This is an unreleased ramble article I wrote back in November '14 that I ended up shelving because it wasn't very well thought out at the time. Plus, I didn't follow through well, so I figured it wouldn't be worth publishing. I've updated it since with thoughts reflecting on my experience and decided it would be good to release on my blog in a new article series called "The Shelf."
The Experiment
I've never owned a Windows phone, at least in the current
form so I really cant say. Years ago I had a Moto Q9c running Windows Mobile,
diffidently not the same thing... I've always steered away from them just
because of the lack of apps, features and generally speaking, good design. I
know it has matured greatly since then and with Microsoft's new found
confidence in itself, inspired me to give a little deeper look at Windows Phone
as it is today.
But how do I do this? Yes I've read the blogs, the great content
from Windows Central and Thurrott.com, but
that only takes you so far. To really get into it, you have to own it. Alright,
fair enough, now what? How do I get into this ecosystem for the least amount of
cost? Well, Windows Phones are generally lower priced than what you see for
Android and iPhone. In fact, its quite uncommon to find a Windows Phone that is
priced as high as those typically are. For a traditionally considered,
"high end" Windows Phone, I'm looking at roughly $400+. Now I don’t
intend for this to be my daily driver or in anyway replace my existing devices,
more of a, just for fun kind of thing. That price range is too rich for my
blood so I need to look lower down the ladder.
Moving on. The Nokia Lumia 635 come up on my radar pretty
early on. In fact, it was the only Windows Phone that T-Mobile lists on their
site at all. At $168 USD, no contract, I was thinking, OK, this is a good deal.
More research indicated that it can be had for much less than that, somewhere
around $99 USD. 100 bucks? This thing must be a piece of garbage right? I
started looking into it more, reading reviews and watching unboxing's on
YouTube and found that this is in fact one of the best Windows Phones out right
now. LTE, quad-core processor, 4.5" screen, all decent enough specs.
Coming from the realm of flagship and commercially successful phones, this was
a difficult thing for my mind to comprehend.
Having never been in the market for a Windows phone device
before, I had no idea what to expect. I've been out of the phone game for a
number of years now so I know things have changed a lot. Apparently, this kind
of pricing and spec sheet is not unusual for Windows Phones and is how the
market has settled around them. So looking at a few hundred dollars for one of
these things is actually a good thing and makes it a tad bit more difficult to
make my decision.
So what do I do now? Eyes are set on the Lumia 635 as my
first step into the Windows Phone ecosystem.
Feb '15 Update!
3 months ago I set out to experiment with Windows Phone for
the first time. To be frank, it was a disaster. I purchased a Lumia 635 for
T-Mobile and played with it for exactly 2 hours. (Give or take 20 minutes.) Most
of the time spent with it was running updates. Then, looking for my staple
apps. (No Google apps to be found, hurt.) The screen was adequate but much
lower in quality than I wanted. Build quality was alright, the keyboard typing experience
was pretty meh and the feel of the apps I could find were much less in quality
than I expected. (I knew it would be bad, just not THIS bad.)
My experience was so underwhelming that I returned the
device that same day, right around 2 hours after I bought it. This was not at
all a fair experiment and didn't give me enough time with the phone to give it
a proper rundown. I should have held on to it and used it for more than a couple
hours. The time I spent with it was so downright disappointing that I didn't want
to give it any more attention than I already had. Clearly this was not a good
evaluation and ultimately soured the Windows Phone idea far more than it
deserved.
I want to take another stab at it, but need to be much more
calculated about it. Perhaps, Windows Phone is simply not for me. I’m too
reliant on Google services, too taken with the flash and wow factor of the
iPhone’s features and the high quality of both Google and Apple’s ecosystems to
fairly and unbiasedly evaluate Windows Phone for what it is. This was the
problem I faced with my initial trial and ended up being far too biased.
Maybe a high end flagship type device will make up for some
of that difference. The HTC One M8 for Windows Phone is easily the highest end,
best quality Windows Phone device right now. But, it comes at a cost that I don’t
think I’m ready to plunge into right now.
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