Finally abandonning Windows Phone.. Replacement?
Finally abandonning Windows Phone.. Replacement?
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Discussion

cRaigAl205

Original Poster:

318 posts

154 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
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So the end is nigh. Support is being withdrawn in December, app support is falling away fast and the battery in my Lumia 950 is now impractically short, and it hardly seems worth 'investing' in another replacement battery for it.

Suggestions on migrating back to a 'normal' phone? I've thoroughly enjoyed my various windows phones (never had an iOS or Android phone, have been loyal since my first smart phone!)

Current reviews suggest a OnePlus 6T or perhaps a Huawei Mate 20 Pro, but welcome to suggestions as I'm entirely out of the loop. (Frankly, I'd been hanging on for a new Surface Phone, but it's not looking likely..). Budget circa 500quid, would be happy to spend less, or go for something refurbished. (which the P20 pro would be at that sort of price range) Would like to get circa 3 years life out of it at least, so thinking it's worth buying something half decent at this point to future proof it somewhat.

No specific brief, just a good all rounder, ease the transition away from the WP OS and a half-decent camera for taking site photos when out and about with work.

Thanks!

Craig

SCEtoAUX

4,119 posts

112 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
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I have an Honor 9, and bought it for an amazing £159.99 from John Lewis. They seem to be £299 now but the Honor 10 comes in at a bit less:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/storage-Camera-Display-Of...

Certainly worth a look I think.

northwick

104 posts

207 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
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The Motorola Moto G[x] range is about as good as it gets in terms of bang for buck. I have a G6 plus and it is brilliant for the money. The 7 is out now so I bet you get get a really good price on the 6es.

AJB88

15,960 posts

202 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
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Should be doable in budget, Pixel 2 or 2 XL or maybe even a Pixel 3/3 XL.

Pixel devices are "stock" Android so don't have bloatware, get the security updates first and get a decent amount of OS updates.

My Pixel 2 XL is due for 2 year renewal in October, unless the Pixel 4 is a big upgrade I will keep it for now.

grumbledoak

32,571 posts

264 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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I would definitely go for Android One. That's guaranteed to be vanilla Google UI including updates for x years, so there are fewer multinationals adding their crapware to it. (Just the one!)

If you don't care about bragging rights the Xiaomi MI A2 Lite does everything you could want for under £200.

mygoldfishbowl

4,300 posts

174 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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My lumia 1020 was brilliant but unfortunately I've recently had to do the same thing as you. I went with the P20 pro for the camera and they can be had new for around £500 on Amazon. I've only had the pro for a few days and the camera is good but in all honesty I preferred my Lumia, but there's nothing I can do about it.

anonymous-user

85 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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My personal phone is an Honor 8X (£200 at Argos) and my workphone is a Oneplus 6T. On paper the Oneplus 6T should be the better phone, but I haven't really jelled with it and I much prefer my Honor 8X.

I would also argue that the Honor 8X is a nicer design and actually has better build quality as the Honor 8X has a glass back and the Oneplus 6T has a plastic back.

I never play any complex games on either phone, but they both feel as fast as each other in day to day use. The Oneplus 6T has the AMOLED screen and it does look more vibrant, but unless you put them side by side you wouldn't care. The fingerprint reader on the Honor 8X is much faster and more acurate than the inbuilt screen reader on the Oneplus 6T.

With a 6.5 Inch screen, 4GB Ram, 64GB Storage and a screen protector and case included the Honor 8X is the best phone you can buy on the high street for under £200.


anonymous-user

85 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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I've just got a Moto G7 Power (my P2 fingerpring sensor died). Depends what you are after but my priorities.

1- battery life - 3 days on one charge.... (5100Mah) - I just can't be doing with battery anxiety and carrying cables, chargers etc
2 - price - sim only. £175
3 - dual sim
4- Android - version 9

Has a beautiful screen (ignore the res spec - looks better than my 1080p P2), lasts for ever. Oh, and has a 2 year warranty. Next to no blaotware. Not noticed any tbh.


gizard

2,272 posts

314 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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I managed to drop ad break my HP Elite X3 -rather annoyingly earlier this year - insurance would not repair it so paid me the invoice value minus excess which I though was very reasonable.

I know have a Note 9 which is great and a similar size to the X3

Key thing here is that I am using 'Launcher 10' which I have found great as a Android / Windows live tile replacement and can recommend it - it's not as good as the Win10 Mobile original but it's not bad and I find it much better than the rounded Android stuff...

nikaiyo2

5,977 posts

226 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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Iphone 8 £599 but currently on 0% at JL.

It might be a bit old and not have any cutting edge things, but I bet it will work better for longer than any £200 phone and whilst loads of the latest offerings will beat it in group tests I bet the 8 would be much easier to live with day to day. If you want user friendly design IOS is still much better than, the admittedly much improved, Android and far far less buggy.


IrateNinja

769 posts

209 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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My iPhone XR was stolen recently, so had a similar conundrum.

Personally, I didn't entertain any options that weren't stock Android from that side of the fence, or whatever iPhone. Guaranteed support and updates on release are priorities for me.

I almost went for a Pixel 3, which is under £500 at John Lewis sim free, but ended up going for an iPhone 8 as I had read the battery life was better. The Pixels camera appealed, but I try to minimise my use of Googles products due to concerns over privacy and their exploitation of data.

PMacanGTS

467 posts

102 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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If security is at all a consideration, then it has to be an iPhone. The closed environment means much less chance for malicious code to get into the ecosystem.

If Android is your bag, then a Google phone is a must. And I can recommend the Pixel 3. While they are better than they used to be, 3rd party Android handsets from the likes of Samsung etc. aren't as quick as they should be in rolling out updates.

mike9009

11,009 posts

274 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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I was a big Windows phone fan - really nice stable OS.

