Windows 10 Mobile is a mobile version of the system from Microsoft, which is much better adapted for mobile devices, especially if they have a touch screen.
Microsoft is famous for its operating systems and office products. However, recently it has also started working on mobile versions of the OS and released Windows 10 Mobile. This is not the company's first experience in this direction. Before this, there was a mobile OS with the Phone prefix. But not so long ago it was abolished and a newer and more advanced version was put into development. We’ll talk about its features and some nuances of use further.
Features of Windows 10 Mobile
The steps to install and configure the system cannot be called complicated, and all this does not require much time. However, there are some features that are worth pointing out. For example, it is officially possible to obtain the system, both directly when purchasing on the website, and as a result of purchasing an officially sold phone or gadget. In this case, the system itself can come as a bonus.There are some mobile phones that allow you to update the system in an official way, regardless of how you received it. At the same time, you can receive individual assemblies that are used by developers. This requires preliminary registration on the official service, and then all that remains is to download the required system.
Since some users received Windows 10 Mobile as a result of the update, they may have seen that many standard applications have changed in some way:
- Calendar;
- Photo gallery;
- Messages;
- Xbox;
- Edge.
New features in the latest version of Windows 10 Mobile
Recently, developers have made it possible to use for storing your own photos cloud storage OneDrive. Information about the shooting location and its date is now added to the photographs taken. Most devices that have this system installed have a built-in camera, so this feature was logical and very necessary. We wonder why it was included in the software only after several years of the product's existence.The user can integrate the Messages application with . It is possible to quickly respond to some messages that now appear as notifications. A special system has been developed for notifications, which allows you not to be distracted by any notifications that are not important to you. And you don’t even need to constantly brush them away. The system will remember your interests and try to display only what is really important. Of course, errors are possible, but you can also manage all processes manually, it all depends on your settings.
The changes did not affect the built-in browser much. However, it now has the ability to switch to reading mode so that the user can work directly with the article material and not be distracted by advertising blocks.
To summarize our small Windows overview 10 Mobile, we note that it is not yet a competitor on iOS or Android. Both competitors are head and shoulders above Microsoft's product. However, if we compare this assembly with what was there at least a couple of years ago, then this is heaven and earth and therefore, you can give the system a second chance if you have already used it before and may not have liked it.
For those who have had experience with WM 10, we remind you that you can leave a comment or even a full review about the system; we will be happy to read impressions about the real experience of using this product.
Many gadget owners often wonder how to install Windows 10 on a mobile phone if it supports the new product. The answer is quite simple, Microsoft developers have released a version of OS Windows Phone 10 specifically for smartphones. However, not all gadgets support it. Therefore, let's look at examples of how to install Windows 10 Mobile on unsupported smartphones and compatible devices.
How to install Windows 10 Mobile on Nokia Lumia?
Since Microsoft bought the brand Nokia Lumia, the new Windows Phone 10 operating system was immediately adapted to these devices. However, this only applies to new Lumiya models. Old smartphones that were released by Nokia are not included in the list of compatible devices, which can be viewed on the developer’s official website.
If your mobile phone is compatible with Windows 10 and you decide to install a new operating system, then follow the instructions:
- Personal data may be deleted during installation. Therefore, we copy everything you need to a flash drive or computer.
- Follow the link to the official website of the developer and register in the customer support program.
We charge the device 100%. The gadget's battery must be full.
will appear new page. Let's go down and accept the terms license agreement. Click “Send”.
Now go to the Windows Phone Store and download the program to evaluate the new OS.
After installing the application, click “Get preview builds”.
In the next window you need to sign in to your Microsoft account.
After this, the update version will appear in the Windows Insider program (the very first line). You need to go to the gadget settings, select “Update”. The search for updates will start. Installation will take up to 30 minutes or more.
If you don’t like the new operating system or critical errors occur, you should connect your device to your PC and download the Windows Phone program Recovery Tool and restore Windows Phone 8.
IMPORTANT! After installing a new OS on your phone, you may experience problems with language packs, connecting to Wi-Fi networks, alarm clock and calendar, other standard programs. They will have to be downloaded from the Store again.
How do I install Windows 10 Mobile on unsupported devices?
The question of how to install Windows 10 on a mobile phone interests many. Therefore, we suggest that you read the instructions for installing the OS on unsupported devices.
IMPORTANT! You perform all actions at your own risk. It is worth copying all the data from the phone. The instructions are intended for manufactured Lumia models Nokia company.
What is needed?
- A utility for editing the WP SDK8.0 registry if Interop Unlock is not installed.
- CustomPFD utility Registry Editor For Windows hacking Phone 8.
A device that has Interop Unlock with a registry editor or just a registry editor installed.
Instructions
- Go to the branch HKLM/SYSTEM/Platform/DeviceTargetingInfo.
- We find the parameters (strings): PhoneHardwareVariant, PhoneManufacturer, PhoneManufacturerModelName, PhoneModelName and write down their values on a piece of paper so that in case of an error these parameters can be returned back.
- The following values need to be replaced:
On unsupported Lumia, launch the CustomPFD Registry Editor.
PhoneHardwareVariant on RM-1085
PhoneManufacturer at MicrosoftMDG
PhoneModelName on Lumia 950 XL
PhoneManufacturerModelName on RM-1085_11302
- We wait for the download to complete and reboot the device (in the classic way, no removing batteries or pressing buttons).
- Ready. Windows 10 Mobile installed on your device.More detailed instructions How to install Windows 10 on your phone, watch the video.
We return to the “Preliminary Assessment” program (we wrote above how to install it). Select the slow update circle.
How to install Windows 10 Mobile on top of Android OS?
Before you try to install Windows 10 on Android, there are a few key points to consider:
- Windows Phone 7, 8 only support ARM processors and i386. With Windows 10 things are different.
- The new operating system requires a lot of memory. Weak gadgets should not be flashed for Windows 10, as the old OS can be damaged beyond repair.
Not all smartphone processor chips support Microsoft's operating system.
Instructions for Windows installation 10 on top of Android will be the following:
- Download the program sdlapp.apk.
- Install the application on your phone.
