
Windows Phone 8.1 review - yread
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7940/windows-phone-81-review
======
ScottWhigham
Here's one issue that Microsoft has to deal with - my Mom asked me, "What is
Windows Phone 8.1 - is that the new Windows phone?"

Stop and think about that question from a non-tech perspective. My mom (or
yours) likely has no idea that there's a difference between "Windows Phone
8.1" and the "Nokia Lumia Icon with Windows Phone 8.1 installed". Now contrast
that with Apple or even the Android world - they don't have such silly
branding problems. No Apple user says "IOS 8? Is that the new iPhone?"

Branding is important and to brand the OS with the word "Phone" in it implies,
to non-tech/news people, that it is a phone (which it isn't - it's just the
OS). My mom doesn't want a "phone with Windows 8.1 on it" but she might want a
"Windows phone". She doesn't want a "phone with IOS 8 on it" but she would
like an iPhone.

~~~
smacktoward
_> No Apple user says "IOS 8? Is that the new iPhone?"_

But _lots_ of users say things like "Galaxy S5? Is that the new Droid?" (Which
is annoying, but doesn't seem to be hurting Android sales.)

 _> Branding is important and to brand the OS with the word "Phone" in it
implies, to non-tech/news people, that it is a phone (which it isn't - it's
just the OS)._

This distinction would matter more if people bought the phone and the OS
separately, but they don't. To the average user the phone and the OS are
mashed together into a single indistinguishable thing. You get a new OS when
you get a new phone, and you upgrade the OS by buying a new phone.

In that sense the "8.1" label is just a way to distinguish new phones from old
ones. If your mom goes to a store and asks for a "Windows phone" they'll have
no trouble understanding what she means; it's just a possibility she'll get
one that isn't the Latest and Greatest.

~~~
ScottWhigham
_But lots of users say things like "Galaxy S5? Is that the new Droid?"_

I have a hard time with that. The question itself implies that there are
_lots_ of users who know what "Droid" is but don't know what a Samsung Galaxy
is - which I, frankly, find difficult to accept. I would think it's 100:1 the
opposite way - most users know what a Samsung Galaxy is but few users
(relative to user base) know what Android/KitKat/ICS/etc are. So I can't
really see your point here.

 _This distinction would matter more if people bought the phone and the OS
separately, but they don 't. To the average user the phone and the OS are
mashed together into a single indistinguishable thing. _

Absolutely - that was sort of what I was saying (yours is much clearer
though). Microsoft trying to make the OS _version_ something that people care
about is just short-term thinking. People care about a specific version in
only a few situations that I've seen: (a) when there's a big marketing
campaign around that version, (b) as a reaction against negative press around
a specific version, or (c) because they want to upgrade from a very poor
experience in their current OS. Those are all short-term (and expensive)
customer acquisition methods. Apple's use of "IOS" \- the name, the branding,
release timing, backwards compat, etc - is so perfect for Microsoft that I
guess I don't understand why they don't just copy it.

~~~
smacktoward
_> I have a hard time with that. The question itself implies that there are
lots of users who know what "Droid" is but don't know what a Samsung Galaxy is
- which I, frankly, find difficult to accept._

I think you're misunderstanding me -- I wasn't referring to Android, but to
"Droid," the type of Android phone by Motorola sold in the US by Verizon.
Verizon mounted an absolutely massive advertising campaign a few years back to
promote the early "Droid"-branded phones. It lodged the idea in a lot of
brains that "Droid" == Android, in the same way that "iPhone" == iOS. So you
(or at least, I) still frequently hear non-technical people talk about all
sorts of Android devices as "Droids."

------
DangerousPie
I installed this update on Monday and so far I am very happy with it. It adds
pretty much all the features that I was missing on Windows Phone so far, like
separate volume controls, VPN, notifications, and native podcasts. And it does
all of that while still running smoothly on my 1+ year old £100 (contract-
free) phone.

The one big thing that is still missing for me is Google Hangouts support, but
this is obviously not something that Microsoft could easily add. And it is
definitely not enough to sway me to iOS/Android.

