Windows Phone 8.1 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 14, 2014 10:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- windows phone
- Windows Phone 8.1
Final Words
Windows Phone 8.1 is a much needed and well thought out upgrade to the WP platform. Action Center is extremely well executed. The new keyboard brings the most polished implementation of shape writing to Windows Phone. IE11 is faster and more compatible than IE10. And Cortana offers hope in the way of eventually turning Windows Phone into even more of a personal digital assistant. The upgrades are solid.
In terms of high level features, Windows Phone 8.1 brings the platform up to near parity with Android and iOS. If what you’re doing is calendar, basic camera work, email, SMS, web browsing, Facebook and Twitter you can have a good experience on all three platforms. In fact, there’s an attention to detail that Microsoft exhibits in Windows Phone 8.1 that at times rivals that of Apple. I suspect this is why Windows Phone users, although a small portion of the market, are generally satisfied with their platform.
With Windows Phone however, Microsoft finds itself in a very frustrating position. It lacks the marketshare necessary to make Windows Phone a primary target for developers. Apps are more likely to launch first on Android and/or iOS. Part of the problem is one of marketshare, the other part is one of philosophy. For the past 3.5 years Microsoft needed to rev Windows Phone more frequently than Android or iOS, and it needed to be on the forefront of hardware adoption as well. For whatever reason, Microsoft did neither. Windows Phone saw, at best, as many major OS updates as Android/iOS, and at worst trailed the two in terms of minor updates. I’d argue that both Android and iOS changed more since Windows Phone’s introduction than WP itself, which shouldn’t be the case as both of those platforms are far older (and thus should be more mature/changing less substantially). On the hardware side, it’s important to note that no one ever wins by consciously choosing slower hardware. Building efficient software is one thing, but failing to use the latest hardware isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Last year saw Microsoft accelerate its software release cadence, and by the end of the year was on parity with Android in terms of high end Qualcomm silicon support. These two trends must continue through 2014 and beyond for Windows Phone to continue to grow. The UI needs regular updates/tweaks to keep it fresh but also keep it evolving towards perfection. With faster hardware on the horizon, Windows Phone can no longer be the last to support the latest platforms. I can’t say I have a ton of faith that Windows Phone will become the launch platform of choice for new silicon, but I do hope the lag between what is offered on Android and WP will narrow to at most a couple of quarters.
Microsoft has a huge opportunity in its universal app strategy. Being able to run the same app on smartphone, tablet, notebook and desktop is a sort of holy grail for the next stage in the computing evolution. I honestly see the biggest strength there in gaming, but for that to work out Microsoft not only needs to push its mobile hardware more than anyone else but it also needs to treat Xbox as a platform and not as a console.
So what about Windows Phone 8.1 today? The hardware is decent and the software just saw a solid upgrade. Going back to the platform after a significant hiatus I’m quickly reminded of why it is a reasonable third choice. I’m still not a fan of the overuse of text as a navigational element, but between Action Center and aggressive use of the start screen you should be able to avoid a lot of that. Personally I'd still prefer Android or iOS. The Google services experience is understandably better under Android and unless you're using Skype exclusively, messaging is better under Android and iOS. Then there's the third party app story. The Windows Phone Store is healthier today than it was four years ago, but if you want the latest and greatest apps as they hit the market you'll want to be on Android or iOS. (Can I also add that only having three brightness settings and a ton of devices that won't let you force the display on makes testing these things a nightmare?)
I believe Windows Phone’s biggest strength continues to be as an entry level smartphone platform. If you don’t need the flexibility and bleeding edge feature/app set that Android offers, and you don’t want to invest as much financially into moving to iOS, Windows Phone offers a unique middle ground between the two platforms. With the majority of growth in the smartphone space over the coming years moving to the entry level and mainstream segments, that’s Windows Phone’s real opportunity. What’s needed is the Moto G equivalent in the Windows Phone space. The high end Nokia devices are interesting from a camera perspective, but I suspect the real chance to win is if Nokia can point its camera excellence at a more mainstream price point.
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Max(IT) - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
Lumia 800 is NOT windows phone 8 device dude ....Myrandex - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
Yea...comparing a WP7 device to the GS3...what would you expect. Although I used a Lumia 900 for a bit which was really similar to the 800 you mentioned and it was rather fast and stable. My son likes it now too.LemmingOverlord - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
Let's make something very clear in the whole Windows Phone v. Android v. iOS debate - no-one in their right mind will say a good thing about Windows Phone 7.x or anything that predates 8.0. The problem for Microsoft is that it earned itself so many black marks trying to get it right, that they lost credibility. I have used iOS, Android (still do, in fact) and I am probably one of the biggest fans of Windows Phone 8, ever.Why?
Because I was a true skeptic and when I finally got my hands on it, it did not fail me where iOS and Android failed. You actually feel you are getting your money's worth from these devices (in particular Nokia Lumia).
