Characteristics of the Windows phone operating system. What is Windows Phone

When choosing a smartphone, we look at different factors, and one of the main ones is the operating system, which we will have to deal with. Google Android, Apple iPhone or Microsoft Windows Phone? Many buyers believe that the main competition is between the first two, and Windows Phone is not serious. But we will try to debunk this myth.

10 Windows benefits Phone

Plus one: this is not an iPhone

From the point of view of Yabloko, this looks like an undoubted drawback, but non-fans of Cupertino products will clearly look at this fact with interest.

In fact, in many ways the ideology of the iOS and WP8 operating systems is similar: both are closed from “external influences,” a strict selection of applications, and a rather narrow selection of gadgets. But if Apple only needs to deal with gadgets from Apple itself, then Microsoft is doing much better in this regard: Windows Phone smartphones are produced by many respected manufacturers, from Microsoft itself to HTC and Samsung (the latter - even despite the promotion of its competitor WP - OC Tizen).

If we add up and discard technical details, then Windows Phone can be called “iOS without Apple.” The latter, as you know, likes to set completely ridiculous prices for its components, while there is no such problem with gadgets on Windows Phone; the components here are the most “ordinary” ones. In general, if you like the ideology of Apple devices, but don’t like the pricing (or any other) policy of the Apple company, take a closer look at WP smartphones and Windows tablets.

Plus the second: yes, it's Windows

In view of the upcoming unification of Microsoft operating systems for all mobile and desktop devices, this advantage looks especially attractive. Now a smartphone running Windows Phone 8.1 also synchronizes with Windows 8.1 without problems, but when Windows 10 comes out, it will be Windows 10 for everyone, without the Phone prefix. By the way, a release for developers has already been released, which seems to be a hint.

Such unification means, at a minimum, the absence of problems with synchronizing gadgets (and now they are small, but they do occur), and the ease of use on all devices should, in theory, be similar.

In principle, approximately the same can be said about different versions Apple iOS, but not about Google Android. Yes, there are Chromebooks, but this is where the variety of types of Android devices ends.

Plus three: there is no problem of lack of RAM

This is the scourge of Android devices: once 512 MB of RAM was enough, but now 2 GB is considered the minimum acceptable for comfortable work. While the Lumia 720 on Windows Phone 8 easily copes with the same 512 megabytes of RAM, and even allows you to comfortably work with the navigation system (which the author personally tested a couple of years ago), not to mention the 2010 HTC Mozart with its 576 megabytes of memory: despite the obsolescence of the Windows Phone 7.8 OS and the actual cessation of support for this version of Microsoft, you can still work comfortably on this device (unless, of course, you install “heavy” games). Moreover, you don’t have to disable various “beauties” such as menu transition animations. Of course, there are already top-end WP devices with 2 gigabytes of RAM.

But an Android smartphone from three years ago with one gigabyte of memory on the fourth version operating system today is ungodly slow, and devices with three gigabytes of RAM are actually causing more sadness than joy, as the trends of “more, more, more!” This is quite appropriate.

By the way, Apple iPhone similar problem neither, which is proven by the presence of “old” iPhones of the third dash of the fifth generation in advertisements and at well-attended auctions, where they sell like hot cakes. And that's not only because iOS is a smart and simple operating system in its own right, but also because iOS doesn't have the same RAM issues as Windows Phone.

Unlike Android. Increasing RAM in Android phones only proves this.

Plus four: default applications

Since smartphones on Android are not sawed in the basement only by the lazy (just look in any Chinese online store for their number, estimated in tens of thousands), they usually do not have a rich set of equipment by default. Of course, various major vendors like Samsung or HTC will stuff their Android option There’s a lot of do’s and don’ts, but the vast majority of Android smartphones on the market have nothing but stock firmware. Someone generous can, perhaps, give free shell and a couple of free applications. But the common denominator we have is that a small amount of(4% of the market, plus or minus, according to analysts) Windows Phone smartphones give their users quite a lot of useful branded applications, and the mega-diversity of Android leads to the fact that you have to finish everything yourself. Even with the excellent HTC Sense shell.

By the way, a pleasant bonus is the swipe keyboard in Windows bundle Phone 8.1: while at Google Android similar the innovation appeared regularly only some time ago (somewhere around versions 4.2-4.3), and before that it was necessary to use paid application Swype or analogues, free versions which were far from being as good, having, among other things, extremely meager default dictionaries.

True, Windows Phone does not have Google Chrome (as well as Hangouts), but it does have everything else. And even synchronization Google account works on par with a default Hotmail account. There are also cloud application Microsoft OneDrive - similar functionality in Android Google name Drive provides the same space in both clouds: 15 GB each.

Plus the fifth: there is little that can be configured (and broken accordingly)

Probably, many will at first decide to put this plus as a minus, but if you look from the point of view of the average user, what does he want? Only one thing: that everything you need is there, and that it all works as it should. Without “finishing”, “rooting”, “customization” and other scary words. Buy it and use it.

With Windows Phone, everything is exactly like this: I took it out of the box and everything works. You can change the color of the “tiles”, make a ringtone, organize the desktop at your discretion, but you don’t need to unlock your smartphone to get superuser rights, install tricky applications to clean and reorganize memory, both RAM and ROM... Because everything works great without it .

By the way, this plus can also be attributed to Apple - once again.

Plus six: simplicity

But since we already mentioned the iPhone, Microsoft’s operating system can give the user the same simplicity. Yes, there are not very many applications (yet), but their number is increasing. Yes, customization is very limited (see above) - but you don’t need to shamanize with a tambourine for something to work.

Simplicity is the guiding principle not only of the iPhone, but also of smartphones based on Windows Phone. They simply won’t let you mess up anything in the system (including applications), the ways to get something you need are also easy, and even a child can figure everything out (especially since there is a very simple and effective child mode called "Kid's Corner". Usability, in general, is excellent.

Plus seventh: OS update regardless of manufacturer and device class

Everyone is familiar with the Android distribution model: it comes out a new version The OS appears on the newest Nexuses, then smartphone manufacturers begin to slowly shake things up and very slowly integrate the new OS into their firmware. Sometimes months pass, and in some cases until seemingly up-to-date devices new Android and it doesn’t reach at all.

