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Will I regret switching to a Windows phone?

c1000 said:
I'm a long-time Mac user, have an iMac, a Macbook Air and an iPad 2. I'm due for a new phone, but I'm tired of staring at the same interface on all my devices and wouldn't mind something different as long as it won't cause huge headaches. I've been using the LG Optimus One for the past year because it was cheap and I had just lost a brand new iPhone at the time. It's clearly laggy and overall not as polished an experience as IOS, but Android has been decent and for the price I can't complain at all. I recently played around with an HTC Radar and found the Windows Phone 7.5 surprisingly slick. The upcoming Nokia Sea Ray looks pretty nice too. I don't need a lot of apps and I don't play games often (i'm more likely to use my iPad anyway). I just want really good core apps (email, music player, web, productivity, whatsapp, etc.) and I want to be able to sync with my Apple universe, and also to tether to my iPad. Are the available sync programs sufficient? Will I be tied to Bing for everything? What will I be missing out on? Any feedback much appreciated!
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Microsoft has shown time and again they just don't "get it" except in a few key areas. MS Office raised the bar for business apps and business app integration. MS exchange email is the defacto standard. Kinect is a wonderful innovation whose potential is yet to be fully realized. MS recognized the potential and beat Apple to Halo.

I've played with Windows 8 and I'm afraid that the whole tiled interface, while it looks nice is bordering on another case of "MS doesn't get it". Don't get me wrong. There are areas where Apple has stumbled not once but 3 times. .Mac anybody? How about Mobile Me? Well now it's called iCloud and while it's a step in the right direction, it has me a bit worried. But one aspect of iCloud doesn't worry me one bit. Photostream promises to put an end to time I spend thinking about getting pictures off our family iPhones.

I own 3 digicams. I have a Canon T1i, a Canon SX 110i and an iPhone4. In the year+ since I purchased the iPhone 4, I've taken 2,000+ photos on the iPhone 4 and about 20 on the other two cameras combined. I purchased an Eyefi card to get photos off my digicams onto my Mac. It works pretty well except that uploading movies takes forever. The reason I use the iPhone for almost all my photos is that it is with me. No more trips home to "find the camera" on the way to a football game. It's in my pocket.

I paid to upgrade to iPhoto 11 in the OS X app store so now my pictures "just show up" on my Mac minutes after I snap them (once I'm in range of wifi). iCloud is already faster than Eyefi for photos. If iCloud improves on video upload time, I'm all in. The other aspects of iCloud are working for me as well. I change a contact on my iPad and it shows up on my Mac and my iPhone.

If you use your phone for taking pictures and are looking for a seamless way to manage them, you might regret a WP purchase. Sync a MS thing with Apple stuff? Again a chance for disappointment. Why are you tired of looking at iOS and OS X? To me this is a big red flag in your post. If it is well designed (for you), it should get out of your way and what you are really staring at should be whatever you are working on. Perhaps you might spend some time thinking about whether the iOS/OS X user interface works for you. I know it works for me and if it also showed up on my car, microwave oven and thermostat it wouldn't bother me one bit because the UI stays the heck out of my way most of the time. If you like the way iOS works on your iPad and OS X works on your Mac, there is no need to distract yourself thinking about WP7. Be more careful with your next iPhone or get insurance and you will do fine.

If you do decide to switch away from iPhone and you do your homework up front and make sure you know what you are giving up, there is no reason to fear any regrets. But if you switch hastily, there is a lot of risk you will regret your decision.
 
I have a Samsung Focus with Mango (7.5). The UI is very slick and ie9 is faster than safari. live tiles are really nice for certain apps like weather, and people hub.

however it does have downsides. the stock bing map app isn't as nice as the iphone or android. the app store is getting better but some apps are still unavailable like mint and pandora.

give it a shot. you should have 30 days to try a new phone anyhow.
 
;)To the OP

I say get the new Nokia Windows Phone. Calendar, contacts and email sync via the cloud if you use gmail or windows live mail. Very easy as those also sync with iCal as well.

The core user experience on Windows Phone is vastly superior to that of the iPhone IMO. Social networking is seamlessly built in (Facebook, Twitter and Linked in) so you don't need apps for those. Messaging includes facebook and Windows Live Messenger built in. Similar to iMessage but cross platform!
Bing includes Bing audio (shazam like service), Local Scout, Bing Vision( Scan barcodes, translate text, Price books etc) all built into the core of the phone.

The Zune music experience blows the iPod out the water. Plus you can get a zunepass for unlimited music streaming/downloads for $9.99. The mac connector syncs your itunes music/photos easily.

25GB of free storage with Skydrive for all your photos and documents. The Office Hub on wp7 is pretty darn good. Photos automatically sync up to the cloud if you'd like and can be accessed on the mac via skydrive.com

There are over 35000 apps at the moment and growing. A lot of the basics are already there. You can browse and install apps from the web too.
Windows Phone Marketplace

Apps are grouped into hubs like the Games hub you'd find all games, Pictures hub for Flickr/Photo editors and Music + Video hub you'd find apps like LastFM (free on wp7), iHeartRadio, 8tracks etc . No need to flick through pages and pages of icons.