Last year (or was it two years ago? :/) I bought a Nokia 6.1. This runs Android One - so no bloatware on it. Battery life is great (two days with my limited use) and it does everything I need. It took a little while to get used to the Apps continually updating overnight (My Windows phone had very few App updates - especially towards the end). The camera quality was as good as the Windows phones (if not a little better). Plus it makes phone calls and texts well too!

It is nice getting apps that work and are supported - and the Here! Nav app on Windows is also on Android, for example.

We are looking at replacing my wife's iphone with a Nokia 7.1 - she is just fed up with the ste battery life and limited/ expensive memory (so wants to move from Apple after many years being a fan....) She has also got fed up with her iwatch needing charging daily and has already changed that in preparation for the move to Android. (to a ftbit versa...) Why will an Apple watch not work with Android?

I still miss my Windows Phones but it has been a relatively easy transition to Android.

HTH


Mike

robinh73

1,348 posts

231 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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I would give a big shout out for a One Plus handset. I changed from Apple nearly 2 years ago and got a OnePlus 5. It has been superb, never missed a beat and is still as quick now as it was then. It is the 64gb version, so not massive memory but it has a lot on there with no dent in performance. The Dash charging is very handy too. I was going to go for the OnePlus6 but decided to wait for the 7 as mine still performs.

Matt_E_Mulsion

1,746 posts

96 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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I went from a Lumia 820 on windows to a Nokia 8 that runs on Android. The Nokia 8 is great, I have no problem with Android and I would make the same swap again in a heartbeat.

anonymous-user

85 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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nikaiyo2 said:
Iphone 8 £599 but currently on 0% at JL.

It might be a bit old and not have any cutting edge things, but I bet it will work better for longer than any £200 phone
How on earth do you come to that conclusion? Are you assuming £200 phones are made of weaker components? or perhaps assuming premium priced products are "better". I think you've been had :-)

bakerstreet

5,053 posts

196 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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robinh73 said:
I would give a big shout out for a One Plus handset. I changed from Apple nearly 2 years ago and got a OnePlus 5. It has been superb, never missed a beat and is still as quick now as it was then. It is the 64gb version, so not massive memory but it has a lot on there with no dent in performance. The Dash charging is very handy too. I was going to go for the OnePlus6 but decided to wait for the 7 as mine still performs.
Another vote for the OnePlus phones. I jumped ship from Apple in Feb of last year and went with the 5T. Its been really quite good. OH has also made the leap from years of Apple to the Mate 20 Pro. The camera is in another league, but I would say the OS skin on my OnePlus is better than the Mate Pro

Dash charge really is excellent. Usually charge my phone for half an hour in the morning and thats for a couple of days.

I shall probably go with the 7T in November 2019.

Only downside is Android Handsets tend to loose more money on trade it. The 5T is the only phone I've owned that I shall attempt to sell privately to maximize the sale price. Having said that my wife's iPhone7 has completely failed as soon as she bought the MatePro biggrin

anonymous-user

85 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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RogerDodger said:
nikaiyo2 said:
Iphone 8 £599 but currently on 0% at JL.

It might be a bit old and not have any cutting edge things, but I bet it will work better for longer than any £200 phone
How on earth do you come to that conclusion? Are you assuming £200 phones are made of weaker components? or perhaps assuming premium priced products are "better". I think you've been had :-)
This 100%, my girlfriend has an iphone 8 as her work phone and I laugh at how old and little it looks when put alongside my £200 Honor 8X.

The iphone 8 has a 1,821mAh battery, my Honor 8X has a 3,750mAh battery.

She also has a iphone 6S as her personal phone and despite Apple changing the battery 2 years ago it still has to be charged twice a day. My Honor 8X on the other hand can easily manage two days of heavy use.

But the £599 is better right because it has an apple logo on the back?

Here is a video comparing the £200 Honor 8X with the £999 iphone XS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWj8ihJfh6U


nikaiyo2

5,977 posts

226 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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RogerDodger said:
How on earth do you come to that conclusion? Are you assuming £200 phones are made of weaker components? or perhaps assuming premium priced products are "better". I think you've been had :-)
We replaced our work iPhones with Samsung phones J series or S. They were pretty good for 12 months or so, then they went downhill. It seemed like the J series in particular was designed to fail after a fairly short space of time, they just became so “buggy” and unresponsive. The S were better, but still not great to use.

All the old iPhones worked after 2 years, we only changed them to save money on the contract.

My old iPhone 6 lasted 4 years, it was only replaced as I got something stuck in the charger port.

My mum still used my iPhone 4 until just after Xmas when it was dropped.

anonymous-user

85 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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nikaiyo2 said:
We replaced our work iPhones with Samsung phones J series or S. They were pretty good for 12 months or so, then they went downhill. It seemed like the J series in particular was designed to fail after a fairly short space of time, they just became so “buggy” and unresponsive. The S were better, but still not great to use.

All the old iPhones worked after 2 years, we only changed them to save money on the contract.

My old iPhone 6 lasted 4 years, it was only replaced as I got something stuck in the charger port.

My mum still used my iPhone 4 until just after Xmas when it was dropped.
I'm not denying iPones are well built, well , some of them. Just that money doesn't always = better. Some iPhones are superb. Some Android phones are superb. Some are st - both sides. I see people with faulty £800 Galaxy fablets. I see almost every iPhone with a broken screen (I think, because they are too expensive to replace under massively expensive contracts - i.e. a lot of owners - most - could not afford them withouth finance (contracts))

Sub £200 phones with 2 year warranties are where all the clever people are shopping.