The Verge: Windows Phone is dead

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

ElNino

Member
TarpitCarnivore said:
830, 1020 and 1520

I found indoor/low light performance especially bad. Total time to open camera, snap and save was much slower.
Click to expand...
These phones have good to great cameras. The 1020 time to open the camera and save is well documented, but with good reason. The 1020 sometimes had issues with white balance indoors, but that can easily be corrected with post processing (particularly when shooting in raw).

I would not classify any of the higher end phones of having "bad" low light performance though, especially when use the manual/advanced settings. The 950/XL flashes and the Rich Capture mode also works very well for capturing indoor shots as you can blend multiple exposure photos to get the lighting you prefer.

Ahasverus said:
WP doesn't even have a YouTube app. YouTube.
Click to expand...
Wrong. It doesn't have a YouTube app created by Google, but it does have several very good YouTube apps.

In fact, the YouTube apps on WP are better than the apps made by Google on other platforms since we get no ads and offline/downloading of videos without paying Google for whatever their subscription is called.
 
juliushandle

juliushandle

Member
3rd party YouTube apps on WP are better than the official YouTube app on Android. They're ad free, allow casting to multiple devices, and allow for downloads for offline viewing.
 
G

gamz

Member
Do you guys remember when MS created a youtube app with google's API? The app was awesome, but google was pissed that it was ad-free. So MS put the ads back and in google still said they want it removed. The issue was Google didn't want WP to gain any traction for obvious reasons.
 
D

dc89

Member
Nokia Lumia (the higher end ones I had experience with) were actually really well made pieces of hardware that ran lightening fast.

Shame really.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
TarpitCarnivore said:
530, 630, 640, 830, 1020 and 1520

I found indoor/low light performance especially bad. Total time to open camera, snap and save was much slower.
Click to expand...

Low light performance on the 1020 was great. One of the first phones to have OIS too, along with the 920. And it had a huge sensor by phone standards, same as most point and shoots. So yeah, low light was good on that thing.
 
R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
Ahasverus said:
WP doesn't even have a YouTube app. YouTube.
Click to expand...

An official one? No.


There are plenty of 3rd party ones though, and they have more features than the official Google app anyway.




Don't get me wrong. Clearly there are major problems with the WP app store, but let's not get silly.
 
G

gamz

Member
I mean Amazon's tab's don't have a youtube app either, but there's several knock-offs and they work just as well.
 
M

michaelius

Banned
Good riddance. I've got Lumia 730 and the app store is barren wasteland.

They should drop mobile version and go for x86 phones. Having gog library on phone would be interesting :D
 
P

PumpkinPie

Banned
I went to the phone shop the other week looking for a new Windows Phone to replace my Lumia 900 and there was nothing but a 640. Where are the phones?? I know the 950 has just come out. Is that all there is now, two phones?
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
Posted this in the Earnings thread, but figured I'd post here too.

<disclaimer: Microsoft employee alert, but still my opinions are my own>

My phone history is iPhone 3G --> 3GS --> Samsung Focus --> Lumia 920 --> Lumia 830 --> iPhone 6S Plus

Honestly, I miss so much about Windows Phone.

  • The Start Screen is still the best launcher of any mobile OS. The most customizable and personable around.
  • Live Tiles are still better than even Notification Center widgets IMO. Even if they're not as powerful, they're so much easier to see and access
  • Folder support is so much better on Windows Phone
  • The Windows Phone keyboard is still hands-down the best out there. I know Microsoft is making a keyboard for iOS, but no matter how good it is it'll still be limited because iOS's support for 3rd party keyboards is still fucking terrible
  • I like Windows Phone's implementation of Action Center much more than iOS's Notification Center / Control Center split
  • I can add music to it by simply dragging and dropping
  • I seriously miss Glance. Especially the notifications on Glance
  • Expandable storage via Micro SD instead of paying a shitload of money on a higher-end iPhone
  • Wireless charging is super nice, especially for car mounts
  • The iPhone 6S Plus's camera is incredible, don't get me wrong, but my wife's 950 XL usually takes better pictures. Especially in low light
  • Now that Windows 10 is going across both desktop and mobile, I'm sad I don't have messaging integration and such with Cortana with my iPhone.
  • Contact handling is better in Windows Phone, even in Windows 10. The way contacts are merged between different sources is just brilliant and elegant.


