Which is better: Windows or Android? Integration with a desktop computer.

Windows 10 Mobile is the version of Windows 10 designed for mobile devices with a screen diagonal of up to nine inches. Its main feature: synchronization with the desktop version of Windows, launching new "universal" applications, as well as the ability to connect devices to an external display and use the smartphone as a PC with mouse and keyboard support

A little background

The first version of the OS was released in December 2015. Windows 10 Mobile was a "glimmer of hope" for all Windows Phone owners. With an exit new version mobile OS, Microsoft began to "shower" users with promises to which many were "led" (including the author of this article).

I am the owner of Microsoft Lumia 535 with Windows 10 Mobile preinstalled (have been using the device for 3 years). During use, I have formed a definite opinion about the smartphone and the OS in general, so I decided to tell the readers about the relevance of this platform today.

My first impressions of the acquired smartphone are not entirely objective and a little naive:

For comparison and understanding of the issue, you can imagine any device of 2015 on iOS and Android, and this is one generation with Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Google Nexus 5X and 6P, Samsung Galaxy S6. And most likely such smartphones are still quite functional (questions can only be about the battery, but they are solved by replacing the battery with a new one). What happens to a typical Windows 10 Mobile smartphone in 2015?

Device support

The first disappointment that Windows 10 Mobile has brought is not all devices support. The minimum system requirements were as follows: 1 GB of RAM, a screen resolution of 960 × 540 pixels or higher, the presence of a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor: 208, 210, 615, 617, 625, 808, 810, 820 or 835. This meant that budget Lumia with 512 GB of RAM could not get an official update (although some users managed to somehow change the data on the smartphone and install updates).

Windows App Store

The Windows app store is a complete disappointment and the situation has not changed in any way from 2015 to the present day: there are sorely lack of apps and games. The existing ones are not updated by the developers, and the new ones are simply not made by anyone.

The store is full of all sorts of "slag" that is not moderated in any way. There are paid applications, the purchase of which is pointless. Apps from Microsoft and hits of 2015-2016 for Android hang in the tops of the store.

At the moment, applications show the ability to update, but refuse to update (eternal loading hangs), although this problem may be related specifically to my Microsoft Lumia 535 smartphone.

Beginning of work

Getting started with a smartphone is hell. On Android and iOS, the user registers one account, which applies to all devices. Microsoft has decided to "stand out from the crowd" and invites owners of their devices to register two Outlook accounts and one Xbox, all in order to be able to download and install any applications and games from the Windows store. "What are two Outlook accounts for?" - you ask. And I will answer: “For the Microsoft family”. One is "parent" and is tied to a PC, the second is "child" and is intended for a smartphone, a kind of "innovation" in the field of synchronizing a PC with a smartphone and.

OS shell

The interface is nice and minimalistic. Whatever one may say, but here Microsoft did not go wrong with its tiled design. On the main screen, you can display any installed applications and some of them support displaying additional information. The second screen contains a list of a bunch of applications that are not convenient to use at first, but later you get used to it. There is also an alphabetical search, which is a good solution for this shell, but in my case, after the next firmware update, the Russian font “broke” (see the last screenshot).

Firmware upgrade

At the moment, this process hangs at 1% load, as a result of which the device is not updated. Particularly funny is the description of all the updates for Windows 10 Mobile, with which "your device will work even better."

Using your smartphone while charging

This is one of the many factors that will make users lose a lot of nerves. The bottom line is that when charging a smartphone, it cannot be used. The screen begins to live its own life, one touch turns into three, a swipe down opens a bunch of applications (the problem may be related to a certain model or batch of smartphones, but that doesn't make it any easier for me).

Compatible with other accessories

In the days of smartwatches, fitness trackers, and additional plug-ins that can be used seamlessly with smartphones on iOS and Android, this problem is more urgent than ever. There are a limited number of smartwatches that support Windows 10 Mobile: Fitbit Surge, Agent Smart Watch, i'm Watch (all discontinued).