- We extract the archive data into the SDL folder.
- We copy the system image file (usually c.img) into the same directory.
- Let's launch the utility.
- We are waiting for the installation to complete.
- Reboot the device.
- Ready.
Download the sdl.zip archive.
It is important to note that we do not recommend installing a Microsoft product on Android. Operating systems may conflict and the device itself may be damaged. If you are eager to find out how to install Windows 10 on an Android phone, then it is worth noting that it is better to wait for the official method or change your phone altogether. It will be more reliable this way.
Detailed instructions about Windows installation 10 on Android, watch the video.
Lately, I have often heard statements from users that the mobile version of Windows 10 is dead and we need to quickly get rid of it, but is this really so? Let's try to understand this issue more carefully.
Honestly, Windows users are amazing people and at the slightest noise they panic and say that everything is lost.
Let's start with a little history. For the first time Windows Mobile appeared already in 2000, which was based on Windows CE, which in turn appeared in 1996, after which there were as many as 6 versions of Windows Mobile, which were supported until 2012. Yes, at the beginning of the 2000s, Windows Mobile was on top, but with the advent of other mobile operating systems that were more responsive to users, the share of Windows Mobile decreased sharply, but nevertheless Microsoft supported it for as long as possible, until the release of Windows 8.
Microsoft understood that Windows Mobile needed a restart and on February 15, 2010, Steve Ballmer officially introduced the new mobile OS Windows Phone. At that time, Microsoft and Nokia entered into a cooperation agreement. Strangely enough, it coincided that the Nokia brand also needed a relaunch, and therefore, for a certain amount of money, Microsoft simply bought the Finnish mobile division. After which fruitful cooperation began. Nokia worked on its smartphones, which were magnificent in design, of course this does not apply to cinder blocks like the 920 Lumiya, but then there was its revolutionary mother, wireless charging, which slightly leveled this defect. Carl Zeiss optics were the highlight of smartphones and they took pictures very well indeed, even by today's standards. Microsoft, in turn, dealt with software and exclusive support for Nokia, since in essence it was already their company. And the people who followed the tandem of these two giants were sure, including me, that the results would be simply bomb phones that would outshine all sorts of iPhones and Samsungs, but this did not happen. When Windows Phone 7 came out, they turned out to be somewhat unattractive and not very functional. And in principle, both developers and users, oddly enough, were not particularly upset. And they said that this was their first joint device and that there was more to come. And after leaving new platform Windows Phone 8 already showed some work on bugs. The smartphones looked pretty nice. The aforementioned flagship Lumiya 920, although it looked like a brick, was still popular. Afterwards, by the way, Microsoft updated the smartphone to version 925. He looked much cooler and thinner. Even I couldn’t resist then and bought a Lumia 820. The 920 was too huge for me, and the 720 was quite weak. Although the Lumia 720 was the most beautiful smartphone at that moment. The Lumia 820 had an excellent 8 MP camera with dual LED flash and good design, which is what captivated me. It seems to me that it was during the existence of Windows Phone 8 that the mobile OS was at the peak of its popularity. Afterwards, Windows Phone 8.1 and the new 3rd and 4th line of Lumia smartphones were released, which were magnificent from the design side. Moderately elegant and not oversized.
Then Microsoft announced the release of Windows 10 and again renamed Windows Phone to Windows Mobile. At the end of 2015, it released smartphones of the 5th line called Lumia 950 and 950 XL - this is a kind of cosplay on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Frankly speaking, the phones turned out to be not the best and had a rather buggy OS at that time. Microsoft understood that it could not provide such a system to other older smartphones, so it delayed the release of Windows 10 until March 2016, after which all 3rd and 4th line smartphones, Lumia 1520 and third-party smartphones were able to receive this coveted update. The second line of smartphones did not officially receive Windows 10 Mobile, but still, through Windows Insider, Microsoft allowed you to upgrade to version 10 without problems, but then, of course, banned the release of assemblies for these smartphones, summarizing this by saying that the smartphones were too old, but the Ten it was possible to get money from them.
So this is what I mean by all this. This story was needed to restore some consistency. To be honest, there were even skeptics who, back in the early 2000s, said that Windows Mobile was an unnecessary OS that would soon die, but almost 20 years have passed and the system is still alive. It has had its ups and downs, but there are still people who use it and don't want to give it up. Even Microsoft itself claims that it will not stop releasing builds for smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. This is already a good sign, it would be another matter if Microsoft were silent at all, but one can hope that for a few more years mobile Windows in the form in which it is now will receive updates. Yes, my God, even Windows RT, which has tens of times fewer users than Windows 10 Mobile, still receives updates, even one owner of this tablet once told me that a menu was added to the RT version Start, as in Windows 10, while, let me remind you, the system was released in 2012, 5 years ago, and after that you will say that Windows 10 Mobile is dead? I have on at the moment Lumia 830, the phone came out in the fall of 2014, now it’s 2017. About 2.5 years have passed and the smartphone is still receiving updates. Many Android smartphones cannot even afford this. Even if suddenly updates stop coming out for this platform, will the phone immediately turn into a brick? It will still work, except that there may be problems with some applications, but looking at Windows RT, which is less popular, and everyone has already forgotten about it except Microsoft and some enthusiasts, we can say that Windows 10 Mobile will still be live a very long time.
Personally, I can say that, for example, I broke the Lumia 820 in 2014, when I was riding a bike and fell on the right side, and I had a phone in my pocket on that side and I still haven’t been able to fix it , due to the lack of the required part. The Lumia 830 has already been repaired once, albeit under warranty, but it was still there, so most likely the Lumia smartphones themselves will die faster than the mobile operating system from Microsoft.
Yes, Microsoft is preparing new smartphones that should be closer to the functionality of a full-fledged Windows 10, but in parallel, regular mobile Windows will also live, no one is going to give it up. I've been hearing for about 2 years now that the mobile system is dead. And is she dead now? No, more alive than all the living.
