Microsoft bangs final nail in Nokia device coffin
- Thread starter voyagerfan99
- Start date
Geoff
VIP Member
"we're scaling back, but we're not out!" How do you scale back an already pathetic device lineup and app ecosystem?
I used to want a Windows Phone years ago, but they've actually been getting worse and worse every year instead of better. Fewer devices, no more hardware partners (it looked good with the HTC One series and more being made), and lots of talk about unified apps and running Android apps on WP, but that all has been lost it seems.
I used to want a Windows Phone years ago, but they've actually been getting worse and worse every year instead of better. Fewer devices, no more hardware partners (it looked good with the HTC One series and more being made), and lots of talk about unified apps and running Android apps on WP, but that all has been lost it seems.
I'm interested to see what the future holds. It's a shame that the Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL flagships don't have the same premium, metal feel that the older Nokia Lumia flagships like the 930 and the 925 had. They're well-specced phones with great cameras, performance and displays but they share the same plastic feel and appearance that the lower-end Lumias have had for years. Owning both a 925 and a 930 and having used the 950 you can tell immediately that the 950 doesn't feel, or look, as nice. The 950 feels more like my low-end 625 than the 930 it replaces.
Windows 10 runs quite well on my handsets but not as well as Windows Phone 8.1 did and although it is always improving with regular updates when it comes to stability, it's still a little buggy/unstable for general consumer use and the battery life is just shocking at the moment (especially if you've been used to Windows Phone 7, 8 or 8.1. On 8.1 my 925 could go two days without recharging, on 10 I can barely get about 12 hours out of it. Random hangs and reboots can be an issue too). I think Windows 10 on phones at least has been a little rushed and that hasn't helped adoption. I haven't tried Continuum yet, it only works on the Lumia 950, 950 XL and the new HP Elite X3 and the two people I know who own a 950 don't have a Continuum Box. It looks amazing and the concept is great but apparently it's also a bit buggy at the moment. Makes you wonder when it'll ever be right. The universal apps are good but it's a shame the Android app compatibility on 10 hasn't materialised.
Since Microsoft acquired Nokia the quality has generally gone a bit downhill. The Lumia 930 suffered from some flawed production techniques: the screen on mine for example is starting to lift in the upper right corner and that means the proximity sensor doesn't work so when I'm in a call and take the phone away from my ear the screen remains black and doesn't show the call options like it should (unless I press the power button twice). Not a big deal and since my handset is 2 years old and I got it used I don't mind but when the 930 first came out it was a big problem that affected a lot of handsets and it was caused by a poor glue that didn't stick very well. The funny thing is I got this 930 to replace my 925 which the earpiece speaker had broken on, meaning I couldn't hear anybody on the phone. Ha.
Wonder what the next phones will be like. I wonder if dropping the Nokia brand was a sensible decision. It was a famous brand with lots of history that people had known and respected for years. The Nokia range was quite big covering just about everything but only really Nokia (now Microsoft) got onboard with Windows Phone. HTC, LG and Samsung made a few devices here and there back in the days of WP7 and WP8 but in the end only Nokia had a full line-up of devices covering everything from low-end to flagship. HP has just come out with a new Windows 10 smartphone, I wonder what else they'll do.
Windows 10 runs quite well on my handsets but not as well as Windows Phone 8.1 did and although it is always improving with regular updates when it comes to stability, it's still a little buggy/unstable for general consumer use and the battery life is just shocking at the moment (especially if you've been used to Windows Phone 7, 8 or 8.1. On 8.1 my 925 could go two days without recharging, on 10 I can barely get about 12 hours out of it. Random hangs and reboots can be an issue too). I think Windows 10 on phones at least has been a little rushed and that hasn't helped adoption. I haven't tried Continuum yet, it only works on the Lumia 950, 950 XL and the new HP Elite X3 and the two people I know who own a 950 don't have a Continuum Box. It looks amazing and the concept is great but apparently it's also a bit buggy at the moment. Makes you wonder when it'll ever be right. The universal apps are good but it's a shame the Android app compatibility on 10 hasn't materialised.
Since Microsoft acquired Nokia the quality has generally gone a bit downhill. The Lumia 930 suffered from some flawed production techniques: the screen on mine for example is starting to lift in the upper right corner and that means the proximity sensor doesn't work so when I'm in a call and take the phone away from my ear the screen remains black and doesn't show the call options like it should (unless I press the power button twice). Not a big deal and since my handset is 2 years old and I got it used I don't mind but when the 930 first came out it was a big problem that affected a lot of handsets and it was caused by a poor glue that didn't stick very well. The funny thing is I got this 930 to replace my 925 which the earpiece speaker had broken on, meaning I couldn't hear anybody on the phone. Ha.
Wonder what the next phones will be like. I wonder if dropping the Nokia brand was a sensible decision. It was a famous brand with lots of history that people had known and respected for years. The Nokia range was quite big covering just about everything but only really Nokia (now Microsoft) got onboard with Windows Phone. HTC, LG and Samsung made a few devices here and there back in the days of WP7 and WP8 but in the end only Nokia had a full line-up of devices covering everything from low-end to flagship. HP has just come out with a new Windows 10 smartphone, I wonder what else they'll do.
Last edited:
I like Microsoft, but I'm pretty sure that when it comes to the public's brand perception Nokia probably had a better brand image than Microsoft. Unfortunately a lot of people associate Microsoft with crashing, updates and freezing but people associated Nokia with quality and reliability so I think dropping the Nokia brand so soon could have been a mistake. Part of me wonders if Microsoft wants to be a bit like Apple: having control of the hardware and the software. Yet, the funny thing is that Windows 10 still doesn't work 100% perfectly on their own phones! It's good and overall on the right phone it's a nice experience, but it's not 100% there yet given some of the bugs I mentioned in the last post.
It's a shame that the 950 doesn't follow the design of the older Nokia phones. Maybe the next one will. Microsoft has been criticised quite heavily for the 950's plastic feel which a lot of people were disappointed about especially given it's the flagship and other flagships, like the S7, feel much more premium. We were expecting another metal phone like the 930 but instead we got a scaled up 535. I put a 535 and a 950 together (had a 535 hanging around school and a colleague has a 950) and you can see that the 950 looks and feels just like the 535 (but with far superior specifications, of course). The 535 is available now for £80 SIM free, the 950 is £400. Says it all! We expect plastic in an £80 phone but in a £400 phone? This used to be one of my criticisms with Samsung flagships a few years ago.
Last edited:
Google doesn't exactly have a stellar privacy record either though.I think people associate Microsoft with monitoring your entire existence and forcing themselves upon you ala Windows 10.
Anyway I will keep you lot informed about how Windows 10 runs on the smartphones since I think I'm on the only one here with a Windows 10 smartphone. It does get better with every update but let's not forget that the first Windows 10 phones (the 950 and 950 XL) came out in November last year. Windows 10 Mobile wasn't really ready for general release back then I don't think. As beta software it was fine, but probably not quite ready for general release. That meant there were some negative reviews about the 950's software in early reviews of the phone that have probably been fixed now. It probably ran better on the Windows 10-designed 950 and 950 XL than it did on the 2.5 year old 925 I was running it on back then though.
Pretty much all of the updates for Windows Phone 7, 8 and 8.1 added new features to the OS and they came out maybe twice a year. So far, the updates for 10 have been bug fixes and they come thick and fast. Every other week or so it seems. The older OSes were all more stable when they came out.
Last edited:
Intel_man
VIP Member
Google doesn't exactly have a stellar privacy record either though.
Google and privacy should never in the same sentence, except this one explaining it.
