Will you buy a WP 8?

[MikeyMike01]

only 4.5"

Only?!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[ctiger]

If I have to pay $200 with a two year contract, there's not too much incentive for me to get WP8, I'll just jump on the iPhone 5, because for Sprint, the monthly will be the same for the iPhone 5 and the WP8 if there's any after all for me, all at $50/m. Only if they come out at free with contract will I consider the WP8.
More likely, Sprint won't even catch the first WP8 wave at all.

 

[noelito]

yes only 4.5

Only?!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

I have had my titan for almost a year and thoroughly enjoy the big screen, also I am wary of NOKIA and Samsung phones because the hacking community has not been that successful in providing custom roms for these phones, still waiting on a 2nd gen Samsung custom rom for my friend. I think I am stuck with my titan, because I am not going to a smaller screen and no removable battery, I am a power user

 

[McHale]

I have had my titan for almost a year and thoroughly enjoy the big screen, also I am wary of NOKIA and Samsung phones because the hacking community has not been that successful in providing custom roms for these phones, still waiting on a 2nd gen Samsung custom rom for my friend. I think I am stuck with my titan, because I am not going to a smaller screen and no removable battery, I am a power user

You and I are good examples of how two people see the same thing differently. I also have the Titan and do enjoy the large screen but prefer the much smaller screen on my HTC Surround. It's more comfortable to type and swipe on though web browsing is better on the Titan, obviously.

I also could care less about custom ROMs. When I cooked a custom ROM for Windows Mobile, I usually just stripped out the bloat-ware and cooked a small, clean ROM. So the lack of custom ROMs doesn't bother me as long as Microsoft maintains that we have the ability to uninstall any/all bloatware.

Hardware-wise, the Nokia seems to be the obvious king of the hill right now. The only thing wrong is the lack of external storage. Everything else seems perfect.

BUT, each to their own. Luckily there are a few vendors out there making quality phones so we can all get something we want. I would argue that HTC's quality and support gets worse every day and Nokia's is going to be better than anyone else's for a long, long time.

-Mc

 

[Aphasaic2002]

7.8 may contain all of the 8.0 features that will work on your hardware. It's a much more truthful approach than Apple's EVERYBODY GETS iOS 5 (though many features will not be available on older devices BUT WE WILL STILL CALL IT iOS 5!!!).

-Mc

This is total FUD.

An old device running iOS5 will be able to run all the latest apps made for iOS. Same with iOS6. Some features maybe be missing but new apps will always work.

A WP7 phone running 7.8 will not be able to run apps compiled 8.0.

This is not a case of Microsoft being more "honest"; it's just they're dropping support for older phones, while Apple continue to support theirs.

 

[McHale]

A WP7 phone running 7.8 will not be able to run apps compiled 8.0.

No but a WP8 device can run ALL WP 7.8 apps. Since the SDK for 8 hasn't been released yet, guess what they are programming for - 7.8.

Now, once they start programming for 8, all they have to do is click a different check box and it will compile for 7.8. They don't have to rewrite code. You don't think they'll do that when ALL of the current Windows Phone users are currently running 7.8? Really? You're just spreading Windows Phone hatred if you say otherwise.

 

[gilesjuk]

Will get a Lumia 920 ASAP. Moved from iOS as Apple are on the decline again. I hate Android with a passion, it seems many of its users are obnoxious and need to get a life.

 

[Aphasaic2002]

Now, once they start programming for 8, all they have to do is click a different check box and it will compile for 7.8. They don't have to rewrite code. You don't think they'll do that when ALL of the current Windows Phone users are currently running 7.8? Really? You're just spreading Windows Phone hatred if you say otherwise.

I think you're confused here.

The current beta WP8 SDK doesn't include Silverlight or XDA. This is a pretty huge shift. There is no way apps written for WP8 could ever work on WP7.8.

However, if you make a 7.8 app, Microsoft say it will be possible to compile it to work on WP8. This is what you're probably referring to as the "magic check box" (however this only exists in theory; we haven't seen it work yet).

Yes maybe simple apps will still be made for 7.8, but games will quickly shift to 8.0 (native C++ is an order of magnitude faster and more importantly, easier to port from iOS), and also generally many simple apps will also start to move, to take advantage of the new OS features (the most important being the new screen resolutions).

WP7 is not going to be abandoned, but i can totally see that all the latest and greatest apps (i.e. the most wanted big sellers) will be WP8 only, which will frustrate the current userbase, and also a gradual creep of regular apps.

