Phones

[WestCoast]

Had a HTC One M8 until it completely failed on update and couldn't be restored. Now have a Samsung S6 which is very fast and stable, just wish the battery life was a bit longer!

 

[Lankyline]

I'm in that wonderful minority of users, someone who uses Windows mobile on a Lumia 640. I have used Windows operating systems on PC for ever, mainly for business but also for personal use, so when Microsoft launched into the mobile market it was a logical step.

I have a Lumia 820 and now the 640, they have and do run 24/7 365 days a year and not once have they failed on me, the operating system (now Windows mobile 10) is stable, I love the live tiles function, but now increasingly I am becoming a little hacked off with Microsoft's attitude towards its mobile market, no new phones till 2017, no real marketing effort or its attitude to build quality apps for other platforms before they appear on its own platform !

So for the first time ever I am seriously considering jumping ship...... to an iPhone, I will not touch Android with a bargepole or if I can help it anything to do with Google, its open source policy for app development and the security issues that brings with it, are just some of the issues that I have. So I will wait for all the sheep to rush for the new iPhone 7 and then I will walk into my provider Three, see how much they reduce the 6s plus by and probably renew my contract with one of those

 

[507021]

I use a Sony Xperia M. The camera is excellent, the battery life is very good and apart from that, it does everything else I need it do!

 

[miami]

I have used Windows operating systems on PC for ever, mainly for business but also for personal use
...
its open source policy for app development and the security issues that brings with it, are just some of the issues that I have

*Shakes head*

I see some still drink the microsoft cool-aid.

I will not touch Android with a bargepole or if I can help it anything to do with Google,

If you were concerned about control over your data by getting into bed with google then I could see your objection. If you were concerned about the fact android had been diluted with too many terrible phones I could see your point, but you clearly have no idea about how security works.

 

[Lankyline]

*Shakes head*

I see some still drink the microsoft cool-aid.



If you were concerned about control over your data by getting into bed with google then I could see your objection. If you were concerned about the fact android had been diluted with too many terrible phones I could see your point, but you clearly have no idea about how security works.

Actually I have a pretty good idea about security and yes even though all of them capture and use the data we submit through our everyday use, Google, Imo, is the worst if them all when it comes to the "misuse" if that info.
Incidentally Both Apple and Microsoft have the most secure mobile systems out there, but since I'm losing the will to live responding to your post, I'll finish with this, next time try not to be so bloody patronising.

 

[miami]

Actually I have a pretty good idea about security and yes even though all of them capture and use the data we submit through our everyday use, Google, Imo, is the worst if them all when it comes to the "misuse" if that info.

Which is nothing to do with open source.

You might thing that security through obscurity is a good idea, and your MCSE trainer may peddle that line, but the rest of the world doesn't.

 

[dgl]

Still on windows phone, the great thing too is you can't load it with bloatwear so my aging 625 is no slower than the day it was brought.

Sent from my Lumia 625 using Tapatalk

 

[Kite159]

Another Motorola Moto G user here

 

[GatwickDepress]

I don't have a favourite company but work was offering a very cheap iPhone deal with employee discount so I picked up that.

 

[jon0844]

HTC have been struggling for a very long time now. I like most of their products but not enough for me to purchase another one (used to have a HTC Wildfire back in the day). Hopefully with them making the next two Nexuses (Nexii?) this year, it may boost their sales.

I really like Android with no bloatware and am currently using a Nexus 6P (Huawei, I'm tempted by some of their other stuff as well) and had a Nexus 5 until I dropped it... Twice

I've got a Huawei 6P with Android N beta and it's great. Nexus phones are really the 'true' competitors to iOS, but Samsung has excelled this year and TouchWiz gradually gets less intrusive and bloated.

Sony makes good products, but each new phone just looks the same. I guess Samsung is sort of doing that now, but there's still more innovation and pushing the boundaries with Samsung than Sony.

HTC is forgettable. LG has struggled despite some good ideas. Motorola has done very well, but Lenovo is slowly messing things up as many feared. The 4th Gen Moto G phones aren't as good as the previous models due to various design issues.

That leaves the somewhat unknown players to really step in and shake things up. OnePlus, Huawei (under it's own brand and the cheaper Honor brand) and many others.

I saw the Honor 8 today in London, a cheaper version of the flagship P9 with dual lense Leica branded camera. It's £369.99 SIM free and is a very premium product, with a spec that can hold its own with phones costing £100-200 more.

Nokia will be coming back with Android phones later this year or next, but I think we can probably say goodbye to BlackBerry. The Priv didn't solve its problems and now it's going down the road of even cheaper, lower spec, phones that probably won't sell either.

