Windows 10 Mobile Build 10536 - Take II
After a frustrating week running Windows 10 Mobile Build 10536 on my Nokia 735 - I returned home and found it running very well thank you on my daughters Nokia 635...
It was obvious after checking the 635 that the previous method of upgrading that went from 10512, to 10514.0, then 10536.1000 and finally 10536.1004 just did not take on my 735. Even after a phone reset - things just weren't right...
So after some deliberation I decided to take the big step and use the Phone Recovery Tool to go back to Windows 8.1 and then upgrade to 10536.1004 again...
The good news is this method seemed to have worked well, the bad news is that from end-to-end the process was nearly 8 hours.
First I installed the recovery tool and connected my 735 - the 1.75GB download was slow, but the actual flash upgrade went very well. All in about an hour...
Then you had to launch the store and update all 18 apps - about another hour. Then I reinstalled Windows Insider activated Fast Ring and rebooted..
Next was the actual download / upgrade to 10536.1004 itself. Again about 90 minutes. The good news is it was a direct upgrade versus a multi-step. But the download, flash and post OS processing took over 2 hrs...
I decided specifically NOT to try and restore from Backup since I was not 100% that my backup from 10512 would work correctly.
So starting from a new install - again I had to open the store and update all the apps - this time 22. Another 60 - 90 minutes... I also removed a bunch of old 8.1 apps that carried over.
I then performed all my basic configuration settings from screen timeouts to background, rebuilt my start screen, etc - 20 - 30 minutes...
I then reinstalled all of my 3rd party apps (about 10) - so again another 30 minutes or so...
Finally I launched the installed apps to configure them. And waited for content to sync, etc. Again almost another hour...
So finally - I got my 735 back to a working state on 10536.1004. But when I compare this process to the old school method of simply performing a flash via USB and a Boot Loader. This method is just downright painful...
I really wish that MS would respect the time ask it makes from it's Fast Ring folks and provide them a consistent fast method for flashing new images. I would love to be able to login into tool like Phone Recovery, have my devices registered and select any build to flash. That build should also include many more of the core apps and not always rely on the store to update.
Speaking of the store - it's just slow. I'm sorry but when I compare app updates on MS's store to those of my Android and Apple devices - the MS Store is just way too slow. Yeah, Yeah it's a test build - bullshit - MS has plenty of resources to provide quick downloads.
I have a 100Mb internet connection at home as well as 802.11ac Wireless - so there is no reason it should take that long. Especially when I can typically load a new Windows 10 Desktop build in 10 - 15 minutes and be running with a new build in under an hour.
As a build itself - once properly installed and configured - 10536 does appear to have some improvement over 10512 in terms of overall responsiveness. MS also finally fixed the News, Money, Sports and Weather apps to properly update and Live tile action upon placement on the Start Screen. But since MS really doesn't communicate it's changes very well it's hard to say -
One concern I had early in the WP10 program was that legacy devices would have a much lesser experience. While I have been very critical of the update processes and store - I am less concerned about the ability to install WP10 on a legacy x3x series device (635, 735, 830) or above than I was 6 months ago. Anything below though and I would not feel comfortable. Even the 920, 1020, 1520, etc. Since those devices are less than 5% of the total of Nokia devices I don't think MS cares that much either.
One thing that recently came up was that the MS Camera app on WP10 would not support the massive 41mp camera on the 1020 and MS is recommending staying at WP 8.1 until that app is updated "later this fall". In my opinion that is not a very good approach for supporting flagship device buyers. What is weird though is that you can not upgrade to WP10 but keep and run the Nokia Camera app that runs under WP8.1.
Overall - do I feel as though WP10 is a big step forward from WP8.1 ? To be honest no. Yes it is kind of cool to have a similar UI as regular Windows 10 - but are there any new features, capabilities that would compel a current WP 8.1 user to upgrade ? Not really. Yes you do get new native apps - but not much else.
What would have been really cool in my opinion would have been to have exposed much more of the OS to users. For example, open a command prompt, run a powershell script, show device manager, etc. I have for years stated that mobile devices are really just small computers and should be treated as such. So an OS that would have reflected that would have been really cool...
