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TribeFan1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 1, 2013
125
31
My girlfriend is looking at the Windows 8X, the Nexus 5 and the iPhone 4S unlocked. I am iOS biased and do not know enough about the Windows and Android options. What is the longevity of the Windows phone? How dated is it and how effective is it as a music player? Currently her music is all on iTunes if that matters for this. I have seen reviews on the Nexus 5, so what are your thoughts on it? And for price comparison the 8X is $250, the Nexus 5 is $350 and the iPhone 4S is $450. Thanks!
 

pdqgp

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2010
2,131
5,460
My girlfriend is looking at the Windows 8X, the Nexus 5 and the iPhone 4S unlocked. I am iOS biased and do not know enough about the Windows and Android options. What is the longevity of the Windows phone? How dated is it and how effective is it as a music player? Currently her music is all on iTunes if that matters for this. I have seen reviews on the Nexus 5, so what are your thoughts on it? And for price comparison the 8X is $250, the Nexus 5 is $350 and the iPhone 4S is $450. Thanks!

Windows phones are nice but pretty slow. Our IT guy evaluated one and in comparison to the 4s, 5s and S4 it's a dog. Apps or really the lack of them is the real weak spot though. IMO the OS and interface is nice but again a slow phone with poor app selection is not an option.

I got the 4s near launch time and just moved to the Note 3. Once you use an Android with some speed you won't ever go back to iOS or a small phone.

IMO while I don't know much about the Nexus, I'd go with that just knowing what I do of the other two.
 

zone23

macrumors 68000
May 10, 2012
1,986
793
I think windows phones are great if your a winnows 8 user. Same goes for the other if you have a gmail account, use Google Plus then Android is the way to go. I have Macs and of course the iPhone is the only way to go although any of them windows or android would work well with Macs. I stopped using android because of the bad battery life, lack of updates, and just the overall look of android. Used a couple windows phones but they are really designed for windows 8 users.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Windows phones are a lot of things but I'd never call them slow.

Exactly........


Myself and 3bs here on the forum both had the 8x. The problem is not speed or performance it's these two things

1) apps. Still a lot of apps are unavailable and if you've embedded yourself into gmail and google services the lack of google support and services could be a headache.

2) on the 8X the power button is a disaster. It requires you to really push in with your nail and it's just not comfortable in any shape or form.

With that in mind, it's not a bad phone at all. Cellular reception is good, camera is alright, screen is actually very nice indeed and performance contrary to the above is generally very good too.

That being said...... The extra $100 for a Nexus 5 would buy you significantly more bang for your buck than either the 8X or 4S and if I were to choose myself - that's the handset I would buy.
 

siurpeeman

macrumors 603
Dec 2, 2006
6,318
23
the OC
of the phones you listed, i'd nix both the 8x and the 4s. the 8x because of the poor app selection in the windows phone marketplace, and the 4s primarily because of the lack of lte. the 4s is also much older than the other two devices and i don't think it's worth the extra premium in price. transferring music over to the nexus shouldn't be too challenging, and it's a fairly decent phone overall, especially for the price.
 

laserfox

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2008
296
0
new york
If you are going Windows phone go Nokia. Forget the 8X. Get the Nexus 5.

Also when people keep saying "poor app selection" on wp i cant help but wonder why is rated 'poor' and not 'decent'. Surely most of the popular apps are in the store

Amazon,ebay,twitter,facebook,skype,kindle,iheartradio,songza,instagram,whatsapp,vine,free offline maps, office, cnn, usa today, pandora, netflix, huluplus, redboxinstant, spotify, foursquare, mint, paypal, bankofamerica, are my must have apps on any platform and they are all there so why poor?
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
If you are going Windows phone go Nokia. Forget the 8X. Get the Nexus 5.

Also when people keep saying "poor app selection" on wp i cant help but wonder why is rated 'poor' and not 'decent'. Surely most of the popular apps are in the store

Amazon,ebay,twitter,facebook,skype,kindle,iheartradio,songza,instagram,whatsapp,vine,free offline maps, office, cnn, usa today, pandora, netflix, huluplus, redboxinstant, spotify, foursquare, mint, paypal, bankofamerica, are my must have apps on any platform and they are all there so why poor?

Because many of us are in countries where Pandora, huluplus, redboxinstant, spotify etc... are all irrelevant as they are not available and local services / tv channels / news sites / radio stations which do have content for your country do not have windows equivalent apps. So yeah, in comparison to Android & iOS it is poorer - but not as poor as Blackberry 10 world.
 
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