Windows Phone 8. Like it? Buying it?


Windows Phone  

288 members have voted

  1. 1. Like it?

    • 5/5 Love it
      152
    • 4/5 Just a couple of things that are not according to my taste
      78
    • 3/5 There should've been more features
      20
    • 2/5 Still no
      28
    • What Windows Phone?
      10
  2. 2. Buying it?

    • You bet I am. Coming from Android
      32
    • Yup, tired of those icons of iOS (:p), Windows Phone, here I come
      28
    • I'll be upgrading from 7.5
      128
    • Yup, coming from another platform
      25
    • I think I'll just wait here. Happy with my Android
      51
    • Don't wanna give up on Apps. No way I'm leaving iOS
      18
    • Windows Phone, iOS and Android are overrated. My platform FTW
      6
  3. 3. Which device you like the most?

    • Lumia 920
      186
    • Windows Phone 8X
      38
    • Lumia 820/822
      14
    • Windows Phone 8S
      5
    • ATIV S
      8
    • They are all the same
      37


Recommended Posts

@ .Neo

All the reasons you pointed are my concerns as well. Even iPhone 5 was lacklustre update and I decided to stick with my 4S.

I dislike Bing Search. Does WP8 provide any options of choosing Google as search engine? I skimped through the reviews and did not find any reference.

As far as I know, point number 1, to some extent, 2, 3 are resolved. It syncs with iTunes now. And Battery Life is supposed to have gotten better also.

It doesn't sync through iTunes. The Windows Phone Connector simply reads your iTunes library as already the case today.

I really want the Lumia 920 but its on EE here in the UK and the signal sucks where i live. Just had a go on my gf's iphone 5 and the apps are really great. So really torn on what to do. I can upgrade in Jan and its killing me having to wait :cry: I have a Lumia 710 at the moment and its great. But the lack of app support on the 710 is getting annoying now. Then again will it be any better for the WP 8?

Why the **** would you buy a Windows based phone when you have a Mac? What did you think was going to happen? As for lack of apps for WP8, it's been out for one ****ing day. :|

Right... One should only buy iOS devices if they run Mac OS and Android if they run Linux... Except Windows is the #1 desktop OS and Windows Phone is barely #4 in mobile OSs so the world doesn't seem to follow your flawed logic.

BUILD just started and all but already from the little bit they showed at the WP8 segment it's looking like a very good update. There was a big list of new features/APIs that developers can take advantage of for their apps which means we should be in for some very good apps and games in 2013. Plus they're making it pretty easy to port from other platforms or go from Win8 to WP8 and vice versa. The next year should be very interesting.

With all the under the hood changes in WP the potential here is monstrous. If you watched any of the BUILD Keynotes, in my opinion its easy to see that Windows Phone has the potential to be leaps and bounds more powerful and at the same time more user inclined than any platform out as of right now. Of course, this is all predicated on devs taking advantage of what the new kernel, APIs, game engines, etc. bring.

Combine all of that with the sheer integration with Windows, and Xbox, and MS services and this thing can be massive. That being said, I'll be grabbing me something here in the next couple of weeks (most likely the 810 or 8X).

I like WIndowsPhone. Have since day 1. I like the new hardware. The lack of a release date and the lack of major apps 3 years in has me getting an S3 tomorrow. I'll get it off contract so I can see where WP is late next year.

I have preordered the lumia 920, and I even got a wireless charger included. Also, this will be my first smartphone, I was planing to go for the 900 first, but decided to wait for wp8 just to be sure i get the full experience.

My main worry is about the app availability, but i must say i feel a bit better after watching some of the anouncments lately concerning the market place.

Just cant wait to get my hands on it.

I am planning to get it to replace a corporate-issued Blackberry. I am very much into the Microsoft (and Google) ecosystem, and so I look forward deep integration with Exchange, Hotmail and things like Skydrive (all of which are avalaible on Android and iPhone, I know).

Its finally on the att.com web page (but no date or price):

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/windowsphone.html#fbid=gQVTc_k3GUp

I like WIndowsPhone. Have since day 1. I like the new hardware. The lack of a release date and the lack of major apps 3 years in has me getting an S3 tomorrow. I'll get it off contract so I can see where WP is late next year.

lack of major apps, such as?

They pretty much gave all release and pricing info that you need to know a day before your post.

WP8 looks awesome. Everything great about WP7.5 just made better with all its drawbacks addressed. I am going for 8X, incredible design.

