I'm using a 950XL currently with an 830 on the side, witnessing my brother retire his 1520 in favour of a OnePlus5 as his work phone, using a 930 as his personal one.
I've had brief encounters with the OnePlus5, an S7 edge and an iPhone 7+, all owned by people around me, allowing me to use them a varying lengths of time over a while (except for the OnePlus5, it's barely a week old).
Some of the things that pop up to my head when using them are: They are what my 950XL should have been right now. I am not talking about build quality, I am more than content with my 950XL's build, I find it easy to handle and pleasant. The S8 and OnePlus have been rather slippery without a case, the iPhone7 bearable.
What I mean, when I say that the 950XL should have been like when compared to these phones is the experience:
The basic OS on the 950XL has come a long way considering from the Anniversary Update, that is approximately the time since when I have been using mine. It's stable, functional, and I am a bit biased, I love the Windows UI better than the rest.
Still, here are some things I would have liked and hoped Microsoft would have given me as a user. Some might be more vague than others:
1. Native music experience - as a user living in India, I do not have access to Groove Music and it's features. It is very annoying. I have local solutions, but having used Apple Music and Google's service, which are rather neat on their respective platforms, I would have loved to have Groove on my phone, to not just listen to artists I follow but also discover more. Other services are officially present in India, Groove is not. Also, basic playlist management was better on WP8.1 with the older music app - I can't rearrange songs in a 'now playing' list, can't remove from there, and doing so to a playlist is a little tedious too.
2. Windows maps is fairly reliable for me in most situations, though Google maps in certain situations just gets more accurate results. Obscure places are listed on Google but not on Windows maps, which is based on Here. Since the sale of Here Maps I am a bit curious as to how their active development might be going.. And it's not just that. Windows Maps only recently got the ability to add an intermediate stop to an on going navigation - which Google has had for a while. It's getting better, may be I'll rethink this point in the future.
3. App fluidity has decreased and fluctuated from the WP8.1 days in some cases - it shows on my 830, the 950XL does okay though. My main gripe is the time it takes for an app to resume. The iPhone and S7 (I am talking in comparison high end devices here, since 950XL is one) resume apps fairly quickly, even launches are almost instant. The performance on the 950XL is not terrible, just underwhelming compared to the other two, and frankly I'd have expected to experience something similar to the other two if not at par. The lack of performance could be due to any number of reasons, but point is we don't have it.
4. App quality - this is something everyone knows and has experienced more or less, still I feel like I should mention. App quality, in terms of design, performance and features is universal better on other platforms. Even Microsoft's own apps are better on other platforms. I would not have complained if we got the updates last on windows, but we don't get those updates at all or we get them too late. The current Skype app on W10M is fairly unreliable, specially for SMS, and I am worried what the new redesign will do... If we get it that is.
5. Overall lack of fine-tuning and evolution of the OS - this last one is very evident when I use WP8.1 vs W10M. Not even counting other OSes. The base things like Edge, Photos app, Calculator, and innumerable other things make me feel like the OS was good two years ago, but since there has not only been the obvious lack of development of new features, but also a lack in making current things better, evolving the design, like how Live Tiles could be doing much more like widgets, the lockscreen could have notifications listed instead of having to open the action centre, ap like WhatsApp lacking actionable notifications, refreshing the look of icons and other design - I'm aware of the new design language, but current windows mobile users will probably not get to see it, we should have gotten some progress earlier.
I'm sure I'm missing out on many things, which will have been covered elsewhere. The point of this lost, for me, has been to express my disappointment to how much it seems like Windows 10 Mobile has stood still compared to other platforms. It should have been, for the lack of a better word, seamless.
I still love the platform and UI, but feels like if something were to happen to my phones, I would have no other phone to go to.
The rumoured Lumia 960, I would have bought that, even as a place holder, Microsoft had once promised they would make phones if no one else would.. Something to hold on to till the next iteration. It makes sense not launching it since a reboot of the OS, like between WP7.8 & WP8.1 would be a big hinder to the probably unsupported device.
