The slow death of Windows Phone: how Microsoft lost the battle for smartphones. What is Windows Phone Windows phone in Russian

When choosing a smartphone, we look at different factors, and one of the main ones is operating system with which you will have to deal. google android, Apple iPhone or Microsoft Windows phone? Many buyers believe that the main competition is between the first two, and Windows Phone is not serious. But we will try to debunk this myth.

10 Windows benefits Phone

Plus one: it's not an iPhone

From the point of view of the "Yabloko" this looks like a definite drawback, but those who do not like Cupertino products will clearly look at this fact with interest.

In fact, in many respects the ideology of operating iOS systems and WP8 are similar: both are closed from “external influences”, a strict selection of applications is a rather narrow choice of gadgets. But if Apple needs to deal only with gadgets from Apple itself, then Microsoft is much better in this regard: smartphones on Windows Phone are produced by many respected manufacturers, from Microsoft itself to HTC and Samsung (the latter - even despite the promotion of competitor WP - OC Tizen).

To summarize and discard the technical details, then Windows Phone can be called "iOS without Apple." The latter, as you know, like to set absolutely ridiculous prices for their components, while there is no such problem with gadgets on Windows Phone, the components here are the most “ordinary” ones. In general, if you like the ideology Apple devices, but do not like the pricing (or any other) policy of the "apple" company, take a closer look at smartphones on WP and tablets on Windows.

Plus two: yes, it's Windows

In view of the upcoming unification of operating Microsoft systems for all mobile and desktop devices this advantage looks especially attractive. Now a smartphone on Windows Phone 8.1 also syncs with Windows 8.1 without any problems, but when Windows 10 comes out, it will be Windows 10 for everyone, without the Phone prefix. By the way, the release for developers has already been released, which, as it were, hints.

Such unification means, at a minimum, the absence of gadget synchronization problems (and now they are trifles, but they do occur), and the convenience of working on all devices should, in theory, be similar.

Basically, the same can be said about different versions Apple iOS, but not about Google Android. Yes, there are Chromebooks, but this is where the variety of Android devices ends.

Plus three: no problem of lack of RAM

This is the scourge of Android devices: 512 MB of RAM was once enough, but now 2 GB is considered the minimum allowable for comfortable work. While the Lumia 720 on Windows Phone 8 can handle the same 512 megabytes of RAM without any problems, and even allows you to comfortably work with the navigation system (which the author personally tested a couple of years ago), not to mention the HTC Mozart 2010 with its 576 megabytes of memory: despite the obsolescence of Windows Phone 7.8 and the actual termination of support for this Microsoft versions, you can still work comfortably on this device (unless, of course, you install “heavy” games). Moreover, you do not have to turn off various "pretty things" like animation of menu transitions. Of course, there are already top-end WP devices with 2 gigabytes of RAM.

But a three-year-old Android smartphone with one gigabyte of memory on the fourth version of the operating system today shamelessly slows down, and devices with three gigabytes of RAM actually cause more sadness than joy, because the “more, more, more!” it fits perfectly.

By the way, Apple iPhone like there is no problem either, which proves the presence of “old” iPhones of the third dash of the fifth generation in ads and at well-attended auctions, where they fly like hot cakes. And this is not only because iOS is a well-thought-out and simple operating system in itself, but also because iOS also has no problems with RAM, just like Windows Phone.

Unlike Android. The increase in RAM in "android phones" only proves this.

Plus Four: Default Applications

Since Android smartphones are not sawing in the basement, only the lazy (just look in any Chinese online store by their number, numbering in tens of thousands), they usually do not have a rich bundle by default. Of course, various major vendors like Samsung or HTC cram a lot of everything that is possible and impossible into their version of Android, but the vast majority of Android smartphones on the market have nothing but stock firmware. Someone generous can, perhaps, give away a free shell and a couple of free applications. But the common denominator is that a small number (4% of the market, give or take, according to analysts) of Windows Phone smartphones give their users quite a lot of useful branded applications, and the mega-diversity of Android leads to the fact that you have to finish all on your own. Even with the excellent HTC Sense shell.

By the way, the swipe keyboard included with Windows Phone 8.1 can be called a nice bonus: while in Google Android, such an innovation appeared on a regular basis only some time ago (somewhere around versions 4.2-4.3), and before that it was necessary to use a paid Swype application or analogues, free versions which were nowhere near as good, having, among other things, extremely poor default dictionaries.

True, not for Windows Phone Google Chrome(as well as Hangouts), but everything else is there. And even sync Google account is on par with the default Hotmail account. There is also a cloud Microsoft application OneDrive - similar functionality in Android is called Google Drive, it provides the same space in both clouds: 15 GB each.

Plus fifth: little can be configured (and broken, respectively)

Probably, many at first decide to put this plus into a minus, but if you look from the point of view of the average user, then what does he want? Only one thing: to have everything you need, and so that it all works as it should. Without "finishing", "root", "customization" and other terrible words. Bought - use.