With Windows Phone 8, everything is simpler: updates appear for all devices at approximately the same time, and for both the weak Lumia 520 and the powerful HTC 8x, all functions are available equally, except that games on weak WP smartphones will slow down. There is no “finishing” of your own shells: the firmware of different manufacturers differs, perhaps, in the amount of proprietary software, which is also not very much.

Plus eight: safety

In fact, the roots of this grow not from the fact that in principle there are no viruses in Microsoft’s mobile OS (as in the joke about Elusive Joe), unlike its desktop relative, but from the fact that, due to their low prevalence, they simply have not yet begun to be written.

The second reason is secrecy source code, which makes the OS virtually unhackable, at least for now. And antivirus for Android today is almost a must-have application for all “droid drivers”.

Plus Nine: Xbox Live

This is more of a plus for gamers, but it's still worth mentioning: the Xbox Live system is integrated into Windows Phone, so you can use your profile on this system for all games, collecting points and “pumping up” your character, and there are common features for everything rating tables where you can compete with other players not in just one game separately, but in all of them at once.

Plus tenth: standard navigation system

While there is still debate on the “Internet” about which is better, Microsoft quietly integrates a full-fledged offline navigation system HERE into its Lumia smartphones for free and has no problems with it. The system is really very powerful, there are updated maps of all countries of the world, there are really full mode driving (offline!) in the HERE Drive application with voice prompts, there is also an application indicating the nearest places (from cafes to shopping centers) in the mode of overlay on a three-dimensional map with positioning in space.

HERE cards have, perhaps, one downside: the cards are downloaded only into the built-in memory and categorically do not want to live on a flash drive. Well, no one is perfect.

As for offline navigators on Android, here you can allow a little lyrical digression to the point. A few days ago, the author of this article watched a video of one popular autoblogger, in which he proved to us that a separate navigator where better than a smartphone. At the same time, the rather ancient Samsung acted as a smartphone, and the much-cursed Navitel acted as a navigation system. That is, it turns out like this: if you have an old samsung smartphone, and you bought Navitel at an expensive price, then it’s better to buy a separate navigator.

The main thing is that you can’t argue with anything here. Everything is just like that. And many owners of old Android devices think the same way.

Conclusion

Of course, the Windows Phone operating system also has its drawbacks (remember, no one is perfect), but we hope we have clearly demonstrated to you that this OS is quite competitive. In terms of simplicity and convenience, it is not inferior to iOS, and smartphones on it are several times cheaper. Like, for example, or, which we recently talked about.

“What is windows phone?”, “I won’t buy this smartphone - there’s windows phone.”, “I don’t like windows phone, because I’ve never used it.” Here are just a few statements and quotes from our Russian users who are wary of this operating system from Microsoft.

In this review, I will try to describe Windows Phone 8.1 in as much detail as possible, talk about its functions, disadvantages and development prospects.

In general, the system is insanely simple; it essentially consists of 3 components:

Start screen with tiles;
list of applications;
settings;

Essentially, everything is the same as in other operating systems. But WP is completely different, with a lot of differences. The start screen is designed in corporate style Windows 8 consists of tiles, the sizes of the tiles can be changed, there are 3 options - small, medium and large tiles. Tiles can be swapped. Each tile is a separate application, that is, your desktop is just a quick launch panel for necessary, frequently used ones.
The color of the tiles can be changed in the settings (item desktop + theme), the tiles can be made transparent by placing an image on the background. Most often they put all sorts of textures, it looks quite interesting. In addition, you can select the theme color that will be used in SMS in the settings texts. Some applications and games do not support the transparent tiles feature and have their own unique icons.
It is possible to arrange the tiles in 2 or 3 rows vertically. Some tiles are “live”. For example, the “contacts” tile, which randomly displays photos of your friends, looks very impressive.
By the way, WP has implemented integration of contacts with Facebook and VK.

I think I’ve told you everything about the tiled interface, let’s move on to the notification center, which appeared in WP relatively recently. The thing is really necessary and convenient. All latest events applications are displayed there. The notification center can be configured: do fast access to WI-FI, Bluetooth, automatic screen rotation, location, etc. The notification shade is pulled out by swiping from top to bottom.

By swiping to the left, we get to the list of applications. Absolutely all applications that are installed on your WP smartphone are displayed here. They are located in alphabetical order. When their number is more than 40, an alphabet appears in the list, which helps you quickly find the right application, the same alphabet is used in contacts.
To add an application to the start screen, just press and hold your finger on it and, in the drop-down list that appears, select “Add to desktop”.
What can be configured in WP 8.1 and what definitely needs to be configured?
Ringtones + sounds. We’ve already talked about tile settings, so let’s move straight to the “ringtones + sounds” item, which allows you to put your favorite song on a call. There is a very important addition; to do this, you need to either download the “ringtone creator” application (it’s free, of course), or use a PC to add ringtones to the Ringtones folder in your phone’s memory. Only in this case can a melody be set for the call.

In addition, you can set your own ringtone for SMS, and you can customize application notification sounds.
Mail and accounts. When you launch your WP smartphone for the first time, you need to add an account Microsoft entry. It is needed to store information about the applications you have installed, contacts, notes, etc. If it is not there, then you need to create it, and it is advisable that you indicate over 21 years in the age field, otherwise problems may arise with installing applications and the “my family” section. Change account without hard reset settings will not work.

Lock screen. You can put any image you have on your smartphone as the background. It is possible to configure the display of application notifications (missed calls, SMS, skype, viber, etc.) on the lock screen - very a good thing. In addition, you can set a password.

I won’t dwell on such things as wi-fi, airplane mode, bluetooth, nfc, VPN, general Internet. I think everything is clear to you.

But at the point cellular network+ sim you can disable data transfer and select the fastest connection (2G, 3G, 4G), I would recommend using 2G when you are not using the Internet (or you have wi-fi connected), because 3G and especially 4G drain the battery a lot .

Battery saving. A kind of energy saving mode. This is certainly not stamina from Sony, but it can save charge. It is possible to look at which application and how much charge you have used.

Data control. It is possible to limit background data transfer, set a traffic limit, that is, when the traffic limit comes to an end, the smartphone will notify you about it. This will help save you from unexpected Internet costs.

