Bought a Lumia 640...

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

I bought a Lumia 640 for my youngest brother yesterday for $30 during Black Friday sales. He's been an Android user for six years, and was planning to get an iPhone 6s. However, I encouraged him to try a Windows Phone before coming over. Long story short, I received multiple texts this morning on Apps that he can't find on the Windows Store. Two big ones for him are, his banking Apps, and Amazon Music that he uses with his Prime membership. After research on my end, he is out of luck. I've now come to the conclusion that I just can't recommend this platform to friends and family any longer. I tried to do my part as a general fan of Microsoft's products. However, the App gap is alive, and living well, regardless of what people keep saying. In conclusion, he will be returning the phone tomorrow after the crowds die down. 

[Ian W]

It is a shame that you could not make it work. The app gap is certainly a part of the platform's poor performance in the market.

[technord]

There was a neowin article a few months back saying that many companies who initially supported the platform are pulling out.

I've tried the ecosystem twice now.  Three years ago, and then about two months ago when I tried the Lumia 640 (win8 and 10 tp).  Nothings changed, it's still as bad as ever (somethings are even worse like sharepoint integration).  If I cant make it work (20 years high level enterprise experience) what chance does the general public have.

What you will get on neowin though, are lots of people saying that your hardware is faulty rather than admit the operating system / ecosystem is just rubbish.

That said....it still has potential and somethings are getting better (albeit at a snails pace).  They REALLY need to ditch ads and drop the price to gain market penetration.  They are of the 80s/90s mindset which simply doesn't apply in the 21st century.

[tsupersonic]

I bought one for $20 yday. I want to try out WM10 and see how it is for myself.The fanboys on this site are especially vocal about the platform, but what they don't realize is people have different opinions/needs, and WP isn't the platform for everyone. 

[kozukumi]

You (and your bro) should have looked into his make or break apps before.

 

I bought one for $20 yday. I want to try out WM10 and see how it is for myself.The fanboys on this site are especially vocal about the platform, but what they don't realize is people have different opinions/needs, and WP isn't the platform for everyone. 

I am tempted to pick up phone at some point to properly play with W10 on a Lumia but in the UK you don't get the amazing deals you see in the US. At least not very often (or I just never see them?).

Deep down I know WP is dead though and I am pretty sure the universal app idea isn't going to go anywhere either. With no tablet or phone market there isn't really any incentice to use a more limited platform over a standard desktop app for developers.

[n_K]

I got a 635 for development... That's all I can use it for, other than that it's pretty much a brick. Absolutely no customisation like iOS or android supports, heck even S40 has more customisation. Applications lacking. NO STATIC IP SUPPORT, it's 2015, I still just can't ######## believe it's missing such a basic feature, you can only put TWO debug applications on a phone? If you want another you have to delete one, for an OS that's seriously lacking in applications I find that hilarious. The blurry jpeg images when you go to task view look horrible. The calibration of the screen isn't as good as a non-genuine replacement iphone screen...
I could go on but the whole platform (in it's current state) really sucks, I'm surprised anyone outside of america actually bothers it. I don't know if WP10 will change things, but I doubt it will.

[n_K]

I am tempted to pick up phone at some point to properly play with W10 on a Lumia but in the UK you don't get the amazing deals you see in the US. At least not very often (or I just never see them?).

Deep down I know WP is dead though and I am pretty sure the universal app idea isn't going to go anywhere either. With no tablet or phone market there isn't really any incentice to use a more limited platform over a standard desktop app for developers.

You can get them cheap-ish off ebay second hand... I say cheapish because I paid £50 for this... I'll describe it as pretty crap, phone. It's certainly overpriced for a low quality low end device, especially since you can get the model up for $30 in america but if you're wanting to do app development then you can't avoid it.

[adrynalyne]

I bought one for $20 yday. I want to try out WM10 and see how it is for myself.The fanboys on this site are especially vocal about the platform, but what they don't realize is people have different opinions/needs, and WP isn't the platform for everyone. 

Thats going to be true of any OS and their fanboys.

[tsupersonic]

Thats going to be true of any OS and their fanboys.

very true. Though I have played with WP8, this will be my first WP device since my HTC Trophy (WP7.5)

[adrynalyne]

very true. Though I have played with WP8, this will be my first WP device since my HTC Trophy (WP7.5)

I loved the OS. I was chased off because I missed my apps.

[n_K]

And just one completely random question, why does the lumia camera app continuously play a 'whrrr' noise from your loudspeaker? If you put the phone up near your ear and launch it you can hear it constantly whilst the app is open, even in the settings menu it sill puts an annoying, stupid 'whrrr' noise out the loudspeaker.

Something else, I don't have facebook on my phone nor an FB account, the people app is set to show from an MS account and outlook account... So why does it show a damn facebook icon? Might as well show a CIA icon as well whilst they're at it.

[Sszecret Veteran]

As tsupersonic said above, the platform isn't for everyone, but at least he gave it a go, saw it wasn't for him and then chose accordingly. 

I replaced my L800 with the 640 earlier this week, and went with familiarity over customization. I looked at a few Android options, but none of them were quite to my liking. And since we're talking apps here, the only one I really need is Twitter, which has a decent offering on WP8.1. Other than that, the OS runs well which is actually what I want most of all.