Most apps are much better on iOS, obviously. They're updated much more frequently on iOS, if they even exist at all in the first place on Windows Phone. But I honestly miss so much about the OS and general hardware platform that I could see myself switching back within a year, as long as the app situation gets better (even if just slightly).

In my day-to-day, I don't really use many apps. Twitter, Feedly, MyFitnessPal, Facebook/Messenger, email, music, Reddit, Amazon, Microsoft Health (for MS Band), Podcasts, OneDrive, Office, and that's about it. Everything else I use pretty rarely, if at all. All of those have good-to-excellent apps on Windows Phone. For those which don't have Windows Phone apps, in my experience their mobile sites almost always work.


Hopefully with the universal app platform and 200M+ people on the desktop, it helps convince more developers to create universal apps which also happen to run on phone. Maybe not a huge amount, but hopefully enough to stem the bleeding.
 
Z

Zeyphersan

Banned
I don't understand how people are like "I don't even use apps!" Or saying it's not a big deal. According to my phone I have 101 apps downloaded including the ones that come with it. Even if I don't use every single one every day they're here for a reason: because at some point in my life they will offer functionality I want. It's awesome that all you want from a phone is an email client and a web browser but once those super basic needs are met don't you at least want the option of doing more?
 
juliushandle

juliushandle

Member
Zeyphersan said:
I don't understand how people are like "I don't even use apps!" Or saying it's not a big deal. According to my phone I have 101 apps downloaded including the ones that come with it. Even if I don't use every single one every day they're here for a reason: because at some point in my life they will offer functionality I want. It's awesome that all you want from a phone is an email client and a web browser but once those super basic needs are met don't you at least want the option of doing more?
Click to expand...
WhatsApp, 6tag (instagram), weather, Facebook, tubecast (YouTube), maps, Cortana, yelp, amazon, flixster, Pandora, podcasts, are all I basically use on WP. Banking is done through mobile browser.
 
M

mackattk

Member
Zeyphersan said:
I don't understand how people are like "I don't even use apps!" Or saying it's not a big deal. According to my phone I have 101 apps downloaded including the ones that come with it. Even if I don't use every single one every day they're here for a reason: because at some point in my life they will offer functionality I want. It's awesome that all you want from a phone is an email client and a web browser but once those super basic needs are met don't you at least want the option of doing more?
Click to expand...

When I had a Windows phone, it was fluid and had enough features at the OS level that with the exception of a few apps, it had basically all I needed for day-to-day uses. I am on Android now, and a good 80%+ of the apps that came with the phone are just bloatware and would serve absolutely no purpose for me. The Windows Phone I had essentially had no bloatware on it. The only apps I use day to day on my android are Apple Music (still on the free trial), Hangouts, Pushbullet, and Boom Beach. There are a couple other apps that are useful for me, but I could live without them.

Basically if you have a phone that serves your purposes, you don't really need extra apps taking up space and cluttering up your UI. The HTC 7 Pro hardware keyboard was the best keyboard I have ever used on a phone. I miss that thing almost every day.
 
F

Futureman

Member
Zeyphersan said:
I don't understand how people are like "I don't even use apps!" Or saying it's not a big deal. According to my phone I have 101 apps downloaded including the ones that come with it. Even if I don't use every single one every day they're here for a reason: because at some point in my life they will offer functionality I want. It's awesome that all you want from a phone is an email client and a web browser but once those super basic needs are met don't you at least want the option of doing more?
Click to expand...

Yes that's a huge reason why Windows Phone sales are so pathetic. The fact that WP sold not even half what it did in the same quarter last year means MS is in a dire situation. If a company didn't previously make an app, there's no reason to now. MS needs to figure out how to turn things around.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
Zeyphersan said:
I don't understand how people are like "I don't even use apps!" Or saying it's not a big deal. According to my phone I have 101 apps downloaded including the ones that come with it. Even if I don't use every single one every day they're here for a reason: because at some point in my life they will offer functionality I want. It's awesome that all you want from a phone is an email client and a web browser but once those super basic needs are met don't you at least want the option of doing more?
Click to expand...

