I had my fair share of experience with iPhones and various Android versions ( right from gingerbread to jelly bean) and when I ended up washing my last android device (a very yucky Lenovo a390) in washing machine, I was in the market for yet another "smart phone".
This time I thought I will give Windows Phone a try. After all we never can ignore the overarching role of Microsoft in popularizing technology and computers and the pains associated with it.
So I got a Nokia Lumia 730 which is one of the last phones to bear Nokia brand name.
Nothing to complain about the Nokia Hardware. The display is superb compared to other phones from the same price segment. It has dual sim. Battery life is pretty impressive; video and audio performance is great. It has a 5.0 mega pixel front and back camera capable of 1080p @ 30fps. That is impressive.
Coming to Windows 8 phone software (8.1 to be exact). They project 8.1 as the revolutionary software - what so special? only Microsoft knows. Microsoft is basically playing catch up with the big guys(iOS, Android) and they are still lagging way behind.
First, the tiles interface - though it inspires minimalistic appearance and helps with battery life, the UI look and feel just leaves you asking for more. It is as dry as a parched dusty farm land in North India. Actually you can put a background of parched landscape (supposed to be a great feature according to fanbois) below the tiles and look through it and wish you had bought an Android. There is no pleasing way to arrange the tiles. There is no way to get to the tile that is most important to you - the freaking phone!! Due to the length of your thumb(or lack there of) if you want to put the most important tiles in the middle and size accordingly, there is no possible way. The tiles just snaps at places it aligns as Microsoft does not want to create your own look with tiles.
Then you go to list of all applications by swiping on the home screen. You get tiny looking icons that is very dull and the font against them, not very friendly to eyes. In Win 8.1, I hear you could increase the font and make it readable (Well this is the age of intuitive and immersive UIs Microsoft, please wake up)
Now coming to apps. Thats where everything falls flat. The app market is very very dry. You will cry tears of blood to see a quality app. Only commendable ones are the ones from Nokia and Microsoft. May be people like me(software guys) to blame for this. But looks like nobody wants to develop for this platform.
The music player - called "Xbox" music player for whatever reasons. May be MS wants to live in their Xbox eco system at the end of the day - good vision. The navigation between various options in the player is not straight forward. There is no easy way to edit the music - in terms of its ID3 tags. When I say there is no easy way, I mean not even when I connect the phone to a computer and launch the MS software. There is NO way to edit your collection and create some meaningful genres or easy play lists. This is stock MS software I am talking about - this sucks with 5 stars.
There is no way to play or remember audio books. If Microsoft wants to give a wholesome experience they better provide these. If you downloaded an audio book mp3 and start playing, god help you to remember where you stopped - and if you happen to play some other mp3 in between, you lost it!
Google would not develop anything for Windows phone. There is none of your favorite google apps there. So submit to Microsoft and start using their stuff.
I can go on and on. But that's enough ranting for one day. So if you are trying hard to decide if to get a Windows phone, at this pint it is a big NO.
This time I thought I will give Windows Phone a try. After all we never can ignore the overarching role of Microsoft in popularizing technology and computers and the pains associated with it.
So I got a Nokia Lumia 730 which is one of the last phones to bear Nokia brand name.
Nothing to complain about the Nokia Hardware. The display is superb compared to other phones from the same price segment. It has dual sim. Battery life is pretty impressive; video and audio performance is great. It has a 5.0 mega pixel front and back camera capable of 1080p @ 30fps. That is impressive.
Coming to Windows 8 phone software (8.1 to be exact). They project 8.1 as the revolutionary software - what so special? only Microsoft knows. Microsoft is basically playing catch up with the big guys(iOS, Android) and they are still lagging way behind.
First, the tiles interface - though it inspires minimalistic appearance and helps with battery life, the UI look and feel just leaves you asking for more. It is as dry as a parched dusty farm land in North India. Actually you can put a background of parched landscape (supposed to be a great feature according to fanbois) below the tiles and look through it and wish you had bought an Android. There is no pleasing way to arrange the tiles. There is no way to get to the tile that is most important to you - the freaking phone!! Due to the length of your thumb(or lack there of) if you want to put the most important tiles in the middle and size accordingly, there is no possible way. The tiles just snaps at places it aligns as Microsoft does not want to create your own look with tiles.
Then you go to list of all applications by swiping on the home screen. You get tiny looking icons that is very dull and the font against them, not very friendly to eyes. In Win 8.1, I hear you could increase the font and make it readable (Well this is the age of intuitive and immersive UIs Microsoft, please wake up)
Now coming to apps. Thats where everything falls flat. The app market is very very dry. You will cry tears of blood to see a quality app. Only commendable ones are the ones from Nokia and Microsoft. May be people like me(software guys) to blame for this. But looks like nobody wants to develop for this platform.
The music player - called "Xbox" music player for whatever reasons. May be MS wants to live in their Xbox eco system at the end of the day - good vision. The navigation between various options in the player is not straight forward. There is no easy way to edit the music - in terms of its ID3 tags. When I say there is no easy way, I mean not even when I connect the phone to a computer and launch the MS software. There is NO way to edit your collection and create some meaningful genres or easy play lists. This is stock MS software I am talking about - this sucks with 5 stars.
There is no way to play or remember audio books. If Microsoft wants to give a wholesome experience they better provide these. If you downloaded an audio book mp3 and start playing, god help you to remember where you stopped - and if you happen to play some other mp3 in between, you lost it!
Google would not develop anything for Windows phone. There is none of your favorite google apps there. So submit to Microsoft and start using their stuff.
I can go on and on. But that's enough ranting for one day. So if you are trying hard to decide if to get a Windows phone, at this pint it is a big NO.
