Question for former Windows Phone users

[cre8tivspirit]

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.

 

[Carlo Villa]

I never had a Windows phone so I can't tell you the differences on both platforms but what I can tell you is to go to Best Buy and play around with the Note 5.

I've had the Note2,3, 4 and now the 5 and I love this phone.

Give it a shot.

Google is amazing at backing up all your contacts, apps, photos, etc as long as you have a Google account.

Android is way more versatile.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Blacklac]

I just switched from a 1520 to a Note 4. Overall, I'm pleased. First Android phone I've owned, but I own a Nexus 7 2013.

If W10 pans out, I'll have no problem heading back. I'm just for the best looking device and OS UI. I don't care who makes it.

The App situation is clearly much better... Lol.

FWIW, I don't notice Android being any slower/laggier than WP8.1. It can bog down for a second closing intensive Apps/games, but generally it is very snappy. I've had my Nexus 7 a while, too. It's on 5.1.1 and it runs great still.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[OldTrader]

I just purchased the Note 5 after rolling with a Lumia 1020 for the last couple of years. All I can say is it is a night and day difference. There is no way I will ever go back to windows even though I liked the windows operating system.

 

[cre8tivspirit]

How easy will it be for me to use my Live email account or am I going to have to change everything to a google account?
Will my contacts and calendar information transfer easily?
Can I merge Facebook friends information with my contacts or does it store them separately?

I'm sure there's more questions I need to ask but these are all that come to mind right now

 

[MDMcAtee]

Well let's see I had the 1020 and the 1520 both which were good phones.

You are going to be amazed at everything the phone can do, as well as Android in general, however at the same time you most likely will be a little intimidated or bewildered by the sheer number of choices allowed.

You won't find a resuming screen as what happens on WP, nor will you have live tiles as you now have, but you can set up your Note to look almost exactly the same way if you prefer with some of the various launchers. I use Nova Prime.

Most of your integrated core apps are here, however most all have something different and some even run better. Cortana is here, but needs a lot of work yet to be even close to what you have now, and is a bit of a battery hog, but will get better at some point, that's just Microsofts way of doing this as you already know.

Everyone has a favorite way of setting up their phones, and many myself included choose a different launcher because of being able to do more than what Touch Wiz offers, and for many folks TW is fine and never switch to something different. I suggest that you settle in with it, and learn how to actually use your phone before changing a lot of things, this way you can find out what you like and dislike or are having trouble with.

Themes... There are scads of them to choose from and being able to try them out is pretty frigging awesome since you can personalize your phone to look and feel exactly how you want at anytime.

Music and video players... You are in for a real treat there. I use Power Amp Pro and MX player respectively and love them.

Google Now, Google maps are excellent too.

Since there is no SD card slot for this phone, I suggest you search out the otg solutions readily available for Android. While not as elegant as a internal storage solution, it does work for large libraries of music, videos, movies and provides you with the means to offload large raw files for your camera you are sure to be taking.

Look into the battery life tips and tricks threads for fully optimizing your phone. While Microsoft did a good job at doing this for you, Google lets you do this yourself to what you have running and syncing and as such you will need to learn more about this to get the most out of your device.

All of this seems daunting or overwhelming at first, but take your time and make the effort because that will make the difference between good battery life and mediocre battery life and your overall impressions of the phone.

Don't be afraid to ask questions if you are having trouble with it, we all start not being sure, but after a little while you will be seeing first hand what you were really missing being on a WP.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

 

[MDMcAtee]

How easy will it be for me to use my Live email account or am I going to have to change everything to a google account?
Will my contacts and calendar information transfer easily?
Can I merge Facebook friends information with my contacts or does it store them separately?

I'm sure there's more questions I need to ask but these are all that come to mind right now

Live mail is all I use and is super easy once you down load the app and log in.

Facebook I don't know anything about since I have never used it.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

 

[Blacklac]

Yes, contacts pull info from all accounts you are logged into, just like WP. Facebook is just a better, full featured, App too.

Google Now is really nice. I actually prefer it slightly to Cortana.

Consider Google Now Launcher if you want a more stock Android experience. The S-Pen features will still work too! https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...id=com.google.android.launcher&token=ullT53LE

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[James8561]

Just switched from a Lumia 1520 to Note 5. The speed difference is amazing, especially the browser. We know IE has a reputation problem and most of it is truth. You will find that the multitasking and Web browsing experience is vastly improved.

For contacts, all you need to do is to set up your Microsoft account as an exchange active sync inside the native email app and all of your contacts and calendar will automatically sync over. Install the FB app and turn on contact sync and you can have the Contacts app looking just like the people hub.

All Microsoft apps and services are available. I've disabled as much of the Google craps as I can and replaced everything with Microsoft including Bing as default search and OneDrive as default cloud.

An important con to know is that if you're used to third party apps with loss of features on WP they are nonexistent on android. The official YouTube app sucks with no background playback and tons of annoying ads. The official Instagram app is barely bone instead of feature rich like 6tag.

The upside is that websites that yoy have their app installed will automatically open in their app if you choose. Say you click a link to androidcentral.com and it'll automatically open up the AC app. I find this excellent. Also the ability to endlessly customize things and automate things male android feels more like a PC than a phone and is its greatest strength

 

[sup3r1or]

I had Lumia 930. Now on note 5 and coundnt be happier. Lived wp at first and after a year it drove me insane. I wrote a big post why on wpcentral forums

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[cre8tivspirit]

I appreciate all the information given. Sounds like I'll still be able to use a lot of the features that I've been using. OneDrive is important to me because I use it pretty extensively for my storage needs, especially since I'm going to be giving up my SD card.

