Windows Phone 8.1 |OT| Update 1

Why? What is it missing to stop it being a decent flagship for this year? Other than just wanting new because it is new.
It provides nothing remotely interesting. It's not a conversation starter in any way or form. It doesn't push the platform. It's just a 920 on steroids, only less comfortable to handle and with a less efficent SoC than its rivals.

Out of curiousity, what would you be looking for in a new phone that the 930 wouldn't have.

Sure, I get that faster chips, better batteries, better screens, etc are desirable... but I don't really see anything on the market (or coming soon) that is really a big jump over what we already have.

The LG G3 has an innovative form factor that sets it appart from the rest, on top of the best Android UI to date (massive improvement right there over other Android phones) and a fairly decent camera. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a great battery and the best display out there; it's just incredible to look at. The Lumia 930 offers nothing new besides a more powerful SoC that funnily enough happens to be older than those of its rivals.
 
It provides nothing remotely interesting. It's not a conversation starter in any way or form. It doesn't push the platform. It's just a 920 on steroids, only less comfortable to handle.
Ok, but how would those things benefit you? Do you really need your phone to be conversation starter? I'd say just using WP would start a conversation on it's own.
 
I'd be fine with the 930 if it were to appear on tmobile so I can take advantage of all the sweet deals they are giving out.

The only WP device on there is like the 6 series, what a bummer!
 
It provides nothing remotely interesting. It's not a conversation starter in any way or form. It doesn't push the platform. It's just a 920 on steroids, only less comfortable to handle and with a less efficent SoC than its rivals.

Sounds like the flagship follow up on every platform
 
The LG G3 has an innovative form factor that sets it appart from the rest, on top of the best Android UI to date (massive improvement right there over other Android phones) and a fairly decent camera. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a great battery and the best display out there; it's just incredible to look at. The Lumia 930 offers nothing new besides a more powerful SoC that funnily enough happens to be older than those of its rivals.

Is the G3 really an innovative form factor - the only difference i see is the buttons are on the back? Yes it has thin bezels, and thats impressive but not innovative (imo).

And am i missing something on the s5 display - a 1080p oled like the 930 (which also has clearblack).
 
Ok, but how would those things benefit you? Do you really need your phone to be conversation starter? I'd say just using WP would start a conversation on it's own.

That was about the platform itself. What I need is something different and genuinely attractive. I'm tired as shit of how fucking slow this OS is evolving and how purulent the app situation is.

If Microsoft wants to retain my loyalty, it needs to bring something new to the table like the 1020 did. The thing is, *I want to keep using Windows Phone*, but I see other flagships and the cool shit they are doing, I look at the 930 and I think, "why bother?".

Is the G3 really an innovative form factor - the only difference i see is the buttons are on the back? Yes it has thin bezels, and thats impressive but not innovative (imo).
The phone is fucking massive (5.5 inch), yet it feels light and comfortable to handle due to the curved back and thin borders allowed by moving the buttons to the back. This solution is not nearly as interesting in smaller phones, but it makes a world of difference in the G3.

And am i missing something on the s5 display - a 1080p oled like the 930 (which also has clearblack).
It has the best AMOLED display to date. Its color correction and brightness are unrivaled. This is so apparent when looking at photos, but specially so considering how crummy Samsung's old AMOLED displays used to be.
 
It provides nothing remotely interesting. It's not a conversation starter in any way or form. It doesn't push the platform. It's just a 920 on steroids, only less comfortable to handle and with a less efficent SoC than its rivals.

The LG G3 has an innovative form factor that sets it appart from the rest, on top of the best Android UI to date (massive improvement right there over other Android phones) and a fairly decent camera. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a great battery and the best display out there; it's just incredible to look at. The Lumia 930 offers nothing new besides a more powerful SoC that funnily enough happens to be older than those of its rivals.

While I agree with you on the lameness of the 930, the examples you mention are just a case of "the grass is greener on the other side".
 
Ah, you like gimmicks.

Awesome cameras (such as the 1020's), better form factors and better displays are gimmicks now? Because those are pretty fucking critical aspects of any modern top of the line smartphone.

While I agree with you on the lameness of the 930, the examples you mention are just a case of "the grass is greener on the other side".
I only recently began to think about dropping Windows Phone after testing the SGS5 and the G3. That wasn't even remotely true before those phones. The Windows Phone hardware ecosystem feels just too damn stagnant.
 
That was about the platform itself. What I need is something different and genuinely attractive. I'm tired as shit of how fucking slow this OS is evolving and how purulent the app situation is.

If Microsoft wants to retain my loyalty, it needs to bring something new to the table like the 1020 did. The thing is, *I want to keep using Windows Phone*, but I see other flagships and the cool shit they are doing, I look at the 930 and I think, "why bother?".