~~~
manojlds
I don't know if it is faster, but 8.1 is feels much faster on my 925. Every
update on my iPad just seems to slow it down.

~~~
300bps
_Every update on my iPad just seems to slow it down._

I learned this the hard way with my iPhone 3G. By the time I upgraded it to
iOS 4, the phone literally wouldn't work anymore. It would ring, I would touch
the answer button repeatedly and nothing would happen. By the time the slow-
as-molasses phone responded to the answer button, it would go to voicemail.

It happened to a lesser degree with my iPhone 4 and I didn't have my 4s long
enough to experience it. Basically I think Apple just assumes people are going
to upgrade their Apple phone every 18 months, which is a stretch considering
major US carriers have clamped down on subsidized 18 month upgrades.

------
kabdib
I really liked my Win8 phone. That said, battery life on the Nokia 920 was so
poor (about half a day) because some low-level driver was spinning like mad,
gobbling power and making the device physically warm. Microsoft took over a
year to fix the problem (if they ever did). While WinPhone 8.1 sounds great,
my experience with support would make me think twice.

I switched to an iPhone. Kind of boring. But it's pretty easy to find
accessories for it.

The mail client on Win8Phone was much nicer than anything I've found on the
iPhone. If there's one thing that Microsoft PMs understand, it's productivity
via email :-)

~~~
diminish
After many people mentioning they actually like Windows Phone, I can't help
but think, will 2014 be the year of the Windows Phone?

~~~
sz4kerto
No, it won't. I personally like WP a lot, but this is (again) a winner-takes-
it-all market. I think most people would say they like OSX (even if they have
never actually used it, but it's fashionable to like OSX anyway), still, OSX
market share has been stagnating forever.

What Microsoft can do with a good mobile OS is to stay in the game until the
next big thing (as Apple stayed in the game with Mac until the iPod and the
iPhone became a big hit).

And again: I think WP is a great OS.

~~~
bratsche
> I personally like WP a lot, but this is (again) a winner-takes-it-all
> market.

But iPhone had seemingly won initially, and Android ate up ground from it even
back when Android was complete shit. I think there's less lock-in for average
users than there was with PCs, so it seems like what is required to gain
market share is to give bigger cuts of the sales to the carriers who are
selling the phones.

How long has it been since you went into an AT&T store and they tried to sell
you an iPhone? They push Androids like it's crack they need to get rid of
before the cops catch them. Because they make more money there.

~~~
quanticle
>But the iPhone had seemingly won initially, and Android ate up ground from it
even back when Android was complete shit.

Android gained its market share by being free. That's a strategy that only
works once. Yes, Windows Phone is now free, but Android's market share lead
(and corresponding advantage in network effects) is nigh insurmountable at
this point.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Android : smartphones :: Windows :
PCs. In both markets, Apple pursued a "high-end" integrated hardware/software
strategy with a focus on premium devices and premium user experience. This
opened up space for a secondary player to offer an inferior good - one that
consumers could choose if they wanted similar capabilities and were willing to
accept a certain level of degradation in fit and finish. The problem is that
there's only room for one such player. In the PC space, that player is
Windows. In the smartphone space, that player is Android. Windows Phone is
like the BeOS of smartphone operating systems. It does a lot of interesting
things, and it's better than Android in many ways, but network effects among
software developers ensure that it'll never catch on. It's sad, but such is
the market.

~~~
bentcorner
Still, from the consumer side of things there's far less friction/lock-in.
Switching between phone platforms brings pain only in app selection, most data
(like pictures, calendars and email) is all online and doesn't need to be
moved over[1].

The key here like you say are software developers. I think Microsoft is aware
of this and their purchase of Xamarin is them taking steps to solve this
problem. In the future you could see Microsoft showing developers how they
could build their applications for all major smartphone OSs with their tools,
allowing them to eat up ground in the app space.

[1] Contrast this to PC vs Mac, where even switching from an old PC to a new
PC can be a daunting task, and the risk of data-loss is high.

~~~
ygra
Re [1]: Windows has included a tool for migrating data to a new computer at
least since Vista (I think for legacy versions it was a separate download). It
works really, really well.

