Windows Phone 8 review

 

The basics

Windows Phone 8 is here, and it’s never been more needed. Google and Apple have hoovered up most of the smartphone marketplace, and Windows Phone 7 has made little dent in that in two years. Microsoft is hoping to change that with an all new release (that won’t run on older Windows Phones, you’ll need to buy a new handset to get it) that promises speedier performance, a new look homescreen and support for the latest hardware, including 4G speeds, HD screens and multi-core processors. But is that enough, when its competitors do too? Let’s take a look.

The good

We’ve always enjoyed the design of Windows Phone, and version eight only improves on that. The new homescreen lets you customise it to your heart’c content, with three different tile sizes available. It’s a happy medium between Apple’s static icons and Android sometimes overly confusing widgets, especially since these live tiles update with information (headlines, unread messages and so forth).

Microsoft has made very few changes when it comes to navigation otherwise but that’s no bad thing. You still open apps from the live tile homescreen, and swipe from side to side for more options. The keyboard too remains visually unchanged, but that’s no bad thing: it was already excellent, and its word prediction is now even smarter.

Everything feels fluid and fast, but then, Windows Phone always did. The only difference is that now, it feels fluid and fast on HD screens, with dual-core processors.

Microsoft has improved notifications with Windows Phone 8 though, letting you assign one app to show extra detail on the lock screen (The calendar, for instance), and five to show alerts from. This combined with the ability to now receive Skype calls (a glaring omission in Windows Phone, considering Microsoft owns Skype) makes keeping an eye on all your updates in your most important apps much easier.

The problem of few apps for Windows Phone remains, but the important change is one under the hood you’ll probably never see: Windows Phone 8 is now based on the same core as Windows proper, which should mean developers should have to do very little work porting their Windows desktop apps over to mobile.

Only time will tell if this happens in practice, but given Windows 8 on PCs is off to a strong start, with four million upgrades already, there’s every chance it’ll solve the app famine on Windows Phone at last.

The bad

We like most of the new features on Windows Phone 8 (Except Rooms, the new private group chat and communication features, which is basically useless unless you and all your friends have a Windows Phone 8 device).

What we don’t like, however, is what Microsoft hasn’t fixed from Windows Phone 7 and 7.5. The People hub is a lovely idea, supposedly pulling in all the data from social networks about your friends. But it still doesn’t update in the background, so every time you open a friend’s profile, you’ll have to watch it load, load, load. It’s a bizarre move, and one that wouldn’t even be acceptable in a third party app on Android or iPhone, never mind a built in service.

Internet Explorer 10 is fast, but due to the core engine it uses has a nasty habit of showing you nasty old text-based versions of sites by default. It also only lets you have six tabs open at a time, and it’s two taps to get to them each time you want to switch, which is a lot less seamless than Chrome on Android’s swiping gesture support.

Microsoft has also not fixed its daft multi-tasking issue: you can open an app in the state you left it again, but only through the multitasking screen accessed by holding down the back button. if you open the app again from your homescreen, it just restarts and you have to wait while it loads again. It’s infuriating, especially if you find yourself using just a few core apps day to day.

And while We love Xbox SmartGlass, the app that lets you control your Xbox 360 from anywhere, and even view second screen content while palying a game or watching a film - and it comes built into Windows Phone 8. But it also highlighted for us a serious problem with how accounts work on the platform.

We have an Xbox Live account tied to a Gmail address, and not the Hotmail address we use to test Windows Phone - which effectivly meant SmartGlass wouldn’t connect to our Xbox. Microsoft’s guide for reviewers’ advice on this front was simply to make sure all your accounts are tied together before you set up your phone. Not very helpful after the fact.

It didn’t have to be this way either: you can just sign into different Xbox Live accounts on Xbox SmartGlass for Android. As such, SmartGlass is actually better on Android (and presumably will be on iOS) than it is on Windows, which is not something Microsoft would want.

You also have to wonder if the new technical support on Windows Phone 8 is enough: yes, it can now run on 720p HD screens, like the latest Android super phones. But we’ve already seen one full 1080p HD phone announced by HTC in recent weeks, and we doubt the likes of Samsung will be far behind. Could Microsoft be setting itself up for a fall down the line once more?

The bottom line

Windows Phone 8 is a solid effort that remains beautiful and effortlessly easy to use. It adds in a few extra features to keep it competitive, as well as support for the current cutting edge in hardware, but unfortunately, it still doesn’t solve the problems that have plagued Windows Phone ever since its 2010 reboot.

There’s still no sign of a flowering app eco-system, and Microsoft has still not yet fixed some ofthe issues that have been bugging us for years. We can’t say Windows Phone 8 is a reason to ditch your iPhone or Android phone, but as a new experience for a first time smartphone user who wants simplicity, not every option under the sun, it’s a serious option at last.

www.easyappbusiness.com

Samsung Ativ S: Windows Phone 8’s debut phone gets delayed

 

Remember the Samsung Ativ S? It was the first ever Windows Phone 8 device to be revealed to the world, and with its mighty Samsung Galaxy S3-esque specs, it looked very tempting indeed. But if you were holding out for one, we’ve got bad news: it’s now been delayed.

British retailer Clove.co.uk has changed the timings on its website to reflect a new shipping date of 10 December. By contrast, the Windows Phone 8X by HTC is now on sale, while the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 are starting to trickle on to shop shelves too.

