STAYING with WinMo

[Oxymoron238]

Originally Posted by SporkLover

While I still carry a WinMo flag, I'm now an Android users..... but you have to admit, it sucks that a WinMo phone just doesn't work great outside of the box. It takes manufacturer UI mods, and user usability tweaks to make it livable. On of my few gripes.

I must be one of the lucky ones. I've NEVER had a stock rom that I was disappointed with. With every winmo phone I've ever owned (the tp2 is my 3rd, following the tp1 and the vogue), I've never hated the stock rom. With the vogue, it took me a year to leave the stock rom. The tp1's stock rom was pretty bad with battery life, but that was because of the lack of the heat sink in the device's hardware, which drained the batter (in other words, no fault of the software).

The TP2's stock rom was amazing too, but I didn't stay with it because, by that time, Mighty had already had a good reputation with me, so I flashed to his rom immediately.

Anyway, I never understood what the other users on this site were talking about when they mentioned the evils of the stock rom. I'll admit that custom roms made it better, but Winmo phones are very far from unusable when it's stock.

And on a side note, even if it didn't work right outside of the box, the fact that you could customize it and turn it into the king of all mobile platforms (in my opinion, that is. Like you say, to each his own =) ) would be enough to make me choose it over the iphone or Android.

[DeMoNFLiP]

I'm not a long time user to WinMobile but so far with the Touch Pro 2 i'm really impressed with it and what i can do with it is endless possibilities. But i'm also one of those people who's going to make that jump to Android when the EVO comes out. I mean c'mon i'm talking about the EVO here lol.

[OMGWTF_BBQ]

I love to hate my Touch Pro 2, but honestly it is my first smartphone. I really don't think I could of chosen a better phone to start with though. Throughout my life I've always been big on Microsoft, back in the old Pocket PC days I use to drool at the idea of having a computer in my pocket. Heck, I never even owned a laptop (netbook) till I went to college back in '08; so a smartphone was a large step up for me.
With that in mind, I do have a bit of a negative bias for Windows Mobile because it is my only mobile OS platform that I've ever rigorously used. My experiences with WinMo was mostly positive, until I upgraded to 6.5.

I was running the stock Sprint 6.1 since I got the phone back in October '09. When I did end up getting my long over due 6.5 upgrade my phone decided to totally lock up while I was away on vacation. So I pretty much spent 3 days on the road with a bricked Touch Pro 2. When I did get back and had internet to download the upgrade, my problems began to start. Lag everywhere, constantly Manila freezing and crashing. Windows Mobile itself even continually seized up on me. When I exited text messages my phone would freeze, which I later found was because I was storing 2000+ texts. Which was disappointing to me because I enjoyed the fact that I could mass such messages. Now I can't let it get over 20+ threads before I experience issues. On top of that my phone keeps freezing with my screen off, my only option being to pull out the battery and restart the device. Which sucks when I'm texting, e-mailing, or constantly turning my phone's screen on and off. It's a total inconvenience that I'm sick of dealing with!

Edit: I was just reading this thread here on the stock Sprint RAM usage and people noting that the amount of RAM used makes Windows Mobile become unstable. Is that true? Also, I have used SPB mobile shell and while I was impressed I ended up missing Sense way too much to change. I hate the lack of a designated media player built into the shell. Yeah, I could substitute an app or even use Windows Media Player but I like Sense's media player too much.

I still have yet to mess with flashing a ROM as the people both at the Sprint store and CES 2010 told me NOT to flash my phone. I remember discussing flashing ROMs with a Microsoft employee who was sporting an HD2 before they were even released here in the US and he about wanted to smack me for suggesting such a thing. I kind of feel like I am missing out, but I've been too worried to attempt it.

So while I do love my phone and wouldn't trade it for any other phone out there on the market, the Evo seems to be calling me. Why? Yes, it maybe lacking my favorite feature of the TP2, the best mobile phone keyboard to-date. But another HTC device with 720p video, 8mp camera, 4G and the almighty 1GHz processor with a 4.3in screen is almost too much to pass up.