With Windows Phone, everything is exactly like this: I took it out of the box and everything works. You can change the color of the “tiles”, make a ringtone, arrange the desktop as you wish, but you don’t need to unlock your smartphone to get superuser rights, install tricky applications to clean and reorganize the memory, both operational and permanent… Because everything works fine without it .

By the way, this plus can be attributed to Apple - for the umpteenth time.

Plus six: simplicity

But since we have already mentioned the iPhone, so the operating system from Microsoft can give the user the same simplicity. Yes, there are not very many applications (yet), but their number is increasing. Yes, customization is very limited (see above) - but you don't need to shaman with a tambourine to make something work.

Simplicity is the guiding principle not only for the iPhone, but also for smartphones on Windows base phone. You just won’t be allowed to spoil something in the system (including applications), the ways to get something you need are also easy, and even a child can deal with everything (especially since there is a very simple and effective children’s mode called “Children’s corner "(Kid's Corner). "Usability", in general, on top.

Plus seven: updating the OS regardless of the manufacturer and device class

Everyone is familiar with the Android distribution model: a new version of the OS is released, appears on the newest Nexuses, then smartphone manufacturers begin to slowly swing and integrate the new OS into their firmware very slowly. Sometimes months pass, and in some cases until, it seems, actual devices, new android and does not come at all.

With Windows Phone 8, everything is easier: updates appear for all devices at about the same time, both for weak Lumia 520 and for powerful HTC 8x all functions are equally accessible, except that toys on weak WP-smartphones will slow down. There are no "finishing" your own shells: firmware different manufacturers differ, perhaps, in the amount of proprietary software, which is also not very much.

Plus number eight: safety

In fact, the roots of this grow not from the fact that in principle there are no viruses in the mobile OS from Microsoft (as in the joke about Elusive Joe), unlike the desktop relative, but from the fact that, due to their low prevalence, they simply have not yet begun to be written.

The second reason is the secrecy source code, which makes the OS virtually invulnerable to hacking, at least not yet. And antivirus for Android today is almost a mandatory must-have application for all "droids".

Plus nine: Xbox Live

This is more of a plus for gamers, but it's worth mentioning anyway: the Xbox Live system is integrated into Windows Phone, so you can use your profile in this system for all games, collecting points and “pumping” your character, and there are common rating tables where you can compete with other players not in some game separately, but in general in all at once.

Plus tenth: standard navigation system

While there is still debate on the "Internet" about which is better, Microsoft quietly builds a full-fledged offline HERE navigation system into its Lumia smartphones for free and has no problems with it. The system is really very powerful, there are updated maps of all countries of the world, there is a really full driving mode (offline!) in the HERE Drive application with voice prompts, there is also an application indicating the nearest places (from cafes to shopping centers) in overlay mode on a three-dimensional map with positioning in space.

There is, perhaps, only one minus for HERE cards: the cards are downloaded only to the built-in memory and categorically do not want to live on a flash drive. Well, no one is perfect.

As for offline navigators on Android, here you can allow a small lyrical digression into the topic. A few days ago, the author of this article watched a video of one popular autoblogger, in which he proved to us that a separate navigator where better than a smartphone. At the same time, rather ancient Samsung acted as a smartphone, and Navitel, cursed by many, acted as a navigation system. That is, it turns out like this: if you have an old Samsung smartphone, and you bought an expensive Navitel - it's better to buy a separate navigator.

The main thing is that there is nothing to argue with. Everything is just like that. And so many owners of old Android devices think the same way.

Conclusion

Of course, the operating room Windows systems Phone has its drawbacks (remember - no one is perfect), but we hope we have clearly demonstrated to you that this OS is quite competitive. In terms of simplicity and convenience, it is not inferior to iOS, and smartphones on it are several times cheaper. Like, for example, or, which we recently talked about.

Windows Phone App is a program for synchronizing data between a PC and a phone on Windows Phone 8. It supports the exchange of music, playlists, photos, music, videos and other data. A flexible synchronization system allows you to select any library or folder on your computer, even if it is located on an external hard drive.

One of the sections “Music + Video” provides access to the management and playback of multimedia files. You can also use the Xbox Music service to find and listen to music in this section. Also available are the Collection, Magazine, New, Apps, and Xbox tabs. History allows you to view music that is playing now or has been played recently. The Xbox tab exists for finding and listening to songs on the Xbox Music service. Applications is a tab for viewing music-related applications.

Key features and functions

• flexible system synchronization;
• automatic update;
• expanded support for podcasts;
• sync podcasts, music, TV shows, movies from your iTunes or Windows library;
• import photos and videos from the device to the PC in automatic mode;
• playlist synchronization;
• search for songs via PC with subsequent addition to the phone;
• multiplatform.

The lock screen in WP8 is a screen in the truest sense of the word. That is, it is a full-screen picture that you need to pull up to unlock the display. The picture is selected in the settings, it can be either one of the standard images, or any photo or picture you downloaded to your smartphone. On NTS smartphones, you can also set weather animation as a picture.

The top of the lock screen displays the current signal strength, Internet connection type (HSDPA (H) or EDGE (E)), wireless icons, battery level, and time.