I am confused what you look for really, seems like you don't really want to stay with WP anyway? When I look at the G3 I only see gimmicks I won't really care about after 1 hour of use.
 
I am confused what you look for really, seems like you don't really want to stay with WP anyway? When I look at the G3 I only see gimmicks I won't really care about after 1 hour of use.
Again, a better form factor is not a gimmick, but a critical feature.

It makes a huge ass 5.5 inch phone comfortable to hold and easy to slip inside your jeans, unlike brick-like designs like that of the 930 (which a is remarkable step down from the curved 920, which was a hulking beast, but felt so right). This has been possible by moving the buttons to the back. After rocking a G3 for a few weeks, it makes a world of difference, specially if you are a heavy user. I just cannot state loudly enough how much Microsoft dropped the ball in terms of ergonomics with the 930.

That's the kind of interesting ideas I just cannot see when looking for a new Windows Phone. It's just more of the same.
 
That was about the platform itself. What I need is something different and genuinely attractive. I'm tired as shit of how fucking slow this OS is evolving and how purulent the app situation is.
It sounds like you are more frustrated with the WP OS (which is fine) than you are with the phone hardware. If you need hot new hardware to stay, than I think you have already made up your mind to jump ship... not that there's anything wrong with that per se, only you can decide what floats your boat.

It has the best AMOLED display to date. Its color correction and brightness are unrivaled. This is so apparent when looking at photos, but specially so considering how crummy Samsung's old AMOLED displays used to be.
Just like how I can't understand how people would want an LCD TV that can be brighter than my plasma... I don't understand how a brighter phone would considered a big improvement. My 1020 can go very bright, to the point that I have no problems seeing it in the brightest sunlight, but I would never want the screen to be like that for any prolonged period of time anwyays.

The S5 looks like a fine phone, but I don't see anything there that would make me want to jump ship unless I was already looking to do so.
 
Better form factors are subjective to be honest. 930 is a pretty dang nice looking device. Definitely like it more than the Galaxy S5. Which, btw, always feels like a toy when I hold one.
 
Again, a better form factor is not a gimmick, but a critical feature.

It makes a huge ass 5.5 inch phone comfortable to hold and easy to slip inside your jeans, unlike brick-like designs like that of the 930 (which a is remarkable step down from the curved 920, which was a hulking beast, but felt so right). This has been possible by moving the buttons to the back. After rocking a G3 for a few weeks, it makes a world of difference, specially if you are a heavy user. I just cannot state loudly enough how much Microsoft dropped the ball in terms of ergonomics with the 930.

That's the kind of interesting ideas I just cannot see when looking for a new Windows Phone. It's just more of the same.

I personally dislike huge, slim phones, they just feel cheap. Form factor is really subjective, imo.
 
It sounds like you are more frustrated with the WP OS (which is fine) than you are with the phone hardware. If you need hot new hardware to stay, than I think you have already made up your mind to jump ship... not that there's anything wrong with that per se, only you can decide what floats your boat.
I need both. That's the thing with smartphones. I've already made peace with the fact that Windows Phone is a shitty place for apps, so if I can't get them, at least bring something fresh to the table in terms of hardware.

Just like how I can't understand how people would want an LCD TV that can be brighter than my plasma... I don't understand how a brighter phone would considered a big improvement. My 1020 can go very bright, to the point that I have no problems seeing it in the brightest sunlight, but I would never want the screen to be like that for any prolonged period of time anwyays.
Brighter in comparison to other AMOLED screens, which are low bright by their own design. You can find some brighter LCD screens, but that's not the point. The fact is that it provides more accuracy than virtually any other display, LCD or AMOLED. Image quality is a heck of a lot more natural.
 
To be fair, the laser autofocus on the g3 is impressive and innovative.

And I agree with your points on the profile of the phone making it comfortable to use.

Yes the wp hardware seems stagnant.

But objectively the 930 is solidly built, great camera, great screen and quick. (plus that dedicated camera button, which is pretty fucking critical aspect of any modern top of the line smartphone.)

Also do you not think that the software on the g3 will feel stagnant after some time? Especially with the lag in updates.
 
To be fair, the laser autofocus on the g3 is impressive and innovative.

And I agree with your points on the profile of the phone making it comfortable to use.

Yes the wp hardware seems stagnant.

But objectively the 930 is solidly built, great camera, great screen and quick. (plus that dedicated camera button, which is pretty fucking critical aspect of any modern top of the line smartphone.)

Also do you not think that the software on the g3 will feel stagnant after dinner time? Especially with the lag in updates.

The lag is the only reason why I wouldn't buy if I could justify the expense. LG really fucked themselves over trying to outdo Samsung with a denser display. Other than that, it's a massive step up from the G2 and an incredible lesson in Android design.

