Problems with Windows Phone OS

Microsoft is said to be emperor in Desktop Operating Systems market. They are like synonym to PC and also for laptops. Almost all these computers are installed with Microsoft’s Windows OS. But today, the whole picture is changed. Mobile phone market has overshadowed computers market and everyone measures technology with mobile phone markets.  Currently, Apple’s much anticipated iOS and Google’s Android has conquered mobile phone OS market. And it was in October 2012 when Microsoft also entered in this market with their Windows Mobile OS and tried to make some good numbers in this market. After almost one and half year, still Microsoft is significantly lagging behind iOS and Android.

In this article I am going to discuss about what are the major problems and issues in Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS. I am writing this article by experiencing these by using Nokia Lumia phones, which are exclusively using Windows OS. First of all, let me clear that the hardware used by Nokia is great. According to me, they are still best hardware manufacturers. No problem with Nokia’s hardware. But the problem is inside of the phone, the much important part Operating System. Now let me come to the point and start to describe these issues.

1. No app transfer to micro SD card

Normally all Android phones comes with 4GB or 8GB of internal storage and even Windows phones also comes with these capacity. In Android phones, you can transfer your apps data to SD card and install more number of apps in your phone, in Windows phone it is a limiting factor. You cannot transfer apps into SD card.

Another issue is the apps designed for Windows phone consumes more space than Android games. For example, popular game Subway Surfer comes with a size of around 40MB on Android platform and same game comes with size of around 80MB on Windows platform. It clearly means that you will not be able to install more apps and games on your phone. 

2. Not having own file manager

This is probably one of the biggest drawback of Windows phone, you cannot get a native file manager app for your phone. You would be able to install third party file manager apps but still it is having limiting factor like you have one Read Only permissions of your SD card using your file manager. It’s kind of frustrating thing that you are not able to use all storage capacity of your micro SD card effectively.

3. Absense of LED notification light

Normally all Android phones comes with physical LED notification light which will blink whenever you will be having any missed call, Whatsapp message or a Facebook notification. On my Sony Xperia phone, whenever I have Whatsapp message it blinks with violet color, for Facebook notification it turns into blue and for a missed call it blinks with green. So it helps me a lot in everyday life of use. For a Windows phone, you will not be able for get this facility in any single model. This feature is more important if you are a busy and heavy user of Whatsapp and Facebook. 

Sony Xperia phone with notification light 

4. Notification bar problem

Biggest advantage of Windows phone is its Metro UI called Tile interface. It’s actually very innovative and easy to use this look. But it does not give you all notification in single screen. Like you have to scroll up and down to see notifications in their respective tiles. In Android phone, even latest iOS7 also have it's native notification bar in top of the phone and you will be able to see each and every notification very easily. 

Different notifications in their respective tile in Windows Metro UI

5. Not having integration with Google apps

If you are a heavy user of Gmail, Google Maps, Youtube and other native Google services then you will not have a good experience with Windows phone because Google does not provide their own apps for Windows mobile platform. You will be restricted to use Google services on Windows phone.

6. Instant toggle to specific shortcuts 

For Android and iOS phones, if you want to switch on/off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi then you can do it just in one click. You can get same other features like mobile data traffic, NFC, profile, auto-rotate shortcuts in upper notification bar. Thus you can toggle to specific setting very quickly. But this is not possible in Windows phone. You have to make at least 2-3 steps for starting that service. You can create these type of shortcuts in Windows phone, but again they will still require 2-3 steps.

shortcuts in notification bar in normal Android phone

7. USB OTG not supported

Windows phone does not support UTG OTG and it is kind of limiting factor when you want to use your other devices with your Windows phone. It means that you cannot connect USB flash drive, music player, digital camera or keyboard to your phone. 

8. Not support to third party web browsers

This is one of the biggest problems because without good internet browser you cannot use your phone effectively. Windows phone comes with default browser Internet Explorer and it also supports UC browsers and some less known ones. But still it misses some biggies like Firefox, Chrome and Opera Mini browser. So it is a huge drawback with Windows phone.

So, these are some issues or problems which I noticed in Windows phone OS. If you are agree with me or even don’t agree with me then also mention your precious comment below. Thank you and enjoy my other articles. 

Android vs iOS vs Windows Phone OS

Before 5 years, we were only aware about Windows XP and other flavors of OS, which are used in computer. But at present, the scenario is changed. Most of the electronics and technology companies are concentrating on mobile phone industry. This industry is facing extreme hard competition. And the key part in these all mobile is it's OS, operating system. 

This trend started  when Apple entered in mobile phone industry with iPhone and introduced their proprietary OS called as iOS. It was revolutionary. Then Google came into the game with Android OS. In quick span of time, Android become hit and conquered worldwide OS market by featuring in Samsung, Sony, HTC like mobile phones. So now at present scenario where each OS stands in competition? We will compare them. 

Right now, the latest versions are Android is 4.4 Kitkat, iOS and Windows Mobile 8. Let's compare them.

iOS7, Android Kitkat & Windows Phone screens

User Interface:

Apple introduced iOS7 recently and in this version they totally changed their overall look of the interface. It is now more 2 dimensional and clean. Apple says that they used concept of simplicity in new iOS7. Overall it is very user friendly and clean interface. 

We all know user interface of Android and the current version 4.4 Kitkat is also very similar to its predecessors. It has multiple home screen, inclusion of Google Now, feature rich built in apps, everything this Android 4.4 have. People call Android interface old but I must say that it is the easiest interface currently any mobile phone having. 