Tiles are live and dynamic. Toast notifications and a streamlined no fills user experience characterize the phone.

Zollotech does a pretty decent and unbiased comparison of iOS and wp7 user interface : http://youtu.be/IKfvUIZn7PA

Downsides? Bing Maps application could use some work. Nokia will be releasing their own stellar Mapping solution.

Lacking apps? You yourself said you dont need that many and honestly there are lots of 3rd party apps for almost any general use scenario.

Not apple? Great! A chance to think different for a change :)
 
blazerdude20 said:
I have a Samsung Focus with Mango (7.5). The UI is very slick and ie9 is faster than safari. live tiles are really nice for certain apps like weather, and people hub.

however it does have downsides. the stock bing map app isn't as nice as the iphone or android. the app store is getting better but some apps are still unavailable like mint and pandora.

give it a shot. you should have 30 days to try a new phone anyhow.
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I have the same phone (got it after my 3Gs died randomly and I was cranky and wanted to try something else). It had some omissions before Mango was on it, but it does everything I want now, and feels much nicer than iOS4 ever did. Plenty of games and apps for when I want them, but I never bought into the Apple ecosystem precisely because I wanted the flexibility to change if I ever wanted to.
 
@laserfox: Thanks for the video link. Zollotech did a nice job of comparing iOS with WP7 Mango. I didn't realize how much thought MS had put into it. It reminds me of Palm's "Synergy" feature bringing different apps' and clouds' data into a single interface.

@something3153: I agree (for the most part) about not being tied to a particular ecosystem. I've been a .Mac and a MobileMe customer for years but never gave out my .mac or .me email address for that very reason. I like iPhoto but I refuse to let it keep my photos. I like iTunes but I buy most of my music from Amazon so I get plain mp3s rather than Apple specific files. So even though I'm "all in" with Apple hardware and software, my data is still mine and I can walk at any time. Really. I can. I'm not addicted. Really I'm not. Oh alright. My name is r0k and I'm an Appleholic. But at least my data isn't.
 
OMFG you will, I can't stand my HTC Surround I want my iPhone back. THERE ARE LITERALLY NO APPS you will regret it. Good thing I have an upgrade available in December.
 
If you're set on a Windows Phone, get the Lumia 800 (This is my Next review: http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/26/nokia-lumia-800-hands-on/). It uses the same hardware as the recently released N9, which is supposedly excellent.

If you want to try something new but don't want a Windows Phone, consider the N9. It is the first and only phone that uses the MeeGo OS. Nokia released the N9 as a sort of "collector's edition" phone (TIMN N9 review, a lot of detail about the hardware, which is shared with the Lumia 800 http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/20/nokia-n9-review/)
 
tobefirst said:
I'm pretty sure you don't understand what "literally" means.
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That's the second corection in the meaning of literally I have seen in an hour!! People literally love to correct that one!! :p

Dont get a windows phone, it be poo! I've come from the other way..
 
c1000 said:
I'm a long-time Mac user, have an iMac, a Macbook Air and an iPad 2. I'm due for a new phone, but I'm tired of staring at the same interface on all my devices .......I want to be able to sync with my Apple universe, and also to tether to my iPad.
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I dunno man. By all accounts on the tech blogs, the Windows phone experience is a good one. It has gotten decent reviews. Buuuuut, it's essentially a new product that isn't in the hands of consumers en masse. Is it going to live up to the hype? It does not yet have a mature ecosystem built around it. Here is Nokia's new offering, though it is not available in the US. I think it looks pretty darn slick:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ows_phone_7_lumia_800_vs_apple_iphone_4s.html

But all of your other devices are Apple, and you want to switch just to "stare at a different interface"? What are you losing when you do that? For me, I'd not find that payoff worth it, -not by a longshot. I could see it being an easier call a few months ago, but with iCloud now, just the fact that you've got your photos from your camera (your phone) seamlessly beamed to all of your other devices, -stuff like that, makes cutting out one component not very attractive as far as what you get out of it.

Even if the Windows phone experience manages to live up to the hype once it's in your hands (best case scenario), you *still* lack all of the added value of a perfectly integrated ecosystem.
 
huck500 said:
My brother-in-law switched to a Windows phone and loves it... his computers are macs, and he seems to have no problem with syncing. I played with his phone for a while and it's pretty nice. If I was going to switch phones I would probably go with Windows.
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Why did someone vote this guy down? He said nothing wrong and just stated HIS own opinion.
 
I had one, a Samsung Focus, and returned it.... the interface was nice but the functionality seemed half-baked. (ex. can only sync one calendar). I understand "Mango" is supposed to change all that but it took how long exactly for them to release it?

The thing I love about iPhone is you're not beholden to the carriers for anything--service, support, updates, etc. Everything goes through Apple. I understand Mango's holdup was mostly because of the carriers wanting to ship new, updated models with Mango first, then release the update to early adopters. Yuck.
 
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