Att: Windows Phone owners: Win 10 Mobile has been spotted and it wants your phone Windows Phone users beware: Microsoft has quietly begun rolling out the Windows 10 system update in various territories. Until such a time as the new software platform reaches maturity, users may experience a loss of features, diminished battery life and unexpected bugs. And it’s an irrevocable change - once you accept Windows …
Likewise on my 925.
There has been a lot of MSFT bashing of late, with some justification as regards to W10 (Desktop OS) and the upgrade tactics employed. Still, the W10M reception has been unusually harsh and not in line with what I'm experiencing or reading on other sites.
It is a shame. The problems with Windows 10 come down to mainly poor communication from MS and many sites bashing W10.
Trying to push the updates on people doesn't help.
Which is a great shame, it is an improvement over 7 and 8, although OneDrive on W10 is currently a step backwards over 8.1. Hopefully the Redstone update will sort that out.
I've been running it on my 1020 since the summer.
Oh, and you can go back to Windows 8.1. Microsoft have a reset tool that will re-install 8.1 on the phone, in fact it was a necessary step for beta testers a couple of times, you had to go back to 8.1 and then install the 10 update again.
I'm was happy with it on the 1020 and I now have a 950. My wife now has the 1020 (she had a 630, but wanted a flash for photos). She hasn't really noticed anything detrimental over 8.1 on her 630.
Andrew's coverage seems to contrast heavily with my own experience, my colleague and one of my clients.
950 XL off Amazon mid Dec and I can't say I've experienced any of the battery or reliability issues he's described. My client has the same with his 950 XL as does my co-worker who brought a 950.
Maybe Andrew got a bad couple of devices, or maybe he's particularly anti WM10. Not sure, but other sites aren't reporting anything similar to Andrew's comments.
Smoother than my 930 on 8.1 and compared to when it was on insider previews.
YMMV but there's at least 3 of us who think it's refreshing and pretty awesome at any rate. Just got a handmade leather back to replace the one shipped making the phone look premium / high end, and MS have just given me a free 1 year Office365 sub plus a free continuum dock too - hard to complain.
I'd recommend it to anyone other than heavy social media / heavy app users. Has everything most people will want, other than a handful of apps like snapchat.
Eh, it's similar to the Lollipop updates for Android. I heard a ton of complaints about it killing battery life and also killing bluetooth, plus causing issues with wi-fi. Then people complained for all the pain of updates, it removed useful features and didn't add very many new ones. So my 3G Moto G has stayed on Key Lime Pie.
Other people though it was the cat's meow. YMMV.
> Eh, it's similar to the Lollipop updates for Android.
And the 6.0 update for my Nexus 7 (2013) - after the update my battery started lasting just over a day rather than the week or so it had before. I did a factory-reset, re-installed the apps and it went back up to a week+ battery-life again..
Well I got a new 950 XL from MS beginning of December. The first 2 weeks great excellent battery life. Then 5 hours from full charged to dead. I had not changed any setting before the change in performance.
Even on battery saver it still drains rapidly from full charge. So sent off for repair beginning of this week just come back today though I don't hold out much hope that it will be any better as they said there was nothing wrong :(
@Falmari - could it be a dodgy app or app update? Try disabling them.
I had a couple of games that would sit in the background and drain the battery quickly. Deinstalling them had the battery life back up to normal levels (Pastry Paradise was one example of a big drainer).
There was a dodgy update in November, but since then the 1020 has been running around 1.5 days between charges and my 950 is doing 1.5 - 2 days.
Received my 950 last week. reported a few bugs so far, still a few more to report.
Some of them are, device will reboot when in the browser after doing a search / browsing to a new page.
Browser will show the last url you have been to after closing all tabs, whether it be a normal tab or in private, until you open a new tab manually or page.
Calendar live tile will show an appointment that doesnt exist after creating a new appointment, the one that will be shown is one that is for the time you went in and added a new appointment. so say you add an appointment at 08:00, an appointment will show up for 08:00-08:30 as that will be the default time that will show on a new appointment, even if you change it. It will disappear after a few minutes.
E-mail count notifications will not show on the live tiles.
Live tiles for email account vary in size, making it look crap.
Image within search is no longer full screen making it look crap compared to 8.1 which was full and were nice pictures.
Battery saver displays the incorrect top user after viewing details on any application in there. it will replace it with the second top usage app (it will be displayed twice).
Word flow doesn't work in the browser url field.
Just a few of the bugs that i can remember of the top of my head that i have found in the week i have had it.
There was a "bad" beta preview in November where the battery of my 1020 would drain in half a day, instead of 2 days. But the next update cured that and battery life is back up to being comparable with Windows 8.1.
The same for my 950, it drains over about 1.5 - 2 days, unless I spend hours playing games, then it obviously needs recharging daily.