It doesn't help that there are now better and more popular IM platforms and the clever BlackBerry Hub has loads of equivalents on offer now. Most people aren't as worried about security as people (including BlackBerry think) and when companies let staff bring their own devices, they aren't too concerned about security as they don't likely expect staff to do much more than read email - which can be secured on any half decent phone with the right email client. Of course there are many exceptions still, but the market seems to be ever shrinking.

 

[miami]

Most people aren't as worried about security as people (including BlackBerry think) and when companies let staff bring their own devices, they aren't too concerned about security as they don't likely expect staff to do much more than read email - which can be secured on any half decent phone with the right email client. Of course there are many exceptions still, but the market seems to be ever shrinking.

Blackberry's demise was the ability to lock down. Corporations got them, gave them to staff, but this was led by glacial IT departments - many corporations didn't allow non corporate apps to be installed. This means no angry birds, no candy crush, etc.

When things like the iphone came along, the execs at the top got those in addition to play angry birds, then wanted their email on them, then why even bother with the blackberry? IT, and especially security departments, despaired, but were powerless. Had they allowed things like Angry Birds to permeate then perhaps things would have been different for RIM, but alas, the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will fall through your fingers.

It's not the 90s any more, people in charge are comfortable with technology, they'll have more useful technology at home than gets through enterprise it, and that leads to things like BYOD being led from those above IT in the corporate pecking order.

Can't say I'm sorry.

 

[jon0844]

A big problem for BlackBerry and every other company with a different OS to iOS and Android was a lack of apps. Samsung failed with Bada, Nokia with MeeGo/Maemo, and even Microsoft.

People don't care about what phone they have to a degree, but absolutely must be able to get the apps they want.

Switching to Android is the only way BlackBerry will survive, but it still needs to make devices people can afford.

 

[miami]

If Blackberry positioned themselves as a corporate version of android then that may well work. The cost isn't particularly important (if a staff member is costing you £500 a day, spending £300 on a phone for 2 years, or £500, is irellevent. What matters is the productivity boost.

 

[xc170]

Had iPhones for years, last one was the iPhone 5, but it's p*** poor battery put me off getting another apple device, so I switched to a Nokia 735 last year, I was quite happy with it, decent camera, decent battery life, nice to use but I managed to drop it and destroy the screen while walking the dog but with my contract up in January, I've brought a cheapo Microsoft lumia 535 and it's terrible, battery lasts about as long as the iPhone 5, camera is terrible and I seldom send a text any more due to the unresponsiveness of the screen...

I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace tablet that came free when I took out Sky and it's quite nice to use so may go for a Samsung when my contract is up in January.

 

[Class172]

The only smartphone I have owned so far is an iPhone 4S, which I purchased second-hand of eBay in 2012. I have really liked it and it has served me well, however it's at the age now where most tasks have become very slow or it crashes frequently — the battery's pretty knackered also.

I have dabbled with a few different android phones but have never found one that I like or particularly enjoy as yet. As it stands I intend to replace the 4S with an SE (I can't stand the huge size of the 6/6plus), though I am trying to get the last dregs of life out to make it last as long as possible (hopefully an SE 2 will have been released by then!).

 

[EssexGonzo]

Well, I'm not some brand-blind Apple Fanboy, but it would take a lot to get me away from an iPhone. And not because of fashion - everyone else caught up ages ago.

I've had a 3g, 4 and now a 6 - but for a couple of years before the 6 I had a HTC One when it first came out. Lovely phone, great speakers. But I just could not get on with Android, as much as I wanted to. I'm a big Google eco system fan but the phone OS just drove me mad!!

Apple have had more practice than the rest - and it shows. The phone just works and is very easy. It integrates with my laptop (bought for size and ease of travel) perfectly.

However, I could see myself with a Windows based phone in the future as I'm increasingly impressed with the MS 365 suite and how well it hangs together.

What are Windows phones like?

 

[dgl]

Windows Phones in my view are the best off the bunch, yes a couple of top apps are still missing but I have not found it too be a problem.

The OS is slick and is a very easy UI to use, apps integrate nicely into the notification center and the here drive on windows phone 8/8.1 is a great sat nav.

Just be aware that you do need to check the spec. Of the phone you are buying as there are the cheaper 5XX series phones that don't have the processing power or battery life of the higher end phones although my 1.2Ghz dual core snapdragon 400 Lumia 625 never feels sluggish.

Sent from my Lumia 625 using Tapatalk

 

[jon0844]

Windows Phone is a nice platform but effectively dead in the water. Such a shame but we can all learn something from this - it's more about apps today and only Apple and Google have them.