Today, no smartwatch manufacturer supports Windows 10 Mobile. On the Internet, you can find official fitness trackers from Microsoft: Microsoft Band and Microsoft Band 2, which are also discontinued and are not supported by the company. But they should work with smartphones on Windows. The choice, as you can see, is not great ...

VPN

A very useful feature these days. Especially relevant for Ukraine and Russia. There are free applications that allow you to use VPN on Windows 10 Mobile, but they are completely inoperable. All that remains are apps that offer VPN services for a monthly subscription of $ 20 or more.

Browsers and popular applications

The story about all kinds of applications is not over yet. WP10 browsers are a sore point. Of the normally working, there are only two: Microsoft Edge and UC Browser. Unfortunately, they don't have enough functionality in modern browsers. Surfing web pages occurs with freezes and freezes. There are very few applications from Google: Maps, YouTube, Google play Music and so on.

It is also worth mentioning popular applications. Messengers, they are present in the Microsoft store and almost everything, but updates from developers are received extremely rarely and not always on time, or even do not receive them at all.

A sore point is bank clients, which for the most part do not exist or are, but unofficial, from third-party developers. Whether it is worth trusting such decisions with your bank data is a rhetorical question.

In general, the store lacks many official applications of stores, operators, websites. There is a sensitive dearth of photo editors and games. As for audio and video players, the standard ones are enough. Readers can be found without problems, although they, for the most part, will be analogs of Android applications.

P.S. Fortunately, in the middle of last year, the Steam client was released for Windows 10 Mobile, if you know what I mean, fellow pirates.

Pre-installed apps

At the initial purchase of a smartphone, the user is greeted with a number of useful programs from Microsoft: Food, Health and Fitness, Maps, camera applications, Weather, Mail, Sports, News, Word, OneDrive, and so on. It would seem that at least these applications can be used without problems? But not everything is as rosy as we would like ...

Separately, it is worth talking about the Office software package. They are really made with high quality and convenient, but after a year they require the purchase of a paid subscription. The maps are also well done, but only relevant for Europe.

Gameloft Hub is the official application of the game developer (I could not disregard this application). It contains 5 games from Gameloft, which are ports with java. And everything is either donated or paid. It is not clear what Microsoft was guided by when creating and integrating this application into new (once) smartphones.

Gameplay screenshots speak for themselves - this is some kind of wild old stuff:

One-handed mode

Functionality that the developers have added in later versions of Windows 10 Mobile. Perhaps a useful feature for the flagship Lumia with a large screen diagonal. On the Microsoft Lumia 535 it is implemented “crookedly”. The developers made sure that the user was able to scroll only half of the screen, but the content in this mode is not always displayed correctly.

Eventually

The author does not recommend taking smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. Even if it seems to you that the hardware is quite good, and the price is tempting. Better turn your attention to Android devices for a similar cost. They may not be so cool at first glance, but at least you can use all popular services on them without problems and wasted nerves.

Smartphones "small soft", in our time, can only perform the functions of dialers and media players. I am especially sorry for the users who purchased the flagships from Microsoft. Yes, they got the opportunity to use a smartphone as a PC using a docking station, but the abandoned proprietary OS will make them regret such an acquisition more than once.

Despite Microsoft's best efforts, Windows 8.1 never became as popular as the company hoped. Probably, not least of all, this was influenced by the complexity of the task set by the software giant - Windows 8.1 is designed to work on computing systems of various form factors, not only on tablets. This circumstance, in particular, was associated with complaints from some users about the rapid discharge of the battery in Surface 2, but it should be noted that the company was able to quickly eliminate this shortcoming with the updated firmware. At the same time, according to James Kendrick of ZDNet, Microsoft's new OS has a number of advantages over one of its main competitors - Android.