 

[noelito]

I see using my Titan another 6 months, and now there is rumor of a true titan successor coming later this year, I want HTC design, 4.7" screen, expandable memory, improved ffc, and removable battery

Sent from my Titan wp7.8 w/NOKIA <3 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

 

[vnvman]

Well I was planning on waiting some more for the next batch of WP handsets to come out next fall or so, but thinking about it my contract will be over within 6 months from now, and by that time LTE speeds will be available in my country, so I'll most likely get the 920.

Sent from my Lumia 800 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

 

[finalzero]

Okay so been watching WP8 for a while and now that Windows 8.1 is out and Microsoft have consolidated and organised the development strategy its starting to make sense.

I like their unofficial ethos: "Do More with Less"

Actually Ballmer pitched that idea and I agree with his sentiments (even if they were out of touch and place with the whole Smartphone Universe).

Windows Phone 8 works. It does what it says (by not shouting too much...good or bad idea I don't know) but it feels like one development eco-system which the other Smartphone OSes don't. It feels integrated, okay it might appear to offer a small windows app real estate but it all makes sense and you soon realise the simple up/down/left/right navigation allows you to fly through the OS.

Tiles now work as I wanted them to and once you set them up right you rarely need to go elsewhere.

Performance:

Interesting argument...I believe WP8 (and the now capable Nokia hardware) prove that you don't need "pub talk" figures to get usability and because the OS is usable on a range of hardware specs it opens up the experience to all walks of people (and budgets).

Sure the Samsung Note 3 has nice figures but I can't help but wonder if it needs all that extra grunt to make the device and the Android OS usable. When you take this into consideration the initially great performance figures level out with that of the Nokia when you look at like-for-like real world performance.

Software:

Nokia software is the other half of the now great hardware and they have proven that you can have solid WP8 apps (the navigation apps is one of the best I have used) and the Camera app is not just all show but it has bags of functionality.

And that's the point (for me at least), I wanted a Smartphone that is a Phone First, smart device second and for me the Nokia Lumia with WP8 ticks the boxes; Clutter free, light on the eyes, crisp design and fluid, it feels like you are still inside one system as opposed to say the Android, which is very open but at the same time feels like my Linux desktop (lots of apps all doing their own thing most of the time).

I have some gripes, like why the hell is the telephone number on a contact so small when it should be one of the prominent pieces of info on the screen (especially if your phone is on a table and you glance down, you won't see the tiny phone number below the large labels dotted around the contact screen) but these are small gripes.

I am biased I suppose being a .NET Windows developer but I like the idea that I can take my .NET skills and develop on the WP8 platform without much of an environment culture shock (we could argue that iOS and Android offer a purer development experience, which they do, but why do I want to invest so much effort into learning something else that I already do...).

Don't get me wrong, I will start developing on Android in the near future as I personally think Microsoft are a little slow and late with everything and while their relationship with Nokia has done wonders the take up is slow (especially in corporate environments) and the software development life-cycle has a pay load that being the whole .NET development experience (a lot of eggs to put into one basket).

The future for Smart device software are apps that can be combined by the user to make other apps (and services) that cater for their needs (and their audience) but I am digressing.

Adios,

Fz

 

[dxdy]

i purchased Lumia 920 8 months ago (before have HD2 with WP7) and i never regret... work much faster and stable than any WP7....

 

[GnatGoSplat]

I voted "No" a year and a half ago, but I was wrong.
I ended up buying a Nokia Lumia 521 last summer. It was on sale for $80 which seemed a bargain at the time. Used it for 2-weeks. Unfortunately, there just weren't any of the apps I like to use in the Windows Store and I couldn't wait to go back to Android, so I flipped the phone on eBay for almost twice what I paid.
Then 3 weeks ago there was a deal at the Microsoft Store for an Asus T100TA 64GB and I decided to buy it. It's actually a full PC, so I can run PC games and such on it. Nice tablet, but I'm still finding that using it as a tablet, the Metro apps are very sparse. Microsoft is flooding the market with cheap Windows hardware, so I'm expecting the app situation should improve in the next few months.

Also this morning got an email from Amazon that Nokia Lumia 520s are $40 and 521s are $55 brand new with no contract. Now that is cheap! I imagine sales of Microsoft hardware is going to improve considerably this season with prices like that.

 

[dazza9075]

I voted yes but that was a long time ago, I keep trying to justify buying a Wp8 device but my Sammy Focus S 7.8 device works fine for what I need it... So given that I cant retract my vote I thought id comment instead. I doubt I will get a 8 device now, but assuming that MS continues with the trend of "phone first" priorities I will get some form of WP device in the future, the more android and iOS continue to develop the more I cringe, note that I have an android tablet which is where it shines, but as a phone it stinks. WP please!

 

[snrnats]

I have purchased Lumis 925 a month ago only because of skype support.