What's new in windows 10 mobile. Build number comparison. Installing third party applications

As Microsoft has announced, the new version of the operating system for smartphones will be completely separate from the entire Windows 10 series. This system is called Andromeda and all phones that will be released after the release of the OS will use this version. Modern gadgets will not be able to support Andromeda OS.

Support for the current edition of the phone OS will continue for the next year and a half. After this period, Windows 10 Mobile will no longer be updated or supported by the manufacturer.

The Andromeda operating system will take into account any form factor, which will allow it to be installed on any device that can support it. However, all Microsoft smartphones released before the release of the new OS will not be able to use it.

Also interesting is the fact that Google is developing a new product in the field of operating systems with the same name as Microsoft - Andromeda. This operating system will be designed to combine the Android and Chrome operating systems.

New branch of development – ​​Feature 2

Feature 2 is a new branch in the development of Windows 10 Mobile, which is completely isolated from its entire series. It was this separation from the main project that caused the current version to be closed.

This version of the software will be supported by developers for the next year and a half. Error fixes will be released for the current version of the OS, new features will be introduced for specialized versions, and a security service will be supported.

The developers also announced the backporting of a new multitasking platform for the current version of Windows 10 Mobile, which is used on more modern platforms, for example, Redstone 3 and 4. This innovation is needed for Feature 2 since it is similar in functionality and capabilities to Redstone 2. Such support will be provided until the end of the Windows 10 Mobile project.

Backporting for an ongoing software modification is necessary to ensure that smartphones that support it do not become obsolete prematurely. This will allow them to use modern applications and applications that will be released during the remaining life of the OS support. After the release of a new development, support for the old one will cease, and phones such as the Lumia 950 or HP Elit x3 will quickly become obsolete.

Mobile version of Windows

The latest edition of the operating system for smartphones is the usual Windows 10, but adapted for devices with a display diagonal not exceeding 9 inches. The entry of this OS was in February 2015. The main feature of this version was the ability to connect the phone to a desktop computer with full synchronization, as well as use the smartphone as a full-fledged system unit when connecting a monitor, keyboard and mouse to it.

However, Microsoft was unable to occupy its significant niche in the market for smartphones and operating systems for them. At the moment, almost all mobile devices run on Android or iOS software. Windows accounts for only 0.4%. At the same time, 80% of Microsoft smartphones use Windows Phone 7, 8 or 8.1, and only 20% support Windows 10 Mobile.

Microsoft is slowly killing Windows 10 Mobile. But the death of this platform has already arrived, only Microsoft does not want to admit it.

In about a week, Microsoft will release the Creators Update for Windows 10 Mobile. Most Windows smartphones will remain without this update; only six Microsoft models and seven third-party models will receive it:

Microsoft Lumia 550
- Microsoft Lumia 640 and 640 XL
-Microsoft Lumia 650
- Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL
- HP Elite x3
- Alcatel IDOL 4S
- Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL
- SoftBank 503LV
- VAIO Phone Biz
- MouseComputer MADOSMA Q601
-Trinity NuAns NEO

As we remember, a couple of years ago Microsoft said that it had managed to attract several dozen third-party manufacturers to its platform. And where are they all? Where did you go? The problem is that most vendors produced inexpensive devices, and their characteristics were not powerful enough to handle the Creators Update. Some models that until recently received test builds of Windows 10 Mobile were excluded from the list of smartphones compatible with this update.

Microsoft has closed the Upgrade Adviser application, which allowed users of smartphones based on Windows Phone 8.1 to switch to Windows 10 Mobile, which means that no old smartphone will be able to upgrade to the new platform, even if it is technically compatible with it. Obviously, abandoned users will think about whether they should trust Microsoft again and buy devices from this company or with its operating system.

When did Windows smartphones take a wrong turn? This probably happened after Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile division and brought its own order to it, closing several experimental projects. For example, Microsoft refused to develop a McLaren smartphone with a 3D interface. Later, Apple implemented similar ideas in the iPhone, this technology was called 3D Touch and is now used by many applications.

