Question for former Windows Phone users

[jdhooghe]

There are some quite unique launchers out there. Some launchers even have multiple themes available for you to download. I'm not sure on the quality but there are even a couple windows phone launchers

Sent from my smexy Note 5

 

[E Padilla]

I'm considering making the switch from Windows Phone to Android, specifically the Samsung Note 5, but I'm not familiar with the Android platform at all. I'm currently using a Lumina 830 and I've been happy with it. My reason for considering the move is because I'm not real comfortable with the new upcoming Windows 10 Mobile or the new rumored phones that are expected to be announced in October. I'm considering making the switch because I want to see how the new OS shakes out over time and see the direction MS takes with their hardware.
I'm looking for feedback about the Note 5 and what kinds of differences to expect when switching. Anything you can tell me about the Android experience. What I'm not interested in, is Windows Phone bashing, just facts and expectations. Thanks in advance.

I switched from a Nokia Lumia 1520 to the Note 5 and I must say it's a huge improvement. You will miss the simple, quick and intuitive windows operating system design that just worked near flawlessly but the access to so many more apps just trumps. Just ensure to get the standards that Microsoft offers to windows phone users on your Android like excel, word, power point. If you used one drive on your windows phone as I did well great news onedrive works just the same on android my pics sync to one drive and I turned off google drive. Then when you set up your email do it through the normal email application and sync your Microsoft account contacts to your phone. If you really miss the layout of windows phone there is a Windows phone launcher in store you can use that will give you a similar look and feel. Enjoy yourself with the note 5. It's funny since I left the windows platform for the same reason and also because windows phones has like no bank apps which annoyed the heck out of me. Otherwise the 1520 was a decent phone.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

 

[cre8tivspirit]

Just a couple more questions that came to mind.
1. How has your experience been with battery life? Does the non-removable battery in this phone live up to the hype?
2. How much of the 64GB of storage do you really get out of the box? And have any of you come up against a storage problem yet?

 

[MDMcAtee]

Just a couple more questions that came to mind.
1. How has your experience been with battery life? Does the non-removable battery in this phone live up to the hype?
2. How much of the 64GB of storage do you really get out of the box? And have any of you come up against a storage problem yet?

Battery life is excellent

About 54 gigs

None yet and I can always use the micro usb SD card reader or micro usb otg flash drive and have as much as I need to store.

Make the change bro, you'll be glad you did in a few minutes using it.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

 

[cre8tivspirit]

Okay, what out of the box apps do you all recommend that I delete, where I can, and disable, where I can't delete. I'm planning to continue using my OneDrive since I already have so much stored on it. I'm also going to continue to use my Live account for email, contacts and calendar. My other reason for wanting to delete/disable apps is because I dislike having useless, for me, apps sitting on my phone taking up precious storage space.

 

[DJCBS]

I can't really speak about the Note 5 or the Samsung Android experience because I've always tried to avoid TouchWiz and Samsung devices as the Devil avoids Holy Water (though that S6Edge in green...I've been *this close* to buy it).

But I can tell you that you will very easily get used to Android. It's mainly like actually having "real" Windows on a phone. You can do what you want, customize what you want and replace what you want. Or don't touch a thing. Exactly like Windows.

As for your contacts, emails etc. It will all work like a charm. I can tell you from my own personal experience, I've switched from WP to Android a year ago but my email, calendar and contacts are still on Outlook, my cloud storage is still OneDrive, I kept using Office...in resume, everything I could do on WP I can do on Android (often even better) and then I can do even more (the Microsoft Account app for example is miles better on Android than the Authenticator app on WP).

The only thing that really annoys me about Android is the need to root the phone to get rid of a ton of apps that I find useless, specially the Google ones. I get it why Google puts them there but I would like to be able to uninstall them as easily as on WP (apparently Google is scaling down on that, thank God). But you know, corporations will be corporations and we'll always have to deal with them trying to force us unto their services.


So don't be scared, don't be concerned and jump from the...burning platform You'll find out getting in Android's waters will be the best decision you'll be making

 

[Laura Knotek]

I don't have any Samsung devices, but I've switched from Windows Phone (Lumia 920) to 2013 Moto X (and my 2015 Moto X Pure Edition is currently being made--I should have it by September 15). You might be interested in reading about my impressions when I first made the switch. http://forums.androidcentral.com/phone-wars/508231-long-time-microsoft-user-tries-android-guess-what-ita-s-great.html

 

[Willyman]

Looooong time WP user (Lumia 800 -> HTC 8X -> Lumia 1020 -> Lumia 930).

The 930 disappointed me with hardware problems and overheating, so when an unexpected invite for a OnePlus One dropped in my Inbox I went for it. To be honest, it did take me a week or two to get accustomed completely to Android as an operating system. It's quite different to WP in its actions and gestures. But once you get the hang of it... oh man, there's no going back.

