Will you guys be picking up a Windows 10 phone?

I'm considering picking a Windows 10 phone when they come out due to all the interesting features that Microsoft is promising. I'm fed up with waiting forever on Android updates due to my carrier (ahem Verizon) and really like the way Microsoft is going about that. I also think the convergence idea is really neat, and while I doubt it will work all that well on low to mid ranged phones, I can't wait to see where that technology goes. Allowing for Android and iOS apps to run on Windows phones should greatly improve the Windows Marketplace as well.

So what do you guys think? Will you be picking up a Windows 10 phone? Should I just stick with Android? Is Microsoft finally innovating again?

I definitely won't be an early adopter. Windows has been pretty hit and miss on the mobile platform. While I don't think Android very safe either, Microsoft has been on pretty good terms with basically any intelligence agency that asks nicely to have a backdoor built in. If you're sick of waiting for updates and have a capable device, why not just root and flash a custom rom? My HTC One M8 has a GPE rom from Digitalhigh that has been nothing but spectacular. It also receives fairly regular updates if you're comfortable doing them.

I might get one. The hard part is getting both me and my wife off iPhone. Oh and Skype, major turn off for me.

I already own a Nokia Lumia 925 with Windows Phone 8.1 and it looks like I'll be getting the update for Windows 10 on it when it comes out. So far I'm a bit disappointed with it and hope Windows 10 turns things around, otherwise I'll be switching back to Android.

Nope I won't but if you use stuff like office 365 it makes sense.

Sailfish for me.

Why are you disappointed with it? Lack of App support? Poor performance?

I can't. My phone has the bootloader locked, and any possibility of rooting it was removed with Android 4.4.4

Sailfish looks really interesting. Too bad I can't install it on my phone :(.

from the history of windows phones and microsoft 'promises' im gona go with a resounding nope.

It's really a shame. Using a US based carrier, with our wonderful subsidized market, it really a pain to consumers who you know, actually want to mess with the hardware they "own".

Being a student, it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make. Unlocked, the Moto G runs a little under $200. I picked up a prepaid Verizon phone for $70. I just wish they didn't lock these things up so tightly.

Could you give me an example of a promise they didn't fulfil in the past in regards to Windows Phones? I haven't really payed much attention to Windows phones until now.

well imo every windows phone after windowsce has sucked. and with promises, im referring to the whole xbone debacle where they said one thing, did another, backtracked. etc. cant really trust microsoft with your data either. giving it away to NSA wholesale

until that windows store gets any modicum of quality apps NOPE.

I'm not really satisfied for a bunch of reasons.

First of all is the lack of good first party apps. The 3rd party apps we have are okay for the most time (Rudy Huyn for example did a great job with the Wikipedia and 6tag (-> Instagram) apps), but some companies either ignore Windows Phone or do a terrible job.

Then there are stock apps that are either missing completely (no stopwatch/timer) or broken (the music app is full of bugs that haven't been fixed for a long time).

Missing/overdue features, the options are in no particular order, can't assign specific apps to open links/files (i.e. opening youtube links with a 3rd party youtube app is not possible), snooze times are fixed (5, 10, 20, 30min and 1h), unsupported files just disappear and fill up the "other" category which can't be accessed (only a factory reset will get rid of them). Unless you open the browser and search there you're stuck with Bing and the Windows app market's search is just as terrible (wanna search for Twitter? okay, here's Twitter, a bunch of other social media apps and this random stuff that has nothing to do with it).

And then there's the pile of little things, that doesn't seem like that big of a add a bit of frustration: theme colors are set (no color wheel), some unsupported codecs (or the need of 3rd party apps for them) and some more I seem to have forgot about (that's how small they are but when I encounter them it just sigh).

The performance is okay and much better than the experience I had with my previous Android smartphones (HTC Magic, Nexus S and Galaxy S Plus) but there's not much that can take advantage of the performance (except games I guess).

I switched to Windows Phone because the decrease of performance was just terrible with my previous phones and I just wanted something that works (and not paying a couple hundred bucks for an iPhone). But the more time passes, the more spartanic and restricted it feels. It's not as much of a walled garden as Apple's ecosystem but far away of Android's openness.

And the randomness of updates is weird too. Not the time when updates are released, but rather decisions like "hey, let's release it in India or Poland first".

Hmm, I didn't realize things were that bad on Windows Phones. I thought everyone hated them so much due to not having enough app support. Maybe they'll clean things up with 10?

Could just be me being overly picky. I wasn't satisfied with Android either and the "well, if you don't like this stock app just install one from the Android store" attitude. Replacing an inferior app is one thing but if it takes up space even after I replaced it that's just bugging me.
There are some great apps available that offer a lot of features that are missing in Windows Phone (flashlight, stopwatch, timer, unit converter, etc.) that should already be on the phone when it leaves the factory.

Many people are really happy with their Windows Phones. Especially the cheaper ones are a great alternative to cheap Android phones.

What I like much more on Windows Phone than on Android are the maps (Here maps are awesome and have offline support once you download them).

I have the 640XL to play with now (just a sample for testing networking things).

I think it's quite a decent phone for people that don't care about smartphones, like older people or people that can't read the tiny screens of dumb phones and feature phones any more.

