evilrob
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quote:
Originally posted by Brett
Is the web experience bwtter than other phones? Does it work with flash, activex, silverlight, etc?
At the moment, I prefer the browser experience in WP8 over iPhone Safari; the application itself opens instantaneously, pages load and render extremely quickly, scrolling is silky smooth, and I prefer the 'look and feel'.
It doesn't do Flash, ActiveX or Silverlight plugin content, but it's all about HTML5/AJAX standards now. There's really no need for these wonky plugins these days.
You can use Silverlight to develop native Windows Phone 8 applications, though:
http://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us
I ran SunSpider Javascript benchmark the iPhone 5 was slightly faster, but there was only 80ms in it (720ms vs. 800ms); you're just not going to notice that in the real world!
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evilrob
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Benchmarks aside, I've got to say that the WP8 browser feels faster than Safari; there's no discernible lag when you click on links, and no hanging while pages render. It's all very slick.
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evilrob
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
Rob - Seems not too bad then. A lot of those annoyances, like single volume controls, should be fixed in the next GDR3 update if you go by the rumours.
Have a look at Metrotube for a Youtube app replacement and there are a few other Facebook apps on the appstore, so might be worth testing a few out.
Have you ordered any other MS gear? 
The annoyances are just that - silly niggles I can live with. No deal breakers yet!
I should make it clear that I like this phone not because it was a bargain for what it does at £230, nor do I like it because it's 'not as shit as I thought it was going to be,' or because it 'exceeded my (low) expectations' - I like it because it's a genuinely good bit of kit in its own right. I like the way it looks, I like the way it feels and I like the way it works. As a portable communications and internet device with a camera, it is considerably more than fit for purpose.
I can't be arsed to find a third-party Facebook app I like - People hub / the actual website will do for now.
I've heard good things about Metrotube, but apparently that is borked/intermittent too now. The actual YouTube website is fine.
I've not ordered anything else yet, because a) I'm not made of money, b) the Surface 2 isn't out yet and c) I don't want to have a "too many new gadgets" overload! I'd rather spend a month getting to know each device.
[Edited on 05-10-2013 by evilrob]
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Dave
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Tbf every version of the Facebook app I've used on various devices has been massively shite.
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evilrob
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Tbf every version of the Facebook app I've used on various devices has been massively shite.
Agreed. The iPhone app is the least worst I've seen, but it's still poo.
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Brett
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quote:
Originally posted by evilrob
It doesn't do Flash, ActiveX or Silverlight plugin content, but it's all about HTML5/AJAX standards now. There's really no need for these wonky plugins these days.
Lol I agree, but there's instances when it's unavoidable and it'd be nice to have full access to the internet again 
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evilrob
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OK, having spent the weekend living with Windows Phone, I have to say I fucking love it.
Likes:
- Wireless charging - not sure how I lived without this. Plonk the phone down on a Qi-standard wireless charging pad and it charges up, no faffing about. The official Nokia wireless charging STAND (not the pad) is also NFC enabled so you can choose to perform a specific action or open a specific app when the phone detects it's been put on the charging mat.
- Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn deep integration across the OS - really no need for separate apps. If you want to share a photo, including tagging people, you can do that straight from the built-in camera/photos app. If you want to update your status across multiple services, you can do so from the People hub in one hit. You can comment/like on other people's updates. The people hub is brilliant, all in all.
- Built-in camera app lets you do some pretty cool stuff like taking multiple shots in quick succession and choosing the best one, or swapping faces/picking the best smiles from multiple exposures, or even funky time-lapse effects and removing unwanted objects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sI7nV-QCsk
- So easy to get stuff on and off the phone. I've pulled my hair out trying to get stuff on/off iOS devices before - no such worries with Windows Phone; it's all drag and drop or boshed over via the cloud. You can even install apps remotely via the Windows App store. Find the app you want, push it to your device - sorted.
