it. I had to replace mine once - it permanently "stuck" in a reboot mode.

Sooo... Yea. If you like to play with pretty GUI - you can get WP8 phone right now and will probably be happy with it. If you like to do other stuff - I highly suggest waiting a few more months, at least until next major WP8 update.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:58 pm
by satchmobob
It sounds like you just fancy a change. Have you considered waiting until March to check out the BB Z10? True, you wouldn't get your Live Tiles to match Win 8 but the new BB OS10 looks very compelling i think..

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:06 pm
by derFunkenstein
Take inventory of what you've purchased and realize that you're going to be giving that up, unless you have an Android tablet or something too. For me it would be a non-trivial $$ investment to give up just to switch platforms because I'm bored. Being locked into an ecosystem can be painful.

OTOH, the lack of smaller high-end phones is making me bonkers. I want good performance and current software but I don't need a 4.7" screen. If Apple can get Krait-like performance with good battery life into the iPhone 5, why can't Samsung or HTC make a device with a 4" screen and accompanying smaller frame?

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:34 am
by moog
I have a 920, it's a nice phone. I like the catchy yellow color, live tiles, and the camera is the best of all the phones.

There are some apps (150K or so) but I think it's missing some of the popular ones.

Only thing I hate is the large size of phones these days (I was impressed with the iPhone 5).

Only thing I hate worse is the monthly bill. It's a ripoff and they force this on us with no options when buying a smartphone. Anyway.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:01 am
by kitsura
Ever considered a Blackberry Z10? The new OS looks great. Not going to be fragmented like Android or just meh like iOS. Plus the new microkernal concept is amazing. I guess it is going to be the most stable and secure mobile OS going forward.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 6:16 am
by DreadCthulhu
moog wrote:
Only thing I hate worse is the monthly bill. It's a ripoff and they force this on us with no options when buying a smartphone. Anyway.


If you are willing to pay full price for the phone, there are several carriers and MVNOs that offer much cheaper monthly plans than the contract plans; T-Mobile Prepayed offers 100 minutes/unlimited txt & internet for $30, or unlimited talk, txt & internet for $50; Virgin Mobile offers 300 minutes/unlimited txt and internets for $35 a month riding on Sprint's network; Walmart Family Mobile offers unlimited talk, txt, and (slow) internet for $45 for the first line, $35 for additional lines, riding on T-Mobile's network; Straight Talk offers unlimited talk, txt & internet for $45 a month, riding on either Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint's network, depending on the phone used. And there are many, many more options.

Howard's Forum is probably the best resource on the internet for discussing all of the available plans.

As long as you can do math, it is pretty easy to end up with a lower TCO by paying more for the phone up front, and having the cheaper contract. Of course, a lot of these MVNO have limited coverage or roaming, and limits on fast internet service, so mind the details when picking the best plan for you.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 7:24 am
by Firestarter
If you just feel like something new, have you tried a different ROM on your Galaxy S2? If not, this should get you started: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=2036229

edit: You may have to look at custom ROMs made specifically for the phone you got from your provider. The one I linked to is for the international version of the Galaxy S2. Also, custom ROMs may break/brick your phone! Don't say I didn't warn you! READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! That said, I'm currently running CM10.1 on my cheap Huawei and it's 100% more awesome than the stock firmware.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:48 am
by Stalin
JohnC wrote:
2) The WP8 seriously lacks proper apps - there's no Instagram, no Pinterest, no good Facebook app (most of the third-party apps are just "shortcuts" to FB's mobile webpage), official Twitter app sucks ass, official WhatsApp app sucks ass right now, Skype app is still in "beta" stage, no apps to view Twitch.tv streams, no good navigation apps (Nokia's own Drive+ is still very deficient) and so on. So if you're dependant on various apps - I would recommend to wait a few more months.


I cant wait no longer for a new phone. Do you miss Android ? How do rate the experience?

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:49 am
by Stalin
RickyTick wrote:
I made the switch from a Samsung Galaxy S1 to a HTC 8X and haven't looked back.

There is a learning curve, but it's fairly short and painless. I only use a handful of apps, and they were all available on Windows Phone 8, so no problem for me there. ymmv


Good to hear that.. :D

Re: Will I be able to survive without Andoird?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:49 pm
by JohnC
Stalin wrote:
JohnC wrote:
2) The WP8 seriously lacks proper apps - there's no Instagram, no Pinterest, no good Facebook app (most of the third-party apps are just "shortcuts" to FB's mobile webpage), official Twitter app sucks ass, official WhatsApp app sucks ass right now, Skype app is still in "beta" stage, no apps to view Twitch.tv streams, no good navigation apps (Nokia's own Drive+ is still very deficient) and so on. So if you're dependant on various apps - I would recommend to wait a few more months.


