I know for sure that in the comments to this article I will read “how much did Microsoft pay you for this article?” and “we’re tired of this advertising!” I want to say right away that this is not an advertisement and I will not receive any additional carrots for this article. It’s just that recently, almost by accident, I became the owner of a Windows Phone smartphone and got quite a vivid experience from using this device, which I want to share with you.
Currently, few advanced mobile device users perceive Windows Phone as a worthy alternative to the dominant operating systems on the market. Each of them occupies its own established niche. Android is for smart, technically advanced users who know the value of money. Apple products are for aesthetes, creative individuals, businessmen who value the convenience and effectiveness of a device more than money. Where is Windows Phone?
In fact, everything is not so simple and Windows Phone smartphones have a number of undeniable advantages in their arsenal. I will list only the most basic of them.
Speed
When we talk about the speed of a device, it is important to understand that this parameter highly depends on the hardware characteristics of each specific device. You cannot, of course, compare a budget gadget on one system with a flagship on another. But my experience using Windows Phone and several different levels of Android-based devices left me with the impression of much better system optimization from Microsoft. The smoothness of the interface, the speed of launching programs, switching between open windows, and performing other operations always happen here smoothly, quickly and beautifully, which cannot be said about Android.
Interface
Bloomua/Shutterstock
Many criticize Microsoft for its lack of innovation, backwardness and decline. But wait, who came up with and implemented a truly new approach to building the interface of a mobile operating system? While Google and Apple compete in the beauty of icons and the transparency of buttons, Redmond really came up with something new and unlike anything else. Yes, you can make fun of the tiles on a desktop monitor as much as you like, but they feel great on a mobile gadget. Anyone who has tried the tiled interface in action will never be able to refuse it.
Safety
The Microsoft operating system is recognized as the most secure in existence.
Sounds like a bad joke, doesn't it? But for Windows Phone this is true. Let's not delude ourselves, this is largely explained by the meager percentage it occupies on the market, so hackers do not make too much effort to fully hack it. But not only. In fact, both the closedness of the source code and a reliable security system play a role here. In any case, at the latest Pwn2Own hacker conference, Android and iOS devices were hacked. Windows Phone - no.
Avalanche of Surface gadgets
Microsoft has released a number of new Surface devices, including several gadgets that no one expected from it. The list of new products included Surface Pro 3 laptops, the Surface Duo tablet computer, Surface Earbuds headphones as a competitor to Apple AirPods 2, Surface Laptop 3 laptops, as well as the professional Surface Pro X tablet. But the presentation was started primarily to demonstrate other developments of the company - the latest Windows 10X OS and the Surface Duo smartphone with two full screens, and at the same time its enlarged “modification” Surface Neo - a laptop equipped with a pair of large displays.
Some of the new products will go on sale before the end of 2020, while others will appear in retail only at the beginning of 2020. Microsoft has not announced the release of devices in Russia - it does not sell its gadgets on the Russian market.
Camera
1000 Words/Shutterstock
You can argue for a long time about the strengths and weaknesses of mobile devices from different manufacturers. But no one will argue with the fact that Nokia currently has the strongest position in the field of mobile photography. Thanks to the merger of Microsoft and Nokia, devices from this tandem received excellent cameras that are significantly superior to their competitors in devices of the same price category. In addition to the technical characteristics of the camera itself, Nokia also produces excellent software for its smartphones that allows you to even better highlight all the advantages of the photos you take.
Smartphone powered by Google
Microsoft decided to return to the smartphone market with the Surface Duo model, which looks exactly as it was depicted in unofficial renders many years ago. She worked on this device for more than five years, and after the release of the folding smartphone Samsung Galaxy Fold, insiders suggested that the Surface Duo would also receive a flexible display.
Surface Duo can be used as a tablet...
In the end, this did not happen - the Surface Duo is a clamshell smartphone with two full-size touch displays, and it runs on Google Android OS. The choice in favor of this particular OS was not made by chance - there are simply no more worthy alternatives due to the fact that Apple does not allow other companies to use its iOS. Microsoft has its own mobile system, Windows 10 Mobile, but it failed on the world stage and was discontinued in the fall of 2020.
...and like a smartphone with two screens
At the time of the premiere, Microsoft revealed the specifications of the Surface Duo only partially - it said that both displays had a diagonal of 5.6 inches, and that the parts of the case were connected to each other by a hinge capable of rotating 360 degrees. According to Wired, the smartphone is based on the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, which by modern standards is not the most powerful - there is a more powerful modification, the 855 Plus.
The Surface Duo is tentatively scheduled for release at the end of December 2019 – beginning of January 2020. Microsoft plans to release it during the holiday shopping season.