Also here, on top of the icons with system information, a panel with music control appears. To call it, you need to press the volume up or down key. This panel shows the current volume level, music control buttons, the name of the track, its playing time, and an icon with sound mode, call or vibro.

In addition, at the top of the screen, information about the new found WiFi networks or a piece of a new text message, that is, part of it can be seen without even unlocking the screen.

Just below the center of the screen, the current time and an alarm icon next to it, if it is on, are displayed. Even lower - the day of the week, date and month. And at the very bottom - the icons of unread text messages, email and missed calls. Mail icons for different accounts the same, the exception is the "boxes" from MS (hotmail) and MS Exchange Server.

In the settings, you can specify the time after which the lock screen will appear, the range of values: 30 seconds, 1, 3, 5 minutes or "never".

You can also set a password for the lock screen. In this case, when you slide the screen up, instead of unlocking, a panel with numeric keypad where the password is entered. Interestingly, as soon as you have finished entering the password, the screen will immediately unlock.

To be honest, I wish I had large quantity settings for the lock screen, for example, the ability to quickly call the program. I also didn’t like tiny notifications: if you remember HTC Sense, where the entire message appeared at once, it becomes very sad.

Desktop

The workspace in Windows Phone 8 is organized in two panels, on one of them there are tiles already known to us, on the other - a detailed list of programs.

In Windows Phone 8, the tile menus have undergone a slight visual overhaul. Firstly, now up to four tiles can be placed in one row, and secondly, the useless arrow has finally been removed (or rather, it has not been removed, but placed at the very bottom of the tiled menu). Tiles can be of three sizes: small (1x1), medium (2x2) and large (2x4). If the program supports "live tiles", then the information on the tile will be updated. When moving a tile, nearby tiles will move away. It looks the same as the last one. Android versions, except that in Windows Phone this "trick" appeared earlier.

Most tiles support "unread notification counters", that is, if you receive a new letter, then there will be one on the mail tile, the same with other programs. And this applies not only standard programs, but also third-party (for example, IM +). The “Calendar” tile deserves special mention, if you stretch it to a large size, then it will display a list of the current tasks that you wrote down.

Adding a new tile is done by long pressing on the program from the application menu. Also, some third-party applications can add tiles directly from the settings. Changing the size and position of tiles or removing them from the desktop is done with a long press on the tile itself. From the list of programs, you can not only quickly add a new tile, but also remove the program.

All personalization of the desktop comes down to changing the background (black or white) and the background color of the tiles themselves (here the gamut was seriously diversified). Interestingly, some applications also change their appearance depending on the change in the color of the tiles. This allows you to maintain the continuity of appearance between third party applications and built-in.

The solution with tiles is interesting and unusual, on the one hand, these are ordinary shortcuts, on the other hand, updated tiles, on the third hand, peculiar widgets. Most of all, of course, I am glad that we finally got rid of the small arrow on the side and increased the size of the line on the desktop (4x1 vs. 2x1 in WP7). In my opinion, tiles lose in variety to the same widgets in Android, of which Play market great multitude.

Status bar

Unlike Android, Windows Phone 8 doesn't pay much attention to the status bar. First of all, it doesn't even drop out. Secondly, it contains the minimum number of notifications. Thirdly, this line is still automatically hidden, so if you need to check the smartphone's charge, signal reception or new messages, then you need to manually omit it, which, of course, is inconvenient.

The address book does the same, only you look for the subscriber's card yourself, and do not immediately open it. After shortcuts on Android, this solution looks outdated.

The “Phone” tile opens the history of all calls, you can immediately dial the subscriber who recently called you.

When you call a subscriber, you see his number and the time of the call. There is no contact photo (even if one is assigned!). This is a huge miscalculation, which upsets me very much, it is not clear why it was necessary to do this.

At incoming call you see the photo of the contact, to answer the call you first need to swipe up and then press the answer call button. The button itself is narrow and flat, made quite uncomfortable, you need to aim to press it.

The address book

The address book is located in the Contacts application. The application itself is divided into four blocks: a list of your contacts, their activity on social networks, the last contacts you accessed, and the All Together block, where the created rooms and user groups are located. Let's talk about everything in order.

The contact list displays your synced Hotmail address book. If you have enabled synchronization of contacts with Twitter and / or Facebook, then contacts from these networks will also appear in the address book. Contacts from social networks can be "associated" with contacts from Hotmail, then all the activity of a contact from social networks will be displayed in one card. In addition, after “linking”, a high-quality photo is pulled up, if we talk about Facebook.

If you wish, you can synchronize your smartphone with Gmail, then the contacts will be “pulled up” from your Google account. The disadvantage of this method is that with such synchronization, you automatically receive low-quality contact photos.

To create new contact just click on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen. There is also a "Search" button for quick navigation through the book.

The second tab displays a news feed from Facebook, Twitter and other connected social networks.

The third contains frequently called contacts.