If you get 10% extra functionality, but hate how the phone handles the basics....why buy the 10% extra functionality phone if your day-to-day experience is always worse?
 
F

Futureman

Member
lastflowers said:
If you get 10% extra functionality, but hate how the phone handles the basics....why buy the 10% extra functionality phone if your day-to-day experience is always worse?
Click to expand...

As seen by the recent sales numbers, the vast majority of people consider apps to be WAY more than "10% extra functionality."
 
R

RunLikeH3LL

Member
Futureman said:
As seen by the recent sales numbers, the vast majority of people consider apps to be WAY more than "10% extra functionality."
Click to expand...

It goes deeper than just apps. MS is pulling back on models, advertising and carrier availability. Sales are supposed to be down and should slide further. The end result should be a smaller, more profitable product line.
 
S

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
E

EGM1966

Member
The venture was DOA from the start MS were simply able to keep the thing going via life support keeping blood pumping even though brain activity had ceased.

They tried, the basic OS was decent and a number f the phones good but the market clearly isn't interested and that's that.
 
G

giga

Member
lastflowers said:
If you get 10% extra functionality, but hate how the phone handles the basics....why buy the 10% extra functionality phone if your day-to-day experience is always worse?
Click to expand...
10%? That's a random figure. And for many, having certain apps *are* the basics. You're not even in the running if you don't have those.
 
J

jstripes

Banned
giga said:
10%? That's a random figure. And for many, having certain apps *are* the basics. You're not even in the running if you don't have those.
Click to expand...

Yup. My daughter squealed with excitement when I replaced her Symbian phone with an Android phone a few years back. She was excited to be able to use the apps all her friends were using.

My wife has a Lumia, and she's happy with it, but she's not a big app user.
 
S

SFenton

Member
dLMN8R said:
Hopefully with the universal app platform and 200M+ people on the desktop, it helps convince more developers to create universal apps which also happen to run on phone. Maybe not a huge amount, but hopefully enough to stem the bleeding.
Click to expand...

I hope so. I'm encouraged by Pandora and Uber's early offerings!
 
S

Squalor

Junior Member
Cortana, the keyboard, and the programming behind Live Tiles (not the actual interface itself) are cool.

The rest of Windows Phone is something that a truck comes around once a week to collect from outside of your house.
 
U

Unknown Soldier

Member
lastflowers said:
If you get 10% extra functionality, but hate how the phone handles the basics....why buy the 10% extra functionality phone if your day-to-day experience is always worse?
Click to expand...

Well considering that iOS and Android are the ones regarded as stable but early shipping releases of Windows Phone 10 on the few phones that supported it had a music player that hard locks the phone forcing a reset, who exactly is offering the better day-to-day experience? It's not Windows Phone.
 
S

Shenmue

Banned
jstripes said:
Yup. My daughter squealed with excitement when I replaced her Symbian phone with an Android phone a few years back. She was excited to be able to use the apps all her friends were using.

My wife has a Lumia, and she's happy with it, but she's not a big app user.
Click to expand...

My wife got a Lumia and kept telling me she was happy with it. Eventually I got her the pink 6s as a gift and now she has no idea where her Lumia went. I asked her and she said "who cares? It was junk."
 
P

Pristine_Condition

Member
"I like our strategy... I like it a lot."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

Apparently, Microsoft employees are so confident in their new mobile OS offering that they created elaborate costumes and art cars and held a mock funeral for the iPhone and Blackberry. The theme was that they had buried the competition with Windows Phone 7.

iphone-casket.jpg
Click to expand...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-celebrates-windows-phone-7-with-mock-iphone-funeral/

Well, they almost got the Blackberry part right.
 
J

John Caboose

Member
I liked Windows Phone, all my smartphones prior to my current was a WP. But it's true, the platform is not a viable alternative to iOS/Android (anymore). May it rest in peace. I'm still loving my iPhone 6 after almost two years.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Shenmue said:
My wife got a Lumia and kept telling me she was happy with it. Eventually I got her the pink 6s as a gift and now she has no idea where her Lumia went. I asked her and she said "who cares? It was junk."
Click to expand...