Memory control. Allows you to specify a place to store media files, applications and downloads (SD card or phone memory). Displays which applications take up how much space.

Brightness. You can put automatic setup Brightness can be set manually.

Phone search. A very wonderful thing. The smartphone independently, periodically, remembers your location. If you lose your smartphone, you can block it, call it, clean it, find it on the map using the website windowsphone.com (by logging in with your MS account).

Backups. Creating a backup to the OneDrive cloud.

Mode in the car. Works if there is bluetooth in the car. If the mode is turned on, then when you are in the car, the smartphone CAM will send an SMS with the text that you are in this moment You can’t answer a call or SMS.

Soon the voice assistant Cortana will appear in Russia. According to MS, the functionality voice commands will be significantly expanded. Cortana will not only help you find the nearest cafe, respond to SMS at your dictation, but even joke. Well, we'll wait for the Russian-language version of Cortana.

Memory test. Allows you to clear unnecessary cache (temporary files). Significantly improved compared to wp 8.0.

Sensor. Here you can configure the glove control mode and smartphone unlocking double tap on the display.
Spam filter. Allows you to add numbers to the blacklist without paying a penny to the operator.

Phone update. Serves to check firmware updates and their installation. Please note that in order for the update to install correctly, your smartphone must have about 1.5 GB of free space (phone memory), I first recommend removing the micro sd and SIM card. The update occurs over the air, that is, via Wi-Fi.

Other settings should be clear to you.

Shop. I think many people are interested in the question: what about the application store?

There are not as many of them as on IOS and Android, but, in principle, everything you need is there, and there is also something to play. Personally, I have never had any problems with the store. Everything we needed was there. In addition, the store is developing and growing. I like that in each smartphone model, only those applications that the smartphone can handle are available for download. Everything you find in the market will work and run.

By the way, Lumia smartphones on WP are much more functional than smartphones from other companies on WP. Non-Lumia smartphones may not have some of the features I mentioned above.

Owners of Lumia smartphones have the opportunity to download branded Microsoft applications for working with photography. There are a lot of such applications and they are very interesting:

Lumia Camera - I recommend using it instead of the default camera app.
Lumia Photo Alive - allows you to make animated GIF images.
Lumia Panorama - the name speaks for itself.
Lumia Focus Change - allows you to focus on any object after the photo has been taken.
Lumia Selfie - for selfie lovers
Lumia Photo Studio is a simple and convenient photo editor.

IN Lumia smartphones MS Office preinstalled. You can make basic adjustments to office documents using it. The variety of applications from Microsoft does not end there; there are a lot of them in the store..

I would also like to note the offline navigation HERE, which today(December 11, 2014) available for Android users. It’s easy to work with; you can download maps of the desired region to your smartphone and start using it. There are 4 applications that work with maps.

Here maps program for working with maps
Here transit A program that will help you find out how to get to the right place by public transport.
Here drive - navigation for cars
here city lens is an application that, using augmented reality, will help you find the nearest restaurant, bank, etc.

WP also has its disadvantages, and this is natural - the OS is relatively young.

Many users have problems with a clogged cache from watching movies and videos online. The phone's memory becomes clogged, and the only way to clear it is by resetting the settings to factory settings. In this case, it is advisable to do backups, if everything is done correctly, resetting the settings will be painless.

These memory problems are probably the main ones, with the latest update, the system has learned to recognize more “garbage”, let’s hope that soon the problem will go away completely.

If you don't want to do a factory reset, you can help clear the memory as follows:

Clear application data (SMS and history in whats app, viber, skype)
Clear the cache on instargam, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki - this can be done by deleting the application and installing it again.
Clear navigation maps history
Clear log Internet Explorer.
Delete SMS and call log.
Use memory control by cleaning temporary files.

Sometimes users have problems with duplicating music and photos in the player. This is also a known problem; it occurs because the memory card and smartphone are poorly compatible. I've never had this problem, I used cards micro memory sd 10 class from transcend.

Often, due to inexperience, users have problems with fast discharge battery To increase operating time, I advise you to do the following:

Let's start with the lock screen. We set the screen to turn off after 30 seconds, a minute is the maximum.
Notification + actions settings item. It has a lot of applications and, as a rule, they all work in background, I advise you to simply turn off unnecessary ones.
Constantly turned on wi-fi, Bluetooth, NFC, location also affect battery consumption.
I wrote about the features of using 3G and 4G above.
The sensor and screensaver items are also required customization, If you do not use double tap, it is better to turn off the screensaver.
Some applications and games can also “kill” a smartphone literally within 3-4 hours of continuous use.
And finally, if the design in applications is white and not black, correct this, the same applies, of course, to the background of the system (changes in the “desktop + theme” settings item)

If you do everything as described in these points, your smartphone will last exactly a day, or even two, depending on the battery capacity.

Another small minus is that the alarm clock does not work when the smartphone is turned off, well damn... Microsoft needs to do something about this.

Well, at the end of my review, I would like to say a few words about the prospects of WP. Due to the fact that Microsoft bought Nokia mobile. Thus I received a lot of whists. Now the development of the Lumia line will go up, the system will develop rapidly, the number of applications will increase. The company still has something to work on, something to fix, where to grow. The same voice assistant Cortana will soon, according to the assurances of the developers, speak Russian. The camera apps will receive significant improvements in the very near future. There will be support for gesture control. The revolutionary Windows 10 will be released, which will be equipped with a common store for tablets, laptops and smartphones, this will certainly give impetus to the increase in the number of applications in it. According to Microsoft, ALL smartphones with WP8 installed will be updated to Windows 10. Let's hope the story with WP 7.8 doesn't repeat itself. Now there are no prerequisites for this. It is very gratifying that all smartphones receive updates approximately every six months. The oldest 820 and 920 lumias have already been updated 3 times, soon there will be a 4th one to the Denim version.
By the way, models 830/730/735/535 are already sold with a pre-installed version of WP 8.1 Denim OS.

I sincerely believe that very soon WP will take a leading position in the market. The system and the attitude of manufacturers towards it evoke only positive emotions.

If you still have any questions, you can ask in the comments.