Last tab contains a list of contact groups and rooms. What is a room? You invite one or more contacts to create a room, then inside this room you can keep a shared calendar, chat, make a shopping list and much more (for example, share photos). It can be seen that the functionality of the room involves its use, first of all, by family or just close people. The second use case is the corporate segment.

Call log (call history)

The call history window has been simplified as much as possible. You see a list of recent calls (all), on the left - the same phone icon, on the right - the name of the subscriber, just below - the type of call (incoming, outgoing, missed), the day of the week and the time at which the call was made. For missed calls, the line under the name of the subscriber is highlighted in a cheerful color (it depends on which color you have chosen for the OS).

The call list appears to show calls from the last week. There is no grouping of calls from one subscriber, you also cannot see detailed information about the call, for example, its duration, there is no such functionality. If you call the same person ten or twenty times, then these twenty entries will be in the call list without any grouping under one contact.

When you click on the phone icon, a call to the selected subscriber starts, when you click on his name, a window with a profile opens. By the way, if the number from the call log is not in your address book, then when you click on it, you will still be taken to the profile window. That is, you can select an action, call this subscriber or send a text message.

Display of missed calls

When the display is locked, the missed call information is displayed as an icon at the bottom of the lock screen.

On the main screen, the missed call is shown inside the "Phone" block. I already spoke about this above, it seems. The display of missed calls in the system line did not appear.

Working with USSD requests

The system processes direct USSD requests without problems, and support for requests has also appeared in which there is a choice of options.

Messages, mail

Display of new (missed) messages

In screen lock mode, new text messages are displayed as an icon at the bottom of the display, new text messages and mail are not shown at all in the system bar. The number of messages on the main screen is shown inside each block, i.e. inside the block, for example, for Gmail, for mail on MS Exchange and for text messages.

Text messages

Text messages are represented by a list of chats, for each chat the last message in it is indicated. In the general message window, you see for each chat the phone number or name of the subscriber, and below - the last message or a piece of it in two lines. To the right - the time when the message was received, or the day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) if the message is from the past days. Unread messages can be distinguished from read ones by the color of the text of the message piece under the name of the subscriber. At unread messages this will be the color chosen in the theme: red, green, etc. The message list contains not only SMS messages, but also messages from rooms.

When you open a chat, you see all the correspondence with the selected person. The contact's first and last names are shown at the top, and the messages are below. By clicking on the name of a contact, you can go to his card. The subscriber's messages are aligned on the left side, yours are aligned on the right. Under each message is the date you received it or delivered it to the subscriber. Separate message you can delete or forward, in addition, you can delete all correspondence with a contact.

If the messages are old, then not only the time of sending and delivery, but also the day of the week will be indicated for them. If they are very old, then the date of the message will be indicated in the format day/month/year.

When you create a new message, it defaults to text. If you add any content to SMS, it will be converted to MMS. Users can send photos, video clips, their location, voice notes, contact cards, and ringtones via MMS.

Another feature of working with messages in WP8 is this. In the system, when entering messages, you first do not see anywhere how many characters have already been entered, and this is inconvenient. The thing is that the OS shows the number of characters entered as a number only after you have exceeded the value of 130 characters for Latin and 60 characters for Cyrillic. This flaw has been known since WP7, it's sad that it hasn't been fixed.

When you enter a new message, the destination is selected. To select it, you can start entering the first or last name of the contact, the system itself will offer options from those found in the address book. In addition, you can simply enter the phone number manually or click on the "plus" button and get into the address book, where you can already select the desired contact. A text message can be sent to one or more recipients.

In the message settings, you can enable notification of the delivery of a message to the addressee. If you turn on the notification, after each sent SMS, you will receive a response message with a text about the time your message was delivered.

In WP8, there are no message templates familiar to most other (or all other?) phones like "Happy birthday", "I'm busy, I'll call you back later", etc.

There is no concept of "draft message" in WP8. You can't save drafts. Moreover, if you were writing a message and accidentally pressed the "Windows" or "Back" key, that is, you went to the main screen, the text you wrote will not be saved and you will have to enter it again. The good thing is that if you answer the call while writing an SMS, then you can continue writing.

AND last paragraph about messages. If you sent a message, but it was not sent (we rode the subway, drove through the tunnel in a car, the phone was in the “Airplane” mode, etc.), then you will need to resend it manually, on your own. Notification that a message has not been sent will only be shown in one place, directly below the body of the message itself. That is, situations are quite possible when the message was not sent, but you do not know about it, because you pressed the "Send" button and immediately closed the message window.

mail

Let's look at the implementation of mail in Windows Phone 8. Unlike what we see in Android, there is no separation by account type, that is, if you set up Gmail and, for example, Hotmail boxes, the application for working with them will be used by one . Let me remind you that in Android Gmail has its own separate mail client and another one for the rest of the mail.

About the fact that each account with mail can be transferred to main screen in the form of a block-picture, I have already said. Now let's look into one of these boxes.