~~~
bentcorner
I'm the type that throws data into c:\\[MyProject] sort of directories - do
you know if it works well with that?

I've taken to partitioning my computer to OS and user data partitions, so when
I upgrade or migrate I can preserve the user data partition easily.

------
avenger123
The main reason I would want to get a Windows Phone is for the camera. Nokia
still seems to be the closest one gets to getting a reasonable point and shoot
camera in a smartphone.

I started with a blackberry, then moved to iPhone 4S. Bought a MacBook Air,
Mac Mini, iPad and now I am using a Nexus 4 for my main phone. My main
workstation is Windows 8.1. Note that I rooted both the iPhone 4S and Nexus.

At this point, the camera is not enough of a reason to switch over. I'm over
the app love I used to have with the iPhone ("wow, all the cool apps!!") so
the lack of apps doesn't mean much. I'm just platformed out. The thought of
switching to yet another platform and going through all the hassle isn't worth
it anymore.

~~~
bananas
Given up on any phone cameras. Missed so many opportunities and moments due to
camera lag and shitty software. I drag a proper DSLR around with me now most
of the time.

~~~
gtirloni
I don't understand it. By the time you are done grabbing your DSLR, I've
already pressed the camera button on my 925 and taken the picture.

~~~
bananas
If you apply thought and patience rather than treat it like a quick draw
weapon, the results are better. For example, just a tree I walked past in
London...

[http://i.imgur.com/BphXWFN.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/BphXWFN.jpg)

The chunk of glass on the front is pretty important too.

------
IanDrake
The biggest problem WP faces is retailers.

I don't know why, but I've overheard reps at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and
Verizon answer people's Windows Phone questions with "You don't want that,
it's crap".

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
Part of the reason might be that some manufacturers offer generous sales
bonuses to store staff as part of their marketing effort. It's very likely
they're doing what's right for them rather than for the customers.

~~~
bananas
That is why you should never trust someone on commission from estate agents,
through financial advisers[1] to tech sales.

[1] I work with these bastards and they'd sell their parents to make a dollar.

------
jareds
Can anyone who's using the new update explain what Narrator can and can't do?
Does it let you use the built in apps, apps from the Windows store, offer
gestures to easily navigate etc? I am totally blind and use an iPhone as my
main phone do to it's accessibility. I bought an old Nexus 7 to test Android
accessibility and wonder if it is worth buying a Lumia 520.

~~~
anonymfus
I don't have hardware, but Narrator works in emulator. Link to manual still is
not available, so I don't know full list of features. There are 2 modes of
operation, in one of them it activates controls in same places where you touch
them, in other it represents content of the screen as a tree for navigation:
moving finger left/right activates previous/next control, moving up/down
changes level of tree. The problem is that I don't understand what thing
triggers switching of modes, I did it in the emulator unintentionally. In any
mode it reads content of activated control; double tap in any place of screen
allows to use active control, some controls have additional action for triple
tap. It's possible to use 2-finger gestures to scroll vertically and
horizontally, it announces percentage after performing gesture. Scrolling
works on specific level of navigation tree, sometimes it can be confusing.

Common controls are all accessible.

On-screen keyboard is shitty: every key must be activated before use. So
typing is probably very slow.

In system tray area it could read every icon (level of network signal,
battery, clocks...), but I could not find a way to open Action Centre.

Application switcher is bad, I could not find a way to use it properly. Button
for closing apps works, but it's announced as generic button without text.

Accessible standard apps: Alarms, Data Sense, Internet explorer, Maps,
Messaging, People hub, Phone dialer, Photo hub, Store.

Inaccessible standard apps: Battery Saver, Calculator, Calendar, Office,
OneNote, SkyDrive, Skype, Storage Sense.

Standard apps where many buttons are unnamed, but blind usage is probably
possible: Camera, FM Radio, Games hub, Xbox Music.

Emulator contains old versions of everything, so real phone could be
different.

~~~
jareds
I thank you for the information. Luckily 520's are cheep so my bank account
won't have a lot to complain about.