If we talk about Windows problems 10 Mobile, then there is only one. These are very expensive devices. If Microsoft were to sell these devices at a loss, like the Xbox 360, for example, then the system would gain a much larger base of both users and developers. It is with the valuable that we kill two birds with one stone. Since users, looking at branded smartphones from Microsoft, still chose similar phones on the Android system, since they were cheaper and had better characteristics, and wealthier people took the iPhone because it was an iPhone. Like, if you have an iPhone, then you have succeeded in this life. And smartphones running Windows Phone and Windows Mobile were mainly purchased by enthusiasts and those people who wanted to try something new. Some gradually leave for other systems, while others return because they are accustomed to this OS.
Microsoft has taken a break for now; there have been rumors about a full-fledged Windows 10 on smartphones with Intel processors Atom, but Intel curtailed their production, and now Microsoft is relying on Qualcomm, whose new chips support Windows 10 and DirectX 12 at the hardware level. ARM chips will be built into both smartphones and laptops, and thanks to the Andromeda project, the system will adapt to the device, it will even be possible to run x86 applications thanks to the emulator of this architecture.
It's up to you to switch to another mobile system or stay on Windows 10 Mobile. I am in no way defending Microsoft, since it is they who are mostly to blame in the mobile market, but even now I am completely satisfied with this system. There are plenty of applications in the store, the protection is quite good on a smartphone. What else do you need to use? If you still play games on your phone, and the games you need are not available on this OS, then most likely Windows Mobile was not suitable for you in the first place. I repeat once again - the system is not dead and may even be able to surprise you with something.
The future of Windows 10 Mobile has become a popular topic among fans and critics alike ever since Microsoft announced that Windows 10 Mobile development would move to the "feature2" branch and remain there. Although Microsoft has stated that the change is minor, Windows Central sources paint a different story; development of Windows 10 Mobile was separated from the rest of Windows 10 on other platforms. But why?
Microsoft has separated the development of Windows 10 Mobile from the rest of Windows 10 because Windows 10 Mobile is no longer required for what Microsoft plans for Windows on mobile devices. Sources suggest that Microsoft's next mobile device will run what the company calls internally Andromeda OS; a version of Windows that strives to be modular enough to run on any form factor and, as a result, eliminates the need for Windows edition 10 Mobile. So Microsoft no longer needs Windows specific Windows versions 10, which means Windows 10 Mobile is now redundant.
This is great news, except for one important detail; Existing Windows smartphones will not receive updates to this "Andromeda OS".
Feature2 branch
According to sources, the feature2 branch exists to continue to support what Microsoft's internal documentation calls "legacy ARM chipsets" for the next year and a half. The main goal of the feature2 branch is to continue serving mobile Windows devices 10 through 2018 with bug fixes, security updates, and new enterprise-specific features. It is also reported that Microsoft will support new UWP APIs that will be introduced in Redstone 3 and Redstone 4 on PC
The reason these APIs are "backwards" and not originally introduced is because the feature2 branch is technically Redstone 2 (but it's frozen). When Microsoft split Windows 10 Mobile into the feature2 branch, it also froze OneCore development on Redstone 2. Now, given that Windows 10 Mobile will not recreate the rest of Windows 10 development, this means that Windows 10 Mobile will support Redstone 2 for the remainder of your life.
So, to compensate for this, Microsoft will support the new UWP APIs that will be introduced in Redstone 3 and Redstone 4. This means that if an application developer is targeting any new UWP APIs that will be introduced in the next couple of Windows 10 releases, these applications will continue to work with feature2 Windows 10 Mobile. This should give Windows 10 Mobile an extra boost of life in the next year or so.
This is why there is no Skip Ahead setting for mobile devices running Windows 10. There's simply nothing to miss. The only development for Windows 10 Mobile is Redstone 2.
It is indeed true that Microsoft continued to compile Redstone 3 builds for Windows 10 Mobile for a while, but only to continue CShell development on smaller engineering devices. However, sources said that as of last month this is no longer the case as CShell will not be available for existing smartphones Windows. It's also worth noting that Microsoft's efforts to bring new APIs to Windows 10 Mobile are only planned until Redstone 4, but that could change.
Application support won't last forever
Once the APIs stop receiving calls, Windows 10 Mobile devices will very quickly fall behind the rest of Windows 10 when it comes to supporting UWP apps. As developers begin to integrate the new APIs coming with Redstone 5, these apps will not be able to run on feature2 with Windows 10 Mobile, meaning devices like the Lumia 950 and HP Elite x3 will quickly lose support applications. Microsoft may continue to support Windows 10 Mobile with security updates in 2018.
Microsoft will continue to release production Windows builds 10 Mobile (outside of the Insider Program), and may also continue to align them with PC releases such as Fall Creators Update. But since development has been split between Mobile and Desktop, Microsoft can choose to release mobile updates on its own schedule if it wants.
In short, Microsoft will support Windows 10 Mobile for the foreseeable future to serve the remaining users.
This material is difficult to write correctly. After reading more than a dozen reviews of mobile Windows 10, I came across approaches that differ radically: from the usual description of menus and their capabilities to an in-depth analysis of system codes from the point of view of developers and programmers. I wanted to approach this review a little differently, from a different perspective. Describe not only what the user receives today, but also where the development of the system can go, what ideas are embedded in it and what they can ultimately result in. One cannot exist without the other, and therefore, in addition to descriptive, specific points with illustrations taken from Lumia devices, I will need to deviate to the side and describe what is not on this platform, but is present in the modern market. Why? The answer is obvious; the Windows 10 Mobile platform does not exist in a vacuum, but competes for customer attention with systems such as Android/iOS. And only by understanding these differences will it be possible to escape the trap of Microsoft's worldview, which prefers to describe only what exists within their systems, but not pay attention to competitors.
