Microsoft’s new Windows 10 Mobile could redefine the struggling operating system within the mobile sector when it arrives on its rumoured October release date. With a scalable user interface and more, just how good is it shaping up? Tom Wellburn investigates Build 10149.
Microsoft is betting a lot on Windows 10. The Redmond company has placed its entire future vision on the basis of a fully integrated, scalable Operating System that can be applied to any device regardless of size. With the desktop version of Windows 10 quickly nearing completion, I decided to take the plunge and jump onto the mobile bandwagon. Microsoft has been offering early access to the software for some time through the Windows Insider Program, though previous builds were far too buggy to be considered usable in the long-term. With Windows 10 Mobile slated for a rumoured October release date, I decided to test drive the software for an entire month and see if it was up to scratch. Risky? Incredibly. Let’s see how it goes.
Installation and first impressions
Downloading the software was straightforward. You sign up for a free developers account through the Microsoft website before downloading the insider app on your phone.
After this you’re asked if you want to join the ‘slow ring’ or ‘fast ring’. Those who choose the former will get updates less often but they will likely be more stable. I jumped in at the deep end and chose fast ring. The phone then proceeded to do the usual stuff, downloading and installing the update with very little issue. After about 45 minutes or so I was ready to try Windows 10. The build that I downloaded was 10149, which was said by many online to be the most stable yet. Some even said it should be possible to use it every day.
Modern feel
When the phone rebooted I was treated to the brand-spanking new Windows 10 OS, which I must admit had me impressed. It has a far more modernised feel than Windows Phone 8.1, which is in part thanks to the full screen background and closer live tile arrangement. Icons are now far sharper and slimmer than previous versions, with a completely new settings menu that is far easier to understand. The notifications section is also much better, with in-line responding to text messages now possible through toasts and the action centre.
Talking of the Action Centre, that has also undergone a substantial improvement, with more quick action icons and better handling of bulk notifications. No more cascading lines of app notifications that will clog up your screen! The phone continued to download my apps in the background while I browsed the new interface and it also carried across my previous live tile arrangement from Windows Phone 8.1.
Smooth operator
The first thing to catch my eye was the overall speed of the operating system. Windows Phone 8.1 has always been a very smooth OS that runs well on low-end hardware. It is one of the most proud features that it can cry home about. Windows 10 Mobile already feels on a par with its predecessor, so it should be interesting to see just how much faster it can get. While browsing through the interface was quick and speedy, apps did tend to hang. Splash screens stuck around for a little bit longer than I would’ve liked, which took away from the overall responsiveness of the user interface.
Applications
Most of the Microsoft applications were updated to their Windows 10 variants. Currently unavailable to the public, they represent the new design themes that will be a commonplace within the new OS. My first thought was ‘Oh god, why the hamburger menus?’, but I soon got over it. The first party apps now look fantastic, which is a far cry from Windows 8.1. While the Bing applications were good, the design themes in things such as the email and calendar apps were bland at best. Now they look stunning. There’s also a lot more features in them, with landscape support and the ability to flag/archive mail at the flick of a finger.
Microsoft purchased Acompli, a popular email application for iOS and Android, several months ago and it’s clear that the design themes have been carried over for Outlook in Windows Mobile 10. In many ways it feels like the exact same application besides some of the icons and logos. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I did find the overall mailbox system a little awkward, as switching between accounts was slower than in Windows Phone 8.1. Individual inboxes can be pinned to the start screen but currently the live tiles don’t work, meaning you can’t see your message count. A little disappointing. On a positive note, the mail and calendar apps are now completely integrated, giving a nice interaction between the two. Everything in the calendar works the same as in the previous version of Windows, it’s just that now it’s a lot more visually striking.
Apps updated
The photo and music apps have also received big updates in line with the new design themes. Anybody who used the music application on Windows Phone 8.1 will remember what a disaster it was, with an unimaginable amount of bugs hampering the experience. Microsoft was so embarrassed that they assigned a special team of developers to release bi-weekly updates in effort to improve the app. Even now, it’s still not up to scratch when compared to the previous version in Windows Phone 8.0. Thankfully, this new version is a lot better, with a much improved interface and easier navigation.
Artists, songs and playlists are now neatly organised in a sidebar that is easily accessed by hitting a hamburger button at the top of the screen. The now playing section is much easier to understand, with a scrub feature that doesn’t need baby fingers to use. The artist backgrounds for the now playing also seemed to render much better, with the app recognising much more artists than in previous versions. The only disappointment was the lack of a live tile but I would expect that the feature will make an appearance in later builds. Microsoft Edge was present in this build, which is the new web browser set to replace Internet Explorer. I’d like to say it felt better but I couldn’t really tell the difference. The app suffered from a strange hanging issue where it wouldn’t navigate to a requested URL. The only option was to close and reopen the application until it came back to life. On the few times I could get it working, it certainly felt smooth. It had a few issues formatting certain websites (such as our own What Mobile), choosing to zoom out and display the full page.