I cant wait no longer for a new phone. Do you miss Android ? How do rate the experience?


I come from Apple's iOS, and yes, I do miss a lot of the apps and constantly thinking about switching back to it... iOS may be visually "boring" to some people, but I prefer to play with apps, not the pretty GUI elements (which WILL also become "boring" after few months) and so far WP8 doesn't provide much "entertainment" through apps/games for me (it may have "more than 120000 apps" in its store, but a huge amount of them are just garbage apps (with useless functions/information), are very buggy or have severely limited features compared to same apps on other platforms).

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 10:35 am
by Stalin
Think I should wait for a few months before switching to PH8. Alas!

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:26 am
by chµck
First you gotta ask yourself, what do you have to have in your next phone, what would you like to have, and what you don't really care about.

I get by just fine with my unlocked Nokia 808. It's doesn't have the fastest processor, gpu, or the highest resolution screen, but it has everything I need in a smartphone (email, browser, MS Office suite, etc) + camera replacement (It competes with top of the line P&Ss) + gps (NAVTEQ, Garmin uses the same data) + music player (Phenomenal sound quality). And since it's considered a "dumbphone" I can tether for free without my carrier getting suspicious. I get up to 10mbps down, 4 mpbs up (it's 3g) on tmobile.

Do you care about having top of the line games?
Do you have to use an app instead of the browser to browse certain cites?

The Lumia 920 is a fantastic piece of hardware regardless.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:29 pm
by Firestarter
Different strokes I guess, I had a dumbphone for the longest time but since I upgraded to a cheap android phone, I regularly use a Reddit app, TuneIn radio and Yatse (XBMC remote control). Granted, it's not much, but without Yatse or equivalent app, XBMC is pretty useless to me.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:01 pm
by JohnC
chµck wrote:
Do you have to use an app instead of the browser to browse certain cites?

If you have a mobile IE10 browser - then YES, using a proper app is a preferred method. Mobile IE10 is currently the worst browser I've experienced - it's slow to load some pages, or doesn't work with some at all (ironically you can't use it to reply to different posts on www.WPcentral.com forums - forums dedicated to Windows Phone! Mobile Safari works without issues there...), there's no "forward" button, the global "back" button doesn't work sometimes for the browser, the tabs management is pretty poor (you can't even see the number of opened tabs unless you press on "..." button then on "tabs" button to finally see the screen with all your opened tabs), etc. Even worse, for some sites like Twitch.tv you can't use it to watch streams directly from webpage (mobile Safari works there) AND you don't have an official app for watching those streams (both iOS and Android had these apps for a long time), so you're **** either way...

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:32 pm
by anotherengineer
Yes, you will survive. Only need food, water and shelter for that.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:18 pm
by chµck
JohnC wrote:
chµck wrote:
Do you have to use an app instead of the browser to browse certain cites?

If you have a mobile IE10 browser - then YES, using a proper app is a preferred method. Mobile IE10 is currently the worst browser I've experienced - it's slow to load some pages, or doesn't work with some at all (ironically you can't use it to reply to different posts on http://www.WPcentral.com forums - forums dedicated to Windows Phone! Mobile Safari works without issues there...), there's no "forward" button, the global "back" button doesn't work sometimes for the browser, the tabs management is pretty poor (you can't even see the number of opened tabs unless you press on "..." button then on "tabs" button to finally see the screen with all your opened tabs), etc. Even worse, for some sites like Twitch.tv you can't use it to watch streams directly from webpage (mobile Safari works there) AND you don't have an official app for watching those streams (both iOS and Android had these apps for a long time), so you're **** either way...


How many different browsers are available on WP?
I count about 5+ on Symbian.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:41 pm
by JohnC
chµck wrote:
JohnC wrote:
chµck wrote:
Do you have to use an app instead of the browser to browse certain cites?

If you have a mobile IE10 browser - then YES, using a proper app is a preferred method. Mobile IE10 is currently the worst browser I've experienced - it's slow to load some pages, or doesn't work with some at all (ironically you can't use it to reply to different posts on http://www.WPcentral.com forums - forums dedicated to Windows Phone! Mobile Safari works without issues there...), there's no "forward" button, the global "back" button doesn't work sometimes for the browser, the tabs management is pretty poor (you can't even see the number of opened tabs unless you press on "..." button then on "tabs" button to finally see the screen with all your opened tabs), etc. Even worse, for some sites like Twitch.tv you can't use it to watch streams directly from webpage (mobile Safari works there) AND you don't have an official app for watching those streams (both iOS and Android had these apps for a long time), so you're **** either way...