The reasons for the appearance of Windows 10 Mobile - life from scratch for the third time
We are already living in a post-PC market, where most web browsing is done on mobile devices rather than on personal computers, be it a home system or a laptop. The irony is that one of the pioneers of this trend and the company that accurately predicted the development of events, but was slightly mistaken in the dates, was Microsoft Corporation. It never lacked visionaries, people who could predict market developments and give accurate forecasts. The problem was in executing the predictions, putting them into practice and creating a mobile version of Windows. There has always been one approach that can be called dominant within Microsoft; it has not changed for the last decade or more. The mobile operating system should be a copy of the desktop system and provide the user with a similar experience. So, when Windows Mobile appeared, users were convinced that it was ideologically the same system as on their computer; look, it even has a Start button! Many people bought Windows Mobile devices only to realize that they were not at all similar to their computers, were in no way compatible or almost incompatible with them, and belonged to a completely different class portable devices. However, at the dawn of the smartphone market, the role of Windows Mobile was quite serious; this system influenced the development of Symbian, its ideology was considered by many as promising.
But Microsoft made a number of serious mistakes; having built a business model on cooperation with Chinese manufacturers who created Windows Mobile smartphones, the company began the process of destroying its platform. Noticeable unit sales, programmers who rushed to create applications - everything whispered about the success of the endeavor. But the trouble came from those same Chinese who, in a battle among themselves, gave up on quality, and as a result, the platform became associated with powerful but buggy devices. The same Symbian was inferior functionally, did not develop so quickly, but was guaranteed to work. The Windows Mobile direction became a kind of cursed place within Microsoft; there was no person who could present a clear and detailed development plan. More precisely, there were too many such people, and each had their own plan of salvation. They, as in Krylov’s fable, each pulled Windows Mobile in their own direction. And the result was that the company suddenly realized that it was losing the market and could lose the race for the consumer. It was at the beginning of Android's rise, around 2009, when the system first showed its potential and it became obvious even to die-hard skeptics. And at that moment, Microsoft’s tossing began, which has not ended today, the first reset of the company’s mobile platform occurred - the appearance of Windows Phone.
By and large, Windows Phone became Microsoft's anti-crisis plan, a response to the market conquest of iOS/Android. In 2010, at a congress in Barcelona, the company showed Windows Phone as an animated screensaver on dummies of future phones; no system existed; it was to be created in the coming months. We were all shown pictures that had nothing behind them, and the choice of tools for developers and code for the mobile OS was chaotic; it was designed on the knees, just to be in time for dividing the pie in the form of end consumers. The only task that was set within Microsoft was to meet the deadlines; in a state of time pressure, the creation of the system could not be properly planned. The first devices of the Lumia series from Nokia had many problems, each of which was corrected as the play progressed, the most serious errors were corrected in the first few months of sales, and the “little things” were completed for about a year.
But within Microsoft, already in the first months of Windows Phone 7’s life on the market, there was an understanding that this system was built incorrectly and that the kernel needed to be reworked and a transition to source code similar to the desktop version of Windows NT was required. In the future, this would make it possible to create the same applications for different Windows branches, with minimal differences and labor costs. The decision was controversial, as the company's PR and advertising for the new platform promised that users would receive updates. But instead, a year later, the market received Windows Phone 8, and enthusiasts and pioneers new system– version 7.5, in which they added external similarity to 8, but key features were missing. Many people felt deceived, since once again Microsoft reset its mobile platform and started its life from a new point.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all these years at Microsoft, the idea that a mobile system should be similar to a desktop OS has not disappeared anywhere. With tenacity worthy of better use, the company introduced an interface into phones that few could call successful; it was unusual (Metro UI in the original name or tile), but from an ergonomic point of view, not the best.
A change in the company's management, the lack of significant success in the field of Windows Phone, the death of the tablet version of Windows RT - all these events occurred during the existence of Windows Phone 8.x. And they showed a simple thing inside Microsoft: the system that the company created is unviable without subsidies for hardware, when it is sold below cost and that is the only reason it has 3% of the world market. Billions of dollars in marketing investments, the purchase of Nokia's mobile division - nothing brought success to Windows Phone. The problems only got worse. And what was the next stage? Microsoft did what they were already used to doing - they decided to start life with clean slate.
The emergence of Windows 10 Mobile is zeroing out the deadlock Windows situations Phone 8.x, when the system did not receive any noticeable sales, and the few developers who wrote software for it constantly felt like outcasts. There is an opinion that those who are unable to create software for Andorid/iOS can write it for Windows Phone, where the quality of the programs does not play a big role, since there are few of these programs and users are eager for them. For lack of fish and cancer, fish, as they say in our area.
Such a parameter as the cost of ownership of Windows Phone for the end consumer was noticeably higher than for Android/iOS, since in the absence of competition between programs it was possible to set any prices for them. For example, Microsoft paid for the development of an official Instagram client for Windows Phone, it was shown at one of the press conferences, and it seemed that this was the turning point when everyone would start writing for this platform. But it didn’t work out. Moreover, in 2016, the official Instagram client for Windows 10 Mobile is still in beta status! It does not have most of the settings available on other platforms, and there is no support for working with video. The best alternative product, 6tag, does not work with all filters, and to work with video you will have to pay 119 rubles. This is just a small touch that shows the state of affairs with software for Windows Phone.
Microsoft realized that they had lost the battle for the mobile device market and went into loss minimization mode. The appearance of Windows 10 Mobile is an attempt to use the key event of 2015, the release of the desktop version of Windows, which received number ten. A piece of the success of desktop Windows was supposed to give impetus to sales of mobile devices and support them until the company came up with a new plan and reset this direction once again to start all over again.
At the beginning of 2015, when they showed Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft told a very interesting thing - the system would launch later than the release of desktop Windows 10. Why? The answer was obvious - all efforts were devoted to the main product, and they would try to improve it in a short time. Starting in October, after the launch of desktop Windows 10, most programmers will move on to finalizing Windows 10 Mobile, and in a couple of months it will be brought to fruition. Even then, these words confused me; it turned out that Microsoft had reduced the priority of the mobile OS to the minimum.
But at the same time they announced the Windows Insider program, which allowed anyone to become a beta tester of the mobile system. Fans of Windows Phone perceived this as a good attitude of the company towards them, pragmatists from business - as a reduction in development costs, shifting tests onto the shoulders of end consumers. Which always leads to negative results, since testing must take place within the company, and only then can it give an adequate result.