My wife had the opposite experience moving to an S6 from her 920. She complains constantly of jank. She also hates the in car experience of Android. She can't figure out how to answer texts and respond with only her voice. Cortana worked perfectly for her in that regard.
 
S

Squalor

Junior Member
JaggedSac said:
My wife had the opposite experience moving to an S6 from her 920. She complains constantly of jank. She also hates the in car experience of Android. She can't figure out how to answer texts and respond with only her voice. Cortana worked perfectly for her in that regard.
Click to expand...
He's talking about an iPhone 6s.

You're talking about a Galaxy.
 
T

TheBryanJZX90

Member
giga said:
10%? That's a random figure. And for many, having certain apps *are* the basics. You're not even in the running if you don't have those.
Click to expand...

Which is an individual thing that will change from person to person. And all you're seeing here is individual people saying "having 100 apps is not something I personally find helpful or necessary on my phone, and my own personal must-have apps were present." It's not that outlandish of a statement.

When I switched from iOS to Windows Phone I had been using my iPhone for 2 years at least. I went through my list of all of the apps I had installed currently, and I just did a personal evaluation as to which ones were absolutely required, which ones I used regularly, and which ones I didn't use. I had a lot of apps on my phone that I didn't use and that wouldn't really affect me if I wasn't able to use them in the future.

Then I took that list and compared it to what was available on Windows Phone. All of my must have apps were present or had alternatives (and in the case of YouTube the alternative app was way better!) The majority of the missing apps were irrelevant and had been taking up space on my iPhone anyway, unused.

Unknown Soldier said:
Well considering that iOS and Android are the ones regarded as stable but early shipping releases of Windows Phone 10 on the few phones that supported it had a music player that hard locks the phone forcing a reset, who exactly is offering the better day-to-day experience? It's not Windows Phone.
Click to expand...

This has absolutely not been the case in the past. And the botched release of WP10 is why I'm staying away from the 950 right now.
 
S

Squalor

Junior Member
Pristine_Condition said:
"I like our strategy... I like it a lot."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U



http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-celebrates-windows-phone-7-with-mock-iphone-funeral/

Well, they almost got the Blackberry part right.
Click to expand...
Really, though, it was just Microsoft's making its employees throw away their iPhones.
JaggedSac said:
Of course, I knew very well he wrote 6S and I wrote S6. But thank you.
Click to expand...
Oh, then the situations aren't opposite. You're talking about two different devices.
 
Y

Yeoman

Member
ElNino said:
Wrong. It doesn't have a YouTube app created by Google, but it does have several very good YouTube apps.

In fact, the YouTube apps on WP are better than the apps made by Google on other platforms since we get no ads and offline/downloading of videos without paying Google for whatever their subscription is called.
Click to expand...
Isn't this sort of stealing from the content creators? Some people are trying to make a living from YouTube. Those advertisements matter.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Squalor said:
Oh, then the situations aren't opposite. You're talking about two different devices.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, or it was similar in nature that a wife moved from a WP device to a phone bearing a more popular OS. And opposite in that the wives had dissimilar experiences. But sure, if one were pedantic, they would not be opposite.
 
juliushandle

juliushandle

Member
Yeoman said:
Isn't this sort of stealing from the content creators? Some people are trying to make a living from YouTube. Those advertisements matter.
Click to expand...
Google doesn't have a problem with it or they would have shut them down like they did with the Microsoft YouTube app.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

[Verge] Windows 11 is now the most popular OS for PC gaming
2 3
120
7K
RCX replied
[The Verge] Microsoft is now in a handheld gaming PC race
2
79
9K
MisterXDTV replied
PCWorld: Microsoft should be terrified of SteamOS.
2 3 4 5
232
12K
Crayon replied
[The Verge] Microsoft and Google are fighting over the future of Xbox
36
4K
lh032 replied
[Verge] Windows on Arm isn’t ready for gaming
22
3K
LordOfChaos replied
Top Bottom