To start, the usual disclaimers:
- I’m a Microsoft employee, and the opinions shared here are my own and not those from my employer.
- Most of my experience with Windows Phone has been with the Lumia 920, 1020 and 530, so some of these remarks are only applicable to those phones.
- Despite over 2 decades of history using Microsoft products, I’m trying to be as objective as possible.
Now, the post.
First, I want to apologize for not updating my blog since last week. As I mentioned before, I want my blogging to be fun and achievable and not a chore.
Another reason why I haven’t posted anything, and perhaps the main reason, is because I’ve been feeling pretty conflicted about my final decision between keeping my iPhone or going back to a Windows Phone. So without any further delay or suspense, today I decided to go back to a Windows Phone and the winner was the beautiful HTC One with Windows!
I love my new phone and while I was a little concerned about the size of it and how well it would fit in my hand, I have to say that it feels pretty good. But I want to add some detail explaining my final decision, so here we go:
Things I will miss from iPhone 6.
- The hardware. This is perhaps THE one thing I’ll miss the most. I said it before and I will continue saying it, Apple has built an amazing device. It’s light, feels solid, fits great in my hand and the screen resolution is superior.
- The Apple Store. Ok, I will not miss it too much. After all, I’m not one of those who installs tons of apps. I try to keep it to only those applications that I know I’ll use. The only app that I will really miss and that is not available yet in the Windows Store is Monument Valley.
Things I will not miss from iPhone 6.
- Bluetooth. In a matter of just 4 days, my old iPhone dropped about 6 calls when using a Bluetooth connection with 3 different devices. Perhaps I got a defective phone? If that’s so, then that’s only more argument for my next topic.
- Apple’s software quality. For the longest time, Apple was the poster child when it came to software quality. Apple customers raved about the quality of its products. However, if you search the Internet or follow some of the most important technology magazines online, you’ll see that in the last year or so there have been an increasing number of articles talking about the decline of Apple’s products/software quality. And I got to feel it for myself. I had a number of applications crashing at least once on me, and sad enough, the one crashing the most was a very popular game these days. I won’t mention the name of it as I don’t want to deal with the embarrassment of having played it, but for sure is at the top of Apple’s chart.
- The Camera. Yes, it could arguably be the fastest camera in the Wild West. But it is terrible with low light conditions. It even resulted in a decrease on my Instagram posts. However, this is more a testimony to the great cameras in all the high-end Lumias than the software itself.
- The Home Screen. I only installed about 20 application on my iPhone and I even created app groups and deleted some that came with the phone in order to try to keep my screen as clean as possible. Unfortunately, iOS just doesn’t do a good job in keeping the home screen clean. It can get really messy really fast.
- iPhone adds on Facebook. I cross my fingers that Facebook will not bring Windows adds to its Windows Phone counterpart.
So with all these positive and not-so-positive points about iPhone, I think it’s only fair to mention the reasons why I like Windows Phone.
- Live tiles. It’s so great being able to get a snapshot of the local weather, or a stock quote, or a recent Facebook post just by looking at the application’s tile and not having to execute it. And not only that, but it brings life to the phone!
- Apps screen. It’s so easy to navigate. You just scroll up, down or search by the first letter of the app name. And it keeps the full list of apps in a space, leaving the Start screen for you to make it yours! Do you want your favorite apps in the Start Screen? You just pin it there. Do you want your favorite people at the tip of your fingers? You just pin their contact tile on, yeah, the Start Screen.
- Calendar and email snapshots in the lock screen. I don’t want to see the sender or the subject text when I get new emails. In that way, I’m very minimalistic. I just need to see the envelope icon showing me the number of new emails I’ve got since the last time I went to the Outlook client. And I can also see the title, room and time of my next meeting. All of that without having to unlock my phone and without eating my battery life. Yes, iPhone allows you to see new emails and calendar reminders on the lock screen, but not as clean and with such simplistic approach as Windows.
- Cortana. She is a really smart cookie, and I love how sassy she can be. She has personality and can hold a conversation with you, or to be precise, she has contextual search. What is contextual search? It means that if you first ask her “What’s the weather in Seattle?” she will give you the answer, and then you can ask her “What about Boston?” and here is where the magic happens: she will understand that what you are asking about is the weather in Boston, without having to explicitly ask about the weather. Siri, well, she just doesn’t know how to hold a conversation. And let’s not even say anything about the fact that she doesn’t tell you jokes.
So there you have it. I ended up going back to Windows as my phone platform. Not really because I was used to it, but because it clearly was the best solution for my needs. There are other minor things that contributed to my decision, but I’ll keep this post short. Apple has great products, but it feels like they are lagging in innovation, and in their effort to accelerate their release cycles, they are sacrificing the quality they were known for. It was a great ride and I had fun. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough.
As for this blog, well, I’ve been thinking of a couple topics I would like to write about… but that is something for our next post.
Until then, have fun!
Pablo.