I'm a little surprised to hear that some of the apps that are official apps aren't feature rich. I would have thought that android apps would have been treated as well as the iPhone apps.

I still believe in the WP. I'm just hesitant to jump on the initial release of Windows 10 so I want to let it shake out before I reconsider it. The other reason for looking elsewhere is because I don't have any real upgrade options as far as phones go right now. The rumored new phones that are supposed to be coming sound nice but I'm a little concerned. The other reason I'm considering the switch is because I really like the Note 5 phone, regardless of the OS. I just happen to think that it's a well made, well thought out piece of hardware and the feedback about it has been pretty positive as well. The only thing I was a little concerned about was the lack of an SD card but being able to use OneDrive should help with that.

 

[johnmcd348]

How easy will it be for me to use my Live email account or am I going to have to change everything to a google account?
Will my contacts and calendar information transfer easily?
Can I merge Facebook friends information with my contacts or does it store them separately?

I'm sure there's more questions I need to ask but these are all that come to mind right now

I moved over to Android with the Note2 about 4 years ago when Windows made the major change over with Windows 7 to 7.5/8 on their phones and left many people expecting the upgrade behind. I'd been a Windows Mobile/Phone user for about 10 years prior to that. I switched over to Android mainly because of the screen size/usability and I really like Stylus computing input. I stayed with the Note 2 up until last week when the Note5 came out and only then moved on because I felt it was time to get a newer unit since mine was beginning to show it's age.

The move takes some getting use to but it's not painful.

You're Email, Apps, and other accounts can easily be implemented on the Android devices. I've got the same Hotmail and Microsoft account on my Note 5 that I've been using as an email address for the past 20+ years and had no problems with it.

With Android, you'll find many more options and choices than are available for Windows Phone. That too, was one of my reasons for moving over. There were just many different apps that I wanted and needed for my hobbies and work that just were not offered for Windows but readily available for Android and iOS and it still seems to be an issue, just not quite as bad.

One thing that I REALLY liked with Windows that I truly miss with Android are the Live Tiles. I'm not a fan of the layout of the Android screen and liked having access to whatever apps I wanted on my front page and they allowed me to see what I needed without having to access the app every time. I got used to it, but I still miss it.

 

[cvflowe]

I am a die hard Windows fan and have been testing Q10 for quite some time. I had been using the Lumia 1520 before I recently made the switch to the Note 5.

The reasons I made the switch, the Note 5, size, looks and functionality is exactly what I have been looking for. Microsoft is just not there yet.

Onedrive and all of the other core Microsoft apps works well. I will even continue with the Microsoft music program since I use it on my surface.

Good luck to you.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[bhatech]

You will get a platform which is embraced by developers, don't see windows phone providing any advantage over Android other than nice looking UI which gets boring after few weeks. I use phones on all platforms but every time I use Windows phone as my daily driver I get frustrated by how bad the 3rd party apps perform. I don't care if it's developers or MS issue but as a user it creates a sub par experience.

If you use lots of apps then definitely Android/iOS will be like heaven compared to windows phone. If you don't use that many apps and only rely on apps that come with phone and few other major apps, you will probably don't see much difference and should be fine anywhere.


Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

[cre8tivspirit]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm going to be making the switch next weekend. I need to make a list of apps that I'm currently using so I can make sure I add them to the new phone and move a lot of data off my SD card to OneDrive. A couple more questions. I use Microsoft Authentication for 2 factor authentication to my MS accounts. What is the Android counterpart that will work? How will I get my favorites from IE into the new browser, or can I? Does anyone know if I'll have to repurchase apps I currently own on the WP platform when I switch? I'm thinking about apps like Amazing Weather HD, NOAA Weather, etc.

 

[johnmcd348]

There is a Microsoft Account app for Android that does that also. I've been using it for a few years with my Onedrive and Office stuff.

 

[MDMcAtee]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm going to be making the switch next weekend. I need to make a list of apps that I'm currently using so I can make sure I add them to the new phone and move a lot of data off my SD card to OneDrive. A couple more questions. I use Microsoft Authentication for 2 factor authentication to my MS accounts. What is the Android counterpart that will work? How will I get my favorites from IE into the new browser, or can I? Does anyone know if I'll have to repurchase apps I currently own on the WP platform when I switch? I'm thinking about apps like Amazing Weather HD, NOAA Weather, etc.

I think you can get the apk for IE in various places, but don't know how well it runs since it's cloud based off Microsoft servers used for developers. I would export your bookmarks into chrome before switching since it will still be there for you.

I didn't have much luck on all of my the paid apps when switching platforms you will just have to try them and see.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5

 

[James8561]

There's no syncing off bookmarks or app purchase between Android and WP so you'll have to start over with everything. I recommend weather live

 

[cre8tivspirit]

Everyone has a favorite way of setting up their phones, and many myself included choose a different launcher because of being able to do more than what Touch Wiz offers, and for many folks TW is fine and never switch to something different.

What are launchers? Is Touch Wiz a launcher?

 

[MDMcAtee]

What are launchers? Is Touch Wiz a launcher?

Touch Wiz is Samsung's skin that they have put on the pure version of Android which is known as AOSP

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-z-what-aosp

The Launcher is

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/android_launcher.html

Launcher Pro and other launchers are available in the Play Store. Each offer you a chance to customize your phone in a different way and have different features.

Posted from my Galaxy Note 5