In terms of speed, there was no complaints. Image heavy websites like IGN instantly sprung to life with no delay or stuttered loading, which is excellent for a mobile browser.
Increased functIonalIty
The Maps application is another highlight, jumping ahead of HERE to offer much more functionality. There’s now a street view option, plus an awesome 3D Cities option which allows you to view a select few destinations in full three dimensions. It is worth noting that the 3D city viewer is extremely intensive and my Lumia 830 was really struggling to run it. Also, all of the included cities are mostly in the United States with only one currently available in the UK. No, it’s not London… It’s err, Southampton? Overall navigation isn’t that much different to HERE Maps, as they both share the same maps database.
On top of the major applications, Microsoft has also updated all of the utility apps to coincide with the new design themes. Calculator, podcasts, voice recorder, alarms, Store, OneDrive and the People Hub have all undergone positive changes, looking far better visually than their predecessors. The People Hub is now more like a contacts book than anything else, with Microsoft dropping support for the Rooms feature that made it unique. You still have the ability to aggregate social media news feeds and view them in a ticker style format for each contact, though it’s a little buggy in this build and some apps that used to work with it now don’t.
People search
Possibly the biggest addition for the People Hub is the addition of a search bar. Finally, we can at least search for contacts by name! The visual redesign of the Store is also better, looking much closer to the desktop version. At the time of testing, it was still in BETA and did feel a little slow at times though it should be finalised by the next build. There’s also a fully-fledged file explorer included in the build, which is a welcome addition.
My personal experiences
In using the device for a month, I documented a few issues that cropped up and caused some serious problems with my experience. Notably in the first week I had two catastrophic crashes where a hard reset was the only option. The first crash completely froze my phone, meaning I had to use the recovery tool and do a complete restore. Thankfully, the process was relatively straightforward though I did lose everything stored on the device.
Ongoing issue
The second major crash came after a slew of background app updates which rendered my device useless. All of the apps would suddenly bring up an error message and refuse to open, meaning the only option was a hard reset. An ongoing issue that has also been reported by Microsoft is a problem with the messaging application, of which I have consistently been affected. Even after several resets, I still can’t get my ingoing and outgoing texts to deliver correctly. Apparently, this is due to a bug with the Gmail account integration, of which I use several for my emails.
Trial and error
I also had frequent issues with the Store applications, which was probably due to Microsoft’s decision to include both the old Store application and the new Store app. Downloading and updating applications was incredibly sporadic, with some refusing to install from the new Store and some refusing to install from the old. It was a case of trial and error to get some to download, meaning I wasted masses of data on failed background updates and installs. It was at that point that I decided to turn off automatic updates and force them myself. Even this failed to solve the issue.
These were the main issues that I faced, but they were far from the only things that happened. App glitches were a common occurrence, though not as frequent as I expected. Facebook Messenger failed on me several times, needing a few reinstalls to function correctly. Combine this with the app stores issues outlined above and you have a recipe for disaster.
There was also occasions where the phone would hang on the lockscreen, giving a blank screen. Repeated presses of the lock key until it started working again were the only way to get around it. Notifications would come through later than expected at times and my appointment didn’t work until about two week in when it suddenly sprung to life. Then there was the formatting bugs, which is likely due to the scaling feature found in Windows 10. As an OS that is designed to dynamically scale to any device format and screen size, I can sympathise that such a feature is a mammoth undertaking with lots of work needed. Still, to see the settings screen bloat to four times its size at random intervals was still quite a funny sight to behold.
Can we use it as a daily driver? Almost!
Now we come to the ultimate question, is it ready for daily use? While I’d love to say yes, it’s still got a little way to go before I would consider throwing it on my Lumia 830 full-time. It’s come leaps and bounds from previous builds, which were buggy as hell and full of unfinished applications. There’s also a much more clear design theme, as evident by the direction which most of the first party apps are now taking. In previous versions, it felt somewhat like patchwork quilt, with user interface inconsistencies everywhere that amounted to a confusing experience. Now we are at a stage where we can really see the fruits of Microsoft’s labour starting to pay off. In terms of the UI, I would argue that it is probably fairly close to the final version and doesn’t need much work. The only major problem lies in the bugs and it’s something that will continue to improve as the months pass. If it wasn’t for the occasional crashes and irritating glitches, I would’ve adopted this as my daily driver immediately. The overall speed of the thing is excellent and in a few builds time I can definitely see this reaching a polished stage where my opinion will change entirely.