Just over a year ago , I experimented with an Android earphone . I ’d been curious about Android , and experience the good fashion to appreciate what it proffer — and compare it to iOS — was to try it out in a material - world place .
This retiring Christmas , a visitant proudly showed my his Windows telephone set , and I was intrigued . After getting a good tour of the Windows Phone OS , I adjudicate to buy a cheap , unbarred phone and try it for myself . I ’ve been using it off and on for the past two month . While I would n’t swop from my iPhone , I ’m quite impressed by what Microsoft has done .
Getting the hardware
As with Android , there are lots of Windows phones to opt from . It ’s not just a question of ash grey , infinite grayness or amber ; it ’s a full origin of phones at a spacious range of price , from multiple producer . The phone I had fancy at Christmas wasthe Lumia 930 , Microsoft ’s “ flagship ” phone , which is a well - work up , attractive sound , but still about half the price of an iPhone . I did n’t want to expend that much money , so I opted for the £ 90Lumia 535(current price is the US , about $ 130–150 ) . When I purchased it in January , the Microsoft - build Lumia 535 was the cheapest earpiece that ship with Windows 8.1 Denim , the latest version of the Windows Phone OS .
The phone itself is as you would expect for a gimmick that price . It ’s got a 5 - column inch display ( a bit with child than the iPhone 6 ) , and the plastic back pop music off easily to insert your SIM card , South Dakota card , and change the battery , if you ever necessitate to . ( While the phone only comes with 8 GB storage , I added a 32 GB South Dakota card . )
When you add an Coyote State calling card , you could opt which types of items get store on the phone inner store and which goes on the SD carte du jour . ( chatter to enlarge . )
While it does n’t feel as well crafted as an iPhone , it ’s comfortable to hold ; it ’s not as tricky as the iPhone 6 , in fact , make believe it a bit loose to oblige on to . The 5MP camera does n’t maintain a candle to that of the iPhone , and the glass is sure as shooting cheaper , but for the price , what do you expect ?
Trying on Denim
What interested me most in this earphone is the operating scheme . As much as I find Android clunky and unattractively design , I was very impressed by Windows Phone 8.1 ( hereafter , Denim ) . Setting up the headphone was a mint easier than setting up the Android speech sound , in part because Denim hold iCloud for contacts and calendar out of the box . You simply add your iCloud report , and you could access and upgrade your data easy . With Android , third - party tools are often needed , make it a real headache .
The marquee lineament of Windows Phone is the tiles that you place on the main domicile ( or beginning ) screen . Each of these roofing tile is an app , physical contact , map location , site bookmarker , Office Indian file , record album , or more , and they can be in three dissimilar size , as you could see below .
Windows Phone tiles can be large rectangle , as for email in this screenshot , large squares , as for Photos or Weather , and small square toes , as for several of the apps scattered across the screen . ( get across to expound . )
I especially like the way you may vary the layout so it is n’t just a grid of icons . As you may see above , my home screen give out unlike sized icons in different places , yield it a less organized look . It ’s also scrollable — rather of being block at the size of it of the display , you’re able to add more tiles and swipe up to see them .
take note also that some of these tiles are folders : the configurations folder , at the top - right wing , and the Music+Videos booklet on the leftfield . Tap a booklet roofing tile and it opens to show the tiles it hold ; knock once to launch its app or other items . you may choose an accent colour for these tiles . I select teal , but you may pick from 21 colors , and also choose a wallpaper image or photo to go behind the tiles .
Live Tiles can be live — they update with the late information , such as atmospheric condition , sports wads , and newsworthiness newspaper headline . Unfortunately , they can also be annoying at prison term , like flashing advertizement on vane page . For case , I apply Flipboard to keep up with the news , and that app ’s hot Tile is constantly flipping between a crimson square with a headline , and a photo with a different headline . Depending on which apps you have on your family screen door , you may have circle of tiles moving to show you what ’s unexampled . In summation , pamphlet incessantly cycle their apps across their tiles to show you what ’s behind it .