Unfortunately, the number of innovations for end users, which were shown at the beginning of 2015 for mobile Windows, turned out to be so meager that they were dumbfounded. In my material, I described them and expressed bewilderment at how one could wait almost a year to release such an update to the market.
Already at the time of announcement, the system looked archaic, and the speed of development of Windows Phone compared to other systems was lower. In fact, Windows Phone not only remained a catching-up system, the speed of iOS/Android's separation from it began to increase; over the past five years, Microsoft has not been able to close this gap or at least reduce it.
Initially, Microsoft's plans included updating almost the entire Lumia line to Windows 10 in November 2015, then the deadline was postponed to November, and then to the beginning of 2016. This is explained by the fact that inside the company they realize that the current version of Windows 10 Mobile can hardly be called a beta version, it is unstable, has many problems and flaws, and even compared to Windows Phone 7 it is striking in the number of problems. The company could not help but release its flagships on Windows 10 Mobile; they were put into production and components were purchased for them. But at the same time, Microsoft is trying to minimize the damage from launching crude products as much as possible. Thus, the company does not distribute devices for testing unless publications and journalists agree that they will not mention the disadvantages and focus only on the positive aspects. However, no one warns Lumia buyers that the system has flaws and cannot be called out of beta.
Unfortunately, the classic situation for Microsoft is repeating itself; the company will not be able to develop Windows 10 Mobile in 2016, since all its efforts will be spent on fixing bugs and working on firmware. This means that Microsoft needs to reduce the number of phones sold as much as possible, which the company has already officially announced. model range 2016 will be minimal and represented by several models. Eliminate hardware subsidies, since there is no longer any competition for market share, why sell a crude product that will scare away users? And preparation for life from a clean slate, which will be the Surface Phone, although the name of this product can be anything.
It turns out that Windows 10 Mobile is another, yet another page in the history of the mobile platform from Microsoft, which can be considered passing and temporary. The company is not making any serious plans for this system; to some extent, they want to quickly forget it in order to begin building the “correct” system for the new time. But many people do not know this, do not understand it and may buy a Lumia smartphone. Let's take a look at the system itself and what it offers its users today. Let's move on to the description Windows interface 10 Mobile.
Windows 10 Mobile Tiles and UI Features
The originality of the Windows 10 Mobile interface is hard to deny, home screen consists of tiles of different sizes, you can choose a small square, a larger square, or a rectangle. You need to hold the tile for the icons to appear, and you can also pin the tile to the screen.
The screen has a vertical orientation, that is, the tiles need to be scrolled down. You never know how many tiles you have in total; the screen can be conditionally infinite. Considering that most of the necessary applications easily fit on the main screen, this does not cause any problems. You can place everything you need here.
Unfortunately, Windows 10 remains far behind modern platforms when it comes to customization; you can't customize the color of individual tiles - you can only select color scheme for everyone. This may be confusing for those who are not familiar with the system and are used to WhatsApp having a green icon. On my phone, for example, the default color for all tiles is blue, and the WhatsApp icon is the same color.
Does this confuse people who are used to WhatsApp being green? Definitely. But this also creates certain difficulties for software developers; when advertising and promoting your application, you cannot achieve the uniformity that you expect. Why did they do this in Windows? Apparently, they thought that the icons might be too colorful. Or maybe we just didn’t have time to do it, I don’t know. But the fact remains that you won’t be able to customize everything for yourself. And you should forget the experience of other systems and the vast world outside of Windows - here the icons will be in the color that you chose or for you.
In the "Options" section you can also choose to show more or fewer tiles, this setting adjusts the same size. There is a choice of wallpapers and tile transparency, interestingly, compared to Windows Phone 8.x, wallpapers have appeared both on the central screen and in the application list.
Now an amazing moment that remains a mystery to me. In desktop Windows, many functions were duplicated in different menus so that the user could change a parameter in a matter of seconds. In mobile Windows, everything is not the same; to change the wallpaper or adjust the color of the tiles, you need to go to the settings (this section is called “Options”). Not very logical and not very convenient. But, apparently, the developers proceeded from the assumption that it is not necessary to adjust the color of tiles and wallpaper so often. There is a certain logic in this.
Unfortunately, switching the more/fewer tiles mode disrupts the grouping of tiles on the screen when there are a lot of them. They suddenly line up not in three vertical rows, as before, but in two. It is possible that this glitch will be removed in the future, but it looks strange, the system does not remember the previous state.
Many tiles are animated and show information, for example, the mail tile scrolls through the headers of new emails, and there is a circle with the number of new messages. This is quite simple and informative, but this approach is rather the exception. In most cases, the information is displayed chaotically and there is no system in it, that is, you cannot assess at a glance what you missed or what happened. For example, news shows headlines, changing them one after another. Something similar existed in widgets at the very beginning of the development of Android, then the system evolved, but this did not happen in Windows.
I don’t presume to evaluate how the tile looks for the end user; you can get used to it and even love it. Evaluating UI design is a matter of taste, everyone will have their own opinion. I would like to dwell on how this UI manifests itself in operation.
In standby mode, phones with AMOLED screens have the ability to display information from certain applications, such as the calendar. On a black background, white inscriptions glow brightly, for example, this could be a message that it is your friend’s birthday. You are free to choose the applications that will display information here. Plus, icons of missed events and time are shown.
This screen operation is convenient and allows you to not have to pick up your phone to see what was happening while you were doing other things. In lock mode, when you have not yet gotten inside the device, you can see information from other applications, for example, Twitter - as a rule, this is one entry. Therefore, we can consider this more of a design element than something useful and truly helping to navigate the flow of information.
The vertical orientation of the interface is due to the fact that the list of applications (swipe to the left) is better displayed this way. You see applications sorted alphabetically, there is a search bar at the top or selecting a letter, then you can jump to a specific section. The irony is that for users outside the US who use two languages, the alphabet goes like this - first the local layout, then the English one.
That is, English is almost always on the second screen, so it turns out that you need to scroll the screen and only then select the desired letter. Ergonomics manifests itself in such little things, and in Windows 10 Mobile it limps on all fours. It felt like an army of Microsoft programmers were working on individual features and applications, but there was no chief architect to explain and show how all these parts should work together.