Nokia had other ideas: in 2014, the company created a prototype with model number id326-1 with minimal bezels around the screen. Devices with this design are only coming into fashion now, three years later.

Microsoft also abandoned Nokia's idea to release Android smartphones with an interface styled like Windows Phone. Now this decision seems short-sighted: Microsoft still failed to overcome Android, and users of inexpensive Nokia X smartphones would certainly be interested in the original tiled platform.

Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile had a chance to compete with Android and iOS. They were killed by Microsoft's lack of stubbornness. If the company, like Nokia before, continued to flood the market with smartphones that are strikingly different from all other devices, at some point there would be so many of them that their owners would no longer be considered black sheep. In addition, Microsoft should not have left any of its smartphones or any third-party smartphones without updates. The saying “a bad peace is better than a good quarrel” fits perfectly here: even if these updates were not what Microsoft wanted, millions of Windows smartphone users would not feel abandoned. They believed in an outsider platform, and in return they were betrayed, is this really forgiven? It is not surprising that sales of Windows smartphones around the world are almost zero. Many large electronics stores have been out of stock for a long time because people don't buy them.

There is no doubt that Windows 10 Mobile is dead, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to hush up this fact. Microsoft has not released new devices on this platform for more than a year, which frightens users, developers and third-party vendors. Almost all large companies have abandoned the development of applications for Windows 10 Mobile, even VKontakte ignores this platform - updates to the main application of the social network have not been released since 2016, and owners of Windows smartphones cannot count on the release of VK Live and VK Mobile at all.

On Windows 10 Mobile, if new applications or games appear, they look like fresh graves in an abandoned cemetery that Microsoft regularly spruces up. One question: why?

The new system is life from scratch. Everyone needs a reboot from time to time, even giant corporations like Microsoft. Historically, the company from Redmond has suffered defeat after defeat, releasing its mobile devices, which, it turns out, are of no use to anyone. After many attempts, wanderings, and collaboration with Nokia, the company decided to make drastic changes: Windows Phone was abolished, and a new era of Windows 10 Mobile arrived. In fact, the Windows 10 Mobile update is a new system, with a new vision, but at the same time preserving the principles that migrated from iteration to iteration.

Many resources, including Russian ones, carefully monitor the development of Windows 10 Mobile. W3bsit3-dns.com, Mobile-Review and others spoke positively about the system and predicted a positive future for it. However, let’s take a closer look at what awaits the owners of modern gadgets running on the new platform.

Installing and setting up Windows 10 Mobile

In principle, the process of installing and configuring the system does not take much time, and it cannot be called labor-intensive. However, there are a number of things you need to know before installing Windows 10 Mobile.

The system can be installed officially on a number of initially supported gadgets. You can install a test build. You can install a hacked system on unsupported gadgets.

In addition to those gadgets that come with new firmware on board, there is a whole line of Lumia phones that can be updated. The update will not come automatically, as they say, “over the air,” so you will have to use the Upgrade Advisor utility. The utility is supported by all intermediate smartphones from Lumia 430 to Lumia 1520. After the update, no initial setup is required, all data will be transferred automatically. Still, for the phone to work better, it is worth resetting the settings to zero (when installing a major update, some files may be damaged). That's all you need to know about installing Windows 10 Mobile. Developer builds can be obtained by registering on the Microsoft website and then installing the Windows Insider application.

Interface design

Despite the fact that the update is of such a global nature, visually the system has not undergone major changes. After the basic setup of Windows 10 Mobile is completed, the user will see the familiar “tiled” interface. With the new release, the user is given more opportunities to change the appearance of the desktop. First of all, these changes affected the wallpaper. Now the user can set any background that will cover all “tiles” and applications that do not have their own background. It is also possible to change the size and color design of each individual “tile”. The distance between interface elements has been reduced, allowing for even more content to be placed on the desktop. This is useful if you want to receive updated information from a large number of shortcuts. It looks quite bright and unusual, although confusing, at first glance. Otherwise, the interface remains the same, only instead of a black background, the same wallpapers that were applied on the desktop are now used, the details have become thinner (calculated for new high-resolution displays), the settings and other lists that were previously it was impossible to figure it out. The list of programs has changed slightly; now newly installed applications for Windows 10 Mobile are placed at the beginning of the list, in the “Recently added” field. However, it is worth dwelling separately on the programs installed in the new system.