Today, Windows Phones are becoming increasingly popular. The latest version of this OS is Windows Phone 10.

According to the developers, Windows Phone 8.1 users can also get it.

However, for now this opportunity is only in the project.

At the moment, the only way to get a phone with the tenth version of the Microsoft operating system is to buy a device with the OS pre-installed.

Rating of Windows Phones

It would be useful to understand which mobile phones generally work with Windows Phone. We will go by popularity rating.

No. 1. Microsoft Lumia 640

Perhaps the most popular Windows Phone model is the Lumia 640.

According to the characteristics, this is nothing special phone– 5 inches screen, 1280x720 resolution (Hd), 8 GB of internal memory, 8 megapixel camera. Supports 3G and dual SIM cards.

It attracts only with its price - in our area you can buy it for about 130 dollars.

LG Magna H502 with similar characteristics costs about $140.

No. 2. Microsoft Lumia 550 and 650

Most recently, the new Lumia 650 entered the market, which became an improved version of the 550 model.

The screen has become larger (5 inches at 650 and 4.7 at 550), the resolution remains unchanged - 1280x720. The camera has also become better - 8 megapixels after 5 megapixels, both with autofocus.

The 650th Lumiya has 16 GB of memory, and the 550th has 8 GB. On both phones it is pre-installed Windows Phone 10, and also has built-in GLONASS, GPS and 4G functions.

The price of the 550th model is $145, and the 650th is sold for 210 units of US currency.

So far, the excitement has not subsided and they charge quite a lot of money for the new product, but in the future the price will drop significantly.

Despite its short stay on the market, Lumia 650 has already become the owner large quantity rave reviews and, for sure, in the future it will be as popular as the 550th model.

Both phones have a standard battery for this price category. I wish there was more. Microsoft Lumia The 550 has a 2100 mAh battery, and the 650 has a 2000 mAh battery.

And this despite the fact that the budget one of these two is only the 550th.

What is the reason that the creators decided to make less capacious battery, remains a mystery.

No. 2. Microsoft Lumia 430

There is support for GPS and GLONASS. The price for a device with such characteristics is quite standard – $170.

By the way, there is a stereotype that phones with Windows Phone OS are produced only by Microsoft itself, but next we will look at which phones from other companies come out with such an operating system.

Although Microsoft is the best at integrating its brainchild into hardware, which is why phones from this company are in first place in the ranking.

Mobile devices from the same Nokia often have problems using Windows Phone.

They concern slow operation (freezing), correct operation some applications and other small features.

No. 6. HTC 7 Mozart

HTC is also joining the company of Windows Phone owners. Although so far the British-Taiwanese concern is not doing very well.

For $210 we are offered a small (3.7 inches with a resolution of 800x480) smartphone with an 8 MP camera and 8 GB memory without a memory card slot.

There is no GLONASS support here, only simple GPS. The battery here is weak and that’s putting it mildly – 1300 mAh.

This phone wins only due to good, high-quality work without failures. This device will serve its owners for many years.

But I don’t really want to pay that kind of money when the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL is live.

No. 7. HTC Windows Phone 8

The Taiwanese tried to improve the situation a little by releasing in 2012 year HTC Windows Phone 8. Its screen is slightly larger - 4 inches, the resolution remains the same - 800x480.

There is less memory - 4 GB, but there is already a card slot. The improvements also include the addition of GLONASS.

For some reason, the camera was also made smaller - 5 megapixels, but they worked hard on the battery - 1700 mAh. They also removed the poor, too oval edges and made the device more rectangular.

Now attention: it sells for $125 (yes, the HTC 7 Mozart costs $210).

This begs a lot of questions about HTC's pricing policy. But we can say with confidence that the phone is worth the money.

Decent mobile HTC phone Windows Phone 8

Windows Phones are gaining market share, so let's take a look at what models are available and whether they're worth buying.

Windows Phones are gaining popularity among buyers. Currently one of five WP8 phones sold. For this reason, we decided to see what it is and how it differs from old Windows Phone 7.8.

Why Windows Phone 8?

The Windows Phone 8 phone is an interesting proposition for several reasons. First of all, this is a system that works great with the Xbox 360, with Skydrive cloud and Windows 8, which comes with new tablets and PCs. Although Windows 8 is still not very popular, but within a year or two, it should become the most popular system in the market and will displace the beloved Windows 7. In addition, WP8 is secure because it has a closed architecture, every application created passes Microsoft control. The phones have fixed specifications, which Microsoft requires from manufacturers, means ensuring good consistency with the hardware, and it all works smoothly and almost without problems, which cannot be said for Android smartphones, especially the cheapest ones.

A big plus is also the built-in package Microsoft Office, which is the only software available on mobile devices fully compatible with the full version of this most popular office suite in the world.

Or maybe not?

The Windows Phone 8 system is not without its shortcomings. First of all, it has a minimalist tiled interface that is characterized by very little customization options. Allows you to change only the size and color of the tiles; there is not even the classic wallpaper. In addition to Windows Phone, there are far fewer applications than for Android and iOS mobile applications. Although this difference is decreasing and will decrease from year to year, it can still be considered noticeable. It's also worth noting that Windows Phone has many limitations, such as no USB keyboard and mouse support, and you can't install another web browser. The only one accessible program Internet Explorer, or based on it, such as Nokia Xpress.

What do Windows Phones have in common?

As we already mentioned, smartphones with the Windows Phone operating system have a specification set by Microsoft. All Windows Phone 8 phones must have processors Qualcomm Snapdragon S4. Devices running the Windows Phone 7 operating system were also equipped Qualcomm processors, but of the previous generation. Microsoft also established that cheap phones with Windows Phone 8 must have 512 MB random access memory, and on more efficient ones 1 GB. The top models with Windows Phone 7 had 512 MB, while the less powerful ones had only 256 MB of RAM.

Because of this, many applications such as Angry Birds or Skype did not want to be released on cheap phones. WITH starting Windows Phone 8, Microsoft immediately stated that the phones will be available in two versions, so the developers are ready for this, and this situation will not happen again, and all applications will run on WP8.