While all of that is nice and all, you want to know what my biggest seller is? Android? Not because, "OH MAI GAWD APPS" (I hate apps). But because it freaking works! I'm sick of constantly having to mess with my phone to fix problems then hard reset or uninstall a bunch of crap just to get it working again. I'll spend 5 minutes customizing my phone and another 3 hours fixing it. I can't take it anymore, I just want it to work! I'm too busy to keep dealing with software failures and a massive lack of updates from both Sprint and HTC. I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'll never see 6.5.3 and god forbid 6.5.5. It's just dumb seeing as other than the HD2 we are pretty much the leading WinMo device and out there and we still aren't running 6.5.3 officially.
I just read a study today that 1/3 of the Android market is running 2.1, so why is it that Microsoft, HTC and our carrier can't provide us with a 6.5.3 ROM?

I'm speaking all out of my own knowledge, please, correct me if I'm wrong.

- 1. Should I really be that worried about flashing to other ROMs? I would end up voiding my $5 a month insurance plan by doing so. I feel kind of stupid by asking this, but I've done my fair share of research and found no evidence of this; so I can only guess that it cannot be done. But can I Un-Unlock my phone? As in reinstall my Stock Sprint 6.5 ROM and never have Sprint notice I've done it?

- 2. Will I ever see a 6.5.3 update from Sprint, although I'm pretty much preaching to the choir by asking that here. Your guess is probably as good as mine with this one.

- 3. Is Android going to have the same problems that Windows Mobile has? The bugs, the crashing, the incompatibilities? Android seems to provide most of what Windows Mobile has to offer in what looks to be a stabler platform. I just want my phone to work for me, not me have to work for it.

Let me put it to you this way. I went to see a movie with a bunch of Microsoft fan boys on Friday. While waiting for the movie to start an ad for The Kin came up and told everyone there the pros and cons about the platform. Discussing how it's like a 'smart' dumbphone. I concluded my talk with, "I %^#&ing hate Microsoft". They all turned to me with a "What are you talking about!?" look on their face, as if I had just killed their first born or something. I responded with, "I have a Windows Mobile phone" and they all just understood and went back to their iPhones. I mean REALLY!?

Don't get me wrong, I love my Touch Pro 2. The only way I could love it more is if it had a Snapdragon and more RAM. For now, it makes due and I don't regret my purchase what so ever. I wouldn't trade it for any other phone out on the market as we speak. No Droid, no Nexus One, god forbid an iPhone and not even an HD2.

From a Windows Mobile user browsing PPC and XDA on an iMac in Google Chrome, why should I stay with WinMo 6.5?

[QMeli907]

Originally Posted by OMGWTF_BBQ

I just want my phone to work for me, not me have to work for it.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Touch Pro 2. The only way I could love it more is if it had a Snapdragon and more RAM. For now, it makes due and I don't regret my purchase what so ever.

That was a long read. I like these two points This,

I just want my phone to work for me, not me have to work for it.

..should be another companies slogan

[ponicg]

Not to stir the poo pot again ... but shrug. Flashing your phone does not void the warranty. Just like installing Ubuntu on your Win7 Dell Laptop doesn't void the warranty. If you're THAT worried about your warranty and your phone has to go back to Sprint, reflash it to stock.

Now, that isn't to say that Sprint has to warranty the non-stock software you've installed, either. Their response to "omg i flashed my phone now it sucks" could be "well we can restore it to how it came from us if you want" or "oh well that sucks for you". Either way, if your screen backlight dies or the internals(CPU RAM etc) die, chances are you'll be covered without a fight - and if they DID put up a fight, they'd lose any court case, because they'd have to prove that the new software killed the hardware. See: Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act.

I agree w/OMG_WTF_BBQ though - I'm going over to the EVO, not because of "OMG APPS" but because I want a phone I don't have to beat into submission to make it work.

[Dr.8820]

Originally Posted by QMeli907

That was a long read. I like these two points This,

I just want my phone to work for me, not me have to work for it.

..should be another companies slogan

i used to feel just like that lol, but once you start tweaking and modding, you get addicted! and thanks for the short version of that post .