------
kittxkat
single-page version: [http://www.anandtech.com/print/7940/windows-
phone-81-review](http://www.anandtech.com/print/7940/windows-phone-81-review)

------
h1fra
I'm much of a fan.

This update make windows phone, faster, looking way more modern. All main app
have been refactored. \+ Vpn + Notification center + Calendar + Battery +
Cortona...

I don't see anything that was not improved. Anyone can troll windows for
windows 8 on desktop, I first. But the phone version is really great now

~~~
bananas
I'm going to throw my opinion in here because I find a few real pain points
that drove me to Android eventually:

1\. If someone sends me a document or a file or something and I need to do
something with it and send it back, it's hopeless. There isn't enough of a
filesystem to do that sort of stuff with it. The whole WP isolated storage
thing is painful and really ruins it for me. Not only that if someone sends me
a media file or I download an mp3 for example I can only see it within scope
of the app that received it and never can I add it to my music library without
connecting it to a PC. I can't even play it without blocking the entire phone
UI.

2\. I really don't want to have to sign in at all and/or activate my phone as
a developer device to deploy any apps or even a simple one shot custom app
I've written for my own use. Occasionally, historically with WM6.5 and
predecessors I've built the odd diagnostic tool that sits on the device. I can
do the same in HTML on a web server somewhere but that relies on a network
connection to be there, which even though I live in London isn't always the
case. In fact it's pretty terrible in the suburbs. On basic GPRS WP is heading
towards useless.

3\. Android USB OTG is awesome. I can move stuff between USB sticks, plug
keyboards in and all sorts. This has got me out of the crap a few times
already and I've only had an Android handset for about a month now. The cable
that enabled all this cost me (including delivery) £0.73.

4\. Nokia made awesome hardware. Not joking it was the best stuff out there.
Since the Lumia 820 though, it's turned to crap. I have repaired a number of
handsets and they aren't designed with durability in mind any more and the
parts are quite difficult to get hold of unless you're Nokia authorised
service. Fortunately they still use standard screws (Torx TX4/5) but when you
get inside, it's problematic.

~~~
userbinator
In other words, you're basically saying that WP is even more locked-down than
iOS?

I did a bit of research between iOS/WP/Android before buying my first
smartphone and the _openness_ and large choice of phones with Android is what
ultimately made the decision for me. The ability to root and have full
control, install (and develop - eventually, that is...) apps without needing
the approval of anyone but yourself, custom ROMs, etc. I probably won't ever
exercise all that control, but it's nice to know that I can if I want to in
the future.