With the launch of Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Microsoft decided to update the old software and Windows Phone 7.8 became available. The main change in the system is the addition of the ability to change the tile size so that the system becomes similar to Windows 8. However, the updates did not affect Wi-Fi, NFC connections (exception Nokia Lumia 610 NFC), memory card support and full multi-threading. It is also important that while Windows Phone 8 can run applications designed for the previous version of the operating system, reverse side this is impossible. In addition, the latest version of Internet Explorer Mobile, numbered 10, is not available for Windows Phone 7. The older version of mobile windows also does not support multi-core processors, screen with a resolution other than 800 x 480.

Is it worth buying a phone with Windows Phone 7?

Obviously, smartphones with Windows Phone 8 are better than those equipped with the old version of the software, but not everyone can afford to buy a phone for 8 thousand rubles. This is exactly how much the most expensive one costs on the market. cheap smartphone on Windows Phone 8, i.e. Nokia Lumia 520. If the amount you can spend on a phone is significantly less, it is definitely worth paying attention to smartphones with Windows Phone 7.8.

This means you have to compromise and choose whether you want a very smooth phone experience, with not very many programs, no features fine tuning interface. Any solution will find its followers, however, I believe that it is better to have a little less functional, but nimble. Although characteristics mobile phones with Windows Phone will be worse than on Android.

How to choose a Windows Phone?

This can be done very easily, namely, by analyzing only the technical characteristics of the phone. This is possible because all smartphones have very close, almost identical software. In the case of smartphones with operating Android system software varies significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer. It's because it's poorly written and overloaded with unnecessary extra software that your smartphone, which has the best specs on paper, may be less efficient and slower in reality. Also important is the quality of the case and its appearance. After all, no one wants to have an ugly device that will fall apart after a few months. And here there is a point, all phones based on WP8 are very similar in design.

Conclusion

I hope it has become clear what advantages and disadvantages smartphones running Windows Phone 8 have. They are not perfect equipment, better or worse than Android or iOS. They're just different. Any equipment is intended for various types users. In comparison, Android software is more suitable for advanced users who expect a lot of features and tools. And here iOS users Similar to Windows Phone holders, but with different hardware. It should be noted that iPhones are expensive phones, but Android and windows are presented in all price options. After all, the cost of the device is a very important criterion when purchasing.

Lock screen

The lock screen in WP8 is a screen in the truest sense of the word. That is, this is a full-screen picture that you need to pull up to unlock the display. The picture is selected in the settings; it can be one of the standard images, or any photo or picture you downloaded to your smartphone. On NTS smartphones you can also set weather animation as a picture.

The lock screen at the top displays the current signal reception level, Internet connection type (HSDPA (H) or EDGE (E)), wireless interface icons, battery charge level and time.

Also here, on top of the icons with system information, a music control panel appears. To call it, you need to press the volume up or down key. This panel shows the current volume level, music control buttons, track name, playing time, as well as an icon with sound mode, ringer or vibration.

In addition, information about the new found item appears at the top of the screen. Wi-Fi networks or a piece of a new text message, that is, part of it can be seen without even unlocking the screen.

Just below the center of the screen are displayed current time and an alarm icon next to it if it is on. Even lower are the day of the week, date and month. And at the very bottom there are unread icons text messages, email and missed calls. Mail icons for different accounts the same, with the exception of “boxes” from MS (hotmail) and MS Exchange Server.

In the settings you can specify the time after which the lock screen will appear, the range of values: 30 seconds, 1, 3, 5 minutes or “never”.

You can also set a password for the lock screen. In this case, when you move the screen up, instead of unlocking, a panel with a numeric keypad will appear where you enter the password. Interestingly, as soon as you finish entering the password, the screen immediately unlocks.

Honestly, I would like to have more settings for the lock screen, for example, the ability to quickly launch a program. I also didn’t like the tiny notifications: if you remember HTC Sense, where the entire message appeared at once, it becomes quite sad.

Desktop

Working space is organized in Windows Phone 8 in two panels, one of which contains tiles already known to us, and the other a detailed list of programs.

In Windows Phone 8, the tile menu has undergone a slight external modification. Firstly, now up to four tiles can be located in one row, and secondly, the useless arrow has finally been removed (or rather, it was not removed, but placed at the very bottom of the tiled menu). Tiles come in three sizes: small (1x1), medium (2x2) and large (2x4). If the program supports “live tiles”, then the information on the tile will be updated. As you move a tile, nearby tiles will move away. It looks the same as in the latest versions of Android, except that this feature appeared in Windows Phone earlier.

Most tiles support “unread notification counters”, that is, if you have received a new letter, then the tile with mail will have a one, the same with other programs. Moreover, this applies not only to standard programs, but also to third-party ones (for example, IM+). The “Calendar” tile deserves special mention; if you stretch it to a large size, it will display a list of current affairs that you have written down.

Adding a new tile occurs by long pressing on the program from the application menu. Also, some third-party applications can add tiles directly from the settings. Changing the size and position of tiles or removing them from the desktop is done by long pressing on the tile itself. From the list of programs, you can not only quickly add a new tile, but also delete a program.

Desktop personalization is all about changing background(black or white) and the background color of the tiles themselves (here the range has been seriously diversified). Interestingly, some apps also change their appearance depending on the color of the tiles. This allows us to maintain continuity appearance between third-party applications and built-in ones.

The solution with tiles is interesting and unusual: on the one hand, these are ordinary shortcuts, on the other, updated tiles, and on the third, unique widgets. The most pleasing thing, of course, is that we finally got rid of the small arrow on the side and increased the size of the line on the desktop (4x1 versus 2x1 in WP7). In my opinion, tiles are inferior in variety to the same widgets in Android, of which there are a great many in the Play Market.

Status bar

Unlike Android, Windows Phone 8 pays virtually no attention to the status bar. First of all, it doesn't even fall out. Secondly, it contains a minimum number of notifications. Thirdly, this line is still automatically hidden, so if you need to check the smartphone’s charge, signal reception or new messages, you need to manually omit it, which, of course, is inconvenient.

The address book does the same thing, only you search for the subscriber's card yourself, rather than immediately opening it. After shortcuts on Android, this solution seems outdated.

The “Phone” tile opens the history of all calls, and you can immediately dial the person who called you recently.