Software
At first glance, this point seems quite controversial. Just look at how many applications are in the Apple and Google stores, and how many are from Microsoft. But it’s not just a matter of mechanical comparison of numbers, right?
In fact, Windows Phone already contains quite a large number of functions by default, for which I had to install additional programs in Android. And they work as a single whole, as part of the operating system, because that’s what they are. Therefore, entire categories of software are simply not needed.
As for other vital software, almost the entire “gentleman's set” is presented on the Windows Phone platform. Moreover, many programs are implemented even better than their Android counterparts, so they are simply more pleasant to use. Therefore, when choosing which smartphone to take to read, run, listen to music or play, my hand more and more often chooses Nokia.
Of course, mobile devices running Windows Phone also have problems, shortcomings, and miscalculations. But, I am sure, our readers will be happy to tell us about this, to whom I give the floor.
Windows Phone 8 is the way the developers intended it
▌Instead of a preface
To begin with, I would like to say a few words about the newfangled trend in the field of web design and interface design - flat design (Flat UI). Flat, plays very well in contrast. Metro especially excels in the UI space. You can draw a small parallel: look at this tombstone. It's wonderful, isn't it?
But. It looks great only because other tombstones are not the same, other tombstones in this photo have too many details, shapes, curves.
However, if all the gravestones in the cemetery are the same as this, then it will be a terrifying dullness and disaster.
The beauty of minimalism is in contrast. Another striking example of the contrast of minimalism
Let's take another example, Zippo lighters. Imagine you walk into a bar and all the visitors are holding Zippo lighters of different colors and shapes.
And then you take out your minimalist Zippo Black. She is elegant in her simplicity. Among the colorful pretentiousness of other lighters, yours will most likely stand out from the crowd.
But let's now imagine the opposite picture.
All visitors have a minimalistic Zippo Black in their hands and then you come in with a gold Zippo with a red insert and an extruded tube. And this time your far from minimalistic golden Zippo will attract the attention of visitors.
Minimalism should not be in the mainstream, under any circumstances.
It needs to be introduced in small portions where everything is very pretentious, very cluttered, and complicated.
But as soon as minimalism becomes mainstream, it immediately loses all its charm and beauty. Then there will be just a gray faceless mass. In 2010, when the smartphone market was dominated by Apple, Samsung and HTC with cluttered iOS, TouchWiz and HTC Sense interfaces, Windows Phone was amazing in appearance and design.
He shocked and attracted. It was an underground phone, something from another world.
Now, when they try to stick it anywhere, to just anyone, it’s not the same...
▌Let's go back to Windows Phone 8 these days
However, while FLAT UI itself can get boring quickly, Metro UI has one feature that allows it to not bore the user. But let's talk about everything in order.
And let's start right away with the typical exclamations of many readers about Windows Phone
- Oh those tiles! In a month I'll get tired of looking at these stupid monochromatic squares!
- Windows Phone is a very boring system, nothing special!
- Microsoft will not update current phones to WP9 like they did a year ago with WP7.5!!
Do you recognize yourself?
If yes, then you have come to the right place. If you have a different opinion, or you have been looking at smartphones on Windows Phone for a long time, or already own one of them, then it would still be a good idea to at least scroll through this article. It is likely that you will discover new features of your smartphone.
What should you expect from this article?
For over a year and a half now, I've been watching the development of Windows Phone (partly due to my love for the Swiss design and typographic content of the Metro UI design) and people's reaction to it.
During this time, I have observed one pattern: people sometimes avoid buying a Windows Phone smartphone because they do not fully understand what kind of system it is. Many people go to the Internet or YouTube in search of a review and this is where the main problem begins. Almost all reviews of Windows Phone smartphones are based on a typical Android smartphone review scenario. Here's a typical review of a smartphone: the design is like this, there are different colors, there are these buttons, there are these things included. Screen - yes, there is one, so many inches, such and such technology. There is also a battery, a speaker, a camera, blah blah blah. Well, a couple of photos of the smartphone and samples from the camera. All. And no examples of where all this can be used, how it will affect the so-called “User Experience” (what is this?) during everyday use.
And what does the reader see? What remains in his memory after watching the review? A bare Windows Phone with absolutely static tiles, which seem unusually dull to him, and the iPhone shell stupidly redrawn in a square style. Some numbers from characteristics that are in no way useful in everyday life. Well, maybe a couple of advertised features, which are already being trumpeted on every corner.
A typical Windows Phone in a typical android review scenario
User Experience for regular users
In this post, Windows Phone is considered from the point of view of a simple user who wants to use his smartphone in the same way as any other household appliance, such as, for example, a TV.