Windows 10 would be great if you didn't need to hack the search, stop the phone homes, stop simplifying the menus so you need to dig really deep to change basics (such as IP addresses). If it could disable the silly metro tiles and let you create default start menus for new users (that didn't have stupid tiles for weather, stocks, news and other barf that is of fuck all use) - yes I am aware you can do this in enterprise but not in pro (or home).
So basically make it windows 7.
the Nokia Home flash tool would revert it.
I've downloaded the image from nokia just in case.
Windows 8.1 on my Lumia 930 is lovely. On my laptop its not!!
Dunno if I wanna risk the upgrade. I'm a bit pissed at MS for their devious tactics and don't feel like being their lackey anymore..
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Because iPhones are horrendously over priced!
I have an iPad 3. It's great. I love it. It's more expensive than the competition - but Android tablets were still a bit ropey when I bought it. Now you look to be able to get a very good one for under £200 - and my upgrade may well go that way.
A new iPad is £400. Less if you want the 7" one. A new iPhone is £600. Has a much smaller screen (the expensive bit) and a much smaller batter, the next most expensive bit. It does have the GSM chips - but then the iPad version with those is only £500 - and anyway that's probably a less than $5 part (including patent costs). The only reason the iPhone is so expensive, is because people have got used to buying their phones on hire purchase agreements over 2 years, with a call and data plan attached.
You can now get a seriously good phone for under £200. Motorola G, some of the Huwaei ones, or the Lumia 735 that I got for £140. Android or Apple are best for apps, but for a simple and useable phone that does email well and your addressbook better than anyone else - as well as having really good offline mapping - Windows Phone is great. Well WinPho10 may still be a bit buggy according to Andrew, I've not tried it yet. With the savings you can buy a few months groceries, or have a good phone and a tablet for the price of an iPhone.
I bought one - full retail in a shop and everything - yesterday.
I loved my 930, moved to both an LG G4 and a Samsung S6 Edge, and thought them painful after the 930. I only changed because I killed the 930 in the rain during : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/10/atom_merci_mission/
Simon
I've been through iPhones, several Androids and I am now on my 3rd Windows Phone / Windows 10 Mobile phone.
For work I have the choice of iPhone or Android. I have had Android the last couple of years, because I find it more flexible than iPhone, but my private phone is a Windows Phone and that is where most of my apps are installed, the company phone was just used to do email and phone calls - I now have a 950 privately and I have put the company SIM in the 2nd slot for now.
Instead of pushing to all and sundry?
Do they really have that little confidence in their product?
If it was as good as commetors have said then people will choose to upgrade out of their own violition.
The only positive point is that at least there is an upgrade. My cheapo Android has had none and is still running vanilla 4.0. and not a security update in sight.
This article is largely nonsense.
- Updates are not automatic with 8.1 if you don't want them to be
- Updates can be rolled back via the recovery tool, from Microsoft's servers, if desired
- I have been running W10M preview on a Lumia 1020 where it's stable and battery is no different to 8.1 - still the finest camera phone ever
- I have a new 950xl and not had any problems with it, set up was easy, performance is good, no crashing, free Continuum dock, free year of Office 365, another good camera, amazing screen, and future updates assured. I previously had iPhones, and no way would I now go back now.
- OneDrive integration, Office 365, Mail etc all just works as it should, even with the old iPad2. Login by iris recognition works about 19 times out of 20.
- The app gap? Aw, there's no Snapchat, and fewer state of the art internet of things apps, how sad, can't send disappearing photos from my combined kettle/doorbell/thermostat
Seriously El Reg, this just feels like "hey it's Friday, we're going to miss our quota of anti-windows 10 stuff, get Andrew on the phone"
I'm sure this won't change anyone's mind about anything, just wanted to respond to what seems to me to be more silly Windows 10 knocking to fit the current Reg agenda. Keep it up......
Sent from my Lumia 950xl.
"more silly Windows 10 knocking to fit the current Reg agenda"
No agenda - just saying what we see. Win10 looks all right, has some decent security stuff in it (which we've written about), etc, but we can't ignore things that Microsoft gets wrong.
C.
Rubbishing? Our reply is entirely civil.
The main premise of that post hinges on the escape hatch, namely that you don't have to automatically accepts updates from Win 8.1- which Andrew notes in the article.
But "once you accept Windows 10 Mobile, you’ll never be able to roll back to Windows Phone 8.1 from Microsoft’s servers."
I didn't say or imply you were uncivil, but by largely ignoring every part of the post except the one regarding an agenda, some of it directly contradicting the article, I took it to mean an inference of nonsense without any explanation.
The poster informed you, amongst other points, that rollbacks could be made with the recovery tool via the Microsoft servers - contrary to the information in the article. If untrue, then an explanation would be welcome, if true, then the article is incorrect and an edit is surely in order.
I was merely trying to say if you take the time to argue against a post, you should respond
@diodesign, I agree with you up to a point. But the this article about updates being forced and no way back is just wrong. As has been pointed out several times, you need to apply the update and if you don't want it, after you have tried it, you can use the Microsoft reset tool to set it back to Windows Phone 8 / 8.1.
