Windows Phone 10 Tech Preview on Lumia 735 - not very good
I had been trying Windows 10 Tech Preview for Phone (build 10056) on a couple of Nokia Lumia 635s I own and after some fits and starts - did get them working relatively well.
So I took a gamble and decided to upgrade my daily driver a Nokia Lumia 735 to the same build. The results were not very good...
Even though the spec differences between the 635 and 735 are not that huge, the result was. In fact the 735 has 1GB RAM versus the 512MB of the 635 - yet Windows 10 runs slower and it is much more deliberate between screens.
Yes I do have some additional apps on the 735 including Good Messaging - which is absolutely horrible I might add - but not enough to crimp the device the way this build has.
The 735 has been experiencing many more complete hangs than I ever did with the 635. The device will become completely unresponsive and requires a battery remove/replace and reboot to get back working.
And as I described in my post on the 635 - I am not a huge fan of the new Mail/Calender and People apps in Windows 10. To me all of them are huge step backward in terms of usability and the experience was no better on the 735.
I also experienced for the first time a number of serious app compatibility issues that I had not seen previously. Especially with apps like Amex, Hilton, Wells Fargo, etc. This includes apps launching, but the UI not being displayed, Apps launching but the content being very badly misformed and finally just flat out hangs.. It made daily driving with the phone difficult...
The challenge with Windows Phone is that there are little if any diagnostics tools out there that can really tell you what is going on.. So your only recourse in some cases is to uninstall/reinstall the app and see if there is any improvement.
Finally, all the MSN live tiles died and even automatic content updates of the MSN apps like New, Weather, Sports, etc didn't work.
Bottom line is after only a week with 10056 - I reverted back to Windows 8.1.
Luckily the Windows Phone Recovery Tool did a nice job of bringing the phone back to a much more stable 8.1 build.
At least MS got that part right - or at least close to right. I decided to recover from a backup made the day before and so while it accounted for all of my apps - it didn't get configuration settings correct and the re-installation of the 25 or so apps I had took nearly 90 minutes and in fact some I had to un-install/reinstall after the fact to get them working properly...so not a seemless process...
This experience also confirms my fears about Windows 10 for Phones. And that is you are almost insured that if you want the best experience for Windows Phone 10 - you'll have to buy a new phone.
Yes MS keeps saying Windows 10 will be supported on any/all Windows 8.1 phones. And that may be a true statement and obviously it does run okay on a 635. But at the same time MS is already demonstrating features that will only run on those new phones.
I am actually more concerned about the apps than the core OS itself. MS has always proven they can get a core OS working fine. And obviously they will get their apps converted to Universal Apps. But what about all the 3rd party apps ?
Windows 10 is not going to get a lot of traction if many of the daily apps folks use won't run correctly. And with Windows Phone being at the bottom of the market share curve I am not confident that all of the banks, airlines, hotels, etc are going to run out and update their apps by launch...
MS is supposed to the releasing build 10080 this week, but based on what I've been experiencing, not sure if I'm going to go there on the 735...
So I took a gamble and decided to upgrade my daily driver a Nokia Lumia 735 to the same build. The results were not very good...
Even though the spec differences between the 635 and 735 are not that huge, the result was. In fact the 735 has 1GB RAM versus the 512MB of the 635 - yet Windows 10 runs slower and it is much more deliberate between screens.
Yes I do have some additional apps on the 735 including Good Messaging - which is absolutely horrible I might add - but not enough to crimp the device the way this build has.
The 735 has been experiencing many more complete hangs than I ever did with the 635. The device will become completely unresponsive and requires a battery remove/replace and reboot to get back working.
And as I described in my post on the 635 - I am not a huge fan of the new Mail/Calender and People apps in Windows 10. To me all of them are huge step backward in terms of usability and the experience was no better on the 735.
I also experienced for the first time a number of serious app compatibility issues that I had not seen previously. Especially with apps like Amex, Hilton, Wells Fargo, etc. This includes apps launching, but the UI not being displayed, Apps launching but the content being very badly misformed and finally just flat out hangs.. It made daily driving with the phone difficult...
The challenge with Windows Phone is that there are little if any diagnostics tools out there that can really tell you what is going on.. So your only recourse in some cases is to uninstall/reinstall the app and see if there is any improvement.
Finally, all the MSN live tiles died and even automatic content updates of the MSN apps like New, Weather, Sports, etc didn't work.
Bottom line is after only a week with 10056 - I reverted back to Windows 8.1.
Luckily the Windows Phone Recovery Tool did a nice job of bringing the phone back to a much more stable 8.1 build.
At least MS got that part right - or at least close to right. I decided to recover from a backup made the day before and so while it accounted for all of my apps - it didn't get configuration settings correct and the re-installation of the 25 or so apps I had took nearly 90 minutes and in fact some I had to un-install/reinstall after the fact to get them working properly...so not a seemless process...
This experience also confirms my fears about Windows 10 for Phones. And that is you are almost insured that if you want the best experience for Windows Phone 10 - you'll have to buy a new phone.
Yes MS keeps saying Windows 10 will be supported on any/all Windows 8.1 phones. And that may be a true statement and obviously it does run okay on a 635. But at the same time MS is already demonstrating features that will only run on those new phones.
I am actually more concerned about the apps than the core OS itself. MS has always proven they can get a core OS working fine. And obviously they will get their apps converted to Universal Apps. But what about all the 3rd party apps ?
Windows 10 is not going to get a lot of traction if many of the daily apps folks use won't run correctly. And with Windows Phone being at the bottom of the market share curve I am not confident that all of the banks, airlines, hotels, etc are going to run out and update their apps by launch...
MS is supposed to the releasing build 10080 this week, but based on what I've been experiencing, not sure if I'm going to go there on the 735...
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