The "lack of major apps" complaint is overblown. I don't find anything missing and mobile Office / Skydrive, an always-on and deeply integrated Skype and the great first party apps (this time including Nokia Maps!) hold much more weight to me, not to mention an awesome interface which makes iOS and Android look thoroughly obsolete.

Of course, one should look at what apps they need and what they can't live without and make a decision accordingly.

Tough call really , while 8x looks sexier , is lighter and cheaper than 920 , 920 has better screen , touch , camera. I don't know if it's worth to spend 7px-Indian_Rupee_symbol.svg.png10k or so for those features... Also I don't really like the gloss they added to 920's body :/

Sorry iOS and Android users, but the Start Screen on WP8 takes it all. Highly functional, and highly glamorous. Kudos to Microsoft for such a beautiful UI.

Subjective opinion, not objective fact. I for one thinks the WP UI looks vile.

Subjective opinion, not objective fact. I for one thinks the WP UI looks vile.

It's very subjective, everyone has their own personal taste. The iOS home screen UI is extremely useless as it is just a page of static icons. WP is nice, since some of the tiles are live, and can show you quick information at a glance. The only problem is that more developers need to support live tiles. I think Android has the most informational UI as the widgets show the most information and are more detailed than some of the live tiles. The widgets are more flexible in that they can be (re)sized, and you have multiple home screens to display different information per each screen.

Just in case you didn't see this earlier :

Some of the features are not 920 specific (in fact in above vids only the shaky thingy is specific) , this shows how the WP8 Camera app (with the "lenses") is way ahead any other platform. It seems funny how addition of panorama in iPhone 5 was really a big announcement when compared to these features.

I'm on the fence actually. I'm off contract soon but thinking I may stick with my WP7 another year and see how things look. In retrospect, I've been pretty unhappy with the amount of updates and simple things that still don't work right. You don't get 'two' do-overs for the reasons LApex and .Neo cite.

A front facing camera is my biggest motivation for a new device, but that will only matter if the Skype integration is a lot tighter.

I like it, I'd give it a 4/5. I don't like it for me, but I like it still. If I had a second phone, I wouldn't mind having one. And I'd suggest it to people over the iPhone for someone who wants a simple phone. I'm Android all the way though. That said, I think I'd take the 8X over the 920, but it's close.

Tough call really , while 8x looks sexier , is lighter and cheaper than 920 , 920 has better screen , touch , camera. I don't know if it's worth to spend 7px-Indian_Rupee_symbol.svg.png10k or so for those features... Also I don't really like the gloss they added to 920's body :/

See, that's the thing. The screens are at best a dead even tie, if not in the 8X's favor. The 8X has higher pixel density, and a proven SLCD2 which looks absolutely amazing in devices such as the One X (And the 8X will have far higher pixel density than the One X even). I haven't seen the Lumia's screen in person to compare, but every review I've seen places them on par. I'd be very impressed if Nokia managed to match the beauty of the SLCD2 in the 8X. I'll give you touch for the 920. Working with gloves on is pretty cool, but a bit gimmicky. Not a huge deal to me, but if you lived in Canada or something, maybe it'd be a bigger deal. Unless of course it's actually cold and you're wearing thick gloves, then it still won't work. And the Camera, they both have pros and cons on. The HTC ImageSense chip is in the 8X which makes it a far faster shooter, and quality is supposed to be fantastic. Then again, the 920 has a lot of tweaks added to their camera, and camera has always been one of their specialties, then again, they've had trouble with this specialty in the past.

Overall, the Lumia sounds like it's full of gimmicks to make it seem more desirable, while the 8X sounds like a more solid device overall, albeit with a few less features maybe. Either way, I don't think you could go wrong with either one of them. They are both fantastic.

WP8 is superb, fluid and super fast but I'm sticking to Android for the time being. I can't stand not having my favorite apps & games I wouldn't like restrictions or a closed os. I may ultimately switch when the platform really takes off and when developers consider porting their iOS/Android apps onto WP8. Jumping on a half baked os wouldn't be a wise decision, at least for now. :)

  • Like 2

i was eagerly awaiting the windows phone 8 and windows 8 presentation. on my desktop I have already upgraded to windows 8 pro, just because I like new stuff, and I kinda like it. The metro stuff is pretty much optional on a desktop and hardly any useful but I am not forced to use it.