Snap View mode. This is the multitasking mode in Windows 8.1, with which the user can run up to four applications at the same time on one screen. Each application has a minimum width and it can be adjusted based on the size of the screen. Android does not allow working on the same screen with several programs, which forced some manufacturers to modify the OS interface. For example, Samsung succeeded in this - the company added the Multi-View function, but it works only on some models of the Galaxy series tablets, moreover, it is limited to a few applications. Note that Multi-View supports portrait mode, while Snap View can only work in landscape orientation.

Updates. Android has become in many ways attractive to customers due to its undemanding system resources and a large number of applications. But it has one significant drawback - fragmentation: updates to the latest Android versions receive exclusively devices of the Nexus line, updating other devices, even top-end ones, depends on the manufacturer's whim. To make matters worse, Android tablet owners are not getting more than Android updates, with which you can still live with, but also security patches. Owners of Windows 8 devices do not have these inconveniences by receiving updates as they are released.

Improving user experience. Android appeared before Windows 8, but the user experience, or, in other words, the skills that owners acquire with each new OS update, if they have changed, are not very significant. At the same time, with the Windows 8.1 update, Microsft has demonstrated that it is able to quickly respond to user needs, fixing some serious shortcomings in the original version of Windows 8, and the company is certainly preparing major changes for the upcoming Windows 9. It is possible that they will affect system interface.

Electronics maker Apple deliberately instigated a war over the future of computers when it unveiled the first iPad. This tablet strikes a comfortable balance between ease of use, screen real estate and portability. It wasn't long before Google and Microsoft recognized the importance of tablets.

For its part, Microsoft decided to investigate a new category before placing a bet. Google responded to the iPad threat fairly quickly by releasing its Android Honeycomb operating system to run on third-party tablets. It took a while before Microsoft realized its mistake with the tablet category. The company has changed course on all fronts by bringing its own Surface series of tablets to the world, as well as bringing Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to tablets. New Surface tablets, as well as tablets from other manufacturers, are powered by, which offers a unified Microsoft vision of operating systems for laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

Windows 10 tablet:

Some people say that Windows 10 tablets and Android tablets are no different, they say they do the same thing in the long run. These people are wrong; Google and Microsoft have a completely different view of tablets and their capabilities, so you need to understand the difference before deciding which tablet you really want to buy.

Windows 10: Differences

The differences between Microsoft's and Google's approach to tablets are immediately apparent by simply looking at the devices that are available on store shelves. Fearing Apple's dominance in the high-end zone, Microsoft has turned its energies into high-end tablets. In addition to the expensive segment, Microsoft and its partners are betting on universal devices, believing that the user wants one device that can do everything.

Android tablet: Google Pixel C.

Google takes a slightly different approach with Android. There are over a thousand different Android tablets out there, most of which are official and some are not. There are small tablets with 7-inch panels for users who only want to watch movies and read books. There are tablets with punchy performance in the Android ecosystem. For example, a tablet demonstrates high performance indicators.

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The quality of an Android tablet you get is only limited by the amount of money you are willing to spend to buy it. The open nature of Android and the constant need for hardware manufacturers to create the best processors for their tablets have made Android show brute force. For example, the latter runs on an 8-core processor, which means there is practically nothing that this tablet cannot do. It also uses a stunning resolution AMOLED display. This is an incredible technology with very deep blacks and vibrant other colors. 8-inch Galaxy Tab S2 entered the market with a price tag of 32,000 rubles.

Android tablet:

The rapid development of new designs is dictated by the fact that Android tablet manufacturers often take risky decisions, unlike other hardware manufacturers. The Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro, for example, offers users a 10.1-inch display and built-in projector for just $ 449 (RUR 32,000). More recently, we reviewed the latest Lenovo tablet and ranked it among the best tablets for content consumption running Android.

Android tablets can be very, very cheap. For comparison, Lenovo tablet Tab 2 A7 costs about 6,000 rubles. It is powered by a 4-core processor and offers a 7-inch display. Android tablets come in a wide variety of colors, sizes, prices, and experience. Each supports Wi-Fi, some support mobile plans for always-on connectivity, 3G and 4G.