How many different browsers are available on WP?
I count about 5+ on Symbian.


On WP8? None except the IE10. There's an app called "UC Browser", but it's just a "re-skinned" IE10, with similar issues.

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:31 pm
by chµck
JohnC wrote:

On WP8? None except the IE10. There's an app called "UC Browser", but it's just a "re-skinned" IE10, with similar issues.

What websites don't work? I was interested in the Nokia EOS, but if WP8 isn't ready yet...

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:52 pm
by JohnC
chµck wrote:
JohnC wrote:

On WP8? None except the IE10. There's an app called "UC Browser", but it's just a "re-skinned" IE10, with similar issues.

What websites don't work? I was interested in the Nokia EOS, but if WP8 isn't ready yet...

Some websites I had issues with were car configuration sites - I remember having problems with Porsche's car configurator (the full site, not mobile version), also some forums have issues when trying to input text into reply box (for example WPcentral forums - when you try to click on text input area, the WP8's keyboard pops up and then immediatelly pops down, making you unable to input any text), and embedded non-Flash videos/streams are broken on some sites (like http://www.twitch.tv) and forums (like http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums), either not loading at all or telling you to "Download Flash plug-in or use HTML5 browser")... Some other sites, like all of the LiveJournal-based blogs, very often load very slowly. All of these things work properly when being used from iPhone.

Like I said, I highly suggest waiting a few months, at least until MS will release next major patch for WP8 which hopefully will bring some browser improvements, as well as many other missing OS features...

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:02 am
by sweatshopking
JohnC wrote:
If you have a mobile IE10 browser - then YES, using a proper app is a preferred method. Mobile IE10 is currently the worst browser I've experienced - it's slow to load some pages, or doesn't work with some at all (ironically you can't use it to reply to different posts on http://www.WPcentral.com forums - forums dedicated to Windows Phone! Mobile Safari works without issues there...), there's no "forward" button, the global "back" button doesn't work sometimes for the browser, the tabs management is pretty poor (you can't even see the number of opened tabs unless you press on "..." button then on "tabs" button to finally see the screen with all your opened tabs), etc. Even worse, for some sites like Twitch.tv you can't use it to watch streams directly from webpage (mobile Safari works there) AND you don't have an official app for watching those streams (both iOS and Android had these apps for a long time), so you're **** either way...
On WP8? None except the IE10. There's an app called "UC Browser", but it's just a "re-skinned" IE10, with similar issues.


couple things:
there is only the trident browser on ie10 (also only the stock keyboard). its an identical rendering engine as ie10 on the desktop, and while there are a number of different "browsers", they all use the trident engine. it's also quite a quick browser, and according to most tests, either ties or beats the gs3. i haven't used it vs safari on an iphone 5, but there are plenty of reviews and most consider it a solid mobile browser. it's not ironic at all, as wpcentral uses the same system as crackberry and the other mobile sites that company runs, nor is it owned by MS.
like all other mobile devices (excluding forced installs of android 4+ and early versions) it also doesn't support flash, but it does support html5 video. i don't know what twitch tv is, so i can't comment (and if i don't know it, i expect it sucks :p). but the browser does have good support for html5 video.
the back button functions consistently in the browser as it does in every app. it will go back pages as far as you've had the browser open, but if you opened it, went forward two pages, then pushed back 3 times, it'll take you back to the home screen from where you launched the browser. it might annoy some people, but it's consistent within the os.

sounds like it annoys you, and that's fair. android and iOS annoy me. thankfully we have forums online to whine ;)
from engadgets ativ odessey review
The biggest surprise, however, is IE10. The SunSpider mark of 919ms trounces most of the Android options on the market and is a hair better than the iPhone 5's score (924ms). While hardware plays a part in the scores reported, the efficiency of the browser's rendering engine is just as important, if not more so. While there are certainly a few minor things that irk us about the latest mobile version of Internet Explorer, they're drastically outweighed by the positive. So much so, in fact, that we won't even waste any more breath on the matter -- IE10 is great.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/04/sams ... ey-review/

Re: Will I be able to survive without Android?

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:16 pm
by NovusBogus
I've got a WP7.5 device for development only and I like the UI. That said, speaking as someone who's played around with mobile development, I would not recommend buying a WP8 under the assumption that any apps you want but aren't currently available will get there eventually. This didn't happen with WP7 for a variety of reasons I won't get into and it's not clear whether it will happen with 8.