I just took it out of the box, set it up and just started using it. You don’t change the interface shell of your TV every 3 months, do you? And you must admit that in today's race of cores, gigahertz and gigabytes, manufacturers often forget that ordinary
Users in everyday tasks do not notice the benefits of all these technologies at all, since they are not implemented properly. One of my favorite cases of unity between OS and hardware is Nokia smartphones with displays with absolutely deep blacks, when Metro typography simply floats above the surface of the display.
Windows Phone 8 or what are tiles still needed for?
As mentioned above, many users do not fully understand why tiles are so good and what is their charm?
Until recently, there were 2 interface paradigms in the mobile OS market. iOS interface with completely static icons and a mixture of icons and special widgets in Android. At the same time, iOS was famous for its neatness, unity of design and consistency, while Android was a chaos both in terms of design and in terms of usability, although it provided more features than iOS. The Windows Phone interface is the golden mean between the information content of Android and the brevity of iOS. But the tiles themselves are unremarkable without content. Therefore, you first need to “fill” your smartphone with content that interests you so that it “comes to life”.
This is what my start screen looks like, for example.
As you can see, there are very few static tiles, everything is dedicated to content that is constantly updated. This is the beauty of the Metro UI paradigm. You will not get tired of this interface as it is new every time. And in dynamics it all looks even more interesting.
Interface elements fade into the background. Content comes first. Agree, this is very different from the screenshot that is at the very beginning of the article.
Features of Windows Phone that few people know about
1) Bing Search
On the Internet you can often find a lot of negative reviews about the hardware search button, like what was Microsoft thinking when creating it, if it only opens the Yandex search bar? But the fact is that Microsoft initially conceived a completely different functionality for this button. Search music, scan QR codes, quickly visually translate texts and much more. The translator, of course, cannot boast of a perfect literary translation of articles, but if you go on a trip to a country whose language you do not know well, this visual translator will at least help you not to get lost in the signs at the airport or hotel.
Well, just a nice appearance with daily updated photos from the social network of photographers 500px with interesting comments, albeit in English.
Note for advanced users: if you are not satisfied with Bing's visual translation, then you can use the advanced translator, which works amazingly. You can't do without a video here.
An important difference from the standard Bing visual translator is that the translation is not superimposed on the picture, but on the actual streaming video from the camera. And if the text does not fit into the screen, the camera can be moved over the text and the translation will continue without stopping; in fact, it is something like a “smart” magnifying glass through which the translated text is visible.
2) Xbox Music
Many of us love to listen to good music in our free time, as well as discover something new. Microsoft at one time did a great job collecting all available information about all artists. Once upon a time this was used in the Zune service. One of the results of this work is a detailed study of the relationships between different performers. For example, did you know that Daft Punk's work is influenced by Moby, Black Box, and The Chemical Brothers? And Gorillaz, in turn, were inspired by the masterpieces of the same Daft Punk and Beck?
In fact, from this service you can find a lot of interesting details and compositions by performers who are similar in spirit (namely in spirit, not just in style).
And now about how this is implemented. You shuffle your collection and, damn, the mood is just right for some good old Dire Straits rock. You open the artist’s page simply by clicking on his name in the player. Here you can see a complete dossier about him: what albums you have in your collection, a list of other albums sorted by year, a list of compositions, current materials from the life of the group, a biography, and, of course, other like-minded performers. You can open any of them and there you can also get acquainted with his compositions, read interesting information about him, and so on. Note that all of this is available through your Windows Phone.
But at the moment you want to listen to songs from your collection that are close to the work of Dire Straits, you just click on the Smart DJ button and a playlist with similar compositions is generated. You will say that the iPhone has such a function, it’s called Genius. But unlike the iPhone, here you can lay out this playlist as a tile on your desktop and always have access to your favorite artist. And if this is a Smart DJ tile of this artist, then each time your Lumia will track the replenishment of your music collection and add suitable songs to the playlist.
For example, I recently discovered the work of Sub Focus and every day I am adding new tracks from different artists to my music collection. In my Lumia 800, I brought the Sub Focus tile to the desktop and now, before going on the subway, I just click on this tile and a new Smart DJ playlist about Sub Focus is immediately generated.
A short demo of Xbox Music. YouTube has promised to remove audio due to copyright complaints, so don't be surprised if the audio doesn't work.
About the business part of Lumia 925. Office + SkyDrive
When it comes to work, everyone immediately remembers Microsoft Office, since today it is the de facto standard in many companies.
What is everyone talking about in all the reviews? That yes, Windows phone has Office. But for some reason no one is talking about the fact that this is not just an Office application. This is, first of all, full-fledged work with the cloud in the SkyDrive ecosystem from any type of device, be it a PC, laptop, tablet or your Nokia Lumia 925.
Here is an example of a lecture on SCADA systems, recently printed on a Nokia Lumia 925 smartphone. Upon arriving home, I did not need to connect the phone to the computer in any way in order to read and edit the typed material. The lecture automatically synchronized with SkyDrive within 5 minutes after the lecture ended. As a result, I have access to my documents from anywhere; for this I just need to remember the login and password of my LiveID.