Apps for Windows 10 Mobile

In connection with the update, external changes overtook almost all standard applications, instructions for developing programs were updated, and visual elements were associated with the desktop version of the operating system. Functional changes affected such programs as:

Another important change affected third-party applications. A tool has appeared that allows you to convert finished products on iOS and Android into programs for Windows 10 Mobile. At the same time, the developers promised seamless integration of new applications, even without interface changes, which in theory should lead to terrible chaos in the store, which can be put up with if the developers actually start transferring their projects to a new platform, but something tells us that it's already too late.

Notification curtain

One of the most important and frequently used elements of the system is the so-called curtain, which contains notifications from various programs and keys for quick access to various smartphone functions. Its design has undergone minimal changes; the same controls remain:

• A key to turn Wi-Fi on and off (also displays the name of the network to which the gadget is currently connected).
• Key to turn Bluetooth on and off (also displays connected media devices).
• Key to lock screen rotation.
• Key to access settings.

Below is a list of notifications, which is now grouped by the applications to which they relate. This makes them easier to sort and delete. One notification is deleted by swiping on it, a group by swiping on the program name. To delete all notifications, there is a “Clear all” button.

Among other things, expanded notifications have appeared that you can interact with without opening the application. For example, if you receive a message on your phone, by pulling the notification, you can open the text input line and respond to it without going to the messenger itself. Naturally, this function is available to developers, and they have the right to use it as they please. Twitter developers, for example, added shortcuts for popular actions such as “retweet” and “like.” You can stop the alarm in the same way.

Continuum

The cornerstone of the new platform from Microsoft. This know-how is the main connecting element between the desktop and mobile versions of Windows. According to engineers from Redmond, the ideal smartphone is a smartphone that is also a computer. Instead of producing various gadgets and dragging information through the clouds, creating all sorts of “ecosystems,” the creators of Windows offer one device that can replace everything at once. The idea is this: a person who has a smartphone with a pre-installed Windows 10 Mobile version with support for Continuum can install it in a specialized docking station, which, in turn, is connected to a monitor and input means. After which the peripherals are activated, the smartphone acts as a system unit, and the end user sees classic Windows on the desktop.

The idea was always on the surface, but no one dared to bring it to life. Microsoft decided to take matters into their own hands and, together with HP, created a device equipped with the latest technology, operating in Continuum mode.

Unfortunately, such a grandiose idea is unlikely to turn out well in the short term, as there are at least two serious problems. The first is that not all smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile support this function; a solid reserve of power is required for it to work (in fact, there is only one candidate for this role and other manufacturers, including Microsoft, are in no hurry to release new solutions). The second is the system that the person behind the monitor and mouse will work with, not exactly Windows 10, but Windows RT. In this case, the user is deprived of Win32 support, and without this the computer is not a computer at all. For real professionals, ARM will never replace “adult” architecture. In the long term, we have before us a real device of the future and a system that will finally emerge from the “desktop” monopoly as a leader in the mobile segment.

Keyboard and one-handed mode

Keyboard - An amazing and powerful tool in Windows 10 Mobile. W3bsit3-dns.com and other resources that monitor the development of the platform have repeatedly posted tweets and screenshots in which the keyboard built into Windows corrects terrible errors and complements words of one letter.

The keyboard in the new system has not changed much. The usual functions remain, such as:

• Word Flow - typing tips based on data from the system’s dictionary database, the user’s individual dictionary and experience;
• Swipe input - the ability to type text and communicate by simply moving your finger across the keyboard.