If you can stick it out, the Samsung Ativ S promises a huge 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen like the hit Galaxy S3’s, a massive 2,300mAh battery for all day use and full HD video recording, as well as Microsoft’s all new software.

Windows Phone fan? Would you stick it out for Samsung or defect to Nokia or HTC? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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Windows Phone 8 operating system launched by Microsoft

 

The handset interface is similar to that of the recently launched Windows 8 system for PCs

Microsoft has formally launched the Windows Phone 8 operating system in a bid to reclaim smartphone market share.

It boasted that the system's internet browser, Internet Explorer 10, was the fastest on any mobile, and also suggested it offered the closest integration with video chat app Skype.

Microsoft had a 3.1% share of the handset system market in the April-to-June quarter, according to IDC.

The low figure has discouraged some developers from building apps for it.

HTC, Nokia and Samsung have all unveiled flagship WP8 devices over recent months, but had been unable to release them while they waited for Microsoft to sign off its software.

The handsets will now go on sale in Europe at the weekend and rollout worldwide during November.

"It can't be underestimated how important it is to Microsoft to get a successful handheld platform," Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight, .

"It's the fastest growing and most prolific sector - 800 million smartphones will be sold this year, within three years that number will be up to one billion annually. Nokia has also bet the ranch on this at a time when the market is dominated by Apple and Google's systems - and Microsoft is seen as being late to the party."

Kid's Corner

WP8 resembles the Windows 8 PC operating system released last week. Users navigate the interface by swiping through tiles which also display information pulled from the internet - for example weather conditions, Facebook status updates or recently received emails.

While its predecessor WP7.5 was based on the firm's ageing Windows Mobile platform, WP8 shares its kernel - or software core - with its PC equivalent, which should help make it easier to port programs between the two environments.

Much of the details of WP8 were announced at a previous event in June. But Microsoft had held a few features back until the San Francisco launch.

Kid's Corner is designed to make it safer to lend their handsets to their children

These included the speed of Internet Explorer 10 which it said was up to seven times faster than the version on WP7.5 at handling webpages based on the commonly used Javascript language. In addition it has been designed to make use of devices' graphics processing units (GPUs) to render videos or animations written in the HTML5 computer language.

The firm also showed off Kid's Corner - a function designed for parents who give their handsets to their children to play with. It allows them to restrict access to a limited number of apps without giving access to email, phone call or text message functions.

Microsoft said a survey had suggested about two-thirds of smartphone-owning parents in the US had used the handsets to occupy their children while out shopping, visiting friends or some other activity.

Another new feature is Rooms which allows users to create an invitation-only environment in which members share their calendars, notes, photos and other material. The firm suggested it might be used to help families, sports teams and other community groups stay "in sync".

Microsoft also made much of an "always-on" Skype experience.

This addresses one of the major flaws with its previous mobile system which had not allowed the video chat program to run in the background. That had meant that users of iOS and Android phones had been able to receive calls while using other apps, but WP7.5 devices had not - a notable omission bearing in mind Microsoft paid $8.5bn (£13.7bn) to buy Skype in 2011.

On WP8 Skype runs in the background even if the app is closed and the phone locked. It uses a similar method introduced in the full Windows 8 system to reduce its battery use by effectively being "asleep" until an incoming notification of a call wakes up the program.

Microsoft stressed the facility would also be available to other video chap apps including Tango and Qik so that its own program would not be given an unfair advantage.

Nokia takes on Android with cheap as chips Windows Phones

 

Despite Nokia releasing its Nokia 808 PureView 41-megapixel cameraphone and going in a bold new direction by teaming up with Microsoft to release new Windows Phones, the company has been having a tough old time of late, announcing plans to cut 10,000 jobs. What to do? In an effort to close the gap at the top, Nokia plans to take on the might of Android by making Windows phones cheaper. But would you buy one? 



The bold plan was underlined by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. He spoke of how Nokia plans to undercut Android phones to make Nokia’s Windows Phones are more attractive alternative to the abundance of cheap Android handsets already on sale.

LG to dump Windows Phone

“We are absolutely going to make Windows Phones cheaper than the Nokia Lumia 610,” Elop said at a conference call. “We need to compete with Android aggressively,” he said.

Elop went on to say that making waves at the lower end of the smartphone market is key to those plans, with hundreds of Android phones flooding the marketplace.

Nokia recently released the Nokia Lumia 610 – a budget Windows Phone as an entry-point into Nokia’s Windows Phone range. Elop confirmed that Nokia wants to go even cheaper. “We had plans already to go lower than the 610,” he confirmed. 



Whether the strategy pays off remains to be seen. The Windows Phone interface hasn’t captured everyone’s imagination. Electronics retailer LG last month announced plans to dump Windows Phone in favour of Android, citing poor global Windows Phone sales. Android could have too much for Nokia.

Meanwhile, and presumably at the other end of the scale, Nokia this week confirmed plans to bring its PureView camera technology to Windows Phones, but declined to mention whether the new PureView Windows Phones would feature the same 41-megapixel camera sensor. 



Would you purchase a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone with a 41-megapixel sensor, or a cheap Windows Phone in favour of an Android device? Let us know what you think about this Nokia and Windows Phone versus Android battle.

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