Mail messages are presented as a list, about 5 letters fit on the screen (HTC Windows Phone 8x). In each line, the sender is displayed in large print, below - the subject of the letter and the first line from it. To the right of this data is the time of receipt or the day of the week (if the letter is yesterday or old). If you swipe the screen to the left, we will move from the screen with all letters to the screen with unread letters. And the last scrolling - letters marked "important". Convenient screen, in my opinion, it works correctly for all accounts. That is, if I send an email marked "important" to myself on Exchange and on Gmail boxes, then in both cases the system will place it on the screen of important messages.

Letters in the list can be selected. To do this, you need to bring your finger to the left edge of the screen and gently click on the area to the left of the desired letter. As soon as one letter is selected, a square will appear next to each with the ability to put a tick there, that is, select it as well. In addition, you can simply press the button at the bottom of the screen to call the mode of selecting letters. You cannot select all messages at once. Selected messages can be marked as read or unread, checked or unchecked for them, and marked as “done” (a checkmark will appear to the right of the name and subject of the letter).

Let's open one letter. The name and surname of its sender are written at the top in large-large type. As a rule, this data does not even fit on the screen, and you will not be able to read the name of an unknown person to the end. For example, if Konstantin Konstantinov writes to me, then I will see both in the general list of messages and in open message something like Konstantin Konst.

Below the name and surname - a line with a subject, and then - the date the letter was received. Even lower is the addressee, that is, you and other people, if the letter was sent not only to you or in the form of a mailing list. Attachments follow, if any, and only then the text.

The unprepared reader is in for some bad news. However, it is not pleasant for everyone. In WP8, you can scale the text of the letter, just like in any other system. Make it smaller or larger. However, unlike other systems, WP8 does not re-align enlarged text to the screen width. You understood me correctly, if you "enlarged" the text of the letter in the mail, please use the horizontal scroll to read it.

You can read letters both in the vertical orientation of the screen and in the horizontal one. Attachments are opened by clicking on the gray label "attachments". Clicking on the name of an attachment starts downloading it. You can’t track the download status, but you will understand that the attachment is downloading by the presence of the “Cancel” signature under it.

You cannot select a specific location for downloading attachments, there is no concept of folders and what you are viewing. file system. Accordingly, in order to view the downloaded attachment, you need to open the letter with it and click on the attachment there. The system does not provide a tool to view all downloaded attachments or any download log for email accounts.

A downloaded attachment can be distinguished from one that has not yet been downloaded by the icon. For unloaded ones, it is common, in the form of a paper clip, for downloaded ones, by file type. By the way, WP8 does not distinguish between emails in html format, that is, with pictures, and emails with attachments. That is, in the general list of letters you will see a paperclip icon not only for letters with attachments, but also for letters in html format, because there are pictures there, and it's like attachments.

If the system "does not understand" the extension or format of the attachment, no action can be taken with it; when you click on such an attachment, you will see a notification that it cannot be opened. For some attachments to the OS, it is suggested to download an application that supports them. For example, this applies to .pdf files.

In the case of a Gmail account, the system recognizes the "there" labels as folders. Accordingly, you can see what labels you have. In G8, the mail client has finally learned how to work with labels, you can open letters marked with these labels and download attachments.

The search in the list of letters is carried out by first name, last name, subject of the letter, as well as by the body of the letter (through the entire text, and not just the line visible in the general list).

Mail Display

Mail client displays both standard text messages and those composed with using html. In the case of html, to load images, you must first click on any picture inside the letter, after which they are loaded.

Working with text inside a letter

Windows Phone 8 supports copy-paste. That is, the text from the letter (and not only) can be copied and then pasted into another place, for example, into a document or into the address bar of a browser. It looks like this: when you click on a word, an icon for copying the selected text to the clipboard appears, to the left and right of the word there are arrows, by dragging which you can select other words or entire pieces of text and copy them.

Screen keyboard, text input

The keyboard in Windows Phone 8 has not changed much since the "seven". Four lines of characters, no additional markup on the buttons: one click - one character. There is a jump key to enter numbers and additional characters. There is a button for entering smiles (emoticons), there is a space, the "Backspace" key and "Enter". Personally, I counted on the possibility of installing a third-party keyboard, but, unfortunately, Microsoft did not please us with such a luxury. In my opinion, this keyboard is too simple. If the company does not allow you to install other keyboards, then at least make your own the best and most convenient. But Microsoft did not do either the first or the second.

In landscape mode, the keyboard becomes slightly wider, but far from the full width of the screen. That is, in WP8 there is not much difference between landscape and portrait keyboards, they do not differ in the convenience of typing on them.

When you enter a letter on the keyboard, it is displayed in a pop-up field above the key itself, so even when you cover the button with your finger, you always see which letter you are currently typing.

Pressing the key is accompanied by a sound, there is no vibration. For different input fields, the keyboards are slightly different. For example, for text messages, to the left of the space is a button for entering smiles, and when working in a browser, there is also a key for quickly entering “.com”. In this case, if you hold your finger on the “.com” button for about a second, a pop-up menu will appear where you can select domain zone: .org, .edu, net.

If you hold your finger in the input field on one of the words, a cursor appears, you can use it to correct errors in words or simply move between words or phrases in already written text to add or correct something.