When you call a subscriber, you see his number and the time of the call. There is no contact photo (even if one is assigned!). This is a huge miscalculation, which upsets me very much; it is unclear why it was necessary to do this.

At incoming call you see the photo of the contact, to answer the call you first need to swipe up and then press the answer button. The button itself is narrow and flat, made completely inconveniently, you need to aim to press it.

The address book

The address book is located in the Contacts application. The application itself is divided into four blocks: a list of your contacts, their activity on social networks, latest contacts, which you accessed, and the “All Together” block, where the created rooms and user groups are located. Let's talk about everything in order.

Your contacts list displays your address book synced with Hotmail. If you have enabled synchronization of contacts with Twitter and/or Facebook, then contacts from these networks will also appear in your address book. Contacts from social networks can be “linked” to contacts from Hotmail, then all the contact’s activity from social networks will be displayed in one card. In addition, after “linking”, a high-quality photograph is pulled up, if we talk about Facebook.

If you wish, you can synchronize your smartphone with Gmail, then the contacts will be pulled up from your Google account. The disadvantage of this method is that with such synchronization you automatically receive low quality photos contacts.

To create new contact, just click on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen. There is also a “Search” button for quick navigation through the book.

The second tab displays news feed from Facebook, Twitter and other connected social networks.

The third contains frequently called contacts.

The last tab contains a list of contact groups and rooms. What is the room like? You invite one or more contacts to create a room, then inside this room you can maintain a common calendar, correspond, make a shopping list, and much more (for example, share photos). It is clear that the functionality of the room presupposes its use, first of all, by family or simply close people. The second use case is the corporate segment.

Call log (call history)

The call history window is simplified as much as possible. You see the list latest calls(all), on the left is the same phone icon, on the right is the subscriber’s name, just below is the type of call (incoming, outgoing, missed), day of the week and time at which the call was made. For missed calls, the line under the caller's name is highlighted in a cheerful color (it depends on what color you have chosen for the OS).

The call list appears to reflect calls from the last week. There is no grouping of calls from one subscriber; you also cannot see detailed information about the call, for example, its duration, there is no such functionality. If you call the same person ten or twenty times, then the call list will contain these twenty entries without any grouping under one contact.

When you click on the phone icon, a call starts to the selected subscriber; when you click on their name, a profile window opens. By the way, if the number from the call log is not in your address book, then when you click on it you will still be taken to the profile window. That is, you can select an action, call this subscriber or send a text message.

Display of missed calls

When the display is locked, missed call information appears as an icon at the bottom of the lock screen.

On the main screen, the missed call is shown inside the “Phone” block. I already talked about this above, I think. The display of missed calls in the system line did not appear.

Working with USSD requests

The system processes direct USSD requests without problems, and now supports requests in which it is possible to select options.

Messages, mail

Display new (missed) messages

In screen lock mode, new text messages are displayed at the bottom of the display as an icon; new text messages and mail are not shown in the system bar. The number of messages on the main screen is shown within each block, that is, within a block, for example, for Gmail, for mail on MS Exchange and for text messages.

Text messages

Text messages are represented by a list of chats, for each chat the last message in it is indicated. In the general message window you see for each chat the phone number or name of the subscriber, and below - last message or a piece of it in two lines. To the right is the time when the message was received, or the day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) if the message is from previous days. Unread messages can be distinguished from read ones by the color of the text of the piece of message under the subscriber's name. U unread messages this will be the color selected in the theme: red, green, etc. The message list contains not only SMS messages, but also messages from rooms.

When you open a chat, you see all the correspondence with the selected person. The contact's first and last name are shown at the top, and messages appear below. By clicking on the contact's name, you can go to his card. The subscriber's messages are aligned on the left side, and yours are aligned on the right. Under each message the date it was received by you or delivered to the subscriber is indicated. You can delete or forward an individual message, or you can delete all correspondence with a contact.

If messages are old, then not only the time of sending and delivery, but also the day of the week will be indicated for them. If very old, the date of the message will be indicated in the format day/month/year.

When you create a new message, it defaults to text. If you add any content to an SMS, it will be converted into an MMS. Users can send photos, video clips, their locations, voice notes, contact cards and ringtones via MMS.

Another feature of working with messages in WP8 is this. In the system, when entering messages, you initially cannot see anywhere how many characters you have already entered, and this is inconvenient. The thing is that the OS shows the number of characters entered as a number only after you have exceeded the value of 130 characters for the Latin alphabet and 60 characters for the Cyrillic alphabet. This flaw has been known since WP7, it’s sad that it hasn’t been fixed.

When you enter a new message, the recipient is selected. To select it, you can start entering the contact’s first or last name, the system itself will offer options from those found in the address book. In addition, you can simply enter the phone number manually or click on the “plus” button and get into the address book, where you can select the required contact. You can send a text message to one or more people.

In the message settings, you can enable notification of message delivery to the recipient. When you turn on notifications, after each SMS you send, you will receive a response message with a text indicating what time your message was delivered.

WP8 does not have the usual message templates for most other (or all other?) phones like “Happy Birthday”, “I’m busy, I’ll call you later”, etc.

There is no concept of a "draft message" in WP8. You cannot save drafts. Moreover, if you were writing a message and accidentally pressed the “Windows” or “Back” key, that is, you went to the main screen, the text you wrote will not be saved and you will have to enter it again. At least the good thing is that if you answer the call while writing an SMS, you can then continue writing.

And the last point about messages. If you sent a message, but it didn’t go through (you were on the subway, driving through a tunnel, your phone was in “Airplane” mode, etc.), then you will need to resend it manually, yourself. The notification that a message was not sent will only appear in one place, directly below the text of the message itself. That is, situations are quite possible when the message was not sent, and you do not know about it, because you clicked the “Send” button and immediately closed the message window.

Mail

Let's look at the implementation of mail in Windows Phone 8. Unlike what we see in Android, there is no separation by account type, that is, if you set up Gmail and, for example, Hotmail mailboxes, the same application will be used to work with them . Let me remind you that Android has its own separate mail client for Gmail and another for the rest of the mail.

About the fact that each account with mail can be transferred to main screen in the form of a picture block, as I already said. Now let's look into one of these boxes.