• Point for moving the cursor (joystick) - a small point has appeared between the letters Z and X, with which you can move the cursor through the text, so as not to resort to using a virtual magnifying glass.
• It is now possible to change the position of the keyboard, as well as its size. On a large display, you can move it to the right corner and slightly reduce it to make it more convenient to operate with one hand (a problem for all fans of “phablets”).

Also, for one-handed control, an analogue of the Reachability function from the iPhone was added. Now, if you hold down the Win button for a long time, you can lower the interface to finger level so that you don’t have to grab the gadget and reach for the top of the display.

Sound and ringtone settings

In principle, the sound in Windows 10 Mobile does not require any special fine-tuning. Everything works the same as in the previous version. The only problem that remains is with assigning ringtones. Users are still wondering how to change the Windows Mobile 10 ringtone. Fortunately, changes in working with desktop Windows (defining a smartphone as a flash drive) allow you to do this without any problems. To do this, you need to connect your smartphone to the PC, open the Phone - Ringtones folder in it and upload the desired audio file there, the main thing is that it does not have DRM protection. After this, you should open “Settings” - “Personalization” - “Sounds” in your phone. There, select the “Ringtone” option, find the newly downloaded audio file and select it as the ringtone. The system also now has a built-in ringtone maker application that can create ringtones directly on your phone.

File manager

Users have been asking Microsoft programmers for quite a long time to equip the system with a full-fledged file manager, such as is available in Android and the related desktop Windows. Initially, developers were reluctant to add such features, since the system was supposed to be in many ways similar to iOS, which lacks such features for reasons of security and simplicity. Windows 10 Mobile should have been just as simple and closed. The Microsoft bug, fortunately for fans, has been fixed in the latest update. A rather primitive, but still file manager, a kind of stripped-down analogue of Explorer, was built into the system. It is possible to create documents, view them without going into applications, move, copy, and so on. There is no synchronization with OneDrive; to work with cloud storage, you will have to download an additional application and import files separately.

Windows Hello

Security comes first, which is why most modern smartphones are equipped with biometric data reading systems (hello iPhone 5s and Touch ID). Microsoft went further and developed a kind of intermediary system between the scanners and the system responsible for process security. Instead of a fingerprint sensor, gadgets running Windows 10 Mobile use a camera that scans the iris of the eyes. A similar solution was used in the recently released and failed Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The recognition system does not work very well. Firstly, the phone must be quite close to the owner’s face; at arm’s length, the smartphone simply does not “recognize” the owner. Secondly, even if the phone is close to your face, it can still make mistakes, often asking for a passcode. The function is, of course, interesting, but it would be better for Microsoft to opt for a fingerprint scanner, which works quickly and reliably.

Instead of a conclusion

It's hard to sum up what's happening with the Redmond-based mobile platform. On the one hand, the Windows 10 Mobile update shows us a certain growth, the system is clearly developing, its creators have ideas and certain thoughts on what Windows will be like in the future. New unique functions appear, beloved old ones are improved, and new manufacturers of Windows smartphones enter the market. Developers have received carte blanche and can sell their programs for Android and iOS in the Windows app store without any difficulty (even without redrawing the program interface).

But something goes wrong. It is too late. The credit of trust has been exhausted. Despite all its efforts, loud statements and announcements, Microsoft cannot attract a sufficient audience. People have become accustomed to advanced systems from Google and Apple and have more than once placed their trust in the Windows manufacturer. But, alas, they were let down every time, and the new platform could not give them as much as modern people require. Windows 10 Mobile is what Windows mobile should have been 3-5 years ago. At the moment, we can only wait for Redmond to figure out how to convince the public that their platform deserves attention, but for now all Windows fans are in limbo, and it is not known what will happen next.

In February 2015, Microsoft officially announced the release of a new version of its mobile operating system - Windows 10. To date, the new “OS” has already received several global updates.

However, with each major addition, more and more old devices become outsiders and stop receiving official support from developers.