Had WP allowed more freedom, closer to that of desktop Windows, I might've
chosen otherwise, since my main PC runs Windows and there's a lot less
constraints on what I can do there.

~~~
bananas
No WP is not locked down more than iOS. I need iTunes to add something to an
iOS device rather than just an MTP capable OS and it destroys the entire
device's media collection if you move between machines. That's draconian to
say the least.

In the locked down stakes I think it goes:

Android < WP < iOS

The openness of Android is what sold it for me as well though. I'm not sure
Windows will remain open indefinitely. The current crop of "modern" or
"universal" apps are a step towards a vaulted subsection of the operating
system. That will be no banana for me then.

------
marko1985
I'am a big fan of WP since release of WP7, but I'am thinking that microsoft
should close the development of WP as it is too late to fight against ios and
android. But as a user of WP8 (lumia 920) i can only say that it's a wonderful
product with genius ux design and super-duper hardware, that doens't freeze...
practically never. I restart it every month in case the battery drains to 0%.
Hope that it can make it in the future, but doens't seems to. About WP8.1 i'am
so excited, and in few months hope to get the update!!!!

------
madoublet
I am really pleased with this upgrade. The OS feels very polished now. My
favorite small upgrade is quiet hours. I like just flipping that one when I am
sleeping or writing code. Very useful.

------
Zigurd
The main problem standing between Windows Phone and market success is that
Microsoft handled the transition to touch devices both badly, and differently,
across a nominally "all-Windows" product line.

To start with, calling WP7 "Windows" was a travesty. Microsoft thereby only
reached the starting line of this race with WP8, in Ocetober 2012. Very late
compared to rivals, and rough.

"Modern" or "Market" apps can't do what legacy apps can do. It's hard for
those two different types of apps to communicate. Even if apps are compiled to
MSIL, legacy apps can't run on ARM devices.

That only scratches the surface of how complex and needlessly restrictive the
app development landscape is for something that is all called "Windows" and
that has a large amount of code and technology in common.

Microsoft makes developers bear the highest burden in figuring out "What is an
optimal development approach for all these things called Windows?" and
provides the lowest number of potential customers.

On top of that uncertainty is uncertainty about devices: Does Microsoft want
OEMs, or are they going to build their own devices? Are the devices they have
built so far established a good track record? Are their OEMs enthusiastic or
are they wary and looking for an exit strategy? The question all these other
questions lead up to is "Does Windows Phone have a future?"

------
bhauer
I've been running 8.1 for the past couple days on my Lumia 920. Overall, I am
impressed.

Good stuff in 8.1:

\- The new calendar user interface, as Anand points out in his review, is more
polished than it was in 8. This was needed since the Calendar in 8 was a bit
amateurish in its appearance. If you looked really close, you could see that
it used pseudo-Latin words on the days in the month view to indicate you had
appointments on those days. But the words weren't the appointment names!

\- Six columns of live tiles (3 of medium size) makes the home screen
information-dense. I have headlines, updates, the latest movie news, calendar
items, weather, TSLA's price ($192?? Maybe time to buy more?), e-mails, and a
bunch of other nonsense flipping around and dancing. It's a bit chaotic but
overall I like this a whole lot more than what I remember from when I used
Android and before that, iOS.

\- The signal strength, wifi, and battery life indicators are now always on
the home screen. You no longer need to tap the top of the screen to see these.
I liked the minimalism they were aiming for by making these slip away after a
moment in 8. But I can see why they decided to bring them back as permanent
fixtures. Luckily, they still hide in apps, giving maximal screen real-estate
to productivity.

\- Finally, an official podcast application that accepts URLs. In 8, I wasn't
able to subscribe to a podcast via URL, so if the podcast I wanted wasn't in
Microsoft's library, a third-party app was needed.

\- Accessories such as Data Sense, which gives a breakdown of data
utilization, and Storage Sense, which shows how storage space is used. These
types of accessory are old news for Android and iOS, but were oddly lacking on
WP. I had been using a horrible proprietary AT&T app to monitor data usage
previously.

\- The notifications ("Action Center") user interface is nice. Very Android-
ish.

\- Cortana is a cute addition. Finally having a voice assistant app confirms
the suspicion I had when Siri arrived on iOS: I don't really have much of a
use case for this. I suppose the next time I need directions somewhere, this
will be nice. The sparkle of more promise is in Cortana's potential to
interface with applications. If, for example, Cortana can use GroupMe (my
messaging application of choice) to send messages in addition to SMS, I could
find myself using that more frequently. But I don't use a lot of SMS, so
Cortana's messaging feature is of limited value to me.

Bad stuff:

\- I've had the Calendar application and the music player each crash once. And
in both cases, it was a device-reboot style crash. This is a developer build,
so I will give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt that the final version will
not crash like this.

\- Cortana isn't quite living up to its potential. I've not actually used
Siri, so I am not saying it's worse than Siri. But I want to see more
applications support Cortana, and more smoothly than is done by the few that
do integrate today ("Flixster, show latest movies"). For example, I'd like
Cortana to just _know_ that I use GroupMe to message my wife and SMS to
message someone else. As another example, Twitter doesn't seem to be
integrated into Cortana much yet. I think the only integration is Cortana
pushing tweets out. Incoming just arrive to the Twitter app and notifications.

~~~
Rakathos
It's important to note that the Cortana app itself is in beta. I think the
most interesting news about Cortana is that, unlike Siri and Google Now, it
can be extended by 3rd-party developers.