If no one has Office installed at hand, then this is not a problem, because SkyDrive has built-in web applications Word, Excel and Powerpoint that work in any browser. Even on Safari for iPad! And I must say, it is in no way comparable to Google Docs.
And of course, you can bring any document important to you to your desktop for “hot” access to up-to-date information. For example, if you are waiting for edits in a technical specification from a colleague, you can pin the file to your desktop and every time you open it you will see the most current version of the document
Will Microsoft update current Windows Phone 8 smartphones to Windows Phone 9?
To understand the question: will the current line of phones on VP8 be updated to version 9, you must first understand why Microsoft first abandoned VM6.5, and then VP7.5.
Let's take it in order: originally there was Windows Mobile 6.5, which stretched its roots back to the 2000s. The hardware of that time did not allow for smooth animation, dynamic scrolling and everything else that is in today's devices. And this architecture did not change radically until 2010. The interface was created for the stylus and remains the same. The graphics subsystem was not designed for smooth animation and multi-touch, and the software and interface were not finger-friendly.
When the iPhone era began, it was impossible to remain in the old paradigm and the old interface, which was very poorly suited for fingers. But Microsoft also had another problem - they kept Windows Mobile 6 for a long time and did not rebrand, since they had a huge fleet of users who liked the openness of the OS and the Windows Mobile interface, rickety by modern standards, with a huge base of applications that were absolutely unsuitable for finger control . In this regard, Apple was much more fortunate with the iPhone; no one held them back and they created a new paradigm from scratch to match modern trends and technologies. And no one complained about returning it the way it was. But time passed and in the end it became obvious that it was necessary to develop a completely new interface (the same Metro) and a new core, where the main priority was given to the graphics processing process (similar to iOS).
So, you have already decided that you need to start from scratch and create everything in accordance with the new market requirements. It is impossible to carry old junk. But here another problem arises. After the release of Windows 7, Microsoft established a new strategy for a unified ecosystem of its devices: a system of three screens (Smartphone, PC/tablet/laptop, XBOX) and all this should be with a single Metro interface so that users have a single User Experience. According to this strategy, the core of the smartphone axis and the desktop axis should be the same, which will allow changes, features and updates to be made to all devices at once. By optimizing core speed, they optimize the speed of all devices at once. But the kernel of the future Windows 8 is not yet ready and it is not yet possible to make a smartphone OS based on it. And the market demands it. Windows Mobile is dying under the onslaught of the iPhone.
Then, in 2010, it was decided to release Windows Phone 7 on the Windows CE kernel, so that people would slowly get used to the new Metro interface and the new OS paradigm, and at the same time try out new features like live tiles and other goodies on the smartphone axis, while the Windows 8 kernel on Win NT was being prepared .
2 years pass, it’s 2012. The Windows 8 kernel is ready, it has a flexible architecture and is easy to change. Now you need to transplant Windows Phone to the same kernel. This, by the way, is also a huge plus for developers. When creating applications/games for tablets and PCs, developers need to make minimal changes to the code for porting to mobile Windows Phone 8 so that it works on Windows Phone 8. It turns out that you are writing an application that simultaneously works on all Windows devices. Including Xbox One.
But for Windows Phone 8 to work on older Windows Phone 7 devices, you need to rewrite the drivers, plus add encryption. This is a rather complicated process, given that BootLoader is not able to completely change the kernel without third-party intervention. Plus, for this you need to pull all the manufacturers, and some, like LG, have completely abandoned their smartphones on WP and no longer support them. This would take a catastrophically large amount of resources, money and time. There was only one way out. He's not the best, but there's no other way.
Now the transition of all Windows devices to a single flexible core has been completed. And it will be supported for a very long time. Like iOS, like Android. And with the release of Windows Phone 9, current devices with WP8 will be updated without problems, since there will be no kernel change, but just new features, goodies and optimization, as happens with iOS and Android.
▌To summarize
In conclusion, I would like to note that the main purpose of this article is to allow you to look at Windows Phone and Metro UI from a different perspective.
See it the way Microsoft designers intended it. Of course, like any OS, it has its drawbacks, but there are also plenty of interesting features, such as integration with Xbox SmartGlass, SkyDrive, and Office. But there is no point in talking about all this if users have the wrong idea about Metro UI when they first meet it. Windows Phone is not as boring and primitive as it might seem at first glance. The same live tiles of Windows Phone are not just ordinary dull icons, as in iOS, the size of half the screen. The entire Windows Phone experience is built around you and the content that interests you. It all depends on your preferences.
● And there is one more thing
Thank you for your attention.