Postal messages presented as a list; about 5 letters fit on the screen (HTC Windows Phone 8x). Each line displays the sender in large font, below is the subject of the letter and the first line from it. To the right of this data is the time of receipt or the day of the week (if the letter is yesterday or old). If you swipe the screen to the left, you'll move from the screen with all emails to the screen with unread emails. And the last scroll through – letters marked “important”. A convenient screen, in my opinion, it works correctly for all accounts. That is, if I send an email marked “important” to myself on Exchange and to Gmail mailboxes, then in both cases the system will place it on the screen of important messages.

You can select letters in the list. To do this, you need to move your finger to the left edge of the screen and gently click on the area to the left of the desired letter. As soon as one letter is selected, a square will appear next to each one with the ability to put a checkmark there, that is, select it too. In addition, you can simply press the button at the bottom of the screen to call the email selection mode. You cannot select all messages at once. Selected messages can be marked as read or unread, checked or unchecked for them, and also marked “done” (a check mark will appear to the right of the name and subject of the letter).

Let's open one letter. Above in large-large font the sender's first and last name are written. As a rule, this data does not even fit on the screen, and you will not be able to fully read the name of an unknown person. For example, if Konstantin Konstantinov writes to me, then I will see how general list messages and open message something like Konstantin Konst.

Below the first and last name is a line with the subject, and then the date the letter was received. Even lower is the addressee, that is, you and other people, if the letter was sent not only to you or in the form of a newsletter. Next come the attachments, if any, and then the text.

The unprepared reader will receive some unpleasant news here. However, it is unpleasant for everyone. In WP8 you can scale the text of an email, just like in any other system. Make it smaller or larger. However, unlike other systems, in WP8, enlarged text is not re-aligned to the width of the screen. You understood me correctly, if you “enlarged” the text of a letter in your mail, please use horizontal scroll to read it.

You can read letters in both vertical and horizontal screen orientations. Attachments are opened by clicking on the gray “attachments” label. Clicking on the name of the attachment starts downloading it. The download status cannot be tracked, but you will know that the attachment is being downloaded by the presence of a “Cancel” signature under it.

You cannot select a specific location to download attachments; there is no concept of folders or viewable file system. Accordingly, to view the downloaded attachment, you need to open the letter with it and click on the attachment there. The system does not provide a tool to view all downloaded attachments or any kind of download history for email accounts.

A downloaded attachment can be distinguished from one that has not yet been downloaded by its icon. For undownloaded ones it is general, in the form of a paperclip, for downloaded ones it is by file type. By the way, WP8 does not distinguish between letters in html format, that is, with pictures, and letters with attachments. That is, in the general list of letters you will see a paperclip icon not only for letters with attachments, but also for letters in html format, because there are pictures, and these are like attachments.

If the system “does not understand” the extension or format of an attachment, no action can be taken with it; when you click on such an attachment, you will see a notification that it cannot be opened. For some OS investments, you are prompted to download an application that supports them. For example, this applies to .pdf files.

In the case of a Gmail account, the system recognizes the “there” labels as folders. Accordingly, you can see what kind of shortcuts you have. In G8, the email client has finally learned to work with labels; you can open letters marked with these labels and download attachments.

The search in the list of letters is carried out by first name, last name, subject of the letter, as well as by the body of the letter (throughout the entire text, and not just the line visible in the general list).

Mail display

Mail client seamlessly displays both standard text messages and those compiled using html. In the case of html, to download images, you must first click on any picture inside the letter, after which they are loaded.

Working with text inside a letter

Windows Phone 8 supports copy-paste functionality. That is, text from a letter (and not only) can be copied and then pasted into another place, for example, into a document or into the address bar of a browser. It looks like this: when you click on a word, an icon for copying the selected text to the clipboard appears, to the left and right of the word there are arrows, by dragging which you can select other words or entire pieces of text and copy them.

On-screen keyboard, text input

The keyboard in Windows Phone 8 has remained virtually unchanged since the days of the 7. Four lines of characters, no additional markings on the buttons: one click - one character. There is a key to enter numbers and additional characters. There is a button for entering smiles (emoticons), there is a space bar, a “Backspace” and “Enter” key. Personally, I was counting on the possibility of installing third party keyboard, but, unfortunately, Microsoft did not please us with such luxury. In my opinion, this keyboard too simple. If the company doesn’t allow you to install other keyboards, then at least make yours the best and most convenient. But Microsoft did neither the first nor the second.

In landscape mode, the keyboard becomes a little wider, but not the full width of the screen. That is, in WP8 there is no particular difference between landscape and portrait keyboards; they do not differ in the ease of entering text on them.

When you enter a letter on the keyboard, it is displayed in a pop-up field above the key itself, so even if you close the button with your finger, you always see which letter you are currently entering.

Pressing a key is accompanied by sound, there is no vibration. The keyboards are slightly different for different input fields. For example, for text messages to the left of the space there is a button for entering smiles, and when working in a browser there is also a key for rapid administration".com". In this case, if you hold your finger on the “.com” button for about a second, a pop-up menu will appear where you can select the domain zone: .org, .edu, net.

If you hold your finger in the input field on one of the words, a cursor appears, with its help you can correct errors in words or simply move between words or phrases in already written text to add or correct something.

The keyboard has predictive input and supports the Russian language. When misspelled, words are automatically corrected.

Calendar

The calendar can be represented as a block picture on the main screen; it will occupy the entire line, that is, two standard blocks. The current day of the week and date are displayed here, as well as the nearest event, if any.

In the calendar you see a list of events for the current day, sorted by time, or a list of events for the next day for which they exist. The general list of events displays their names and location, as well as time. To the right of each event is a colored label that indicates whether the event belongs to one of the calendars you are synchronizing. Native synchronization with the Facebook calendar is supported, joint events from the common room are also displayed.

When adding a new event, you can select the topic, location, account affiliation, start time, duration, reminder and status. In addition, you can enter a note and add users from your address book, who will be sent an invitation to take part in this event (by mail).

Multimedia

Music+video

It’s unclear why Microsoft decided to combine music and video in one program. What does this mean? While watching all the content, you get a mix of movies and songs. The meaning of this decision is unclear.