Here are a few of the highlights together with the most common misconceptions about WP 8+ and my view on them:
Low hardware specs?
Here I disagree with Anand. Sure, trailing its rivals Apple and the Google ecosystem isn't doing Microsoft/Nokia marketing any favours, but anyone who's used WP 8 sees (and feels) that it runs smooth and doesn't choke on its own swill (no matter if it's a lowly Ascend W1 or a Lumia Icon/925), not even after months of installing / removing Apps, like Android does. I have to regularly factory-reset my Transformer TF300T pad to get it to work properly. My various junk android phones? The same. iPhone not so much, but then again, I hardly install stuff on it, nowadays.
Choking on RAM.
Android, in particular, seems to choke a lot on limited RAM and swapping data around. I don't fault Android completely for it, but probably the handset and tablet makers simply went full-retard when releasing hundreds of different SKUs with limited margins. Choices were made. BOMs were cut to the bone, etc etc. WP 8 does a brilliant job at multitasking and switching active apps. You don't feel it's loading up an app, you just smoothly slide into one.
The "limited" App store?
Well, I don't care about 5 million Apps, I care about the handful that really are worth having - and so far I have them all on WP 8. I'd say WP users have the luck of getting the apps worth having, after they've matured on Android or iOS. Laugh all you want, but push comes to shove, I've had no "software maturity" issues on WP 8 (well, all but one!). On the other hand, again, this won't do MS/Nokia any favours, but to be brutally honest, I'm glad I don't have to wade through a cesspool of crappy "official-but-not-really" apps. The exception I make is to an inexistant native Youtube player. For reasons no-one really understands Google and Microsoft have been banging heads over this, and (considering I haven't updated to 8.1 yet) I'm not sure this is sorted in the new update (as the Youtube player is listed under the "browser" features!). Yes, crappy youtube is a definite downside. But that's not even the sticking point for 99,9% of naysayers.
The "blocky" design.
Well, it's the smoothest scrolling, quickest and baddest interface I've used to date. Yeah, the tiles look weird at first, but you have to use it to believe it. It's smooth flowing, fast and just a joy to use. You might not like tiles, but they just work better for me. Try it out, suspend disbelief for a couple of minutes.
Native Office support
Yes. This is a cliché, but I have no issues reading, rendering or editing documents from desktop versions in the WP 8 Office. It's brilliant, and only someone who is held to a very low standard or completely disregards the basic need for a word processor, a spreadsheet or a powerpoint, will snub this. My experience on iOS and Android (pre-Office for iPad, mind you) is, in one word, atrocious.
There are a few other things you get for "free" with Windows Phone 8, in particular the Nokias. The camera software is fool-proof not to mention the quality on Nokia handsets is sooooo more "reliable" than the competitors. Yes, you have tons of "filter" apps for iOS, and the hipsters love it. :)
It boils down to this: WP 8 is all about suspension of disbelief. Microsoft did come through with something that is actually very polished. 8.1 seems to build on that without compromising "old" hardware. You can upgrade a low-specced Lumia 520 as well as your Nokia Icon. This kind of full-range compatibility is mind-blowing, these days. Android, the "open-source" mobile OS is on so many types of hardware that it's really hard to get KitKat on any device (and to be honest, when I moved to jelly bean, my 1GB of RAM on the TF300T seemed woefully inadequate for the OS... ie: at boot, a factory-reset Jelly Bean is eating up 33% more RAM than Ice Cream Sandwich.
dorekk - Saturday, June 21, 2014 - link
Actually, I like 7.5. I'm still on 7.5 because I haven't bought a new phone yet, and I would DAMN sure rather be using this phone than any other phone this old.MarkWebb - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
I agree with your comments. Amazing how well the 520 works and how many times it is getting major updates. For a budget phone it can't be beat. What I can't understand, however, is why the new 630 will ship with the present low-rez screen. Well at least I might be able to dial a phone number on it without reading glasses. (2014 with resizeable screens, and designers still favor small fonts, small design elements.)usama_ah - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
Try out the update? I've recommended to a few who love WP8 though I myself use Android. The simplicity of WP8 is what they enjoy. Still if you download the developer preview maybe you'll be satisfied with some of the updates?Jumangi - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
Looks like the troll wasn't fed today...SoCalBoomer - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
That's a shame, D1RTY - nearly all of the WP users I know (and, admittedly, there aren't too many of us) really enjoy our phones. My wife was really dubious but now she has her games and really enjoys her phone. To each his/her own. . .miahshodan - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
I just switched from a Lumia 920 to a Moto X. It was worth it to save the $ on republic wireless vs. ATT, but otherwise I really miss my windows phone. It was smoother, had a better camera, and worked with Microsoft services (what I mostly use) better.Max(IT) - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
I could say quite the contrary: long time android and iOS user, I'm very happy about my Lumia wp experience