At the beginning of the list, the latest applications that you have installed on your device are shown.
By analogy with Android and iOS, Windows 10 has a curtain for notifications and quick activation of certain functions. You pull the screen down, 4 icons appear, each of which you can customize to your liking by selecting what you need from a list predefined by the manufacturer. You can expand the icons, then a 4x4 matrix will appear, but in a large matrix you can no longer select functions for three new rows; they are determined by the manufacturer.
Notifications in the curtain are grouped by program; you can prevent their display here for each application. For SMS/MMS there is a quick response from the curtain; just type the text and you can send it right away.
Some notifications do not make any sense, for example, after a system update, this is reported in the curtain. Clicking on the notification does not show any information, that is, it is a dead end. There are a fair number of such messages, and why they are needed is absolutely unclear.
Those who actively use their phone and do not have enough space on the first screen can create folders for icons; just drag one icon over another, and they will be grouped in a folder. When you click on the folder below, a window opens with all the icons, but there are no inscriptions with the names of the applications. But you can give your folder a name.
The vertical orientation of the main screen and menu plays a cruel joke on the phone, because modern devices can easily work in landscape orientation, which is how you watch videos. For example, I start watching a video, but I don’t want to look at the credits, so I want to pull the scroll slider and fast forward the video. The slider is on the left edge, but instead of rewinding, a curtain comes out. Why? Everything is simple, it is tied to the vertical UI, and the curtain does not change orientation - landscape orientation in the video player, vertical in the curtain. Brain blowing!
It remains to be said that the buttons are made on the screen, and to call them, you need to pull them from the bottom up. In many applications they automatically disappear and do not take up space on the screen. But in some cases, for example, when calling a video to play from another application, they remain on the screen and are constantly lit. Which also raises questions.
The buttons are as follows - go back (long press the list of recent applications), the central house from Microsoft (exit to the main menu), search.
A short line about multitasking: in the last running applications, only seven windows are shown; you can close them from the list individually or all together.
For me, the last seven applications are an anachronism, since I am used to the display of dozens of applications, even if some of them have long been unloaded from memory and will take time to launch (which is almost always unnoticeable). Moreover, on Windows 10, even “running” applications sometimes require state restoration, and this takes the same time as on other platforms. The restriction is stupid and annoying.
In every phone, important information for me is the battery charge, not only its graphical display, but also the percentage, and I would like to see this information in the status bar, choose the option of such display (available on almost all Android smartphones, as well as on iOS) . In Windows 10, to see the battery charge percentage, you need to pull the curtain down. It's damn inconvenient. And then someone will quite rightly say that I’m being picky and you can estimate the charge by the icon. Of course it is. But I would like to get the same convenience that I see on other systems.
In general, I have a mistrust of the way the various progress bars are shown in Windows 10; some schoolchildren wrote them. This is best illustrated by downloading apps from the store. Microsoft applications. For example, you have an application that takes up 10 MB, about 8 MB has been downloaded, how long do you think the download indicator will be filled? Common sense dictates that this will be approximately 80 percent, visually the same story as with the battery. It's a pity, but usually it's half! I experimented specifically, and it turned out that the loading indicator almost always lags behind what the system shows in the same window. How this can be, I don’t know - it feels like Windows 10 gets the boot information with a long delay and does not immediately display it in the graphic element.
Now a nitpick that you can safely ignore. When updating the system software, gears spin on the screen, one larger and one smaller. Exactly the same arbitrary display of progress below them. But there is a small detail that is contrary to common sense: the gears do not mesh with each other. They spin in the air, each on its own. It's hard to find a more accurate metaphor for Windows 10 Mobile; the company itself did it.
All markers have different tastes and colors, but Windows 10 Mobile is distinguished by numerous roughnesses in the interface, which were laid down at the design stage of Windows Phone. The system is saved by the absence of a large number of applications and users who can be called “heavy”, those who squeeze out modern smartphones everything to the last drop. Compared to Android/iOS, Windows 10 Mobile has much more limited customization options, starting with widgets and ending with other aspects of the system. It's a matter of taste, but for me this is an indicator of predetermination and lack of flexibility of the system. It cannot be customized, although in Android you can change literally any element of the system.
File system - where are my files?
Microsoft has a wealth of experience developing desktop systems, but for their mobile OS they borrowed a lot from iOS and did it thoughtlessly. For example, I can't help but think that by taking Apple's approach to the file system, Microsoft shot itself in the foot. The device has an explorer (file manager) that shows the following folders:
- Video
- Documents
- Downloads
- Images
- Ringtones
- Music
And it doesn't show anything else. At all. For example, if you decide that it’s 2016 and you can download a torrent from where you can download videos, music or something similar to your device, then get ready for the first surprise. By default, the torrent client will download everything into its own folder, which is not visible from the file manager. You won't see these files! They can only be viewed from a torrent client! It was 2016...
Let's remember how it works on Android: you download files anywhere, and in the player they become visible immediately, you don’t even think about where they are saved. You just press a button and start watching or listening to them. Voila. In Windows 10 Mobile, this is an impossible operation, something from the distant future.
Further - more. You may have a dozen video players, but only the one that is preinstalled on your phone will open from the torrent client. Surprise! The “Video” application cheerfully reports that “videos copied from the PC will be shown here.” We live in a post-PC world, what kind of computers are you talking about? I want to download videos directly to my device and be able to open them using regular tools and without dancing with a tambourine.
But this is not the Microsoft way, is it? If you think that video is a happy exception, then forget it. It’s the same story with ringtones, do you remember the folder of the same name? Accordingly, the file must be in it, otherwise you will not be able to select it, you simply will not see it. How you could shoot yourself in the foot like that, I don’t know. But those people who believe that such an approach is convenient raise doubts in my mind about its adequacy. These are unreal dances with a tambourine, and out of the blue.
Microsoft Edge is the fastest browser on the planet
WITH Internet Explorer things didn’t work out for Microsoft, a difficult legacy from the past, bad karma and a loss to its main competitor in Chrome. The solution was found to be simple in Microsoft style: you need to rename the “unsuccessful” product, and after that it will become “successful”. This is how Microsoft Edge, a browser, was born latest generation, which has the same icon as its predecessor.