I remember writing a post on Windows Central about exactly this experience. It was an interesting switch also from a hardware perspective as the OnePlus One and Lumia 930 are very very similar on paper (CPU, screen resolution, screen size, ...). Here's how I would summarize my findings then (and now):

• Regardless of this phone having very similar processing power, Android is just faster. Apps open a lot faster and whatever task you can imagine is just that tiny little bit more fluent.
• Inter-app communication. I am frankly amazed to see how apps talk to each other in Android. E.g. uploading or sharing content to your various social networks or services is stupendously easy.
• Apps and availability in general ... Perhaps the biggest breath of fresh air and should be no surprise to anyone...
• Personalization: WP8.0 improved things somewhat, but no-one will deny that the level of customisation possible on Android is unparalleled. I'm on my second Android phone now (Note 5) and I've made the UI look completely different. Can't do that on WP that's for sure.

I will say this: as a UI, WP is cleaner and prettier perhaps. The UX is very intuitive once/if you get used to it (my wife never did... even after a year). If WP10 could solve some of the remaining issues (app availability, speed, inter-app communication) it could potentially lure me back

 

[Laura Knotek]

Looooong time WP user (Lumia 800 -> HTC 8X -> Lumia 1020 -> Lumia 930).

The 930 disappointed me with hardware problems and overheating, so when an unexpected invite for a OnePlus One dropped in my Inbox I went for it. To be honest, it did take me a week or two to get accustomed completely to Android as an operating system. It's quite different to WP in its actions and gestures. But once you get the hang of it... oh man, there's no going back.

I remember writing a post on Windows Central about exactly this experience. It was an interesting switch also from a hardware perspective as the OnePlus One and Lumia 930 are very very similar on paper (CPU, screen resolution, screen size, ...). Here's how I would summarize my findings then (and now):

• Regardless of this phone having very similar processing power, Android is just faster. Apps open a lot faster and whatever task you can imagine is just that tiny little bit more fluent.
• Inter-app communication. I am frankly amazed to see how apps talk to each other in Android. E.g. uploading or sharing content to your various social networks or services is stupendously easy.
• Apps and availability in general ... Perhaps the biggest breath of fresh air and should be no surprise to anyone...
• Personalization: WP8.0 improved things somewhat, but no-one will deny that the level of customisation possible on Android is unparalleled. I'm on my second Android phone now (Note 5) and I've made the UI look completely different. Can't do that on WP that's for sure.

I will say this: as a UI, WP is cleaner and prettier perhaps. The UX is very intuitive once/if you get used to it (my wife never did... even after a year). If WP10 could solve some of the remaining issues (app availability, speed, inter-app communication) it could potentially lure me back

Many Windows Phone users make claims about so-called Android lag. Some even say, "just wait till you've used an Android device for 6 months, and you'll see the lag". I've been using a 2013 Moto X for 6 months now, and there isn't any lag. I haven't ever done a factory reset either. "Resuming" and "loading" on my Nokia Lumia 920 made that device practically unusable. Factory reset and not restoring any backups did not help with the "resuming" and "loading".

 

[Willyman]

Many Windows Phone users make claims about so-called Android lag. Some even say, "just wait till you've used an Android device for 6 months, and you'll see the lag". I've been using a 2013 Moto X for 6 months now, and there isn't any lag. I haven't ever done a factory reset either. "Resuming" and "loading" on my Nokia Lumia 920 made that device practically unusable. Factory reset and not restoring any backups did not help with the "resuming" and "loading".

Yeah, I'm sure we can't generalise for all android devices and certainly not for older devices, but in my experience it can be a very fast and smooth OS. This Note is blazing fast, but perhaps not the smoothest. The OnePlus One was incredibly smooth once the OS settled into its stable state.

 

[greggsjh]

I owned windowsubsidiary phones since the beginning. I had a Samsung focus, Nokia 920, and Nokia 1520. I absolutely loved the 1520, but became disappointed with the lack of newer, flagship phones. I too am unsure of windows 10 so I bought the new galaxy note 5.

In short, I'm disappointed. Overall, I found the Android OS highly disorganized righthe off the bat. I had a hard time finding anything and navigation is a pain compared to the simplicity of Windows. Battery life is also a problem. I could listen to music and watch movies all day on my windows devices and only have to charge at night while I slept. Not so with android. Charging is a constant worry and the idea of running out of batteries is always looming over your shoulder.

Yes, the device is well built and the s-pen is worthwhile if you like to doodle like me. I was surprised how great it worked with a relatively small device screen (compared to paper or a tablet). If you aren't an artist, you probably won't be impressed.

I miss Cortana too... I think it's supposed to be available on android, but i have not tried to install it. The device is just more cumbersome to use. Yes. There are more apps, but overall I don't use anything that wasn't available on windows. In fact, I think android forces you to have to use more apps just to make up for their shortcomings. The only app outside of virus software (which is another issue) that I use is ustream.

I miss some of the games from Xbox live. I also miss kids corner....

Not saying that Windows 10 will be better. Idk. But just feeling kinda like politics. Picking the best of 2 evils.

Yeah. Just feeling unfulfilled overall... just my 2 cents.

 

[racedog]

Yeah. Just feeling unfulfilled overall... just my 2 cents.

I also came to android from many years of windows mobile. The transition had its issues but a year ago I tried going back to Windows and hated it. Like all things YMMV and if you're really that unhappy then you probably should go back to Windows Pbone. There is no one size fits all in smartphones so why settle for something that doesn't make you happy?