Meanwhile, I can find a fuckton of reasons not to purchase a 930, whereas I fell in love after the first day with my old/current 920. Compared to one, two years ago, the hardware situation is regressing. This cannot be argued.
 
Meanwhile, I can find a fuckton of reasons not to purchase a 930, whereas I fell in love after the first day with my old/current 920. Compared to one, two years ago, the hardware situation is regressing. This cannot be argued.

I don't know about regressing. I think it is safe to say that the Lumia 930 isn't as innovative as the Lumia 920 was, but that would be pretty much impossible to do. Sometimes things are just a matter of timing, and the Lumia 920 happened to be ready when a bunch of Nokia technologies were ready. You can't have the expectation for that degree of innovation ever year.
 
Brighter in comparison to other AMOLED screens, which are low bright by their own design. You can find some brighter LCD screens, but that's not the point. The fact is that it provides more accuracy than virtually any other display, LCD or AMOLED. Image quality is a heck of a lot more natural.
Well, my 1020 is AMOLED and brigher than I need it to be so anything more than that would be useless to me. But, if you are coming from a 920 than I could see why it might be impressive (granted, I have not spent a long time with a 920).

Colour accuracy might be better, but the colour accuracy is fine (and adjustable) on my 1020 so I wouldn't see that as a pro or con personally.
 
I don't know about regressing. I think it is safe to say that the Lumia 930 isn't as innovative as the Lumia 920 was, but that would be pretty much impossible to do. Sometimes things are just a matter of timing, and the Lumia 920 happened to be ready when a bunch of Nokia technologies were ready. You can't have the expectation for that degree of innovation ever year.

Exactly: See the rest of the market.

Lets face it, hardware in general has plateaued - no OS is using the power of the phones to the fullest. All the innovation is going to be software and services based. For that, I trust the 930 to be on the latest software release than any OEM android phone.
 
To be honest, a jump from the 920 to the 930 isn't all that significant, CPU aside. Nothing wrong with jumping off the WP bandwagon for a generation and checking out the other OSes.
 
Wow this is brilliant OT. Here is my phone history.
iPhone 2007
Android Samsung Galaxy S Captivate
Windows Phone Samsung Focus
Windows Phone Lumia 900
Windows Phone Lumia 1520

I freaking love Windows Phone. Simplistic, Beautiful, Fast, best camera (nokia), free GPS worldwide. Only downside is lack of some apps. But they are coming SOON. And I don't mind, I am not a mobile game person or heavy app user.

Before WP 8.1, there were lot of missing features. But 8.1 really fills the gap between Android and iOS. I have been using the preview version, and its been great.
 
To be honest, a jump from the 920 to the 930 isn't all that significant, CPU aside. Nothing wrong with jumping off the WP bandwagon for a generation and checking out the other OSes.

Really? 1080p display on a phone makes day/night difference. And camera is significantly better than 920. I don't know about the battery but it should be higher mAh than 920. But anyways, after using 1080p on 1520, there is no way I can ever go back to using sub HD display.
 
Awesome cameras (such as the 1020's), better form factors and better displays are gimmicks now? Because those are pretty fucking critical aspects of any modern top of the line smartphone.
The 930/Icon/1520 has arguably the best camera that isn't a 1020 ... which also makes it the arguably the best camera in a 'standard' form-factor.
 
To be honest, a jump from the 920 to the 930 isn't all that significant, CPU aside. Nothing wrong with jumping off the WP bandwagon for a generation and checking out the other OSes.

That's like saying an iPhone. 4S to 5S or SGS 3 to SGS5 isn't significant. Major CPU/GPU upgrades, larger and higher resolution screens, more RAM, better cameras. Pretty much every major component of a phone significantly upgraded
 
Really? 1080p display on a phone makes day/night difference. And camera is significantly better than 920. I don't know about the battery but it should be higher mAh than 920. But anyways, after using 1080p on 1520, there is no way I can ever go back to using sub HD display.

That's like saying an iPhone. 4S to 5S or SGS 3 to SGS5 isn't significant. Major CPU/GPU upgrades, larger and higher resolution screens, more RAM, better cameras. Pretty much every major component of a phone significantly upgraded

Well you got me there. I suppose FP just has a severe case of grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-itis. Again, the best way to cure that would be to just switch out from WP for a generation.
 
Oh, and Cortana is cooler than Google Now. At least for me. Google Now provides more location info without asking, which might me useful for some and creepy for others. I miss Cortana's banter, when I'm bored. Google Now is so cold and robotic.
 
Well RIP AT&T customers I guess, and to think that was the only US carrier that actually supported Windows Phone a couple of years ago.

The 1520.3 work with all the correct ATT LTE network bands?
 
Microsoft should have just released the McLaren even if the motion was just a gimmick.

They weren't lying when they said they were focusing on the low end. Sounds like these devices will be the 730 and 830
 
Well RIP AT&T customers I guess, and to think that was the only US carrier that actually supported Windows Phone a couple of years ago.