Windows tablets, of course, also have some variety, but the number of offers from hardware manufacturers simply cannot be compared to Android. Instead, most Windows 10 tablets are focused on consumption and content creation. And you won't be able to fully achieve the same from an Android tablet by simply connecting a mouse and keyboard, they simply cannot provide the experience of Windows 10 and tablets on this operating system.

Windows 10 tablet: HP Pavilion X2.

Windows 10 tablet: Microsoft Surface 3.

Android tablets have the best features you can find and entertainment apps in myriad numbers, but they're still marketed as companions to other devices. Microsoft is willing to bet that you want to integrate your main computer into a tablet. Again, your choice depends on your operating system preference.

Android tablets vs tablets onWindows 10: Software

The hardware advantages of each platform are closely tied to their software.

Designed for work and play, Windows 10 on tablets uses a number of hardware gimmicks to try to find the right balance between effortlessly consuming media content as well as working with Word, PowerPoint, and presentations. You may have heard that Windows 8 did not hear about balance. You heard it right.

Windows 10 uses other tricks to make the transition from laptops or competing iPads easier. Plugging or unplugging the keyboard changes the system modes. When tablet mode is active, apps fill the entire screen and the onscreen controls get larger. Pressing the Start button will take you to a full screen menu, complete with auto-updating tiles. When tablet mode is off, the Start screen becomes the Start menu, and applications can be launched using the mouse and keyboard. Again, Windows Store apps work side-by-side.

Windows users can run two apps simultaneously on the screen in tablet mode, which Android is still working on. There is also multi-user support. Microsoft has also effectively addressed mouse, keyboard, stylus, and sensor support issues.

Android on tablets

Android is a purely touch-based operating system. This is fine as most users want to interact with tablets for media consumption. Only the right size plays a role.

Several Android hardware partners have made changes to the operating system, offering things like the ability to run two apps at the same time. This is not the most universal solution, however, as the applications available in this mode of operation are quite limited. Android also offers multiple user accounts, so you can share games and apps with your child or spouse without a lot of setup. You get access to a huge number of apps as the Android store offers thousands of apps. Windows is still catching up. We must also mention that all programs purchased for tablets and smartphones are available on both devices. Windows 10 offers a similar solution, but few people have Windows Phone.

To make your choice easier, you can think of Android tablets as very large smartphones. They also offer simple tasks and switching between them. Read, watch and listen, these are the most popular activities for Android tablets. Content creation is better implemented on Windows 10 tablets.

Security is becoming an issue for Windows 10 tablets and Android tablets. In recent years, app developers have been targeting Google Play to deliver malware, just as they attacked Internet Explorer on Windows last year. Most tablet manufacturers include software on their devices, designed to scan and catch malware. Windows remains a target for hackers, but the situation is less critical. Microsoft includes its own Windows 10 security software, Windows Defender, completely free.

Android tablets vs tablets onWindows 10: What to Buy?

Whether to buy an Android tablet or a Windows 10 tablet depends on your needs. Some do not need, because they are not going, to connect a mouse or keyboard to their devices. Android makes sense when users prefer a clean tablet experience.

For those looking to reduce the number of devices they use at home and keep their workplace clean, Windows 10 tablets are a good plan. Windows tablets offer desktop features and full-sized USB ports that you simply won't find on Android. Better yet, they boast mouse support, which most users won't appreciate until they try to change the formatting in the document. As with a laptop or computer, you have to decide what you want from your tablet and then make a decision.

Prevalence and choice

The most common mobile operating system today is Android. This mobile operating system from Google has conquered the market, being installed on 75% of the world's gadgets. Windows Mobile, the brainchild of Microsoft, flaunts only 12% of gadgets. And it's not just that the system is more popular, Android is installed on most new smartphones released. All new models that have Windows Mobile on board - you can memorize by heart, when - you can't count them.