- Built-in (practically)-Global Sat Nav is more than enough for most; could do with speed camera alerts, traffic alerts and lane control - but it will get you from A to B pleasantly. I opted to download the UK maps to the device - around 230mb; not sure if this is mandatory - I got the impression it would work without downloading the whole map if you have a decent data connection (would definitely need to download beforehand if going abroad obviously). Seems pretty up-to-date. Works. Free of charge - comes with the phone.
- ALL apps from the Windows Phone App store are free to try for a period of time (typically 7-10 days) so you can try them out before deciding whether it's worth that quid or whatever.
- Insider Pro app - this addresses some of my previous niggles; allows you to put tile shortcuts on your home screen to display battery % or things like turn the LED flash on/off, bluetooth on/off, airplane mode, location services etc, and also has some really cool battery usage tracking and other geeky stuff, which you can also display on a tile:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/insider-pro/4cd69917-a022-40ce-8272-d258998746aa
- MetroTube app is fantastic - as well as actually working, unlike the 'official' YouTube app, you can also queue/download videos for offline viewing; pretty cool:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/metrotube/8d93224f-2808-e011-9264-00237de2db9e
- 2Day app is also fantastic - if you're into GTD, this is for you:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/2day/b4440e3b-85b7-493e-93bf-6d512671818a
- NextGen RSS feed reader (via Feedly) does the job nicely:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/nextgen-reader/643381de-4724-e011-854c-00237de2db9e
- 'Back' button from wherever you are in the OS - bit difficult to describe, this; but it's like the back button on your web browser but for the entire mobile OS. So if I open my e-mail, then drop back to the main screen and open the web browser then go into settings - I can hit the back button and it will take me back to the web browser, then if I hit back again it will take me back to the e-mail app, exactly where I was when I closed it. Very cool.
- 'Search' button from wherever you are in the OS - it's pretty awesome being able to do a web search from wherever you are in the OS. The information returned from Bing (you can choose other search engines) is pretty cool too.
- Call quality is excellent - both in normal and speakerphone mode. People sound beautifully clear and they can hear me well too.
- Nokia Music app is a nice touch - free music; you can't really choose what gets played, but you can download predefined 'mixes' for offline playing, free of charge. I imagine if you pay the £3.99 a month to upgrade, you get a bit more control.
- Nokia 'Transfer My Data' app - pulled in all my contact information from the iPhone via bluetooth quickly, and spot-on first time.
App availability/alternatives:
Dislikes:
- Built-in speaker doesn't sound as refined as the iPhone for music, but works marvellously for speakerphone. It's clearly been tuned for typical speech frequencies rather than bangin' choons. Not really an issue for me, but thought I'd mention it.
- Having become accustomed and spoilt by the iPhone 5 lightning connector, actually having to look at the orientation of the micro-USB cable before plugging it in to transfer files over or whatever seems a bit of a faff. Of course, it's not a faff at all - I've just become lazy. Wireless charging/ability to get stuff on/off the phone via SkyDrive means I won't have to plug anything in very often anyway. Just as well as the Micro-USB socket doesn't feel all that sturdy, certainly not as satisfying as the lightning connector, probably won't stand the test of time.
- No built-in countdown timer - I often used Siri on the iPhone to set a countdown timer for, say 5 minutes or whatever. I've found a workable solution with Insider Pro, which can put a countdown timer tile on your home screen - works fine. Better than what I was using before, actually - as you can have voice prompts every minute of the countdown while the phone is locked and the screen is off, which is handy.
- Xbox Music service is horrific; it's got a great selection, looks pretty, plays music fine - but its playlist implementation is completely fucked. You can make playlists on the Win8 Music app, or via the Xbox Music website, but they don't get synced between each other (well, the playlist name appears, but the songs don't make it across) - it's just hugely frustrating. Luckily, there's a native Spotify app, so it's not the end of the world. Does kind of break my 'all Microsoft' experiment - but Xbox Music is broken such that I can't use it at this time.