@ZSn the 1020 had a great camera, the best for its time, but technology has moved forward. The 950 matches or surpasses the 1020 in most situations, and it is fast.
My 1020 takes brilliant photos, so does the 950, I would say the 950 has the edge, especially as the new software modes are supported by the 950 camera and not by the 1020, so multi-shot sequences and the new "video-photo" mode mean you can often get a decent shot on the 950, where the 1020 makes an okay shot.
I've been running 10 on both my 1020 and a new 640 for months without issue. The latest build has been rock solid for my. Instead of listening to the paid mouthpieces bash Windows 10 and Mobile, try it yourself. If you don't like it for any reason it is an easy roll back. My guess is you won't roll back. There is nothing about 8.1 that I am doing without or missing.
"Instead of listening to the paid mouthpieces bash Windows 10 and Mobile, try it yourself. If you don't like it for any reason it is an easy roll back. My guess is you won't roll back."
TFA sez you can't roll back. Which mouthpiece should I believe?
(I'd do my own research on this first, but it's academic for me. I'm on Android, and Windows 7 for my PCs that run Windows.)
I've had windows phone 10 on my lumia 625, 930 and my wife's 735 for a while now and the latest update as been solid none of the issues reported here cant say the same for my works Iphone the nauseating overpriced toy, at least they have come to there senses and replacing them with Windows phones even before the full role out if windows 10 that they found more suitable and took a fraction of the time to configure for corporate use,
Other benefits no need bring in specialist like they did with the Iphone to set them up and will save 2 3rds of the cost.
I believe the iphone was the top selling item at TOYS-R-US
Replacing my 930 for 950XL next week and i'm confident I will love it as much as my 930
That it is less beautiful than the Windows Phone 8 UI, IMO.
I put it on my 1020 last week because I wanted to factory reset anyway in preparation for the inevitable upgrade. I will probably get a 950 soon and wanted to be sure I liked the UI etc. After I factory reset the 1020, I noted that the Voice Nav app Here Drive was no longer available. That made it a requirement to upgrade to 10.
And Skype was not playing well, less well than usual that is.
The thing is, the upgrade went well, no issues, almost everything was as it was.
A shedload of apps updated to their Win10 versions as well as the obvious MS ones.
So. The Sat Nav on 10 is HERE based, same nav voice even but it is integrated with the maps, also HERE based.
Everything looks slightly different, the hamburger menus, horrible system that it is, is used much less than, for instance, on Android or iOS because there are still the original style menus at the botton of the screen, they look different but operate in the same way.
The MS camera now looks just like the amazing Lumia Camera, which is also still available.
The Photos app usefully hides the 1020 Hi-res duplicates and OneDrive duplicates while showing everything together, nicely done.
The email editing etc. now has all the editing features that are available on the desktop version, total overkill but free except for the storage space the code uses.
Other nice additions include ability to speak words in any of the system text fields and have them rendered, with punctuation. This works really quite well and one can bang off a text faster than even the swipe keyboard can manage, you don't have to talk slowly at all.
The little dot added to the keyboard seems pointless but has one very useful feature - you can move the cursor one character easily and reliably, better that tapping the screen. For this purpose it is great, don't use it to move more, maybe two, but not in general.
And Cortana will now let you write emails, which, again, can be useful, even allowing a quick email while driving etc.
I have been trying to watch for battery issues but I have been used to topping up wirelessly as a matter of course so rarely get to see the battery drain anyway. My view is that it is similar to before.
All in all, impressive stuff and for 400 quid for a 950, buying a 600 quid iPhone seems stupid beyond belief to me.
It is just hard to consider losing the 1020 despite the things I have heard about the 950's camera.
Plus, 400 quid.
Cortana may allow it while driving, Constable Ratrun may not.
"Yes Officer, he ran straight out in front of me; half way through an email!" sounds a bit suss to me.
Using hands-free devices when driving
You can use hands-free phones, sat navs and 2-way radios when you’re driving or riding. But if the police think you’re distracted and not in control of your vehicle you could still get stopped and penalised.
Car ≠ Living room.
I switched from my W8.1 Lumia 1020 to a 950 over the holiday and, out of the box, it was a massive step backwards. I like the hardware a lot, but the software was barely fit for purpose. El Reg's review was being generous -- it was immensely frustrating.
I won't enumerate my list of peeves, but I think much of it comes down to Microsoft having started over on many of the apps (and dropping the Nokia Here collection). The move to Universal apps seems to have introduced bugs and dropped features, especially in commonly used apps like Photos. Even asking Cortana to "call home" stopped working (I figured out why later on).
But after the firmware update and having all 71 apps go through *three* rounds of updates, the phone has become usable and reliable. I just wish the music app was fit for purpose, at least for those of us with existing music collections. I also wish Cortana would stop giving me status reports for flights that have nothing to do with me.
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