Windows Phone has a software system “ home ” push , the Start clitoris you could see at the bottom - center of the above screenshot . Tap that once to go to your Start filmdom . Swipe to the left field to access other apps , ones that you have n’t tote up as tiles . The Back arrow charter you back to what you were catch before , whether it ’s a screen in the phone ’s overall user interface or an app — I’d sexual love to see a stock Back release or gesture on the iPhone .
Syncing content to the device
Microsoft furnish an OS decade app calledWindows Phonethat allows you to synchronise contentedness to their twist , and to copy files — such as photos — from the equipment back to your Mac .
The Windows Phone app is a sort of iTunes lite for syncing substance to a Windows Phone . It also works with something promise a “ Zune . ”
This app has an astounding number of big reviews on the Mac App Store . I did n’t expend it a lot , but it did sync music and videos ( without DRM ) comparatively swimmingly . It ’s limited in functionality , though , liken to iTunes . You ca n’t sync contacts or calendar from a local app , if you do n’t require to use iCloud ; you could only sync exposure from iPhoto ; and it does n’t synchronize photos automatically from the earphone to iPhoto . ( You necessitate to crop the phone , and import them yourself . )
What about apps?
And there ’s the rub . Apps are the braggart problem with the Windows Phone . Sure , you have all the Microsoft apps , and if you ’re a a Windows personal computer exploiter , you ’ll be right at home . But the overall app landscape is what ’s cramp adoption of the Windows Phone . It ’s a wimp and testis trouble : If there are few apps , users are less probable to pick out the platform , and low numbers of user ( the Windows Phone worldwide mart share in 2014 was a paltry 2.7 percent ) do n’t revolutionise developers to produce apps .
Windows Phone does n’t have as many apps as Android or iOS , but most of the biggies are here . ( Instagram , shown at good , is formally in beta . )
You ’ll find the top game , the biggest social culture medium apps ( Facebook and Twitter , butonly a beta of Instagram ) , and much more . vaporous numbers think nothing ; both the iOS and Android app stores are 90 percent dreck . But if central apps that you need are miss , then you wo n’t be invite to buy this phone .
One key feature of speech iOS exploiter would miss on a Windows Phone is iMessages ; you ’ll have to fall back on schoolbook message or convince your friends to all get a crabbed - platform message app likeWhatsApp . And of course , Skype ( owned by Microsoft ) replaces FaceTime , so you ’ll still be able to video New World chat .
And , of course , there’sCortana , Microsoft ’s Siri - corresponding vocalism help . In my run , it seems to ferment fairly well , though , for the first few weeks , it told me , “ I ca n’t address your language yet . ” You ’d think that U.S. English would be the first uncommitted language , but I conceive this was just a bug .
One gossip on the Windows Phone configurations : the configurations screenland looks like someone just selected the order of the various configurations at random . It ’s exceedingly complicated to notice what you ’re look for when you ’re new to this machine .
Summing up
The Windows Phone operating system of rules truly surprise me . Once I got used to it , I found that I could do of import tasks as quickly as on an iPhone , and at a far lower toll . Even the top - of - the - agate line Windows Phone is half the price of an iPhone , and you could tally an Mount Rushmore State wit to increase computer storage .
I resolve my clause about using an Android headphone with this instruction : “ With an unlocked phone at this damage , I would n’t hesitate to commend Android to anyone who is not wedded to the Apple ecosystem . ” This really is the key element to conceive if you ’re design to flip to another political program : app whorl - in . However , if I had to choose , I ’d find fault Windows Phone over Android in a heartbeat . It ’s attractive , prosperous to use , and in some ways — because of the customizable home CRT screen with Live Tiles — provides more actionable information than iOS .
If you ’re a Mac user , and do n’t depend on too many iOS - specific apps , take a aspect at Windows Phone . You may be surprised too .