Official installation of Windows 10 Mobile

Officially, this OS can only be installed on a limited list of smartphones with an earlier version of the operating system. However, in practice, the list of gadgets that can accommodate version 10 of Windows is much wider. Not only Nokia Lumia owners can rejoice, but also users of devices with a different operating system, for example, Android.

Windows Phone models that will receive the official update to Windows 10 Mobile:

• Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL,
• BLU Win HD LTE X150Q,
• Lumia 430
• Lumia 435
• Lumia 532,
• Lumia 535
• Lumia 540
• Lumia 550
• Lumia 635 (1GB),
• Lumia 636 (1GB),
• Lumia 638 (1GB),
• Lumia 640
• Lumia 640 XL,
• Lumia 650
• Lumia 730,
• Lumia 735
• Lumia 830
• Lumia 930
• Lumia 950
• Lumia 950 XL,
• Lumia 1520,
• MCJ Madosma Q501,
• Xiaomi Mi4.

If your device is on this list, updating to a new OS version will not be difficult. However, it is worth approaching this issue carefully.

Video: Updating your Lumia phone to Windows 10 Mobile

Unofficial installation of Windows 10 Mobile on Lumia

If your device is no longer receiving official updates, you can still update it to the latest version of the OS. This method is relevant for the following models:

• Lumia 520,
• Lumia 525
• Lumia 620,
• Lumia 625
• Lumia 630,
• Lumia 635 (512 MB),
• Lumia 720
• Lumia 820
• Lumia 920
• Lumia 925
• Lumia 1020,
• Lumia 1320.

The new version of Windows is not optimized for these models. You take full responsibility for the incorrect operation of the system.

1. Do Interop Unlock (unlocks installation of applications directly from the computer). To do this, install the Interop Tools application: you can easily find it in the Microsoft store. Launch the application and select This Device. Open the program menu, scroll down and go to the Interop Unlock section. In this section, enable the Restore NDTKSvc option.

   In the Interop Unlock section, enable the Restore NDTKSvc function

2. Reboot your smartphone.
3. Launch Interop Tools again, select This Device, go to the Interop Unlock tab. Activate the Interop/Cap Unlock and New Capability Engine Unlock checkboxes. The third checkbox - Full Filesystem Access - is intended to enable full access to the file system. Don't touch it unnecessarily.

   Activate the checkboxes for Interop/Cap Unlock and New Capability Engine Unlock

4. Reboot your smartphone.
5. Turn off automatic app updates in your store settings. To do this, open “Settings” and in the “Update” section next to the “Update applications automatically” line, slide the lever to the “Off” position.

   You can disable automatic updates in the “Store”

6. Go to Interop Tools again, select the This Device section and open Registry Browser.
7. Navigate to the following branch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Platform\DeviceTargetingInfo.

   You can install Windows 10 Mobile on unsupported Lumia using the Interop Tools application

8. Record or take screenshots of the PhoneManufacturer, PhoneManufacturerModelName, PhoneModelName, and PhoneHardwareVariant values.
9. Change your values ​​to new ones. For example, for a Lumia 950 XL device with two SIM cards, the changed values ​​will look like this:
   • PhoneManufacturerModelName: RM-1116_11258;
   • PhoneModelName: Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM;
   • PhoneHardwareVariant: RM-1116.
10. And for a device with one SIM card, change the values ​​to the following:
    • PhoneManufacturer: MicrosoftMDG;
    • PhoneManufacturerModelName: RM-1085_11302;
    • PhoneModelName: Lumia 950 XL;
    • PhoneHardwareVariant: RM-1085.
11. Reboot your smartphone.
12. Go to Settings - Update & Security - Insider Program and enable receiving preview builds. Your smartphone may need to be restarted. After rebooting, make sure the Fast circle is selected.
13. Check for updates in Settings - Update & Security - Phone Update.
14. Install the latest available build.

Video: Installing Windows 10 Mobile on unsupported Lumia

Installing Windows 10 on Android

Before a full reinstallation of the operating system, it is strongly recommended to determine the tasks that the updated device should perform:

If you still need to have a full-fledged “ten” on board, before installing a new OS, make sure that your device has enough space for a new heavy system. Pay attention to the characteristics of the device's processor. Windows can be installed only on processors with ARM architecture (does not support Windows 7) and i386 (supports Windows 7 and higher).