To choose a smartphone on Android, you will have at least two dozen options, in the case of Windows - no more than 10.

The main distributor of Windows Mobile is Nokia, which is also owned by Microsoft. Other manufacturing firms produce models with "windows" as a variety, concentrating their production on the "green robot".

Availability

Those Windows smartphones that are on sale today, by price, are in the same niche with similar TOP Android models. We are talking about ordinary smartphones of the middle segment.

If we take into account the cheap Chinese products of gadgets, which in the overwhelming number have a pre-installed Android, then they are several times cheaper than smartphones based on Windows, but the quality of the former is significantly inferior.

Number of applications

The Windows Store contains about 125 thousand applications, for Russians from this list only 105 thousand are available. But in the application store for Android - Google Play, 700 thousand applications are available. Therefore, if you are an amateur or plan to install a large number of applications: programs and games, then on Google Play they are offered for every taste, and in the Windows Store their choice is very limited.

Most applications: various services, sites, networks, TV and radio companies and games are developed for Google Play and the AppStore (iOS store), but many of them do not have versions for the Windows Store. The more applications you can install, the livelier and more interesting your smartphone will be.

Convenience

Convenience is a subjective factor, so the site's journalists will share their personal impressions of these two mobile operating systems.

Mobile is outrageously simple, the desktop is represented by tiles, each of which is a shortcut to an application. A few minutes will be enough for adaptation in the system. As for the Android mobile OS, it looks more like a computer that is familiar to us. Windows version, with a regular desktop and application icons. This is not to say that Android is difficult - no, but it will take a little more time to master it than to “tiles”.

Again, the more you can install a variety of applications, the easier it will be for you to work with the gadget. And Android has a lot of such applications in its arsenal. Android is flexible enough that you can do almost anything you want with it.

Windows is closed source, so this mobile OS is not suitable for active users. But those who prioritize security and protection should choose Windows.

Android is also convenient because a large number of sites and forums are dedicated to this mobile system, which have answers to all questions of beginners, as well as manuals for eliminating problems with the system and the operation of devices.

Stability

The stability of the mobile OS is a very relative concept. It all depends on how you will use your gadget: if both are stable for calls and SMS, if you actively use it, an unexpected "bug" can come out for both, although to a greater extent for Android.

Nevertheless, due to its popularity, Android has a big drawback - vulnerability to viruses. Many viruses and spyware have already been written for this mobile OS, and anyone can catch one of them quite easily. For the most part, such malicious programs do not bring much harm, however, acquire antivirus program still have to. Due to closed source viruses in Windows Background- No.

Which is better?

Summing up all of the above, the conclusion is unambiguous - Android is better than Windows, gaining a confident advantage in the race.

The "Window System" is suitable for those smartphone users who love simplicity, and their main tasks are: calls and SMS, Internet access, reading news and weather forecasts, and the ability to install a couple of applications. The Green Robot is suitable for active users who want to get the most out of their smartphone.

You can visually compare the work of smartphones of both mobile operating systems: Android L and Windows Phone 8.1 by watching the video below.

This post is a personal opinion and experience of using Preview builds of Windows 10 Mobile from a site user.

Many regular readers in one way or another thought (and some decided) about switching to the preview version. I myself was a tester of three assemblies, and this article is intended to tell you about the unobvious and not immediately noticeable details of the new system, which for some may turn out to be critical.

This material is primarily intended for those who are not sure whether they should become an insider and test new builds themselves and send bug reports.

I have tested the system only on Microsoft Lumia 532, and in this material I will reflect only those aspects that do not depend on the device. There is a chance that some items will disappear in build 10525, but from experience this is far from a fact.

pros:

1. Notification center.

This is the main advantage of the new system. This is access to an extended list of radio buttons, removal of individual notifications, the ability to respond in notifications. I believe that this is how it should have looked since Windows phone 8.1. It remains to make it translucent as in the table top ten.