So the final question now is two fold - first - how many new builds will come out before "RTM" and Second - how will MS treat the legacy community ? This means what legacy devices - day 1 will be supported on WP10 and how will MS distribute WP10.
It was obvious after checking the 635 that the previous method of upgrading that went from 10512, to 10514.0, then 10536.1000 and finally 10536.1004 just did not take on my 735. Even after a phone reset - things just weren't right...
So after some deliberation I decided to take the big step and use the Phone Recovery Tool to go back to Windows 8.1 and then upgrade to 10536.1004 again...
The good news is this method seemed to have worked well, the bad news is that from end-to-end the process was nearly 8 hours.
First I installed the recovery tool and connected my 735 - the 1.75GB download was slow, but the actual flash upgrade went very well. All in about an hour...
Then you had to launch the store and update all 18 apps - about another hour. Then I reinstalled Windows Insider activated Fast Ring and rebooted..
Next was the actual download / upgrade to 10536.1004 itself. Again about 90 minutes. The good news is it was a direct upgrade versus a multi-step. But the download, flash and post OS processing took over 2 hrs...
I decided specifically NOT to try and restore from Backup since I was not 100% that my backup from 10512 would work correctly.
So starting from a new install - again I had to open the store and update all the apps - this time 22. Another 60 - 90 minutes... I also removed a bunch of old 8.1 apps that carried over.
I then performed all my basic configuration settings from screen timeouts to background, rebuilt my start screen, etc - 20 - 30 minutes...
I then reinstalled all of my 3rd party apps (about 10) - so again another 30 minutes or so...
Finally I launched the installed apps to configure them. And waited for content to sync, etc. Again almost another hour...
So finally - I got my 735 back to a working state on 10536.1004. But when I compare this process to the old school method of simply performing a flash via USB and a Boot Loader. This method is just downright painful...
I really wish that MS would respect the time ask it makes from it's Fast Ring folks and provide them a consistent fast method for flashing new images. I would love to be able to login into tool like Phone Recovery, have my devices registered and select any build to flash. That build should also include many more of the core apps and not always rely on the store to update.
Speaking of the store - it's just slow. I'm sorry but when I compare app updates on MS's store to those of my Android and Apple devices - the MS Store is just way too slow. Yeah, Yeah it's a test build - bullshit - MS has plenty of resources to provide quick downloads.
I have a 100Mb internet connection at home as well as 802.11ac Wireless - so there is no reason it should take that long. Especially when I can typically load a new Windows 10 Desktop build in 10 - 15 minutes and be running with a new build in under an hour.
As a build itself - once properly installed and configured - 10536 does appear to have some improvement over 10512 in terms of overall responsiveness. MS also finally fixed the News, Money, Sports and Weather apps to properly update and Live tile action upon placement on the Start Screen. But since MS really doesn't communicate it's changes very well it's hard to say -
One concern I had early in the WP10 program was that legacy devices would have a much lesser experience. While I have been very critical of the update processes and store - I am less concerned about the ability to install WP10 on a legacy x3x series device (635, 735, 830) or above than I was 6 months ago. Anything below though and I would not feel comfortable. Even the 920, 1020, 1520, etc. Since those devices are less than 5% of the total of Nokia devices I don't think MS cares that much either.
One thing that recently came up was that the MS Camera app on WP10 would not support the massive 41mp camera on the 1020 and MS is recommending staying at WP 8.1 until that app is updated "later this fall". In my opinion that is not a very good approach for supporting flagship device buyers. What is weird though is that you can not upgrade to WP10 but keep and run the Nokia Camera app that runs under WP8.1.
Overall - do I feel as though WP10 is a big step forward from WP8.1 ? To be honest no. Yes it is kind of cool to have a similar UI as regular Windows 10 - but are there any new features, capabilities that would compel a current WP 8.1 user to upgrade ? Not really. Yes you do get new native apps - but not much else.
What would have been really cool in my opinion would have been to have exposed much more of the OS to users. For example, open a command prompt, run a powershell script, show device manager, etc. I have for years stated that mobile devices are really just small computers and should be treated as such. So an OS that would have reflected that would have been really cool...
So the final question now is two fold - first - how many new builds will come out before "RTM" and Second - how will MS treat the legacy community ? This means what legacy devices - day 1 will be supported on WP10 and how will MS distribute WP10.
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