Looking back at 8 years of “love” of Microsoft and Nokia: Windows Phone is dead but still can leave a valuable legacy

In 2011, Microsoft announced a partnership to produce phones with Nokia and in September 2013 bought Nokia’s mobile division and this was also the end of Nokia’s smartphone market. It was not until HMD acquired the brand that Nokia began to reclaim its foothold.

We will not talk about Nokia under HMD with Android smartphones and “legendary” basic phone models that are constantly being revived, but will talk about the era under the king of Microsoft software.

Windows Phone has a lot of weaknesses, including the lack of applications is the most critical, making the Microsoft platform can not compete with Android and iOS. However, people often remember the weakness of a failed product, not many people remember that for a while, cheap Windows Phones even offered a smoother experience than higher-priced Android smartphones.

“Cheap is mine”

Nowadays, cheap Android phones are basically smooth and feature-rich. However, back to the time of 8 years ago with the Android Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, a cheap phone will surely bring users a lot of frustration. Buying phones that cost $ 100-150 are usually slow devices, have poor storage space.

These include Samsung Galaxy Pocket series, Sony Xperia E1, HTC Desire U, and cheap Alcatel models.

These machines often had performance problems due to the low configuration and the Android operating system at that time was not really good. The company also likes a lot more customization to the original operating system, bringing the heavy on inherently weak equipment. The saying “cheap is mine” is probably quite right for Android at that time.

At that time, one thing many people recognized that, with a cheap phone, Windows Phone products often provide a smoother experience than Android.

Microsoft has made how cheap but still delicious

One big reason Microsoft ‘s platform provides a smoother experience is that it has optimized the Windows Phone operating system and requires manufacturers to meet a minimum hardware requirement. For example, Windows Phone 8 requires a dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

This minimum configuration requirement will help ensure consistent performance on even the cheapest phones. In fact, the rare sign of a cheap Windows Phone is that you’ll often see a “resuming” screen pop up for a few seconds when switching back and forth between apps (though, sometimes This image also fails and freezes), but jerks, lag and other performance issues are rare on this platform.

Besides the mandatory requirements, Microsoft also increased the smoothness of Windows Phone by not allowing manufacturers to significantly modify the interface. The so-called Metro UI has been unified on phones from HTC, Nokia, Samsung and others. There is no TouchWiz, HTC Sense or Timescape UI here.

Redefining cheap products

You just need to look at phones like Lumia 520 to prove the smooth nature of Windows Phone. For about $ 100, you get a dual-core processor, 512 MB RAM, and 8GB expandable storage and a 5 MP rear camera. Not surprisingly, it was considered the most popular Windows product at the time, including the PC and tablet market.

According to Kantar’s market analysis, these low-cost but good phones made Windows Phone more popular than iPhones in Italy in 2013.

However, all that is most optimistic about Windows Phone still cannot save the platform and Microsoft has been left far away. However, it can be said that Microsoft’s mobile platform has contributed to promoting Google to build a better, smoother Android for low-cost, flagship and mid-range phones.

Microsoft’s mobile operating system offers features such as the ability to install apps on a microSD card, support for dual SIM and power saving mode. And these features are all important for low-cost smartphones in emerging markets.

Google only officially provided dual-SIM support in Android 5.1 in March 2015 (though some manufacturers have already made this possible through customizing Android) – about a year after Microsoft added in version 8.1. Google is also slow to provide official battery saver mode for Android, while others like Sony already have it.

Other convenient Windows Phone features later adopted by Google or OEM can include Data Sense to track / save data and Wi-Fi Sense to easily share Wi-Fi passwords with others.

Recently, Google has also focused on addressing performance issues on cheap smartphones with Android Go. This is a lightweight version of Android, but the company made certain requirements – Google said Android Go requires devices to have at least 512 MB of RAM to ensure a good experience, just like what Microsoft used to work with Windows Phone.

In the midst of Google’s efforts and fierce competition from OEMs, cheap Android phones seem to be no less. With devices like Xiaomi’s Redmi, Moto E series, Realme, affordable Nokia brand of HMD, Android One and Android Go, you have to be “unlucky” to buy an Android product “both cheap and rancid” “in 2019.

So take a minute to remember the forgotten Windows Phone, for a time, they have a significant advantage compared to low-cost Android rivals and help us get good devices like today. now on.

Reference: AndroidAuthoroty