Now where I really imagined a lot of synergy is the combination of the two. but tbh, there is hardly any. where is the advantage of having win8 and win phone 8? i see none. at least no relevant one.

seriously, the ms ecosystem needs a competitive advantage and that could be tieing the systems together. as long as this is not done in a thoughtful way, i see no reason to switch from my galaxy nexus. android has become more mature and it does just all you wanna do. hardly any limitation whereas windows phone 8 has quite a few.

dont get me wrong, im a big fan of microsoft and what they do but im also objective and realistic. currently, they do not offer anything special. no significant advantage. i hope they keep working hard and fast before they lose traction again.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • WhatsApp is getting usernames, and you can reserve your preferred one now by Fiza Ali Sharing your phone number isn't always something you want to do, especially with people you've just met. Whether it's someone from a class, a local community group, or a sports team chat, handing over your number can feel like giving away more personal information than necessary. That's exactly the problem WhatsApp is trying to solve with its upcoming usernames feature. The company has announced that users can now reserve a unique WhatsApp username ahead of the feature's wider rollout later this year. Once usernames become available, they'll let people connect without revealing their phone numbers. It's a change that makes a lot of sense for group chats. Right now, everyone in the group can see your phone number. With usernames enabled, that won't necessarily be the case when someone contacts you for the first time. WhatsApp says it's opening username reservations early because more than three billion people use the app, meaning plenty of people are likely to want the same usernames. Reserving one now gives users a better chance of securing the name they actually want before the feature launches more broadly. If your preferred username is already taken, WhatsApp will also offer a built-in username generator to suggest available alternatives. The feature isn't only aimed at individual users. Creators, businesses, and organisations will be able to claim the same username they already use on Instagram or Facebook, making it easier to keep a consistent identity across Meta's apps. Furthermore, privacy is a big part of how WhatsApp is introducing usernames. There won't be a public directory where people can browse or search for usernames. Instead, people will need to know your exact username before they can start a conversation with you. Additionally, users can also choose to enable a username key, which adds another layer of control by requiring people to enter that key before sending a message. Once the feature rolls out, people who choose to use a username will no longer have their phone number shown when messaging a person or business for the first time. If you want to reserve a username, make sure you're running the latest version of WhatsApp, then head to Settings > Account > Username. The tech giant says usernames will roll out gradually over the coming months, and users will receive an in-app notification when the feature becomes available in their country.
    • When I think about a network, there are really two aspects, the hardware and the wiring. So here is what I would do for both. Wiring: Use Cat6A for the patch panel, outlets, and all structured cables (cables installed in walls). Run plenty of Wireless Access Point (WAP) cables, as a general rule, assume a signal can only pass through 2-3 walls and can't pass through a floor (that is conservative, but trust me on this if you want strong WiFi)  Cat6 patch cables are fine for now if you don't plan to run 10gig, those are easy to replace later if needed. Run OS2 single-mode fiber to anywhere you think you may have a server or sub-switch. (yes, single-mode for everything on a small network, don't mess with multimode unless you have entire racks of servers and that minor module cost and power savings will matter). If you really want to future proof, also run fiber to any high density WAP locations, it is likely that WiFi 8 WAPs will push the limits of 10g. Run 6-12 pairs of single-mode fiber between your MDF and the building's MDF, even if you only need 1 or 2 pairs now, those extra pairs will pay off down the road. Hardware: (its easy to say "get all the features incase you need them", so instead of futureproofing, I am going to take approach of suggesting areas worth investing in, and areas you can save money). Don't overspend thinking you need every feature on every port. You don't need 10g on every port, you don't need PoE on every port. Don't overspend on redundancy either, unless you are ready to buy two of everything, don't waste money buying two of some things and not others. Dual power supplies are worthwhile, but probably not HA or multi-path redundancy.  Get 1 "distribution layer" switch that your router/firewall will connect to as well as all your access layer switches below. This should be a 10g switch with a combination of copper and SPF ports and should be a fully managed switch. Given that you said it is a small network, I suggest also using that distribution layer switch for servers and WAPs, meaning it will need PoE. Speaking of wireless, get good professional tri-band WAPs, and either turn on the band stirring options, or limit 2.4 to an IoT only SSID. This will provide a solid WiFi capable nearly everything but the highest of bandwidth clients...you could even consider skipping wiring workstations depending on usage. Access layer switch for workstations and printers can be cheaper switches, 2.5g is a good sweet spot between price and future proofing, but even 1g is fine for most individual clients (the kind that could probably be fine on WiFi). You can consider saving a little on access