Now be ready for a surprise, because Windows Mobile 8 OS interface is best interface according to me. The inclusion of "LiveTiles" gets maximum point for this. It provides you maximum information in quick time. 

Overall all of the three OS have very good interface. In iOS & Windows OS, you only get limited customization. But for Android you can apply maximum tweaks.  

Apps:

iOS top this list with more then 6,50,000 applications. They also offer apps for iPads. 

Android Play Store have 6,00,000 apps and those apps can also be used on android tablets. 

Windows phone currently offers significantly low apps around 1,00,000 apps on their Windows Store. And still, they don't offer any app for tablets.

Camera:

iOS7 came with significant changes in camera app with more photo effects, live picture filter., etc. It is a sophisticated camera app provided in iOS7.

Android camera app has maximum flavors. Because Samsung has their different camera app, HTC offers their own customized app and same for others like Sony,Huawei, LG. They all gave a different look to camera app and included many innovative features. Like 360 Panorama, smile shutter, Burst mode.,etc.

Windows OS is relatively new and so their camera app is cleaner and easy with minimum on screen setting. But you can take more natural photographs and  even use a separate camera app by putting in default mode. 

Android Kitkat & iOS7 notification bar

Control Panel:

This is very key part of any OS. Because control panel or if you call it notification bar is feature which will get your most of attention when you are using it. 

Android have large experience in terms of notification panel. You can access it by swapping down the upper screen of OS. It gives customizations for WiFi, Bluetooth, Profile,. etc.  Even all new notifications and events displays on this bar very well. 

iOS started their affair with the notification bar in this new iOS7. It also offers same functionalities like Android panel. 

Windows Phone do not support any notification center or control panel like Android or iOS. Because their LiveTiles always blinks new notifications separately. But still you may miss this key feature in Windows phone. 

Multi Tasking:

In this feature also iOS was not there before introduction of iOS7. But now you can easily switch between apps to achieve multi tasking. This feature is borrowed from Android by iOS because it is very similar to Android. 

Android provides this feature from Android 4.0 ICS. You can access this by long pressing Home screen button. You will get a quick window of running apps and can switch among them. 

Windows Phone also offers the same kind of multi tasking by long pressing Back button.

Conclusion:

Overall, if you look at previous given key points then clearly understand that all of the OS have their own charm and key features. Like on iOS, you can get user friendly environment and cleaner look. Android offers maximum offers and customizations. Wheres, Windows Phone gives a clean and refreshing look by LiveTiles. And each of them has their own drawbacks. 

Android have the highest number of users, but most of them are using old versions like 2.2 & 2.3. Windows is relatively new and having very less users. iOS7 looks one step ahead if you look at overall scenario. Because it offers everything which you want and more importantly, they have maximum users who are running on their latest iOS7. So, its on you and your personal choice that which OS based phone you have to buy. And please give your precious suggestions to me in the comment box below. I am always trying to improve my article for your suggestions. 

Nokia Lumia 1020 : Super Camera Phone

Last year when Nokia released Nokia PureView 808 with highest ever 41 Mega Pixel lens, it created waves but unfortunately it was a failure for them. But still Nokia is not loosing their confidence in their camera technology bonding with their smartphones. They are back with another flagship phone which is powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. 

                    

New Nokia Lumia also features same 41 MP lens which was introduced in earlier 808 PureView phone. Last month in Berlin, when Sony launched their latest flagship phone Xperia Z1 which have 20 MP camera and they claimed that their phone have best camera among all other phones. So Nokia comes back into the competition with another superior camera phone. Even Samsung also has Galaxy S4 Zoom with very advance camera. So according to me, after competition in display size. It is time to war in terms of camera between these multi national companies. So let's check camera performance of this phone.

Camera Review

The phone have a 41 mega pixel lens but practically you will only get 34 mega pixel resolution to capture a picture for 16:8 aspect ratio. If you want picture with 4:3 aspect ration then they can be captured at 38 mega pixels.

One very innovative feature in this phone is Looseless Zoom,where you can crop your picture from higher resolution picture without loosing any type of clarity of the picture. 

If you compare regular images with 5 mega pixel using this phone. Then I must say that they beats all the phones which have 5 mega pixel or even 8 mega pixel camera. Surely it's a clear winner. 

Other specifications of this phones camera are, 3X digital zoom, optical image stabilization, ISO settings 100 to 4000 and very important shutter speed which offers 1 to 16000, Smart Cam & Camera 360.

The phone captures excellent pictures in normal conditions. But I found out one big issue is, the processing rate of the picture is slow. If you want to picture very quickly one by one, then this can disappoint you.  Another issue is, pictures taken in artificial light and close up shots are above average. They are actually not good. 

So,overall the phone achieves our expectations with having great camera details. So thumbs up for this phone in terms of the camera department.

Rest of all

If you remove the 41 mega pixel camera from this phone, then it is totally Lumia 920. The phone have same hardware specifications and software. The phone heats up when you use the camera for long time. Except that, this phone runs really smooth with Windows Mobile OS.

Conclusion

Now last words, if you actually want a more camera then smartphone then this phone is really a hot choice. But if you want a better mixture of hardware, software and camera then you must consider other phones like iPhone 5 & 5S, Xperia Z1, Galaxy S4. 

Technical Specifications

• 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Dual core processor
• 2 GB RAM
• 41 MP PureView camera
• 1.2 MP front facing camera
• 4.5 AMOLED display with resolution of 768x1280 
• 332 PPI of pixel density
• 32 GB internal storage
• 2000 mAh battery