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After years of work by Microsoft and other phone makers — especially Nokia — Windows Phone has finally started attracting people of all kinds, and from across the globe. At its partners event earlier today, Microsoft Windows marketing chief Tony Prophet proudly announced that there are 1.5 billion Windows device users worldwide.
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It used to be that Windows Phone handsets were often ditched in favor of Android handsets and iPhones by majority of people, but things have started to change. The recent developments in Microsoft’s mobile operating system has brought several ground-breaking features — such as Cortana — which got much appreciation from everywhere.
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Whether you are thinking of getting a new phone, want to step up the productivity, or find a phone which is less clunky, more secure and easy to navigate and use, Windows Phone is what you should go ahead with. And here’s why.
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It’s easy to use
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Compared to Android — and yeah, not matter which 3rd party launcher you use — Windows Phone Start screen has always been user friendly. You don’t have to dig deeper to uninstall apps, nor are you required to kill apps every few minutes to make the device run smoothly — something Android users just love doing.
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Plus the Live Tiles are really handy. You can easily get your updates flipping on the Start screen and customize the icon size as you wish — make it small, or have it stretch the full width. If you have a Lumia phone running on Windows 8 (with Black update), you are going to appreciate the double tap to wake feature.
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Security
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Android, which powers over 75% of mobile handsets is infamous for its poor security. Google claims that its operating system is very open and customizable, and perhaps that’s why on numerous occasions, Google Play Store was found to host several malicious software titles. Even worse, these apps were rocking the top charts for downloads. Then there are several cases of fake reviews.
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Office Suite
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Windows Phone Store has Facebook, Vine, Twitter, Spotify, WhatsApp, Messenger, OneNote, Evernote, LinkedIn and most of the apps you actually care about
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When it comes to Office, well, there is no competition at all. While the full-fledged Office is available on iPad, it hasn’t made its way to Android and iPhone — there is Office Mobile, but it doesn’t offer as many features. There are alternatives, and truth be told Drive for Android has got the native support for Word and Excel files, but don’t expect to be as good as the most successful productivity suite, Office.
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More apps coming
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For years Android and iPhone enthusiasts mocked fun of Windows Phone for the lack of apps it had. But things have changed drastically since then. You can find the majority of your favorite apps on Windows Phone Store. If not the official, then the fully-fledged alternatives to them. There is no doubt that Apple and Google have more apps to offer, but as an ad recently noted, you don’t really need thousands of torch apps, do you?
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Camera
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Pick any Android flagship handset and see if they offer more than 20MP camera
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Well, hands down, we are yet to see any handset which could challenge Nokia Lumia 1020’s humongous 41MP camera. We also have several handsets like Lumia Icon and Lumia 930 that offer 20MP of camera, well, compare it to flagship Android devices like HTC One (M8) that offers only 4MP shooter, and Galaxy S5 which has a 13MP camera.
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And then we have features like Cortana, which has been spot on with World Cup match result predictions. It is by far the best digital assistant you can have on a smartphone. And the best part is, that unlike Google Now and Siri, it works fine for the majority of the tasks even when you are offline.
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Universal Apps
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Now something that other operating systems just don’t offer. If you have Windows 8.x running on your system, you can purchase/download app once and have it immediately on you Windows Phone as well.
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The same experience was echoed by ZDnet’s notorious reporter Violet Blue who recently started using Lumia 925. In her experience, she found Windows Phone OS less clunkier than any other mobile operating system she had ever used. She found Windows Phone “breeze to learn and easy to use and configure.”.
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“I love using that damn Windows phone. I love the camera, I’ve started using Vine, and I’ve discovered and fallen in love with OneNote.” – Violet Blue, ZDnet
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“I love using that damn Windows phone. I love the camera, I’ve started using Vine, and I’ve discovered and fallen in love with OneNote.”, she adds. OneNote is an awesome note-taking app that offers just way too many features. “The Microsoft products, they’re so much better than Google’s — they’re not some beta junk that Google forgot about, and my productivity has practically doubled using OneNote.”
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But not everything is all great at this side of the pond, do note. While apps are really trickling up at the Windows Phone Store, if you are coming from Android smartphone, you are going to miss the Google experience. And Google is to be blamed for that. The company hasn’t developed most of its apps for Windows Phone, and it’s been years since it last updated the ones it did. Hence, transposition from Google’s Android to Microsoft’s Windows Phone can be a downer.
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But all in all, Windows Phone has come a long way. Maybe it’s time you change your approach to Windows Phone too. Just go out to the nearest store, and take any Windows Phone handset out for a whirl. Share your experience with us below.
\n\nFurther reading: Android, iOS, iPhone, Windows Phone