Now let's move on to the installation:

1. Download the sdl.zip archive and the special sdlapp program in .apk format.
2. Install the application on your smartphone and extract the archive data to the SDL folder.
3. Copy the same directory to the system image file (usually c.img).
4. Run the installation utility and wait until the process completes.

Video: how to install Windows on Android

If your smartphone receives official updates, there will be no problems installing the new OS version. Users of earlier Lumia models will also be able to update their smartphone without any problems. The situation is much more deplorable for Android users, because their smartphone is simply not designed to install Windows, which means that if a new OS is forcibly installed, the owner of the phone runs the risk of getting a fashionable, but very useless “brick.”

Windows 10 Mobile is a version of the Windows 10 OS designed for mobile devices with a screen diagonal of up to nine inches. Its main feature: synchronization with the desktop version of Windows, launching new “universal” applications, as well as the ability to connect devices to an external display and use the smartphone as a PC with mouse and keyboard support

A little background

The first version of the OS was released in December 2015. Windows 10 Mobile was a "glimmer of hope" for all Windows Phone owners. With the release of a new version of the mobile OS, Microsoft began to shower users with promises that many fell for (including the author of this article).

I am the owner of a Microsoft Lumia 535 with Windows 10 Mobile pre-installed (I have been using the device for 3 years). During my use, I formed a certain opinion about the smartphone and the OS as a whole, so I decided to tell readers about the relevance of this platform these days.

My first impressions of the purchased smartphone are not entirely objective and a little naive:

For comparison and understanding of the issue, you can imagine any device of 2015 on iOS and Android, and this is one generation with Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Google Nexus 5X and 6P, Samsung Galaxy S6. And most likely, such smartphones are still fully functional (there may only be issues with the battery, but they can be resolved by replacing the battery with a new one). So what happens to a typical 2015 smartphone running Windows 10 Mobile?

Device support

The first disappointment that Windows 10 Mobile brought was that it does not support all devices. The minimum system requirements were as follows: 1 GB of RAM, screen resolution 960x540 pixels or higher, Qualcomm Snapdragon processor: 208, 210, 615, 617, 625, 808, 810, 820 or 835. This meant that budget Lumia with 512 GB of RAM were unable to receive an official update (although some users managed to somehow replace data about the smartphone and install updates).

Windows App Store

The Windows application store is a complete disappointment and the situation has not changed at all from 2015 to the present day: there is a catastrophic shortage of applications and games. The existing ones are not updated by the developers, and no one is making new ones.

The store is filled with all sorts of “slag” that is not moderated in any way. There are paid applications, the purchase of which is pointless. At the top of the store are applications from Microsoft and hits of 2015-2016 for Android.

At the moment, applications show the possibility of updating, but refuse to update (the download takes forever), although this problem may be related specifically to my Microsoft Lumia 535 smartphone.

Beginning of work

Getting started with a smartphone is pure hell. On Android and iOS, the user registers one account, which applies to all devices. Microsoft has decided to “stand out from the crowd” and invites owners of their devices to register two Outlook accounts and one Xbox, and all this in order to be able to download and install any applications and games from the Windows Store. "Why do you need two Outlook accounts?" - you ask. And I will answer: “For the Microsoft family.” One is “parental” and is tied to a PC, the second is “childish” and is intended for a smartphone, a kind of “innovation” in the field of synchronizing a PC with a smartphone and.

OS shell

The interface is nice and minimalistic. Whatever one may say, Microsoft made the right decision here with its tiled design. You can display any installed applications on the main screen, and some of them support the display of additional information. The second screen contains a list of a bunch of applications that are not convenient to use at first, but later you get used to them. There is also an alphabetical search, which is a good solution for this shell, but in my case, after the next firmware update, the Russian font “broke” (see the last screenshot).

