Mobile OSs Curious about the Windows Phone platform vs. iOS?

Skimmed through it, but good write up. The best reviews come from people who have personally owned each device

Also skimmed through it, and agree, good article.

I would, however, give Windows Phone the smoothness/responsiveness part. Even original WP7 that I played around with seemed much more fluid than iOS. I can only imagine it was improved with WP8

Your review seems very fair. Thanks for sharing. I would be interested to see what you (and others) think after WP8 comes out and the updated hardware.

Edit: question. Does anyone know of a way in WP8 or Android (Tweaks, rooting included) to "tap to go to the top" ?? As in just like iOS? It is system wide. I use that feature ALL DAY EVERYDAY and I would miss it on these platforms. I'm goings to post this in the software section too.

No images or graphics makes it very tedious to read, scrolled all the way and didn't read anything. Info-graphic summary?

McGiord said:

No images or graphics makes it very tedious to read, scrolled all the way and didn't read anything. Info-graphic summary?

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Next you'll be wanting pop ups and a little section where you can do some colouring in..

Nice writeup. After going from iPhone 4 to Nokia Lumia 800, I agree with most of your findings.

Windows Phone has some really novel and clever ideas; I particularly like that the OS is designed to be thumb-friendly with the navigation using swipes and buttons at the bottom. Integration (i.e. People Hub, sharing) is very well done and I'd like to see it pushed even further. Like you I think the cries for a notification centre are overblown, because the live tiles largely mitigate the inconvenience of missing a toast popup.

Windows Phone 8 looks like it brings some nice improvements and refinements (particularly the web browser which is the biggest disappointment of WP7), but I'd like Microsoft to really flesh it out. Symbian is/was one of the most full-featured mobile operating systems I've used (probably because of its age) but doesn't have the elegance of Windows Phone or iOS. Microsoft would do well to look backwards to Symbian for features (to catch up) and forwards to continue innovating.

Outstanding write-up! I'm a fairly new convert to the iOS/Apple ecosystem (from Android) and while I do love it, the WP ecosystem has really caught my attention. It seems (from your review) that WP7/8 is an outstanding ecosystem in its own right, but it's still in its infancy. I'd imagine with a bit more time and effort it has a lot of potential to become the PC-equivalent of the iOS ecosystem. As a PC user (no Macs in the house as of yet), this has major appeal to me. I have another year with my 4S so I'll have to see what WP8 looks like at that point.

Again, thank you for the fair, balanced review!

Thanks for this informative comparison.

I'm very interested in WP8, and I'm more interested in the mid-range devices revealed so far like HTC 8S or Lumia 820 than the top of the range phones, partly because I prefer their smaller size and partly because of price.

The issue I have with these mid-range devices though, is the small internal storage provided (4 or 8 GB). It's not clear to me whether apps in WP8 need to be installed on internal storage or whether they can be installed onto SD cards. This is potentially an issue for me because there are a number of content heavy apps I have grown accustomed to have on my phone - specifically an offline encyclopedia app, an offline navigation app, and offline medical reference apps. In my iPhone, these apps collectively take up approx 5-6GB of strorage. If the apps do need to be installed on the internal storage, can the content be held on the SD card? Is it up to the developer of the app to implement this or is it under user control?

Could someone clarify where apps and content can be placed in WP8? The content I am unclear about is the specialist, perhaps proprietary, content in the type of apps mentioned above. I know things like regular documents, pictures, videos can be placed in the SD card.

Thanks

I'm looking hard at the Nokia Lumia 920 only because that hardware is so impressive.

However, the aesthetics of the Widows Phone OS makes it look as though it were designed by and for toddlers.

Purple tiles?! Hot pink tiles?! Lime green?! Baby blue?! Are you kidding me???

It's not just the colors either. It's the total lack of styling in any way. Where are the gradients, texturing, etc.? I'm not advocating skeumorphism, just style. It's like it was designed using an Apple IIe. We're living in an era where practically all the new phones have retina-level displays and yet it's like Microsoft wants to completely ignore that fact.

Honesly, I wouldn't be caught dead using that garish start screen in public.

I see now more than ever what Steve Jobs meant when he said Microsoft has "absolutely no taste."

austinguy23 said:

I see now more than ever what Steve Jobs meant when he said Microsoft has "absolutely no taste."

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Taste is subjective. I think the tile homescreen is pretty alright with the right colors set, and Metro in general (when done well) looks better and is easier to use on tablets and phones than the now tried and true iOS setup.

The only reason I'm holding off on WP8 is because of developer support. Even with an arguably better OS, it'd still feel like a step backwards going from a platform awash in apps to one that's just middling at best.

I completely disagree with the "Animations/Responsiveness: iPhone" bit. Metro is very animated if done right, and very responsive. Compare that to the steaming pile of **** that is the app store, and you'll see a huge difference.