{"id":1355,"date":"2013-11-01T10:21:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T10:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2013-11-01T10:50:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T10:50:18","slug":"so-long-windows-phone-hello-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/11\/01\/so-long-windows-phone-hello-android\/","title":{"rendered":"So Long Windows Phone, Hello Android"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier in the month I wrote about my thoughts on the decision I\u2019d be making for replacing my phone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You probably figured it out already from the title though\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve ended my long running association with Windows Phone and gone with the Samsung Galaxy S4.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As mentioned in the last post this was a tough choice<\/a>. I genuinely do really like the direction Microsoft have taken Windows Phone, especially after the frustration that was Windows Mobile 6.5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as with the Surface RT I mentioned<\/a> recently the current state of the app store is hard to deal with. Too many apps either never arrive, are poorer versions of their iOS and Android equivalents or are just too late to the party. The Instagram app is due imminently for example when everyone else has had it for a long time. <\/p>\n

Instragram is a good example to use actually. Mrs P has been an iPhone user for some time and there are a ton of photos of my own children I\u2019d never seen because they are day to day shots she takes and shares on Instagram. I miss plenty of things on Vine too as it\u2019s meant to be used pretty much entirely through the app.<\/p>\n

I know those are two specific examples but on the gaming front WordsWithFriends and DrawSomething had come and gone as crazes go before the Windows Phone versions were available. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only been using it for a week or so but I\u2019ve already come across a couple apps that just aren\u2019t available on Windows Phone that I\u2019m becoming attached to. Live Scores Addicts<\/a> is a particular favourite. And the Richard Tubb<\/a> recommended DoggCatcher<\/a> has fulfilled my podcasting needs and is used daily. <\/p>\n

So the phone itself.<\/p>\n

I was tempted to wait for the Nexus 5 but I ran out of time waiting for the official announcements as there were other people at work waiting on a phone upgrade.<\/p>\n

The Nexus 5<\/a> was annoyingly announced as I was writing this. It looks very nice indeed!<\/p>\n

As phones go it\u2019s pretty big but it\u2019s not so big that it doesn\u2019t comfortably fit in the pocket and it sits nicely in the hand. The screen is really crisp and video and pictures look very sharp. I\u2019ve not taken too many pictures but the results have been good enough for what I need it for. I\u2019m still pretty taken back with how thin and light it is. The volume when using headphones is much better than on my last device and while it isn\u2019t a huge thing I\u2019ve noticed the difference when driving as some podcasts have entirely different volume levels to others and there were one or two I used to struggle to hear. From a performance perspective I\u2019ve no complaints at all. It\u2019s snappy and everything opens pretty much instantly. Although comparing the Galaxy S4 to my previous Omnia 7 on the hardware front isn\u2019t strictly fair. The Omnia 7 was never meant to compete at that end of the market. (I think?). Battery life has been pretty good even while I\u2019ve been hammering it while getting used to it. <\/p>\n

It also has some features I\u2019ve not quite got to yet, such as eye tracking, multi window and air gesture which will be interesting to take a look at.<\/p>\n

The 4G speeds are obviously nice too\u2026even if they are a little erratic depending on where I am. That\u2019ll get better over time as the network matures (We\u2019re with EE)<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot_2013-10-30-22-33-09\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three of these were in our office in Coventry. One while I was visiting a client in Birmingham<\/font><\/em> <\/p>\n

Android. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is my first real regular use of Android.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to write a separate post about my experiences but initially it\u2019s been pretty positive. If I had to choose one positive and one negative from my first impressions I\u2019d go for the notification centre as the biggest win for me so far. It\u2019s something that was severely lacking in Windows Phone and already I\u2019m not sure what I\u2019d do without it.<\/p>\n

On the flip side I miss the social integration Windows Phone has. Specifically the people hub and the me tile (is that two things?). It\u2019s possible I\u2019ll find apps that fill that gap for me in time though.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also quickly discovered a whole world of customisation is available to me and I imagine it won\u2019t be too long before I\u2019m picking out one of the many available ROMs!<\/p>\n

Alongside the Nexus 5 announcement was the Android 4.4 KitKat release<\/a>. Hopefully I won\u2019t have to wait too long before it\u2019s available for my phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier in the month I wrote about my thoughts on the decision I\u2019d be making for replacing my phone. You probably figured it out already from the title though\u2026 I\u2019ve ended my long running association with Windows Phone and gone with the Samsung Galaxy S4. As mentioned in the last post this was a tough<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[128,32,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-android","category-phones","category-samsung"],"yoast_head":"\nSo Long Windows Phone, Hello Android - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/11\/01\/so-long-windows-phone-hello-android\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So Long Windows Phone, Hello Android - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier in the month I wrote about my thoughts on the decision I\u2019d be making for replacing my phone. 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