The keyboard has predictive input, Russian is also supported. Misspelled words are automatically corrected.

The calendar

The calendar can be represented as a block picture on the main screen, it will occupy the entire line, that is, two standard block. It displays the current day of the week and date, as well as the nearest event, if any.

In the calendar, you see a list of events for the current day, sorted by time, or a list of events for the next day for which they are. The general list of events displays their names and venue, as well as time. To the right of each event is a colored label that indicates that the event belongs to one of the calendars that you are synchronizing. Native synchronization with the Facebook calendar is supported, joint events from the common room are also displayed.

When adding a new event, you can select a theme, location, account affiliation, start time, duration, reminder, and status. In addition, you can enter a note and add users from your address book to the event, who will be sent an invitation to participate in this event (by mail).

Multimedia

Music+video

It is not clear why Microsoft decided to combine music and video in one program. What is the risk? While watching all the content, you have movies and songs mixed up. The meaning of this decision is unclear.

The music player itself supports playback by artist, album, or genre. You can also enable playback of all tracks. Support for playing folders, unfortunately, no. It's important to note here that you can't install a third-party audio player on WP8, so the fact that Microsoft installed such a simple app is pretty frustrating.

As for video playback, there are practically no settings here either: no subtitles, no changing the audio track, or anything else. Only linear playback. And again, a third-party video player cannot be installed.

It is important to note that in Windows Phone 8 there is no such thing as “ring volume” and “media volume”, so if you pulled out your headphones after listening to music and put your smartphone in your pocket, then it is quite possible that you can miss an incoming call.

Photos

The application is divided into four tabs. In the first one, you can view your photos by pre-selecting sorting by date, albums or contacts. The photo disk contains the pictures taken directly from the camera. You can add the picture you like to Favorites.

In the "What's New" tab displayed last news from social networks containing photos.

Applications contain programs for working with images.

Marketplace

start page The app store is divided into four tabs. From the first one, you can quickly switch to branded smartphone applications, third-party programs and games. The second contains the "program of the day" - any good application according to Microsoft. The third and fourth tabs are dedicated to the list of applications and games, respectively. They display three titles and a proposal to get acquainted with all the programs.

In addition to the usual sorting by paid / free and the best programs, there is a "Collections" tile. The collections have selected the best applications for various cases. I really liked this section, it is clear that really good applications were chosen for each of the subsections.

When you open the application information, several tabs appear in front of you. In the first one is short description application, its weight, the name of the developer and the average rating. The second tab is reserved for reviews, on the third you can see screenshots of the program, and the fourth shows similar applications.

The app store has one inconvenient drawback - if you have already bought an application, when you open information about it, its purchase is not displayed in any way, that is, you still see the "Buy" button. Of course, you do not need to buy it a second time, and when you click on the button, they will tell you that you have already bought it and offer to download it. Many applications have demo versions, thanks to which you can try the program before buying.

As for the search, in my opinion, it is better organized in the Marketplace than in Google Play. Here, at least, all the applications displayed after the search are at least related to the word you enter. On Google Play, you can enter "FBReader" and get the Opera Mini program as the fifth or sixth link.

Programs for Marketplace

At the moment, you can find about seven good twitter clients in the Marketplace, two to three quality programs for reading e-books, a couple of third-party browsers, about 9-10 social media clients, and some really good instant messengers. Third-party video players as well as music players are completely absent as a class. Of course, there are no third-party launchers and keyboards either.

In principle, there are many applications in the market, but really high-quality ones, in my opinion, are about a hundred pieces. They are easy to find in the top paid and free programs, as well as in collections.

Xbox Live

This section contains all the games available in the Marketplace. If you want to see a list of available games in the Marketplace, you will still be transferred to Xbox Live. Conventionally, all games can be divided into two types - "games from Xbox" and "Other". What is the advantage of the former? They support the Xbox achievements system. That is, if you, say, have passed the next level in Sonic, you will receive the corresponding reward. In fact, Xbox Live is the equivalent of Game Center on iOS.

If we talk about the number of games, then there are very few really good, cool toys, probably not even two dozen. At the presentation of Windows Phone 8, several interesting toys from Gameloft and not only were announced, but so far only Cut The Rope has appeared.

PC connection

One of the innovations of the G8 was the ability to connect directly to a computer without intermediary programs like Zune. On the one hand, this is an absolute plus, but on the other hand, you still cannot upload any files to your smartphone. Or rather, you can download them to your phone, but third party programs won't be able to see them. Simple example: popular app Bookviser cannot open books downloaded via PC, you need to use workarounds. Moreover, I will not be able to see the filled books in the folders on the PC, they (these folders) are simply hidden and not displayed.

multitasking

Windows 8 introduces full multitasking. I can easily close the game, send an SMS, read twitter, and then open it again and continue exactly where I left off. View All open programs by long pressing the "Back" button. However, at the moment, not all applications support this multitasking. Developers must update their programs to be compatible with this mode. At the moment, this has been done, at least in Facebook.

