Wednesday, December 5, 2012

OP ED: BlackBerry vs Android vs iOS vs Windows Phone 8 - Part 4

Windows Phone 8

If there is any other mobile operating system out there that has the greatest potential but still lacking developer and carrier support its Windows Phone. Windows Phone 7 radically changed the Windows Phone experience. I still remember my father carting around a Windows Mobile device. It was a brick with a stylus, a slideout, horizontal keyboard, and the complete Microsoft office suite. When the time came to upgrade he went BlackBerry. I never saw a Windows Mobile device again.

I think it was 2010 that Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7. The operating system was new, fresh, and appealing. The OS was responsive, fluid, and fast, but the lack of features and developer support made the phone go unnoticed. Microsoft then pushed out the Mango update bringing the OS to 7.5 and adding a lot of features. It was more catch up than a ground-breaking mobile experience. Finally, Windows Phone 8 arrived amid tremendous hype and curiosity.



Windows Phone always appealed to me because it had one distinct advantage no one else could touch: Microsoft. Being a direct Microsoft product meant exclusive access to the Office Suite and other Windows services. Even better, Microsoft took the Office Suite experience to the cloud with Office 365. In my business, mobile and cloud computing is helping make work more efficient. Even I had to admit that having access to Office while on the road is priceless. BlackBerry, Android, and iOS have their share of third party apps that can view and do some document and spreadsheet editing. The problem is that we work with secure spreadsheets, documents containing embedded logos, and heavily formatted files. Only the actual Office Suite can access and edit those files.

Now, I'm not new to Windows Phone. I had the HTC Trophy on Verizon before the Mango update. I then owned but never activated the HTC HD7, the Dell Venue Pro, and the HTC Radar. All fine devices with literally the same user experience just different device styles. With the HTC Trophy as the sole Windows Phone experience on Verizon Wireless, I had to wait until the launch of Windows Phone 8 to find out if one of those new devices would land on Verizon.


The Signature Windows Phone 8
Ah, the HTC 8X. Finally, a true Windows Phone device to experience the latest Windows Phone 8 OS. Microsoft calls this phone the "Signature Windows Phone 8." Not sure what makes it "signature." Perhaps its the sleek, unibody design. Or the bold colors (though mine is black exclusively from Verizon). Or maybe its the fact that this large phone actually feels small and comfortable to hold. Whatever the reason may be, the fact is that this is one beautiful device complete with a fantastic camera, bright display, and high quality fit and finish. The processor is a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor that powers an already speedy OS. The extra live tile customization really let the homescreen fit more information in a fashionable way, but if you're not careful your homescreen could look like the news tickers on the cable news networks. Information overload. Perhaps the greatest strength of this phone is the seamless integration with social networks and SkyDrive. That's great since my company and my personal hobbies rely on facebook, twitter and somewhat with LinkedIn. Having all my updates filter through my contacts, er, People app is genius just like BlackBerry already does. Windows Phone 8 also allows me to put my most pertinent information on my homescreen with live updates so I can get a glimpse of my messages without actually opening the app! I really love the minimalistic approach of the OS. The OS feels clean and is easy to navigate.

So far so good, but . . .

Strike One: Lack of Expandable Memory
Windows Phone 8 allows for expandable memory where Windows Phone 7 did not. This is starting to sound like a broken record. How could the HTC not have expandable memory? The Nokia Lumia 920 is the flagship Windows Phone 8 available only on AT&T has expandable memory. 16 gbs is not enough memory anymore. Sure, the phone has SkyDrive and Box.com apps, but what happens in situations without data connection? Man, huge miss here!

Strike Two: HTML5 Compatibility Lacking
Microsoft bragged a lot about producing a better browsing experience with Internet Explorer 10 optimized for html5. The web pages do load really fast but there's no flash support on browser in my HTC 8X. Flash is on the way out in favor of html5 anyway. My blogs (business and personal) are hosted by Blogger. The mobile pages are optimized for html5 compatible browsers. Why is it that my blogs don't work on IE10? Even browsing the Mobile Nations websites are hits and misses with the embedded videos. Oh, man. This browser is really, really lagging it!

Fouled Away: Email App
By now you should know how important the emailing experience is for me. At first, I had much difficulty setting up my Yahoo! Small Business email accounts on the 8X. Later I found out its because the Email app doesn't play nice with Yahoo accounts in general. After a switch from POP3 to IMAP, I got my mail working. Where the app redeemed itself though was the settings. I love having a unified inbox! What's even better is that I can group my inboxes to receive different live tile updates. So my phone has one group for personal email and one group for business email. This really helps me keep things better organized. I can only set one notification for all the emails but this is where the live tiles really come in handy. When I pull up my homescreen, the live tile groups indicate which group received an email. If its personal, it can wait. If its business, got to check it. I do wish I can make the app check for updates sooner than 15 minutes but for now I can live with it.

Conclusion
No strike out here. The HTC 8X survived my needs test and threw in a few extras to help me be more productive. SkyDrive and Office helped counterbalance the cons of the Windows Phone 8 bare-bones operating system. The new OS truly feels less than Windows Phone 7.5. Many major apps like Tango Video Chat, Chase, PayPal, and others were pulled because they are not compatible or don't play nice with Windows Phone 8. Whatsapp just recently reappeared in the Windows Phone Store but the newest reviews are dreadful. That seems to be the response every new major app seems to be getting when it updates to "support" Windows Phone 8. This is disappointing to say the least.

The great thing about the HTC 8X is Beats Audio. Couple that with the recently rebranded Zune-to-XBox Music app and I just have a blast enjoying my music during breaks.

As of this writing, I continue to use the HTC 8X though I still miss my BlackBerry. The 8X is one strike away from being replaced with my older BlackBerry. There's a lot of untapped potential for Windows Phone 8. Microsoft released it with many bugs and missing features, but for now, the 8X with some great offerings of its own remains at bat.

Up Next: Comparing the Experiences to my BlackBerry Bold 9930

Click below to read previous posts to this series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 5

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