Myself music player Supports playback by artist, album or genre. You can also play all tracks. Unfortunately, there is no support for playing folders. It's important to note here that you can't install a third-party audio player on WP8, so the fact that Microsoft installed it so simple application, very frustrating.

As for video playback, there are practically no settings here: no subtitles, no changing the audio track, or anything else. Linear playback only. And again, you cannot install a third-party video player.

It’s important to note that in Windows Phone 8 there is no such thing as “ringer volume” or “media volume,” so if you take out your headphones after listening to music and put your smartphone in your pocket, it’s quite possible that you might miss an incoming call.

Photos

The application is divided into four tabs. In the first, you can view your photos, having previously selected sorting by date, albums or contacts. The photo disk contains direct images from the camera. You can add the picture you like to “Favorites”.

In the "What's new?" tab are displayed last news from social networks containing photographs.

Applications contain programs for working with images.

Marketplace

The app store home page is divided into four tabs. From the first you can quickly go to proprietary smartphone applications, third-party programs and games. The second contains the “program of the day” - any good application according to Microsoft. The third and fourth tabs are dedicated to the list of applications and games, respectively. They display three titles and offer to familiarize themselves with all the programs.

In addition to the usual sorting by paid/free and best programs, there is a “Collections” tile. The collections contain the best applications for various tasks. I really liked this section; it’s clear that really good applications were chosen for each of the subsections.

When you open application information, several tabs appear in front of you. The first one contains short description application, its weight, the name of the developer and the average rating. The second tab is dedicated to reviews, the third tab shows screenshots of the program, and the fourth tab shows similar applications.

The app store has one inconvenient drawback - if you have already purchased an application, when you open information about it, its purchase is not displayed in any way, that is, you still see the “Buy” button. Of course, you don’t need to buy it a second time, and when you click the button they will tell you that you have already bought it and offer you to download it. Many apps have demo versions so you can try the program before purchasing.

As for search, in my opinion, it is better organized in Marketplace than in Google Play. Here, at least, all the applications displayed after searching are at least relevant to the word you enter. In Google Play, you can enter “FBReader” and get the Opera Mini program as the fifth or sixth link.

Marketplace Programs

At the moment, in the Marketplace you can find about seven good Twitter clients, two or three quality programs for reading e-books, a couple of third-party browsers, about 9-10 clients for social networks and several really good instant messengers. There are completely no third-party video players as a class, as well as music players. Of course, there are no third-party launchers or keyboards either.

In principle, there are many applications on the market, but in my opinion, there are about a hundred of really high-quality ones. They are easy to find in the top paid and free programs, as well as in collections.

Xbox Live

This section contains all the games available on the Marketplace. If you want to see the list available games in the Marketplace, you will still be transferred to Xbox Live. Conventionally, all games can be divided into two types: “Xbox games” and “Others”. What is the advantage of the former? They support the achievement system from Xbox. That is, if you, say, completed the next level in Sonic, you will receive the appropriate reward. In fact, Xbox Live is the equivalent of Game Center on iOS.

If we talk about the number of games, then there are very few really good, cool toys, probably not even two dozen. At the Windows Phone 8 presentation, several interesting toys from Gameloft and others were announced, but so far only Cut The Rope has appeared.

PC connection

One of the G8 innovations was the ability to direct connection to your computer without intermediary programs like Zune. On the one hand, this is an absolute plus, but on the other, you still cannot upload any files to your smartphone. Or rather, you can download them to your phone, but third party programs will not be able to see them. Simple example: popular app Bookviser cannot open books downloaded via a PC; you need to use workarounds. Moreover, I will not be able to see the uploaded books in the folders on the PC, they (these folders) are simply hidden and not displayed.

Multitasking

Windows 8 introduces full multitasking. I can easily minimize the game, send an SMS, read Twitter, and then open it again and continue exactly where I left off. You can view all open programs by long pressing the “Back” button. However, not all applications currently support this multitasking. Developers must update their programs to be compatible with this mode. At the moment, at least Facebook has done this.

Browser

I think many of you associate the phrase “Internet Explorer” with some kind of installer for a third-party browser. However mobile version I was pleasantly surprised by this browser, it has a simple, I would even say, ascetic design, it looks similar to the desktop version of IE in Windows 8.

Address bar moved to the bottom of the screen, the analogy with desktop IE is also visible here.

The browser supports multiple tabs, Flash banners and animations are visible and playable. There are no problems with watching videos on VKontakte.

Page position indicators – two thin stripes, on the right frame and at the bottom of the screen. They can help you understand which area of the site you are in. This is convenient when you have greatly enlarged the page compared to its original resolution and want to move to another area of this page without changing the scale.

The maximum zoom of the browser is redundant; you can enlarge the page so that one or two words per line are displayed on the screen. When changing the scale, the size of the pictures does not change.

When you enter an address, auto-selection works; the browser “suggests” options from the list of pages you have visited.

Unfortunately, there is no auto-fitting of text to screen size.

If you wish, you can place your favorite tabs on your desktop.

When editing an existing document or creating a new one, you can select the font size, font type (italics, underline, strikethrough) and color. You also select a highlighter color for the word or phrase to make it stand out. There is a button to roll back one or more actions.

The application supports working with Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010; you can take part in editing and viewing documents on the server without downloading them to the device. There's also a OneNote screen in the Office hub. Here you can create various notes. You can also view PowerPoint presentations using the Office Hub.

Ringtones and sounds. Here you can configure the notification sound and ringtone (now your own melodies, to do this you need to upload them to the Ringtones folder), the vibration alert is turned on/off, and you can also select actions for which sounds will be turned on.

Themes. Select the color of the tiles and the background on which they will be placed.

Shared Internet. Distribution of mobile Internet from using Wi-Fi. Open and secure networks are supported.

Touch and send. Windows Phone 8 now supports NFC. You can use it as follows. A number of applications support the "touch and send" function, this can be a contact, open page in the browser, document, image, in general, all applications where when calling context menu there is a line “Send” and then a field “Touch and send”. I can click “Send > Touch and Send” in the IE browser on the Lumia 920, then lean it back against the back of another WP8 device, and a notification will appear on it, if I accept it, the same page will load on my smartphone, opened on “ lumii." The same goes for pictures and other content.