Browser

I think many of you have the phrase " Internet Explorer» is associated with a kind of installer for a third-party browser. but mobile version I was pleasantly surprised by this browser, it has a simple, I would even say ascetic design, outwardly it looks like desktop version IE on Windows 8.

Address bar moved to the bottom of the screen, the analogy with desktop IE is also visible here.

The browser supports multiple tabs, Flash banners and animations are visible and playable. There are no problems with watching videos in the same Vkontakte.

Page position indicators are two thin stripes, on the right frame and at the bottom of the screen. From them you can understand in which area of ​​the site you are. This is useful when you have greatly enlarged a page compared to its original resolution and want to move to another area of ​​this page without changing the scale.

The maximum browser zoom is excessive, you can enlarge the page so that one or two words per line will be displayed on the screen. When you change the scale, the size of the pictures does not change.

When you enter an address, auto-selection works, the browser “offers” options from the list of pages you visited.

Unfortunately, there is no auto-fitting of text to the screen size.

If you wish, you can bring your favorite tabs to the desktop.

When editing an existing document or creating a new one, you can choose the font size, type (italic, underline, strikethrough) and color. It also selects a marker color for a word or phrase to make it stand out. There is a rollback button for one or more actions.

The application supports work with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, you can participate in editing and viewing documents on the server without downloading them to your device. There is also a OneNote screen in the Office hub. Here you can create various notes. You can also view PowerPoint presentations using the Office hub.

Melodies and sounds. Here you can configure the notification sound and ringtone (now your own ringtones are also supported, for this you need to upload them to the Ringtones folder), turn on / off the vibration alert, and select actions for which sounds will be turned on.

Themes. The color of the tiles and the background on which they will be placed are selected.

Shared internet. Distribution of mobile internet using Wi-Fi. Open and secure networks are supported.

Touch and Send. Windows Phone 8 introduces NFC support. You can use it in the following way. A number of applications support the "touch and send" function, it can be a contact, an open page in a browser, a document, an image, in general, all applications where, when called context menu there is a line "Submit" and then the field "Touch and send". I can tap Send > Tap and Send in IE on a Lumia 920, then lean it back against the back of another WP8 phone and it will pop up a notification, if I accept it, the phone will load the same page I had on " lumia." The same goes for pictures and other content.

Today, Windows Phones are becoming more and more popular. The latest version of this OS is Windows Phone 10.

According to the developers, users of Windows Phone 8.1 can also get it.

True, so far this possibility is only in the project.

At the moment, the only way to get a phone with the tenth version of the operating system from Microsoft is to buy a device with the OS preinstalled.

Rating of phones with Windows Phone

It would be useful to understand what mobile phones work with Windows Phone. Let's go by popularity rating.

No. 1. Microsoft Lumia 640

Perhaps the most popular model Windows Phone is the Lumia 640.

According to the characteristics, this phone is nothing special - 5-inch screen, 1280x720 resolution (Hd), 8 GB of internal memory, 8 megapixel camera. Supports 3G and dual SIM.

It attracts only with its price - in our area you can buy it for about $ 130 in terms of.

LG Magna H502 with similar characteristics costs about $140.

No. 2. Microsoft Lumia 550 and 650

More recently, the new Lumia 650 entered the market, which has become an improved version of the 550th model.

The screen became larger (5 inches in 650 and 4.7 in 550), the resolution remained unchanged - 1280x720. The camera is also better - 8 megapixels after 5 megapixels, both with autofocus.

The 650th Lumiya has 16 GB of memory, and the 550th has 8 GB. Both phones come pre-installed with Windows Phone 10 and have built-in GLONASS, GPS, and 4G features.

The price of the 550th model is $145, and the 650th is sold for 210 units of US currency.

So far, the hype has not subsided and quite a lot of money is taken for the novelty, but in the future the price will drop significantly.

Despite its short time on the market, Lumia 650 has already won a large number laudatory reviews and, for sure, in the future will be as popular as the 550th model.

Both phones have a standard for this price category battery. I would like more. Microsoft Lumia The 550 has a 2100 mAh battery while the 650 has a 2000 mAh battery.

And this despite the fact that the budget of these two is only the 550th.

What caused the fact that the creators decided to make a less capacious battery remains a mystery.

No. 2. Microsoft Lumia 430

There is support for GPS and GLONASS. The price of a device with such characteristics is quite standard - $ 170.

By the way, there is a stereotype that phones with Windows Phone OS are produced only by Microsoft itself, but then we will consider which phones from other companies come with such an operating system.

Although it is Microsoft that integrates its brainchild into hardware best of all, therefore phones from this company are in the first places in the rating.

At mobile devices from the same Nokia often have problems using Windows Phone.

They concern slow work(hangs), the correct operation of some applications and other minor features.

No. 6. HTC 7 Mozart

HTC is also joining the Windows Phone company. Although so far the British-Taiwanese concern is not very successful.

For $210 we are offered a small (3.7 inches with a resolution of 800x480) smartphone with an 8 megapixel camera and 8 GB of memory without a slot for a memory card.

There is no GLONASS support here, only simple GPS. The battery here is weak and that's putting it mildly - 1300 mAh.