layer switches by only getting 1 PoE switch for whatever needs it (remember your WAPs are connecting to the distribution switch, not here), and non-PoE for your workstations, because desk phones are falling out of favor. You can also save money here by not buying managed switches if you don't need them--but really do some soul searching there, if you go this route, then anything that isn't on your workstation VLAN would either need to be connected to the distribution switch, or its own access layer switch. Also, don't feel like you need a fancy fabric stacking switches for your access layer, that is the point of the higher-end distribution layer, to remove the need for things like that at this level. Home Hardware: I'm realizing the above assumed an office setting, if this if for your house and home lab then the above still applies, but you'll probably want everything managed and PoE, just because, but you probably also don't need multiple access layer switches. If your total port count is below 24, just skip separating distribution layer and access layer and just get one nice switch with the features you want. If you are at the point of considering a 48-port switch, I would instead get a nice high-end distribution switch for things that need it, and cheaper access layer switches with specs based on the needs of connected devices. For home use, don't worry about home running every device to the main switch, there is nothing wrong with running sub-switches for your media areas and office, those essentially become your access layer, just look for sub-switches with a 10g uplink so sharing bandwidth isn't an issue.
    • Google Meet brings Gemini note-taking to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers by Karthik Mudaliar Google's Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature inside Google Meet is now available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. The features work on Google Meet for web as well as on mobile, and Google says that subscribers can use it for meetings they host in many supported languages. As the name suggests, "Take notes for me" allows Gemini to listen to a meeting, generate a summary, identify action items, and save the notes as a Google Doc in the user’s Drive. After the meeting, the organizer receives an email recap with the summary and action items, while the notes can also be attached to the related Calendar event depending on the meeting setup and sharing settings. The feature isn't automatically turned on for everyone, though. Google says that all meeting participants are notified when note-taking is turned on, and users can start it from the pencil icon in Meet or enable it for future calls through Meet’s meeting records settings. For work or school accounts, administrators can also control whether the feature is available and may require explicit participant consent for note-taking, recording, or transcription features. The feature first launched back in 2024, when it was available just for selected Workspace users. Over the years, Google added refinements and more options, including the ability to enable it when scheduling meetings via Google Calendar. Google's support docs say that the feature currently supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, but only one language at a time. Meetings with multiple spoken languages are not currently supported, and Google recommends using the tool for meetings between 15 minutes and eight hours. The new feature makes Google Meet closer to its rivals that have AI tools already built in. Microsoft Teams has recently started offering Copilot and intelligent recap features that summarize meetings, surface highlights, and help with follow-ups, while Zoom’s AI Companion can also generate meeting summaries from desktop and mobile meetings.
    • GnuCash 5.16 by Razvan Serea GnuCash is a personal and small business finance application, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It’s designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible. GnuCash allows you to track your income and expenses, reconcile bank accounts, monitor stock portfolios and manage your small business finances. It is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports. GnuCash can keep track of your personal finances in as much detail as you prefer. If you are just starting out, use GnuCash to keep track of your checkbook. You may then decide to track cash as well as credit card purchases to better determine where your money is being spent. When you start investing, you can use GnuCash to help monitor your portfolio. Buying a vehicle or a home? GnuCash will help you plan the investment and track loan payments. If your financial records span the globe, GnuCash provides all the multiple-currency support you need. Between 5.15 and 5.16, the following bugfixes were accomplished: Bug 421610 - RFE: Include logical dates for View->Filter by "date range"The Select Range section of the Date tab of the register's Filter By dialog box is changed to provide relative, specific date, or days ago options for the start and end of the filter range. The Show number of days item label is changed to Show from days ago to better reflect what it does. Bug 436105 - esc key not working as expected in register: Enable the escape key to cancel a field edit. Bug 797384 - Gnucash doesn't handle commodity prices with big numerator/denominator properly. Bug 798004 - Next gen UI for stock transactions Bug 799314 - Add "enter now" option in scheduled transaction editor. tab to allow users to select the scheduled transactions to be included in a “Since Last Run…” window. If there are no instances of a selected transaction triggered by today’s date, the next instance is triggered. Bug 799751 - autocomplete crash Bug 799759 - Users can't Enable entries via Checkboxes on Scheduled Transactions PageAllow the Enabled box in the list of scheduled transactions to be operated instead of having to open the