Below is a guest post from my husband about his Windows Phone. A while back ago I asked him to write a post comparing the different phones he has had. He the only person I know who has had an iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Windows phone and is not working for CNET or another technology review company. He has used and lived with each of these phones at some period of time. He started with the iPhone 3G then moved to the Android. He had a Blackberry for work and now has a Galaxy S4 for his work phone. He currently has a Windows Phone as his personal phone.
He started out writing a big ol’ post comparing all of the platforms but realized lots of people have already done that, so why reinvent the wheel. It was after some good natured teasing I gave him about his Windows phone that he decided to write his post about his phone.
So enjoy your Friday Fun guest post and maybe it might get you thinking about a Windows phone. I have to admit, as much as I tease him, he is right about the Office capabilities being a big plus.
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My name is Mike and I am a Windows Phone user.
Yes, I know. There are actually some of us out there and believe it or not, we really do like it. Alot.
It was a long winding path to get here, over the iOS river and through the Android woods. I won’t bore you with the details but I have had plenty of exposure to both of the major platforms through personal and work devices.
Using Apple products has always felt to me like I’m living in a subdivision with an overzealous homeowners’ assocation. It’s very clean and everything works but God help me if I want to put up non-sactioned Christmas lights or change the flag on my mailbox.
I won’t even mention iTunes. I’m still seeing a therapist over that.
When I went to Android it was for the promise of the exact opposite of the iPhone experience. Open, free, do whatever you want. It was the Summer of Love all over again.
But the more time I spent within that user interface, the jarring transitions from one app to another and the inconsistent overall delivery of the experience, it began to feel more and more that I had taken the brown acid and was in for a bad trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoLlKmQSHU
The app quality and overall safety itself wasn’t exactly what I had in mind either. Downloading something from the Google app store felt like the smartphone version of the Russian roulette scene from The Deerhunter.
It was at my moment of greatest smartphone despair that I found myself at an AT&T store and face to face with a Nokia Lumia. What do I have to lose? I told my then five year old son to stand still and try and be quiet while I tried something. While he went and did the total opposite of that I took the phone for a test drive.
I work for a software company so I have used countless numbers of different programs on different platforms over the course of my career. The Windows Phone UI was one of the simplist, most intuitive I had ever used.
Even using one hand and half my brain to try and corral a kid who was going Dennis the Menace inside the store, I effortlessly moved through the interface. I read (fake) e-mail and text messages, did a quick Google search and was even able to take a photo of my son hiding behind the Samsung Galaxy Note display (thanks to the dedicated camera button on the side).
The more I used it and the more I read about it, it was like having the best of both worlds. The live tiles and the Metro (Modern UI) interface gave every app a uniform sameness but yet there was a freedom to change and different ways to view and do things. It was like the hippies had grown up, moved into the subdivision, and gotten rid of the rules but still kept their lawns mowed at a reasonable height.
The first time I emailed myself a couple of Word documents and an Excel spreadsheet for a meeting and they opened without so much as a single glitch I almost cried.
Even the physical qualities were to my taste. I like a little heft to my phone, something that doesn’t feel like it will fly out of my hand as soon as I pull it out of my pocket. For example, my two year old daughter’s pink barrettes feel sturdier than the Galaxy S4 I use for work.
I could go on and on (and maybe I will if the Krafty Librarian gets lazy and needs me to fill up more space). If you find yourself in the smartphone doldrums like I was, I highly recommend you at least pick one up and give it a try.
Or you might just be happier like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19vR1GldRI
What do you think of the HTC One phone?
Thanks for this – I’ve had two Windows Phones already and am considering the S4 for my next upgrade. I appreciate the perspective, since very few people I know have Windows phones. The biggest hurdle for me is that most medical apps (including the almighty UpToDate) are not compatible. Not a dealbreaker though.
So I’m on the fence again 🙂