Microsoft may as well do what BlackBerry did and switch to Android, albeit with a different skin/launcher, phone app and on on. It already has most of its own apps and services on Android anyway (plus on iOS).

 

[Merseysider]

Nokia - started off with their 'brick' phones many years ago - very reliable - and upgraded to their music phones. 5800 was the best phone I've ever had.

Currently on an iPhone 5, have been for the last 2 years. Sick of it.

 

[SS4]

Anyone except Apple. Probably LG but I'm usually on the nexus line of phones to be as close to stock android and easy rooting

 

[jon0844]

Nokia - started off with their 'brick' phones many years ago - very reliable - and upgraded to their music phones. 5800 was the best phone I've ever had.

Currently on an iPhone 5, have been for the last 2 years. Sick of it.

Nokia has a number of new phones coming later this year.

 

[Temple Meads]

I've been very satisfied with the recent Motorola offerings, I had an original Moto E followed by a G2 which I will probably replace with a later model some time this winter.

 

[Lankyline]

As some have said Windows mobile is a slick secure system that works extremely well, I have used it since Windows 7 and have never had a problem.
If anyone is looking to change just make sure your phone has min 1gb ram as anything less can cause issues with Win 10 mobile.

Unfortunately yes the mobile world is dominated by the number of apps available and Windows does lack some of the top ones, especially google owned ones (since both hate other!) but Microsoft's strategy has changed with universal apps that can be written as one app for all devices without having to write separate ones.

Lack of new phones is also a major issue the moment, but if the rumours are true there will be a series of very high spec Surface brand phones due out. The rumoured specs outstrip anything currently available

 

[dgl]

Remember the WP8 YouTube app from ms that allowed video downloads and removed adds google forced them to remove and put restrictions on how a new app would have to be coded which would hamper performance, unsurprisingly android did not have the sme restrictions.

 

[dosxuk]

Lack of new phones is also a major issue the moment, but if the rumours are true there will be a series of very high spec Surface brand phones due out. The rumoured specs outstrip anything currently available

The Surface phone idea died when Intel decided they weren't going to carry on with their low power x86 cpu project.

Windows Phone is an very nice OS, but it's been killed not by a lack of apps, but by a complete lack of direction from MS. Nobody is investing time in writing apps because nobody knows if they'll have to rewrite it in 2 years time because MS have changed their minds again. If you wrote an app for Windows Phone 7, you would be on rewrite (from scratch) number 3 now with Windows [Phone] 10.

The hardware companies aren't on board, the app companies aren't on board, and even MS are kicking all their staff off the project. As a platform it's dead, all because of MS.

Which leaves me with a conundrum, what to replace my Lumia 930 with? I want wireless charging, a headphone socket, a decent camera and I do not get on with android. The Lumia 950 keeps looking like the best option...

 

[Class172]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any experience with any of the OnePlus range of phones? I notice that they have significantly lower prices than competitor's equivalent models, so would be interested to see what anyone's opinion is on them.

 

[dgl]

Actually with WP moving from WinCE to being NT (WIN8/8.1) based there shouldn't be the same problem that happened regarding apps from WP7 having to be recoded to WP8 (although thinking about it was only new apps iirc that needed to be coded for WP8).

WP10 is an evolution of WP8 and is built on the same codebase whereas WP7 was built on a completely different OS family and was essentially a skinned upgrade of WP6.5. The change of OS base was needed as WinCE could not support multiple processors/cores and was starting to show it's age as a mobile phone operating system.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any experience with any of the OnePlus range of phones? I notice that they have significantly lower prices than competitor's equivalent models, so would be interested to see what anyone's opinion is on them.

Errr...

I'm currently using a OnePlus 3 and I've got an iPhone 6S Plus in a drawer. I can see what OnePlus have tried to do and applaud them for it, but I'm just to used to Apple.

I'm currently on 3 and have been using VoLTE for calls the past couple of months and the call quality is so much better than normal HD Voice.

I have a OnePlus One, my wife has an X and I've just ordered a 3 for my daughter. High spec phones at bargain prices, and one of the cleanest Android installs around.

 

[Class172]

Oops, must have missed that!

 

[Hadders]

Nokia 6310i was the best phone I've ever had. It was a work phone which got some serious usage but the battery was excellent. I used it for around 8 years and it still works to this day!

My work phone is currently a Windows 735, perfectly acceptable and I'd be quite happy to use one for my personal phone.

For personal usage I'm currently using an iphone 4S which I've had for approaching 3 years. I like Apple products and it's good value, particularly as I'm on a good SIM only contract.

I've no desire to pay £35+ per month for the latest handset....