One day, 22 years ago as I type, the girlfriend I had right before Lea decided she was going to move to Nashville.
Well, I didn’t want to move to Nashville, and though I didn’t steer us there as gracefully as I might have, we had already figured out we weren’t going to be together long-term. So, no long-distance relationship. But, it was pleasant enough to continue hanging out until she moved, so we did.
That’s kind of where I am today with Windows Phone. I like you, Windows Phone, but I know you’re not The One.
I dropped my beloved Lumia 830 two weeks ago, face-down on asphalt, from about five feet. Gorilla Glass is many things, but elastic is not one of them. It was the first phone screen I’ve ever broken.
The Lumia 640 is not quite as trick—no dedicated camera button, plastic case instead of metal, stuff like that—but functionally it’s pretty close. It has the same screen size and resolution, same processor, same RAM, and so forth. It’s also sold as a pay-as-you-go for $29.99—a slam-dunk answer to my problem.
After a false start with an Amazon merchant who didn’t validate the phone before shipment (so I had to send it back), I uneventfully moved into my box store-purchased 640 this weekend. It’s fine.
Or, it was, until I decided to take it to Windows 10 Mobile last night. Everything went smoothly, except that when it came back up, I had no calendar and no contacts. No amount of reentering account information, resynchronizing, or anything else would bring them back. Binged it and found a couple of links that said, essentially, “uh, yeah, that happens sometimes.”
Well, I’ve had enough. I’ve defended/justified the pitiful app store because I like how the phone works so much, but this has broken my back. It’s been my experience over the past three or so years with Windows phones that these glitches are infrequent, but they’re never small.
Plus, Microsoft’s long-term phone strategy is anyone’s guess. There are rumors of Surface phones in 2017, but I’m tired of that kind of sweet talk, too. I was supposed to be able to go to Windows 10 Mobile uneventfully on my 830 by the end of last year. Nope. Also, my boys’ phones were going to be upgradeable to Windows 10 Mobile. Now? Nope.
I’m fine for the moment, but I’m now certain there is a jump to Android in my future.
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