- There are some gems on the app store, but trying to find them is a chore on the phone itself. Much easier via the Windows Phone App Store website. Slightly redeemed by the fact that when you find something that fits the bill you can push it to your phone via the website, and everything is free to try for a period of time meaning it doesn't cost you to try out and discard the lemons.
- People who use Windows Phones seem to be dickheads, typically - lots of total wank on Windows Phone forums and the app reviews on the app store are a joke; it's practically impossible to find some objective, sensible opinions on things. This guy* almost certainly has a Windows Phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z2Z23SAFVA
*being parodied, not the creator of the vid
edit: clarified difference between Nokia charging pad and charging stand; the pad does not have NFC built-in, the charging stand does. Also added a couple of official apps.
edit 2: added Vine app
edit 3 28/12/2013 - updated app list
[Edited on 28-12-2013 by evilrob]
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A2H GO
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Nice post.
Does it have the 'always on' clock and the double tap the screen to wake thing?
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evilrob
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Cheers, Ash!
It does have double-tap to wake, which I like a lot.
Not sure what the always-on clock is? Do you mean "Glance"? That shows a clock (and some other stuff) on the screen with the backlight off when the phone is locked. Waste of time and needless battery drain in my opinion, I don't see the point of it:
Unless in an app which operates in full-screen mode (like watching a video) there is always a small clock in the top right-hand corner of the screen when you're actually using the device, and the time is also shown on the lock screen which is accessible with the double-tap.
[Edited on 07-10-2013 by evilrob]
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A2H GO
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Yes that's the one. I quite liked that feature as I'll tap the home button on my iPhone multiple times throughout the day to check the time or see if I have any notifications which as well as obviously lighing up the whole screen also causes all the radios to fire up draining battery.
I thought that feature was proven by a few reviewers to have no noticeable impact on battery life?
[Edited on 07-10-2013 by A2H GO]
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evilrob
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Probably doesn't on the phones with AMOLED screens as you can turn individual pixels on or off. The 920 has an LED backlit IPS display which is more power hungry, allegedly.
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Brett
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Is the 1020 better?
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evilrob
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quote:
Originally posted by Brett
Is the 1020 better?
It is if you want a 41MP camera and Xenon flash. Otherwise, it doesn't look as nice (in my opinion), doesn't have wireless charging built-in (forget the wireless charging case - it's pants, apparently) and costs almost three times as much to buy outright. I evaluated the situation and came to the conclusion it wasn't worth the extra when a 920 can be had for 230 quid.
They share the same 1.5ghz Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, the same 2,000mAh battery, the same 32gb built-in storage (with no expansion via SD card or whatever) and are roughly the same dimensions although the 1020 has that horrible camera surround which sits proud of the rear face of the phone, which I dislike immensely. They both run the same version of Windows Phone 8 OS, on a 4.5" 1280x768 resolution 330-ish ppi display.
Different screen - 1020 has AMOLED screen, 920 has IPS.
Different flash - 1020 has Xenon, 920 has LED.
Bit more RAM - 1020 has 2Gb RAM, 920 has 1Gb RAM.
Bit lighter - 1020 weighs 158g, 920 weighs 185g.
This review of the 920 helped me make up my mind:
http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/nokia-lumia-920-extended-review
[Edited on 07-10-2013 by evilrob]
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Brett
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Can't argue with that response 
I could get a 1020 on contract renewal or fuck off contract and go with giffgaff and buy the 920. Probs keep my galaxy in case I don't get on with the Nokia.
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evilrob
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I wouldn't tie myself into a 2-year contract for a 1020, personally. Not least because now Microsoft have bought Nokia, I imagine there will be something mental coming out next year.
I did exactly what you would do if you go down the 920 road - bought the phone outright, got a cheaper, more flexible monthly tariff.
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evilrob
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Just been playing with the Layen i-DOCK bluetooth dongle for my speaker dock.
The good news:
Plugged it in, powered it up, pressed the 'pair' button - Windows Phone found it within a few seconds and I was all paired up and ready to go within minutes of opening the box!
Connection doesn't seem to drop, no choppiness - works as expected.
