It makes me really sad that Microsoft gave up on the windows phone as it had the best user interface and the performance was great. It was an easy to use third option to Android and IOS. Although not open source.
2 more years and Postmarket OS will be just as old as the windows phone was when it shutdown.
I really wanted Windows phone to succeed. Still bummed about it.
They fully fucked up not putting down a bunch of money to get apps in their store. I had a Nokia Lumia 920 with Windows Phone and it was awesome, the UI was so nice, the performance was good. But it had zero apps, it couldn’t do anything, it honestly kinda sucked. Sure it had Microsoft Office, so that was nice, but other than that it didn’t have shit. There wasn’t even a way to use the flash as a flashlight, which were pretty standard apps everyone had on other OSes at the time.
What most people didn’t get tho was that the mobile internet actually worked on WP, so you didn’t actually need all the missing apps. You could actually use web sites. That said, all MS had to do was allow Android apps to work on WP, but they were too damn stubborn.
all MS had to do was allow Android apps to work on WP
Through an emulator, which would be even slower than the app running on an Android phone of the time, ruining the smooth WP experience? By making Windows Phone an Android skin?
Project Astoria was the last option I know of, apps ran natively.
I had 2 of these.
Despite my general distaste for Microsoft and definitely desktop Windows, I really liked Windows Phone. Such a smooth and pleasant interface compared to Android and iOS. I miss it.
I worked for ATT back in the heyday. My bright yellow Nokia Windows phone was better than anything else, both at that time, and now, hardware and OS. If only they had had a better answer to the app store.
WP was wayyyy ahead of its time and a great OS. I miss my 920 and 950XL.
i had one, nokia 920? it got real hot, had minimal apps, and like no games.
Still miss my 950XL. Best smartphone UI ever.
I still have my Nokia 1020 with the crazy good camera. Once in a while I switch it on. Wish I’d upgraded software to the one which could run android apps.
I loved that phone. I kept it as my daily driver despite the lack of apps until the shutter broke
I took a photo from a box at a basketball game and you can zoom in to see the faces of people in the boxes across from us. I was in the same box (friend’s dad gets season tickets) last year and neither my Pixel nor my friend’s iPhone could do the same.
I had one of the earlier Lumia models, maybe the 900. The software was missing many standard features (even for the time), and there were like no apps available. Edge wasn’t a thing yet and instead it rocked Internet Explorer… And I don’t think there were any other browsers available, at least not in the beginning.
That said, I do remember kinda liking the UI. On PC (Windows 8) it was terrible, but it worked quite well on a device it was actually designed for. Another thing, it had a really good camera. The hardware I mean, sadly the software for it was seriously lacking, and there just weren’t any third-party camera apps available yet
Camera function was actually one of the selling points of WP devices
The Lumia 920 is to this day my favorite phone I have ever had. It was bright yellow so I never lost it and the UI was amazing. I’d go back in a heartbeat if they still made them. Fuck Pixels.
Fun fact, you can install the W10 desktop edition on the Lumia 950 (XL) and use it as a tiny tablet PC. Fairly short battery life though.
While I was more into Blackberry, the Windows Phone had the advantage of working well on slower hardware, which made them both cheaper and they maintained their battery charge longer.
Sadly both Apple and Google both dominated their app stores, leaving windows phone without many apps that people wanted.
SquareHome is available if you like the tiles, active widgets and vertical scrolling. I have used Apple phones and tried many different UI launchers on Androids, but still rocking the WP UI thru SquareHome, it really is the best.
I know it is an unpopular opinion, but IOS is by far the worst UI. They finally started improving in 13 and 14, and I’ll probably try an iPhone again someday now that they went usb c, but last I tried ios was horribly frustrating to use.
Windows phone 8 UI was amazing. It’s shameful that Microsoft has dumped so many great products.
Had 2 Lumias, loved them. To this day I would prefer a similar interface on a mobile device.
