My move from Windows Phone to Android

A couple of weeks ago, I made the switch from a Lumia 950 XL to a OnePlus 3T. This also meant that I moved from the Windows 10 Mobile operating system to Android. I thought I'd write a quick review about the experience I've had switching platforms. This is just my collection of opinions and observations, not a full review. Let's begin.

Software experience

As a Windows 10 Mobile user (which I'll call "W10M" from now on, for brevity), I had a lot of opinions regarding what Android would be like. I thought it would be a slow, complicated mess with little to no updates. It's actually a lot different.

I updated my OnePlus to Android 7.0 the day I got it and I started to feel right at home with rich, actionable notifications (that are also bundled too), the ability to make things on the screen smaller (the default interface size is a little too big for my liking), and support for split-screen multitasking (useful if I want to watch a video and browse Twitter at the same time).

For people who think you're forced to use Google apps/services on Android, let me tell you that that isn't true. I've disabled most of the preloaded Google apps in favour of my own choices — but I've actually grown fond of some of these apps. Chrome is my browser of choice here, thanks to its data saver feature; Google Maps remains best-in-class for finding things and I even downloaded the Google "Wallpapers" app, which allows you to set up a wallpaper that changes daily.

Android Pay is simply awesome. I don't need to say anymore.

Apps I don't use that many apps, here's the majority of them.

Pretty much every W10M user who switches to another platform like Android or iOS often gets excited by the selection of apps that are now available to them. However, I have had no such excitement. Apart from a couple of titles, most of the apps I am using on Android are also on Windows (the exception is Google Wallpapers, and a local bus app).

This doesn't mean there's not an advantage to using Android. Many apps here are higher quality and more feature complete than their W10M counterparts. The Twitter app, for example, supports features like the creation of Moments while the Outlook app had the Focussed Inbox feature that's still missing from Windows.

I even miss some apps that are on W10M and have no Android version. myTube, for example, is a much better YouTube client than the official app (with support for background audio, no ads, etc.) and not having access to all the apps I've purchased over time (such as apps like Tweetium, Readit and Vinci) is a bit unfortunate.

Hardware and performance

This isn't exactly a fair comparison since the 950 XL has the controversial Snapdragon 810 paired with just 3 GB of RAM, whilst the 3T has the latest Snapdragon 821 SoC and 6 GB of RAM. The 3T automatically wins here, but remember: it's a year newer than the 950 XL.

The OnePlus 3T (inside of a sandstone case, if you're curious)

In the camera department, the Lumia is clearly the better device. The 20 MP sensor combined with Microsoft's image processing technology can deliver some stunning shots. This doesn't mean that the 16 MP camera on the OnePlus is bad though — it performs admirably and the photos it produces are much more accurate in terms of colour and saturation. Also, since the Lumia shoots by default in 16:9 aspect ratio, photos come out at 16 MP anyway (changing the aspect to 4:3 lets the phone shoot at full resolution). Both phones can shoot 4K video at 30 FPS or 1080p video at up to 60 FPS and they both have optical image stabilisation. The Lumia has a slight edge with its triple LED flash which helps produce slightly more accurate lighting (putting a flash-lit image from the Lumia and the OnePlus side-by-side shows the Lumia is significantly superior). I still miss having the dedicated camera key around for quick shots, b ut a double click of the OP's power key jumps into the camera, which is nice.

The camera software is a different story. Both phones have automatic and manual options — the Lumia wins in the manual category with its intuitive slider controls, although the OnePlus camera UI has a similar, if more toned down, manual mode. The image processing, however, on the 3T appears to be less aggressive than it is on the Lumia (its images remind me a lot of the amazing camera on the Lumia 930/1520), resulting in images that might seem a bit duller but ultimately have more accurate colours. This doesn't make the camera bad on the Lumia at all, it's easy enough to correct the images later in Photoshop (which I often do). Talking of Photoshop, RAW mode is an option on native camera apps of both devices.

The fingerprint scanner on the 3T is so much better than the iris scanning technology the 950 XL has. Iris scanning does indeed feel futuristic, and it's even pretty accurate (despite still carrying a "beta" tag), but it's still more cumbersome than a simple fingerprint reader — which is able to unlock the phone in less than a second. I still can't understand why Microsoft chose iris scanning.

OnePlus's implementation of Glance screen is a lot nicer than Microsoft's. Notifications are actionable, and there's actually more information to begin with. Glace is still unique with it's ability to have a separate nighttime colour, but since I keep my phone on my desk overnight, I never used that feature.

Everything else hardware wise isn't really comparable. The 1080p screen on the OnePlus doesn't look like it's a lower resolution than the 1440p on the Lumia unless you're holding the phone to your face and really pixel-peeping. Both phones feature USB-C, although oddly enough, the OnePlus is limited to USB 2.0 speeds as opposed to USB 3.0 on the Lumia (while I am fine with USB 2.0 myself since I rarely need to transfer large files at high speeds, I can understand why some people might be let down). OnePlus's "Dash Charge" technology is extremely impressive, and has saved my skin on a few occasions where I've woken up with a low battery but needed to get going as soon as possible. The battery capacity on both phones are pretty much equal, although the more energy efficient Snapdragon 821 means the 3T is likely to last longer than the Lumia.

Conclusions

This isn't me trying to convince you one way or another. It isn't even a "proper" review. This is just my experience on going from one platform to another and maybe it will help you if you choose to do the same in the future. I'm in no way "done" with Windows 10 Mobile — I'm still installing Insider builds to test new features (in fact I have two devices, both the 950 XL and a 930), I'll still keep my Lumia for its camera and who knows, maybe I will return to using the OS full time in the future (with hopefully new hardware?).

I don't regret my switch at all, however. It's refreshing to use a platform I have never used before. I'm comfortable with Android right now, and will likely stick around for a while and see what the future brings for smartphones of all platforms.

But anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for reading. I'm on Twitter too, if you're into that sort of thing.

Source: My move from Windows Phone to Android