Firmware update

Currently, this process freezes at 1% of the load, causing the device to not update. The description of all the updates to Windows 10 Mobile, with which “your device will work even better,” looks especially funny.

Using a smartphone while charging

This is one of the many factors that will make users lose a lot of nerves. The bottom line is that when charging a smartphone, it is impossible to use it. The screen begins to live its own life, one touch turns into three, swiping down opens a bunch of applications (the problem may be related to a certain model or batch of smartphones, but this does not make it any easier for me).

Compatible with other accessories

In times of smart watches, fitness trackers, and additional plug-ins that can be used seamlessly with smartphones on iOS and Android, this problem is more relevant than ever. There are a limited number of smartwatches that support Windows 10 Mobile: , Fitbit Surge, Agent Smart Watch, i’m Watch (all discontinued).

Today, not a single manufacturer of current smart watches supports Windows 10 Mobile OS. On the Internet you can find official fitness trackers from Microsoft: Microsoft Band and Microsoft Band 2, which are also discontinued and are not supported by the company. But they should work with Windows smartphones. As you can see, the choice is small...

VPN

A very useful feature nowadays. Particularly relevant for Ukraine and Russia. There are free applications that allow you to use VPN on Windows 10 Mobile, but they are absolutely ineffective. The only apps that remain are those that offer VPN services for a monthly subscription costing $20 or more.

Browsers and popular applications

The story about all kinds of applications is not over yet. Browsers on WP10 are a sore subject. There are only two that work normally: Microsoft Edge and UC Browser. Unfortunately, they do not have sufficient functionality in modern browsers. Surfing web pages occurs with stutters and freezes. There are really not enough applications from Google: Maps, YouTube, Google Play Music and so on.

It is also worth mentioning popular applications. Messengers, they are present in the Microsoft store and almost everything, but updates from developers are received extremely rarely and not always on time, or even not received at all.

A sore subject is bank clients, who for the most part do not exist or exist, but unofficially, from third-party developers. Whether you should trust such decisions with your banking data is a rhetorical question.

In general, the store lacks many official applications from stores, operators, and websites. There is a significant shortage of photo editors and games. As for audio and video players, the standard ones are enough. Readers can be found without problems, although for the most part they will be analogues of Android applications.

P.S. Fortunately, in the middle of last year, the Steam client was released for Windows 10 Mobile, if you know what I mean, fellow pirates.

Pre-installed applications

When initially purchasing a smartphone, the user is greeted with a number of useful programs from Microsoft: Food, Health and Fitness, Maps, camera applications, Weather, Mail, Sports, News, Word, OneDrive and so on. It would seem that at least these applications can be used without problems? But not everything is as rosy as we would like...

We should also talk about the Office software package. They are really well made and convenient, but after a year they require the purchase of a paid subscription. The maps are also well made, but are only relevant for Europe.

Gameloft Hub is the official application of the game developer (I could not ignore this application). It contains 5 games from Gameloft, which are ports with java. And everything is either donated or paid. It is not clear what Microsoft was guided by when creating and integrating this application into new (once) smartphones.

The gameplay screenshots speak for themselves - this is some wild old stuff:

One-handed mode

Functionality that developers have added in later versions of Windows 10 Mobile. Perhaps a useful feature for flagship Lumia with a large screen diagonal. On Microsoft Lumia 535 it is implemented crookedly. The developers made sure that the user could scroll through only half of the screen, but content in this mode is not always displayed correctly.

Eventually

The author does not recommend purchasing smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. Even if it seems to you that the hardware is quite good, and the price is tempting. Better pay attention to Android devices for a similar price. They may not be as cool at first glance, but at least with them you can use all the popular services without problems and wasted nerves.

In our time, “small-soft” smartphones can only perform the functions of dialers and media players. I’m especially sorry for users who purchased flagships from Microsoft. Yes, they got the opportunity to use a smartphone as a PC using a docking station, but the abandoned proprietary OS will make you regret such an acquisition more than once.