The 1520.3 work with all the correct ATT LTE network bands?
Yes, it does. My AT&T 1520 32GB is only missing Qi. I have like 6 Qi chargers around :c
 
Microsoft should have just released the McLaren even if the motion was just a gimmick.

They weren't lying when they said they were focusing on the low end. Sounds like these devices will be the 730 and 830

To be honest, it is not by choice but they have no other option. They NEED developers to fully support their OS and release games/apps at the same time iOS/Android gets. For this they HAVE to increase the marketshare, highend devices are not selling well in states compare to iPhone and Android smartphones. They can provide the consistent and uncompromised OS performance on low end devices, and its been selling really well. I think this is one of the things, that's stopping MS to release their highend surface phone. They are waiting for more marketshare but I don't think that's happening until they cut all this carrier exclusivity shit, and start selling unlock phones through their stores and stuff. Like Apple does.
 
Ah, you like gimmicks.

I don't know if gimmicks is fair label. I am partial to the G3 myself and I think the round cover case is great for phone of that size along with super HD screen and laser autofocus. It's no more gimmicks than IOS on Nokia 920 or 1020 few years back, now almost every flagship adopted it. (Except for the Flagship Killer OnePlus, silly them).

I would have gotten G3 if it weren't for At&t removal of Qi charging hardware and LG for go along with it (probably don't have any choice) and the lack of LTE At&T band on the unlocked international phone (which have Qi). Lost on them, because I would have pick it up but now I will just wait for Apple and Nokia/Microsoft next phone and pick up the cheap OnePlus One in the mean time to satisfy my new hardware nerd.

edit: Damm, I missed all that Microsoft next phone, well look like next phone will be iPhone. 930 is the flagship, that's like rebranding Galaxy S5 and then sell it later this year as next flagship. The 930 is Icon, a phone release like 6 months ago.
 
To be honest, it is not by choice but they have no other option. They NEED developers to fully support their OS and release games/apps at the same time iOS/Android gets. For this they HAVE to increase the marketshare, highend devices are not selling well in states compare to iPhone and Android smartphones. They can provide the consistent and uncompromised OS performance on low end devices, and its been selling really well. I think this is one of the things, that's stopping MS to release their highend surface phone. They are waiting for more marketshare but I don't think that's happening until they cut all this carrier exclusivity shit, and start selling unlock phones through their stores and stuff. Like Apple does.

doesn't matter IMO. Even if you aren't going to do a ton of volume, get a nice high end device out there for the halo effect. Just ship fewer if you don't want to lose a ton of money. I think it is a mistake not to refresh the high end this year.
 
Oh damn, I was under the impression that the 1520.3 had Qi, but it doesn't. :/
But that's the att version of the 1520. It's not the same as the 1520.3 cv which does have qi. I posted some pics on the differences between the two. In the old thread.

Notice the qi label on the upper right
 
I don't know if gimmicks is fair label. I am partial to the G3 myself and I think the round cover case is great for phone of that size along with super HD screen and laser autofocus. It's no more gimmicks than IOS on Nokia 920 or 1020 few years back, now almost every flagship adopted it. (Except for the Flagship Killer OnePlus, silly them).

I would have gotten G3 if it weren't for At&t removal of Qi charging hardware and LG for go along with it (probably don't have any choice) and the lack of LTE At&T band on the unlocked international phone (which have Qi). Lost on them, because I would have pick it up but now I will just wait for Apple and Nokia/Microsoft next phone and pick up the cheap OnePlus One in the mean time to satisfy my new hardware nerd.

edit: Damm, I missed all that Microsoft next phone, well look like next phone will be iPhone. 930 is the flagship, that's like rebranding Galaxy S5 and then sell it later this year as next flagship. The 930 is Icon, a phone release like 6 months ago.

Optical stabilization has been in use in cameras/lenses for forever, putting it in a phone camera system isn't a gimmick. 40mp, now that is a gimmick.
 
Assuming the 930 doesn't make its way to AT&T by then, I'll probably upgrade to a 1520/25/27.346 (L8) Lumia for Windows licensed by Microsoft in November.
 
But that's the att version of the 1520. It's not the same as the 1520.3 cv which does have qi. I posted some pics on the differences between the two. In the old thread.

Notice the qi label on the upper right

It does, and Treo posted evidence.

I was just lamenting about mine :c
Okay, I was just looking at the newegg listing for the 1520.3 (with US LTE bands) and it says Qi only with a accessory case. That not correct?
 
Sat on my HTX 8x and somehow broke the camera, which sucked because I use the camera a lot. Now I'm using an iphone that I had laying around and really miss windows 8.1.

What's the best Verizon windows phone right now? Might just go out and buy one.
 
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