2. Start screen.

The appearance of the desktop and the list of applications also deserves praise and the question "Why not do this right away?" appearance was on desktop Windows 8.1. It seems that this change is insignificant, but only at first glance - it was the same with the picture over the tiles in Windows phone 8.1.

3. Joystick on the keyboard.

A very cool alternative to moving the cursor using a magnifying glass on apple devices, which is one of the most convenient.

A feature that is sorely lacking in 8.1 when restoring from a backup. And the rest is a very competent approach to the implementation of the function. I would also like to see the download speed - sometimes it is useful.

5. New system applications.

I want to note right away that this does not apply to all applications, and not to the full. This plus is at the intersection of new features and new bugs. This includes new office applications, mail and calendar, music, calculator, alarms and clocks, and especially a new browser. New applications for the phone, messages and contacts are called advantages, alas, the language does not turn out to be.

Minuses:

1. Scaling bugs.

Under this concept, I combine incomprehensible hyphenation of text in the store, very large or, on the contrary, very small interface elements, etc. It looks disgusting from all points of view. I really hope this is just a bug, not a feature.

2. Bug in the notification curtain.

Perhaps I'm picking on, but some of the additional icons cling to the gaze very much when the curtain is lowered, which then disappear. If this is done in order to show that they are there, then why the button "Expand"?

3. Keyboard bugs.

These are probably the most annoying bugs in the system. When typing text manually, instead of some letters, neighboring letters can be entered, and only with a certain sequence, i.e. in other cases, the letter is active; autocorrect often works incorrectly and often suggests words with a capital letter in the middle of a sentence. Personally, I am "tired" of changing "On" to "not" and vice versa; the keyboard itself is less than 8.1, possibly due to the same scale issues.

4. Incorrect background work of applications.

Everything here is very bad for those who are not advanced. If you do not correctly configure the background work of applications, then when the battery saver is on, you, for example, may not hear the alarm in the morning. In other words, what was protected from crooked hands can now end up in them. And even turning off the seemingly background work of applications, some of them can send push notifications.

5. New multitasking menu.

In the multitasking menu, compared to 8.1, the animation of closing applications is very slow. Combined with the absence of a "close all" button, this is a bit depressing. Also, when you open this menu in a horizontal orientation, you will only be able to close applications in it and do not rotate vertically.

6. Lock screen bug.

The screen after unlocking may not light up or light up immediately, while the date and time appear with a delay.

Many lament about the lack of Russian Cortana, but not many know that there is a fairly convenient voice control in Windows phone 8.1, which greatly simplifies the life of headset users. And this insanely useful feature has simply disappeared in Windows 10 Mobile.

8. Corrupted implementation of work with two SIM-cards.

In Windows phone 8.1, it is insanely convenient to work with two "sim cards". Thanks to switches and different color indications, it is simply impossible to confuse where you are making a call and where the SMS came from. In the mobile top ten it is done clumsily and absolutely not intuitively. Again, a nod to phone apps, messages and contacts.

In addition to what I have listed, there are other strong and problem areas of the new system, but I described only those that forced the rollback to the stable version of the system. There are also crashes and reboots, the battery eats as if not into itself. Perhaps the expense is associated with my device, but the very fact of working 3-4 times less from one charge makes you at least think about the advisability of being an insider.

Some of the points may seem like little things, but as Windows phone users, we are well aware that a positive user experience is all about little things.

The rejection of old solutions that worked well in favor of new ones, in theory more convenient, involuntarily brings back memories of the times of Windows Phone 7.5 and the wonderful Zune program, which has sunk into oblivion along with intelligent synchronization (including Wi-Fi) and the ability update your phone and download applications via your computer. And all for the sake of convenience of the mass-storage format and updates over the air. In the end, it was possible to leave both options for interaction.

Write in the comments what you fell in love with or what you were upset about in Windows 10 Mobile, as well as your comments and suggestions on the content of the article.