But to be honest, there is no comparison between any of the Microsoft phones and Android phones... there just isn't lolz... Android now has a better app ecosystem than Windows desktop, and Microsoft mobile is lightyears behind on what's available for Windows Desktop. Even the Microsoft developed apps totally suck in comparison to modern Android offerings.

An example of the huge difference in software evolution: on Android, Google offers the new Snapseed 2.0 for free, and it's really powerful, it's basically the same as Color FX Pro, a paid extension/plug-in for Adobe Lightroom and Corel PhotoPaint. Snapseed 2.0 was developed by Nik Software in Lübeck in Germany, with a focus on maximizing performance and new features, whilst offering the image processing quality of Nik professional products. About a month after the release of Snapseed 2.0, Adobe brought out Lightroom 6 for Windows Desktop. It is a complete joke, even less performance than before, and even the (one guy) developer that was hired to make lightroom faster, came forward to say that on most systems and in most applications, it's better to turn the "acceleration technology" off to prevent Lightroom 6 from even being slower than Lightroom 5. That's expensive Windows desktop software with years of experience, coming out after new free Android software that is superfast on ARM processors and gives much better results in an era where even RAW processing, (one of the weakest points of Adobe, in that in-camera RAW processing gives much better results on every single camera system that came out in the last 4 years or so than Adobe Camera Raw), is a thing of the past for people that are using modern camera systems. Dynamic masking etc, things that are in Snapseed 2.0, aren't even in Adobe Photoshop CC, let alone in Lightroom, where the cloning tool hasn't evolved since 2010 or so.

That ever widening gap between the features, performance, user friendliness, accessibility and economy of the much more evolved apps for linux (incl. CrOS), android and iOS on the one hand, and Windows Desktop and Mobile on the other hand, is just something that will never be closed again, ever. That should be more than clear by now. Microsoft is now going to buy Blackberry, about 6 years too late. They are desperate for market share, on ALL post-PC platforms. The lack of market share and the complete lack of credibility in the modern application software landscape, leads to ever less evolution in the software and as a platform, so even the new software products that are released in the entire Microsoft ecosystem, are perceived as useless and old right at the time of release. There is absolutely no difference there between the desktop and mobile windows ecosystems.

That being said, some user groups just don't need more than an oldfashioned, unflexible and very feature- and performance- limited solution. IF Microsoft would be able to respect privacy and consumer protection legislation, and completely derogate and deny the Patriot Act and its human rights violating consequences outside of the US, in other words, if Microsoft would move its headquarters and legal forum outside of the US and other Gitmo countries, Microsoft could profit from one thing that Google is doing completely wrong for the moment, just like Amazon, Facebook, and the rest of those... respect for privacy and human rights.

If Microsoft would completely change course in that aspect, and start to respect its customers by preserving their rights, Microsoft would instantly gain a lot of customer base from Google and Amazon, and Microsoft would be a competitive player again. But Microsoft has been the worst offender in that department since the 80's, building NSA spyware right into its software and even hardware products, and even recently Satya Nadella stated that women shouldn't ever ask for a raise at Microsoft... so that's the mindset Microsoft is trapped in, and sadly enough, they have pretty much missed all opportunity to snap out of it, and I think they will never again connect to the present and future computing world.

Of course, the bills for developing network compatibility for Microsoft mobile devices are still being paid for the moment, so the basic functionality is guaranteed on most infrastructures, so there is no real reason to say that these devices do not function... they are dirt cheap, and they provide basic functionality. However... ANY android phone of the same price, but also of a lower or higher price, will offer more functionality, will offer the possibility to upgrade the firmware, to root the device and increase the functionality and security ever further, will offer the possibility to install Android or another linux-based mobile operating system without Google Apps, for even more flexibility and privacy, etc... and those are things that aren't possible with a Windows Phone, because that phone is locked to Windows only, and Microsoft will not update the firmware of that device to a more recent version with more functionality or bug fixes, they just won't, because they've never done that.

True but i disagree on one point. Any Android phone of a lower or higher price can be rooted and will offer more functionality? Every android device can be rooted yes, but not every single device can have their firmwares updated and i can't just manually install stock android on the device without something not working.

Perfect example is, the "Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0"

That is one of my favorite tablets for reading. that devices have still haven't received updates from Google or Samsung. Lollipop has been out for a while now. on top of that, i found only ONE custom rom for this tablet. Nexus has dozens for it. and Google's firmware updates to Android devices are an absolute joke. there are millions of devices still running Ice cream sandwich and Kik-Kat. some devices you have to manually upgrade it. if you can get it properly working, which the average guy probably doesn't know how to do.

If i want updates on time, i have to have a Nexus device? that's stupid as hell. Not even windows phones go through that B.S. Sure there's Windows 7 Phones that are basically useless now cause they can't get updated thanks to Microsoft, which is a valid point.. but almost all Windows 8 Phones gets updates much more often than Google does to Android. which is sad on Google end. say what you want about Microsoft. but Google is no saint either. Honestly i would prefer to install Sailfish OS on all my devices but i can't. i have to have a Nexus device, or a Product made by Jolla.

I still don't got a smart phone, I just stick with small laptops. Easier to see the screen. Now if they made a like 9-10 inch one that was fully ruggedized and a lot larger battery pack I might actually go for that. Still waiting for some one to make a pipboy. Personally I would be to paranoid to have a Windows phone as I don't know what it's really doing behind the scenes at any given time.