Oh well. End of rant. What do you guys think, what are the basics that Windows 10 Mobile as it is, is still missing?
I've had brief encounters with the OnePlus5, an S7 edge and an iPhone 7+, all owned by people around me, allowing me to use them a varying lengths of time over a while (except for the OnePlus5, it's barely a week old).
Some of the things that pop up to my head when using them are: They are what my 950XL should have been right now. I am not talking about build quality, I am more than content with my 950XL's build, I find it easy to handle and pleasant. The S8 and OnePlus have been rather slippery without a case, the iPhone7 bearable.
What I mean, when I say that the 950XL should have been like when compared to these phones is the experience:
The basic OS on the 950XL has come a long way considering from the Anniversary Update, that is approximately the time since when I have been using mine. It's stable, functional, and I am a bit biased, I love the Windows UI better than the rest.
Still, here are some things I would have liked and hoped Microsoft would have given me as a user. Some might be more vague than others:
1. Native music experience - as a user living in India, I do not have access to Groove Music and it's features. It is very annoying. I have local solutions, but having used Apple Music and Google's service, which are rather neat on their respective platforms, I would have loved to have Groove on my phone, to not just listen to artists I follow but also discover more. Other services are officially present in India, Groove is not. Also, basic playlist management was better on WP8.1 with the older music app - I can't rearrange songs in a 'now playing' list, can't remove from there, and doing so to a playlist is a little tedious too.
2. Windows maps is fairly reliable for me in most situations, though Google maps in certain situations just gets more accurate results. Obscure places are listed on Google but not on Windows maps, which is based on Here. Since the sale of Here Maps I am a bit curious as to how their active development might be going.. And it's not just that. Windows Maps only recently got the ability to add an intermediate stop to an on going navigation - which Google has had for a while. It's getting better, may be I'll rethink this point in the future.
3. App fluidity has decreased and fluctuated from the WP8.1 days in some cases - it shows on my 830, the 950XL does okay though. My main gripe is the time it takes for an app to resume. The iPhone and S7 (I am talking in comparison high end devices here, since 950XL is one) resume apps fairly quickly, even launches are almost instant. The performance on the 950XL is not terrible, just underwhelming compared to the other two, and frankly I'd have expected to experience something similar to the other two if not at par. The lack of performance could be due to any number of reasons, but point is we don't have it.
4. App quality - this is something everyone knows and has experienced more or less, still I feel like I should mention. App quality, in terms of design, performance and features is universal better on other platforms. Even Microsoft's own apps are better on other platforms. I would not have complained if we got the updates last on windows, but we don't get those updates at all or we get them too late. The current Skype app on W10M is fairly unreliable, specially for SMS, and I am worried what the new redesign will do... If we get it that is.
5. Overall lack of fine-tuning and evolution of the OS - this last one is very evident when I use WP8.1 vs W10M. Not even counting other OSes. The base things like Edge, Photos app, Calculator, and innumerable other things make me feel like the OS was good two years ago, but since there has not only been the obvious lack of development of new features, but also a lack in making current things better, evolving the design, like how Live Tiles could be doing much more like widgets, the lockscreen could have notifications listed instead of having to open the action centre, ap like WhatsApp lacking actionable notifications, refreshing the look of icons and other design - I'm aware of the new design language, but current windows mobile users will probably not get to see it, we should have gotten some progress earlier.
I'm sure I'm missing out on many things, which will have been covered elsewhere. The point of this lost, for me, has been to express my disappointment to how much it seems like Windows 10 Mobile has stood still compared to other platforms. It should have been, for the lack of a better word, seamless.
I still love the platform and UI, but feels like if something were to happen to my phones, I would have no other phone to go to.
The rumoured Lumia 960, I would have bought that, even as a place holder, Microsoft had once promised they would make phones if no one else would.. Something to hold on to till the next iteration. It makes sense not launching it since a reboot of the OS, like between WP7.8 & WP8.1 would be a big hinder to the probably unsupported device.
Oh well. End of rant. What do you guys think, what are the basics that Windows 10 Mobile as it is, is still missing?
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