Microsoft has followed the path of Blackberry and is competing in virtual parrots, citing benchmark data that proves that EDGE in the best possible way Compatible with HTML5, works faster than competitors, in a word, it is a work of art. I would add modern art, since the browser does not have a single advantage over its counterparts in Safari or Chrome.
Let's start with simple and understandable things, this is the browser UI. At the bottom of the page there is a line for entering an address, as well as searching. On the left is the windows icon; it never displays the number of windows that you have “open”. In Chrome you always see how many windows you have, which is nice and useful. For example, when I reach 70-80 windows, I close them by order; usually I have 10-15 working tabs.
By double tapping, the page and the text on it adapt to the screen, in one column. Unfortunately, this does not happen very quickly, and even at simple pages. The second disadvantage, noticed on different devices (Lumia 550/950/950 XL), by default, when adjusted to the screen width, the font becomes small and not very readable. It feels like the developers forgot about the complaints in the 8th version of the system and simply didn’t care about all subsequent fixes. Here again it is small and inconvenient to read. You can adjust it by hand, but this is an unnecessary step.
Unfortunately, the browser renders pages slowly and cannot be called fast. And this happens with any sites, there are no exceptions.
When you access the page again, it should load again! The phone does not hold a cache, which creates certain delays, and if you do not have a network, then it is impossible to view the page. There is a very convenient “Reading List” function, you leave pages for later, they have a large icon, brief description. Probably someone will decide that the pages in this list are saved in the phone’s memory and can be called up even without the Internet? But this is not so, on the plane I looked at the screensaver that there was no connection. It’s not very clear to me what the deep meaning of the function is. Additional bookmarks and nothing more.
Favorites usually can be synchronized with your desktop PC running Windows 10, which will please users of this system. But there is no possibility of synchronization with more popular browsers.
Search engines for Russia include Bing, the default is Yandex, but not Google. This is surprising, because in outside world EDGE masquerades as Google Chrome rather than introducing itself under its own name. This sometimes leads to very funny consequences, for example, when calling a link from the system Windows applications 10 on the phone to download MS Outlook in the browser, the Play Store with the corresponding application for Android opened. The error is very rare, but significant and funny.
Unfortunately, no one except Microsoft develops decent browsers for Windows Phone; you won’t find Chrome or Safari here. As a result, in the absence of alternatives, you will be tied to this browser. The only hope is that they will finish it someday, increase performance, and add a data cache. At the time of writing the review, the EDGE browser is also one of the most energy-intensive applications; it eats up the battery with a bang. Fans of Microsoft's system are already coming up with options on how to avoid this, for example, you can prevent the browser from running in the background or manually close it after work. Comfortable? This is Windows!
Microsoft application store, cost of programs and their capabilities
The design of the application store has been redesigned in the style of the previous version of Android, tiles have been abandoned in each of the views, now it is something in between. Again, this is a matter of taste that does not deserve attention; the quantity and quality of applications, as well as their capabilities, are another matter.
I'm used to the fact that on Android/iOS you can find many programs that perform the same functions; they differ from each other both in capabilities and in design. If in the past many programs on Android were crooked in terms of following Google's design wishes, then in the last year this has hardly been observed. They all look roughly the same style and feel the same; on iOS, Apple achieved this from developers much earlier.
Windows Status 10 and third-party programs can be characterized simply: some into the forest, some for firewood. No uniformity can be traced even remotely; program settings are randomly scattered across different menus, as well as font sizes, arrangement of elements and other “trifles”. All together creates a feeling of sloppiness in the system; you never know and are not sure what the application you download from the store will look like.
Historically, it turned out that third-party developers, and both large companies, and small players, did not want to create software for Windows Phone. Microsoft had to pay for adaptation existing programs, but very quickly MS realized that they would go down the drain if they gave everyone money for it. The path was a dead end. Moreover, the complexity of programming for Windows Phone turned off developers, plus a small number of users, most of whom are not ready to pay for applications, since they use phones for calls and SMS, but not as modern smartphones. All this created the conditions when the struggle began for the number of applications in the Microsoft store, when it was necessary to catch up with other systems. And this led to disastrous results: the store turned into a garbage dump that lives its own life, different from the life of the entire planet.
So, in the store you can find programs that were created on your knees in a couple of hours to show how to program! For example, this is one of the video players that I came across by accident. And the creator is not at all shy about this and added this information in the program description.
But it all starts the moment you try to find something; searching the app store almost never gives adequate results. The descriptions for the programs are so crooked that many of them fall out of the search; you will not be able to find them unless you know the exact name. Not cool.
Despite the fact that there are program charts, you can’t find much interesting software in them. See what the top 10 programs look like on Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile and feel the difference.
Windows 10 Mobile
Let me give you a simple example from life. I like to play different games on the road; I prefer the widespread Tower Defense genre. There are more than a dozen excellent games on iOS/Android, they are almost entirely the same on both platforms, and the total number of games in this genre amounts to a hundred or something, if not more. How many games of this genre are there on Windows 10? Exactly one, if you believe search query in the Microsoft store.
As I mentioned above, many free programs from other platforms are not available on Windows 10 or have greatly reduced functionality. For example, Instagram is in beta version, there is no support for video and many effects, as well as editing tools. In alternative and best client 6tag for the opportunity to work with video will have to pay 119 rubles.
The main complaint about the software for Windows 10 Mobile is that there is no alternative, no different versions programs. But what’s even more depressing is that the software itself is extremely simple, matching the system. By the standards of the world of modern operating systems, this is some kind of stone age. I tried to remember at least one program that on Windows 10 Mobile would be superior in its characteristics to similar software on iOS/Android, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it.
Moreover, MIcrosoft considers its own operating system so poor and limited in capabilities that they create software for their services primarily for iOS/Android, this is a trend of the last year. What’s interesting is that software for other people’s systems is the first to receive functions that will appear on Windows 10 Mobile in a year or will not appear at all. That is, a logical question arises: what is the advantage of an operating system from Microsoft if all branded services are in best quality available on iOS/Android? For Microsoft fans, this fact is very painful; they try to come up with many excuses to shield the company. But all I see here is that development for other systems is so much simpler that even Microsoft proves this with their software. What could be the best anti-advertising for Windows 10 Mobile?