For example, my Chase Mobile app uses Cortana. By activating her and saying
"Chase Mobile ATM", Cortana will launch the app and search for nearby ATMs. I
imagine that the GroupMe developers can extend it in the same way: "GroupMe
Send 'your message here'".

~~~
MBCook
> It's important to note that the Cortana app itself is in beta

I would say that's a cop-out. If it's a headline feature, it's not a beta. It
should work correctly (ignoring 3rd party apps having to update to integrate).

This applies to Apple as well. When they first announced Siri, they called it
beta but it was the headline feature in _all their ads_.

If you add a weird little feature, I'm OK with the beta label. But you don't
get a free pass on half-implemented or buggy software. You can't have it be a
focus and say "but it's not ready".

(This isn't about Cortana, I haven't used it and can't comment on how complete
it is. This is a general rant.)

~~~
Rakathos
Oh I agree, it shouldn't be advertised as a headline feature if it's not fully
functional. I'm just pointing out that Microsoft considers Cortana to be in
beta, and it's only available on the developer preview of the OS. With that in
mind, it's possible that Cortana just isn't doing everything that it should be
doing, and thereby isn't quite as useful as it could be.

~~~
MBCook
As someone who uses Siri all the time, I can't wait unt Apple copies 3rd party
app integration. There are a number of very small tasks I do repeatedly during
any given week that Siri could easily take care of if integration points were
available.

------
snarfy
Hopefully this is better than WP7(.5), which I personally could not stand and
ended up getting an android phone.

My #1 major gripe is that it is a phone second. I could write games for it in
C# with XNA, but I couldn't set a custom notification sound. It's dumb
priorities like that which made me abandon it.

------
eranation
I was an Android user since it was first out, would you recommend considering
the WP as my next phone? All I read around is great reviews, and I am not
really impressed with my Galaxy (mostly durability and reliability issues) Any
Android fans who switched to WP and wish to share?

~~~
samekh
I switched about a year ago after owning Android phones for about 5 years
before that. I was kind of a ROM junkie, and finally got tired of the whole
thing. When I switched, I quickly learned that Google is not friendly with
Windows Phone. You are better off just switching to MS versions of everything
(Skype instead of Hangouts, Outlook instead of GMail, etc.) It was actually
quite painless to do so. With the release of WP 8.1, I am really liking the
OS. I was never a huge user of apps, so the app ecosystem didnt bother me.
I've always found an app for pretty much everything and I love the design
language compared to Android.

------
icantthinkofone
fwiw, I have two employees who got Windows phones and, recently, both quickly
traded them in for Android phones first chance they had for at least some of
the reasons mentioned in the article.

~~~
wambotron
I got a windows phone a while back, never switched back. I really enjoy using
it.

My wife also switched after playing around with my phone. She doesn't want to
switch either.

So what's it worth? Nothing. Just 4 people with different personal
preferences. ;)

~~~
icantthinkofone
On that note, I have ten clients I routinely monitor their web site logs (I
run a web dev company). I have never seen a Windows phone visit any of those
sites and they're pretty popular, especially among the under 30 crowd.

------
biehl
TLDR; Damning with faint praise.

------
CmonDev
"...bleeding edge feature/app set that Android offers..." \- what are those
features?

~~~
untog
Android's intents system is yet to be rivaled. Though it's has also had it for
years, so I'm not sure if it could be considered bleeding edge.

Wireless payments, perhaps.

~~~
_random_
Nokia has NFC for payments as well AFAIK.

------
tatqx
Now if only they had a better way to design UIs than using clunky XAML. WinJS
+ CSS I think is a little better, but still not comparable to what iOS or even
Android has.

~~~
yulaow
Can you elaborate what you find ugly in xaml? I am using right now winJs but,
in my opinion, xaml allow to be really fast in ui design and binding data.
Used in combo with Blend (and I know too many people who totally ignore even
the existence of that sw) is a win-win

~~~
tonyedgecombe
What does Blend offer over the tooling in Visual Studio?

~~~
pjmlp
Similar workflows and designer support as flash and director tooling to design
the UIs, coupled with code editing support.

