I can safely say that Windows Phone is the nicest OS I've casually used. It's much more responsive than iOS and Android, and it just feels a lot nicer to use from day-to-day.

My main gripe with Windows Phone isn't the OS, but the phones themselves. They just don't look that nice, and they retain the old-fashioned "brick" feel of old Nokia phones.

I have a Galaxy Nexus now, but if Microsoft were to release their own Nexus-like range of phones that were both high-spec and looked great I'd happily switch.

Agreed. I'm on my first Windows Phone, and I don't see myself going back. Granted I'm not a "power-user" so the app store is big enough for 95% of my needs, but that's still saying something. The aesthetics and performance are just great.

I own the HTC 8X, which I don't think is very brick-like either. I love the textured back, and my friends and colleagues love the way it looks and feels.

No no no, don't complain about the brick-ness, Nokia may listen. I love being able to constantly drop my phone all over the place.

Are the new phones still as sturdy as they were before? I admit that I miss my old Nokia 3310 at times, and being able to throw it around anywhere without a single dent.

I've owned both the Nokia 710 and the new 521 and as an excessive phone-dropper have had no problems. I have also dropped both of these phones in water, picked them up, dried them off with a paper towel, and simply moved on with my day.

I gotta agree, the main experience of WP8 is amazing. Maps is extremely fluid and the development tools are great.

You can really see problems with the 521 on IE. The browser performance reminds me of Android 2.3.

Now, the Lumia 9xx series is rock solid. But I haven't been able to give up my 4s (Nokia should really be giving them away)

Just bought the Nokia 521 for $100 (ebay, still in box). It's an awesome phone. Windows Phone 8 has the best UI on the market by a long shot. Makes Android feel unusable and iOS old and clumsy. Downside is fewer apps, but all the big names are there.

I agree, Windows 8 is the snappiest mobile OS I have come across. Got my parents the Nokia Lumia 521 (for $120 @ Walmart - an absolute steal) and they love it. Big tiles, information right on the screen, offline maps, easy to use etc.

However there are still some downsides you need to be aware of if you planning on getting one:

[1] Windows is highly paranoid about security (Irony), no application can access the call logs, messages or even basic settings such as brightness etc. So don't expect to find apps that customize your phone to your liking.

[2] Apps - Saw your friend using that awesome Starbucks app and want it? Nope you won't find it on the store like many many others. To make it worse, Google is hellbent on never creating apps for Windows Phone. Luckily there are better or acceptable alternatives for most of their core products.

[3] Phones - Not many choices. If you want a solid phone stick with the Nokia brand. The exclusive apps will itself win you over.

Keep up the pro-microsoft posts! maybe we can see a resurgence in Windows Phone adoption!

>Keep up the pro-microsoft posts!

Yeah I listed one pro and three cons, that is definitely a pro MS post. According to you, anyone who says anything good about MS or Google is a shill. Glad we aren't living anymore in the 90's M$-hate slashdot era.

>resurgence

If 8+% market share is "resurgence", I have no idea what you are going to say about Firefox or Ubuntu Mobile OS.

"posts" would connote more than one, correct?

also, good job with that strawman you put up there. you sure knocked it down real well.

>"posts" would connote more than one, correct?

Yes, the same applies for you calling everyone who doesn't share your view a "shill". So according to my posts, I am pro MS, pro Firefox, anti Chrome, pro Google etc. I sure hope I dint invalidate the "pro MS" with the cons this time. Has it every occurred to you that maybe people talk positively or negatively about product X or Y, not because they are a shill, but because they can relate to it or have some experience with it? I humbly request you to change your mindset from the pre-2000 slashdot era, grow up and stop calling everyone who doesn't share the same views as you a "shill".

> Yes, the same applies for you calling everyone who doesn't share your view a "shill".

Check out your Argumentum Ad Hominem! [1]

> "shill"

> shill

> "shill"

are you quoting me when you say "shill"? where did I use that word? If I didn't use it, doesn't that make this a Strawman Fallacy? [2]

>I humbly request you to change your mindset from the pre-2000 slashdot era

Perfect example of Association Fallacy [3].

> grow up

followed by an Appeal to emotion! nice! [4]

-

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_by_association

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_emotion

I bought a prepaid $80 phone from AT&T fusion 2, put on cyanogenmod and it works great. Compared to my friends windows phone, mine still is highly competitive (although I must admit mine is slightly slower when things are booting/loading) and I only get something like 256 MB of ram and am running android 2.3.

Can I use a browser other than IE on it?

There's UC Browser. It probably uses IE's rendering engine since the big names (FF, Opera) are missing.

You can't have IE in Kid's Corner (the guest mode) so you'll want UC Browser as an alternative. There are also alternative phone dialers since you can't have the default phone dialer in Kid's Corner.

I'm not sure you can already but in the near future, yes: Firefox, Opera and Chrome.

On Windows Phone 8? I've been using Windows Phone since the launch of WP7 and I've never heard of a competitor's browser being allowed, nor of a decision to change this. Windows 8 possibly, but the OP seems to be confused between the two because Windows 8 doesn't run on anything ARM made by Nokia.

http://www.google.com/homepage/windows8/ says "not yet available for Windows RT" so maybe there is hope?

When I visit, I get "not available on Windows RT", no sign of "yet". Perhaps someone from Google saw this discussion and updated it.

http://i.imgur.com/zILTywr.png

Despite both using the NT kernel on ARM, Windows 8 RT is not Windows Phone 8.

I suspect any hope will have to be provided by a court of justice. Or a X-Wing.

Ah, well, people seem to believe that my above post is a troll, so let me elaborate.

Windows 8 explicitly blocks the installation of any browser other than Internet Explorer (+ skins) on ARM. This is not due to a technical reason. This is due to the fact that Microsoft imitates Apple's policy that prevents any browser other than Safari (+ skins) on iOS [1]. While anti-trust rulings have forbidden Microsoft from doing this on PCs, Microsoft claims that ARM-based computers are not PCs and that the anti-trust rulings therefore do not apply. I therefore suspect that Microsoft will continue with this behavior unless a court of justice decides that ARM-based computers are also PCs. Hence my above comment.

And if anyone wonders why we need open platforms for mobile devices, that's a pretty good reason.

One source among many: http://www.linuxstall.com/microsoft-blocks-chrome-and-firefo...

[1] Yes, technologically speaking, Chrome for iOS is a reskinned Safari bundled with utilities.

Hum. Last time I checked, Windows 8 for ARM explicitly prevented non-IE browsers from launching.

That's simply not true.