And this is another indirect indication of where the company is going and why it is going to abandon current version system in favor of regular Windows 10 running on Intel processors.
Microsoft Outlook - mail on "ten"
Many of my friends like MS Outlook on their personal computer so much that they install some version of Windows on their MacBook and use mail in this environment. Mobile Outlook did not inherit all the features from the older one, but it did not become an ugly duckling either. The mobile version of MS mail now has the ability to attach files from OneDrive and other programs to letters, but not from file system, which is actually not here for the user. The engine has added letter formatting, like in MS Word, which is not bad; many HTML pages open in the MS EDGE window. There are even gestures where you can swipe certain messages in the menu and configure an action for them (select a checkbox or archive - this is the default, but you can also set other actions). There is a combined mailbox, but there is no filter system, which may upset some. But there is good integration with the calendar, when events can be added to it in a few touches. Another thing is that there is nothing unusual or differentiating this program from the standard one GMail mail on Android it simply doesn't.
Navigation online and offline, maps Here
For me, the quality of navigation is measured not only by the drawing of maps, but also by the number of POIs by which you can search for certain objects. In Here, the number of points that are available both online and offline is not very large, and their relevance leaves much to be desired, the same Google Maps is a cut above. In the USA, I used Here navigation for a week, compared it with Google Maps, and all the time I realized that without such insurance I would often miss when stores were open, where they were located, and the routes would be far from optimal. The main reason is that cards can improve when more people use them, and that simply isn't the case here. The only plus is the ability to download maps of different regions for offline navigation (for free).
Universal apps, or UWP
Microsoft decided to combat the lack of quality applications for mobile devices by creating a platform for universal applications (UWP).
Developers can create their applications for different devices with a minimum number of changes, and the user receives essentially the same application on each device. Comfortable? Undoubtedly. The problem here is exactly the same as before. Many software creators for the desktop version of Windows have no presence on mobile platforms, which means that they cannot be the source of such software. But those developers who are active on iOS/Android will almost never create applications for Windows, since they do not see this market. Isolated cases of universal applications show that they are created either by Microsoft independently or by large companies. Typically, such applications are not too complex if we're talking about about third party developers.
All sorts of things and some impressions
It so happened that Microsoft began to actively release its key applications for iOS/Android, for example, this applies to the office suite, that is, now these applications are more functional on other platforms. Marvelous? Wrong word. And there is no reason to get them as part of Windows 10 Mobile, except for the cost of the subscription, which may differ in the future, now it is zero everywhere. I don’t see how to describe this software special meaning, he is well known.
The same goes for MS Groove, TV and Cinema, and the “News” and “Finance” applications. They are all standard and familiar, they have both positive and negative features, but they cannot have any decisive influence on the choice of system.
Almost two months with the Lumia 950, several updates received for the OS during this time, and a conclusion that many will not like. The system remains raw. It gets to the point of the unimaginable, the Photos (album) app suddenly starts consuming energy like crazy, about 7% of the battery per hour. In half a day the phone is completely discharged, and all I have left is irritation. The error is well known, documented, and they promise to fix it in the near future, in a month or two.
I like the fact that now, at least, you can receive the GMail phone book, pull up contacts from the cloud from Google, no crutches are needed. But I don’t like at all that applications live an independent life, and the system is assembled from individual bricks that they didn’t bother to bring to a single denominator.
Of the funny, but typical for Windows 10 Mobile errors, I can remember the alarm clock. If you miss your alarm in the morning and don't touch your phone, you'll find out the next morning that you missed it twice. That is, first they will show you a new alarm clock, and then the missed old one. This doesn’t fit in my mind. The system does not replace with a new event something that has already passed and did not receive a user reaction. I don't care what happened to the alarm yesterday, I already missed it and I don't need it. Why show it a second time? Moreover, the alarm clock is set to the same time throughout the week.
Another point that is very annoying is the constant offers to reboot the phone, since it thinks that the SIM card or its settings have changed. No changes occurred, and after a reboot everything starts all over again. The glitch is floating, it happened that it was not there for a week, and then it appeared again and was annoying.
The system turned out to be very crude, moreover, many things that worked in Windows Phone 8.1 are missing here or do not work correctly. And this is a clear step back, which cannot be corrected in any way. For example, for the “People” tab, everything was removed social accounts, associated with a person’s name, now they cannot be viewed from the bookmark as before.
This system is perfect for budget devices from which they make calls, write SMS, and sometimes use other functions. But it cannot be called a full-fledged and modern platform for a smartphone. Of course, everyone can have their own opinion here, but even after waiting a couple of months since the start of sales of the Lumia 550/950/950 XL, I did not wait for the stable version of Windows 10 Mobile and the correction of minor and serious errors. The reason is that the system is not being actively developed and has already been de facto abandoned; it is a living dead thing. Of course, many of its elements will form the basis for the next version; today the Windows build numbers are no different between the mobile and desktop versions, and in the future the unification will become even greater. It was possible to go deeper into individual details, but this is not necessary. What is described above is quite enough to evaluate what Windows 10 Mobile is capable of and what it cannot do and will never learn. At the moment, the demand for Windows 10 Mobile smartphones is at a historical low for Windows Phone, sales of the three Lumia models are so low that with the same Lumia 950 they are giving away the Lumia 550 completely free of charge. And here it should be noted that the devices have normal hardware, but it all comes down to the system itself, which the market and its consumers did not accept. And there is simply nothing to add to this; the share of Windows Phone in the world has fallen by 1 percent and continues to decline. This is no longer even an “Other” category, but less so. In the first quarter of 2016, third place after Android and iOS, oddly enough, will be taken by Tizen; sales for a month and a half speak about this clearly.
P.S. Reviews of the Lumia 950/550 will appear in the next few days, in which I will dwell on my impressions of the hardware and the devices themselves.