This phone wins only due to good, high-quality work without failures. This device will serve its owners for many years.

But you don't want to pay that kind of money with a live Microsoft Lumia 640 XL.

No. 7. HTC Windows Phone 8

The Taiwanese tried to improve the situation a little by releasing HTC Windows Phone 8 in 2012. It has a slightly larger screen - 4 inches, the resolution remains the same - 800x480.

There is less memory - 4 GB, but there is already a slot for a card. Among the improvements is also the addition of GLONASS.

For some reason, the camera was also made smaller - 5 megapixels, but they worked hard on the battery - 1700 mAh. They also removed the miserable too oval edges and made the device more rectangular.

Now attention: it is sold for $125 (yes, HTC 7 Mozart costs $210).

This begs a lot of questions about HTC's pricing policy. But it's safe to say that the phone is worth the money.

Benefits of Windows Phones

Windows Phone has everything to make the same iPhone and Android devices a thing of the past in the future.

This operating system has the following advantages over others, they are as follows:

• Live Tiles, that is, desktop icons look much better than standard shortcuts in other operating systems.
  They give more opportunity to personalize the mobile phone, because the user can change the size of the "tiles" or customize them the way he wants. In Android, the maximum that can be changed is the splash screen and the theme.

• Multitasking is much more user-friendly. To see all the programs, you need to press the "Back" button, after which a slide show will appear.
  In the same iPhone, you need to scroll between applications and, in order to close one of them, click on a small cross. On large phones this is not a problem, but on a small one it is inconvenient.
• More convenient work with contacts. By clicking on a particular contact, you can see the latest letters and messages, and not general information about a human.
  There is even a full-fledged news feed that collects information from all social networks (shown in Figure 10.a).
• Better integration with social networks, clouds and other services.
  The process of exporting contacts is not difficult - the user has a list of services with which he can integrate (Figure 10.b), and he just needs to click on the one he needs and enter his login with a password. Then the system will do everything itself.

Conclusion! Windows Phones are a great alternative to Android, iOS and other operating systems - you can buy more for less powerful smartphone. Of course, there are drawbacks. For example, this is the integration of the OS on non-Microsoft phones - so far only Nokia's attempt can be considered successful. Still, mobile phones on Windows Phone can and should be bought!

More about features latest version Windows Phone on phones can be found in this video:

Windows 10 for phones overview. Features of Windows 10 for smartphones - experience from FERUMM.COM WP-Port

Phones on Windows Phone - The most popular models

Windows phone is a unique mobile operating system developed and presented by Microsoft specialists. For the first time, the owners were able to communicate with the “tiled” operating system Nokia smartphones. These devices were the first to work under Windows control phone. What awaits a user who decides to purchase one of the modern smartphones on WP?

Overview of the main features of Windows Phone

To fully work with the operating system, you need to bind to it account Outlook, Hotmail or Live to choose from:

The interface of the system is thought out to the smallest detail. Even the lock screen looks very nice and informative as much as possible.

One of unique features of the operating system under consideration is the possibility of complete personalization and uniqueization. The user can customize the desktop in full accordance with their needs. You can set your own background if you wish. home screen. In combination with tiles, it looks very impressive:

Regardless of the resolution and screen size, the user can enable an additional row of icons on the desktop of his device. Three rows allow you to organize working space maximum flexibility and convenience.

New and Familiar Features

First, you need to pay attention to the "Phone" section. Modern smartphones although they combine many different functions, one should not forget about the main purpose of the phone - making calls. By clicking the corresponding button on the desktop, the user will be taken to the calls section:

Calls are conveniently grouped by subscribers, which saves the menu from long lists of identical calls.

Devices on the "eight" received a new player. Instead of a standard application, well known to everyone Windows user Phone, Xbox Music is now installed:

The program is very convenient and more functional than its predecessor. Additional Applications, such as Video, Podcasts and Radio in the new version of the OS became separate. The video player finally has the ability to rewind videos using the slider. You can also customize the display of subtitles.

The user has the ability to configure "Charge Saver", making the battery consumption as rational as possible:

In a convenient and beautiful form, this section lists all applications that consume battery power. This will identify the most "gluttonous" programs and disable them when the battery is low.

The camera app is also beyond praise. If in the "seven" it was low-functional and not particularly convenient, then in the new versions of such complaints do not arise:

The application store allows the user to find the program or game he needs in a matter of seconds. Everything is conveniently sorted into categories and other indicators:

The built-in browser supports all modern features. Possibility of portrait and landscape orientation is available. The browser plays the video without problems if the page is formatted in HTML5:

The developers did not deprive Windows Phone of the ability to work with cloud services data storage. If desired, the user can easily save important data and upload it to the cloud without any problems:

V this review only the main functions of the Windows Phone operating system were considered and the key differences between the new version of the OS and the previous one were given. In fact, the functionality is much richer. VPN support available, smartphone screen sharing function to other devices, improved NFC technology and many other useful things. So Windows Phone is a very interesting operating system with a great future that definitely deserves your attention!