The bad news:
You can hear the compression artefacts. AirPlay can be flaky as fuck sometimes, but it sounds ace when it's working. This Bluetooth setup is noticeably lower bitrate, but I haven't managed break it in any way so far.
Might have to consider binning off the iPod HiFi and getting that Sonos setup I've been hankering after.
Slight issue: no official Sonos app. There is a bonky third-party attempt which might do the job, though:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/phonos/de3df14b-8d17-e011-9264-00237de2db9e
[Edited on 07-10-2013 by evilrob]
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Brett
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Can you get torrent apps? Also, is it easy to just drag over mp3s and movies?
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Dom
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quote:
Originally posted by Brett
Can you get torrent apps?
You mean a Torrent client?  I'm sure there is, have a look on the WP Store; bit odd torrenting on your phone though.
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Brett
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Obviously yes, and no it's not really is it otherwise the app (client or whatever makes you happy it being referred to) wouldn't exist in the first place. I guess it's odd because you don't do it? Some of us listen to music at work and download albums as and when the mood strikes.
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Dom
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Reason i asked is because you can get torrent apps for remotely controlling torrent clients, ie - control your torrent box at home from work etc.
And secondly, it's not particularly common to torrent on a phone, primarily because it rapes the battery and there tends to be other solutions (in the case of music - Spotify, GrooveShark, Pandora, various radio apps, purchasing it etc) that are better suited.
Each to their own i guess.
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Brett
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I'd have been more specific and said something like utorrent remote in that case, though it was always buggy for me on android so not really interested in that aspect. Other solutions tend to cost money and still use data anyway, don't really see the big deal. Thanks for your concern though.
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evilrob
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quote:
Originally posted by Brett
Can you get torrent apps?
Apparently so:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/search?q=torrent
I don't really torrent so I can't vouch for whether they're any good.
quote:
Originally posted by Brett
Also, is it easy to just drag over mp3s and movies?
Yes - either drag and drop into your SkyDrive and files will get synced across via the cloud, or connect via USB 2.0 (not 3.0, unfortunately, even on the 1020) and the device pops up as removable storage:
http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8-and-media-files
[Edited on 09-10-2013 by evilrob]
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Brett
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Great stuff, cheers.
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evilrob
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No worries, fella! 
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evilrob
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OK - almost two weeks in with the Lumia 920 Windows Phone, still love it. Not discovered any horrors/dealbreakers yet.
My biggest complaint is bluetooth-streamed music to my wireless speaker; got no problem at all with making/keeping a connection - it connects immediately, and hasn't dropped out once. Unfortunately the sound quality isn't up to par, and there's occasionally an ever so slight, but noticeable, change in pitch where I guess it's catching up with delayed packets of data.
Sonos have just released a budget wireless speaker so I might have a punt on one of those:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/hi-fi-and-audio/hi-fi-and-av-speakers/sonos-play1-1189345/review
Dunno if it's too early to make any judgement on battery life, but it easily makes it through the whole day with all the radios on (3G,wifi,bluetooth,location services) from following an overnight charge with roughly 30% left at bedtime, which is fine.
I understand that the GDR3 software update has been released to developers (I'm running GDR2), which brings some improvements in certain areas, but will void your warranty so I'll wait until the official release for this.
Outlook.com works. SkyDrive works. Xbox Music does not work. Generally been pleased with Microsoft's services, integrates beautifully with Windows Phone as you'd expect.
Basically, if anyone fancies a change from Android/iOS, you shouldn't rule out Windows Phone - it's a very enjoyable and capable mobile OS. I would go as far as saying the Lumia 920 is the best phone I've ever had. If they made a Windows Phone with the 41MP camera of the 1020 and the look/feel/wireless charging of the 920, I'd get one in a heartbeat.
In other news - I was planning on getting a Surface 2 shortly, but apparently Nokia are revealing a Windows RT tablet of their own this month so I might wait and see how that turns out before taking the plunge on an RT tablet.
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