Phones

[hallsofvallhalla]

So I need to move cell phone carriers. I currently have the Galaxy Note 2 but thinking of changing. Hows the new Windows phones? Was thinking of getting a windows phone and a windows 8 tablet. Just not sure.

[MikuzA]

I got Nokia Lumia 920, which OS is Windows 8.

I think it's ok, but can't really compare against Android since never used one
Most annoying part of Nokia phones with Windows OS is currently that you 'must' have an Nokia-account registered and Microsoft Live account in order to use the phone properly.

However, now when all is registered and all is good. It's all good So as grade, I would give it 7/10.

Pros:
-Like the camera and the video quality.
Cons:
-There's no 'Close application'-button, there's only back and it leaves the app open.
-You can't easily remove the battery from the phone (unscrew alot), if it seriously tilts, well.. you just have to wait for the battery to run out for it to boot up.

I use the phone to call and as a camera so my grading might be of little value.

[hallsofvallhalla]

Just went to Verizon to test out the phones and Windows phone is out. Its the same exact thing that I had 4 years ago. Barely a update from what I can tell.

Looking at the S4. Lots of kewl features.

[OoZI]

I've used the s4 alot... pretty cool phone, only con might be that if you are using a lot of internet or game apps, the battery goes relatively quickly.

[Xaos]

I've got the S3 and love it.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I went from the S3 to the Note 2. Love them both. Just feel like if I am going to go to a new carrier I should be able to upgrade but it seems it doesn't get much better than Note2 atm.

[Jackolantern]

There are still definitely problems with Windows Phone 8, some of which were complaints during WP7 that should have been addressed. For example, you only have 1 volume control, and that controls everything related to volume, from the volume music plays at, the volume of alarms and even the ringer. That is just unacceptable in this day and age when Android had separate ringer controls since 2.2.

Another inherited problem is the inability to attach files to email replies. Why? People figure that it is because MS is banking on more people using cloud collaborative features, but for the thousandth time, MS has been told by their user base to not make such broad assumptions about them in a smartphone OS.

For devs, the OS is locked down a tiny bit more than even iOS. That means no replaceable core system functionality, like no expanded email apps in the store, no replaceable keyboards, etc. In Android, everything is replaceable. You could basically change out almost every stock app on the device.

And then there are even new problems in WP8, such as the black hole of the mysterious "Other" folder, which users report fighting against to keep it from eating gigs of data on their phone for an unknown purpose, and due to the security of the OS, 3rd party apps can't help you.

About the only group I could suggest WP8 for would be heavy smartphone photographers. The cameras on the higher-end Lumia line blow every other phone out of the water.

EDIT: However, the Pro-type Windows tablets are awesome, and a must for a dev who wants a tablet. Android and iPads just don't compare to having a full, working x86 computer in your hands where you can run all your familiar dev tools, compilers that run on a desktop, etc. Just forget the Windows RT ones.

[hallsofvallhalla]

The Nokia 1020 with the 41 megapixel camera is mind blowing.

[Jackolantern]

I have not even seen the pictures from the 1020. I have only seen the pics from my wife's 920, and even those are amazing, and easily 10x better than my Galaxy S3. I can only imagine the 1020 takes pictures 10x better than the 920

However, one thing to keep in mind is that a 41 MP picture is going to be HUGE. In file size and physical size. When you take a picture, the 1020 takes a a 41MP (actually about 38 - 39MP for processing reasons) and a smaller ~8MP one to use to upload to social media. While keeping a back-up of that huge 41MP pic is a good idea, since you could have them professionally printed out to gloss paper which would rival high end SLR cameras, for most digital uses, you are going to have to run that image through a nice photo package like GIMP or Photoshop to shrink it down while maintaining a good quality.

[hallsofvallhalla]

i was thinking the same thing. HUGE files.

One thing that ticked me off about my windows phone was that you could not download or make new ringtones. It took several updates before they fixed it. I was like wtf really?