transaction editor dialog and change the Enabled checkbox. Also added use of the Name column as the secondary column sort for all the other columns. Bug 799762 - Poor handling of cases where hidden/placeholder accounts are used in the account register Bug 799766 - Double line preference not respected in search register Bug 799767 - POST /accounts in bindings/python/example_scripts/rest-api is broken Bug 799777 - `xaccSplitSetParent`: reparenting a committed split silently drops its KVP slots (online_id, cap-gains links) Other changes & improvements: Numeric values may now be selected to copy in the Accounts page. Add new Finance::Quote source Finnhub.io: Free API key (personal/non-professional use) available at https://finnhub.io. Set FINNHUB_API_KEY environment variable to API key to use this source. As of June 2026, free tier API limit is 60 API calls/minute. The Investment Lots report has new optional columns for Computed Annual Growth Rate. Python Bindings: Improved translation of primary object (Account, Transaction, Split, etc.) so that they can be treated as normal Python objects. This is accomplished with SWIG magic so no existing code is obsoleted. Python Bindings: Better conversion of GLists to Python lists. Python Bindings: Destroy the QofSession in the Python Session dtor to prevent leaving the database locked. [engine] Add first-class online_id accessors for Split and Account and make them available to Python bindings, removing the unused Transaction online_id property. Improve C++ implementation of QofBook. Correct the Doxygen doc for qof_instance_get/set_kvp. [gnc-log-replay.cpp] fix incorrect guid dump Add some Boost library requirements needed by libgnucash-guile to CMakeLists.txt so that missing feature will fail at configure time. Use Compile-time Regular Expressions instead of std::regex in gnc-filepath-utils.cpp and instead of boost::regex in the CSV importer, with the CTRE v3.11.1 header added to borrowed [gnc-filepath-utils.cpp] null check char* arguments Add ChartJS licenses. Removed AEX from list of commodities. euronext.com is now using JS based anti-webscraping. [report-core] always offer options summary in reports. This is useful to debug reports. The Add options summary option is removed because it's no longer optional. Remove remaining obsolete IMContext from sheet Fix blurry text in HiDPI offscreen-rendered widgets Add port field to database connection dialog: The convention of appending the port number after the host isn't obvious. When editing a split in the register treat the account as being changed only if it isn't the one selected before editing instead of if the user performed an edit Return immediately from qof_book_destroy if hash_of_collections is null. If qof_book_destroy is called on a QofBook* freshly created with qof_book_new (usually because it was used to create a session that now must be destroyed) it would try to empty the non-existent hash tables, crashing. Clean up Flathub metadata to solve warnings at flatpak build time. Be consistent in naming GncPluginPage and GncPluginPageRegister HTML: Remove unimplemented function declarations. [gnc-html.cpp] remove unused buggy string conversion functions Convert libgnc-html to C++ Apply -Wall -Werr -Wmissing-prototypes to C++ compilation on Windows and fix the resulting errors. New and Updated Translations: Arabic, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, German, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian-Bokmal, Spanish Download: GnuCash 5.16 | 176.0 MB (Open Source) Links: GnuCash Home page | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Microsoft finally launches WSL Containers in public preview by David Uzondu Microsoft has announced that WSL containers, a feature that allows developers to run Linux containers natively inside Windows without the need for Docker Desktop, is now available in public preview several weeks after Microsoft previewed it at Build 2026. To use the new container feature, you first have to install the latest pre-release version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux by running a quick update command in your terminal: wsl --update --pre-release After installing, you'd get access to the new Linux container CLI (wslc.exe) and the programmable API. Microsoft said that the CLI has a "familiar format" that matches the toolsets developers already use every day. If you know standard Docker commands, your muscle memory will translate directly to wslc.exe, which even features a built-in alias called container.exe. You can quickly run a full Ubuntu KDE desktop container by exposing ports, or pass your graphics card straight into a machine learning environment to run PyTorch workloads. Passing the --gpus all flag inside the run command instantly links your hardware. Image via Microsoft As for the API, developers can now embed Linux container operations directly inside native Windows applications without exposing the command line to users. The team integrated the API directly into MSBuild and CMake, so developers can define container steps directly in project files. Apart from bringing the CLI and API into public preview, Microsoft also said that it's working on a new default file system called virtiofs to speed up file transfer rates between Windows and Linux. Microsoft also introduced an experimental networking mode named consomme, which resolves compatibility issues with corporate VPNs by routing Linux network traffic straight through Windows. One thing to note about WSL containers is that they don't run in your standard WSL distributions; instead, every application and CLI session spawns its own lightweight Hyper-V utility VM in the background. This basically reduces the chances of one app snooping on the container of another app.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      534
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      269
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!