Windows Phone 8.1 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 14, 2014 10:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- windows phone
- Windows Phone 8.1
Word Flow Keyboard with Shape Writing Support
The keyboard in WP8.1 gets a pretty big update with the addition of shape writing support. Similar to Swype, SwiftKey Flow and other systems on Android, instead of tapping individual letters on the Word Flow keyboard you can now trace a path over the same letters to form a word. Instead of tapping out A-N-A-N-D, shape writing allows me to start with my finger on A, trace down and to the right to hit N, trace back to hit A, go down/to the right again to hit N, and then drag my thumb/finger one last time to the left and land on the D key before finally lifting off.
Although new to Windows Phone, shape writing has been around for years on other platforms including Android. The implementation on WP8.1 is excellent however. Shape writing does a great job of leveraging Windows Phone’s predictive text engine. I found that right off the bat I made almost no mistakes while shape writing on WP8.1’s Word Flow keyboard. I could just draw on the screen with my thumb without ever having to look to make sure what I was typing was correct. The only times shape writing didn’t work for me were if I was trying to spell a word that wasn’t yet in the dictionary, or if I was trying to use a contraction that wasn’t immediately obvious (e.g. it’s vs. its). The Word Flow keyboard is extremely quick at adding corrections to its database, so most mistakes happen one time only.
As far as performance goes, I’m still faster at two thumb typing than I am with shape writing. Compared to me typing with a single thumb however, shape writing is substantially quicker. I went through a simple one line typing test several times in all three configurations and recorded my average typing speed on the Nokia Lumia Icon WP8.1 dev preview device:
| Windows Phone 8.1 Word Flow Keyboard Typing Speed | ||||||
| One Handed | One Handed Shape Writing | Two Handed | ||||
| Typing Rate (Higher is Better) | ~41 wpm | ~51 wpm | ~60 wpm | |||
With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft added emoji support to the Word Flow keyboard. In WP8.1, emojis are part of the predictive text engine. If you type a word that has an emoji associate with it, you’ll see the emoji in the suggestion bar. Draw out a word with shape writing and the next suggestion will be the emoji representing that word (if one exists).
Autocorrect suggestions still won’t appear if you’re typing too quickly. If you’re typing above ~45 wpm you won’t see any suggestions. Drop below that point and they’ll populate in the suggestions bar.
Camera UI
The Camera UI in Windows Phone 8.1 sees a significant set of updates. Like Action Center, there are five customizable buttons directly on the camera UI. By default you get access to the camera roll, front facing camera, scenes, lenses and flash settings without first going into the overflow menu. Every single one of those buttons is customizable though.
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There’s a new low resolution (1080p) burst mode that will capture 15 frames and allow you to save all or only the ones that you want. Unsaved frames are automatically deleted after a customizable period of time (7 days by default) or can be removed manually.
The improvements to the camera UI are nice but on devices like Nokia’s Lumia Icon you’re going to be using Nokia’s Camera app instead, making the enhancements more useful on lower end devices.
Calendar
I won’t spend too much time on the updated Calendar app other than to say that the new week view is awesome:
You get a glance at what you’re doing every day of the week, as well as a tiny view of the month as a whole. Swipe to the right to look at next week, and the week after that. Week view in WP8.1’s calendar app is probably one of the most useful things to me personally on any mobile platform. If you’re Apple or a player in the Android space: copy this feature.
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rgba32bit - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
Really like my 8X can't wait for my contract to be up to get the Icon or similar. All the reviews pose the question can windows phone beat android, ios... what os is better or inferior. Like it needs to be black and white. I think it can now be said WP isn't going away and is firmly number 3. Personally android annoys me and just seems counter intuitive and the form factor of the iPhone was a nonstarter for me. I think it can be said at this point all three are good platforms and it will be better for everyone if it's a three horse race. When I got my 8x I almost never saw another wp but now I see many on the train. The only thing that really annoys me are when people make crazy blanket assertions like wp has no apps because it doesn't have this or that and that it doesn't go the other way at all. Some of my favorite apps aren't on android or ios and work much better for ME then their counterparts. In a world of coke and pepsi I think there's room sprite as well.mean_streets - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
I installed the 8.1 dev preview on my Lumia 810, and one of the first things that I noticed when looking at the action center was a "project" to external screen quick action. This seems like a great feature, but I haven't been able to find a word about it in any of the preview articles. I tried plugging in to the USB media connection on two Samsung TV's that we have, but got nothing.BMNify - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
Here are the detailed instructions for using "project to screen" feature on WP 8.1:http://www.wpcentral.com/project-your-windows-phon...
lmcd - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
I *liked* having games tucked away into the Game Hub -- any way to bring that back with a setting?YoshoMasaki - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - link
Not currently. But WP8.1 is far from final and especially the decoupled hub apps are expected to see quick updates over the next few weeks until the RTM.rburnham - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
I have 8.1 on my Lumia 920, and it's a mostly good update.I have some complaints though. The ability to use an image as wallpaper is neat, but the fact that some apps do not have transparent tiles interrupts the uniformity of the OS. Oddly enough, it is mostly Microsoft apps (One Note, Podcasts, Music) that lack transparent tiles.
I like that Microsoft replaced Music+Videos with apps for each type of media. The new Podcast app is a big step up from the limited functionality of Music+Video. I like not having to rely on the Store to get podcasts, and that you can add custom feed URLs. I love that you have the option to stream or download shows. It also seems that the download file size limit has increased, because I am seeing shows being downloaded over cellular that previously required WIFi.
However, the Podcast app is buggy. It crashes regularly, audio cuts out, it forgets that podcasts have already been played and downloads them again, and it doesn't automatically delete files. Once these bugs are ironed out, it will be an excellent podcast app. I have to admit that I was initially sour about the way WP8 handles podcasts when compared WP7, but I have completely changed my opinion with this new app.
Lastly, audio options seem to have changed. Before the update, my phone remembered different volume settings for different Bluetooth devices. In my case, it kept the audio level for my car stereo Bluetooth connection at maximum volume (30), and my Bluetooth headset at half volume (15). Now both devices share the same volume level. I would like to see them go back to how it was before.
Also Bluetooth will occasionally cut out completely when I pause a podcast, requiring me to use the Bluetooth settings to manually reconnect, or I have to reset the phone. To be fair, this was a problem before 8.1, so it just means they have not address the issue yet.
If they can iron out these bugs, that would be great. As is, it's still a really good mobile OS that I have enjoyed since WP7.
Fgne - Saturday, April 26, 2014 - link
I think that the force of WP8 is that it runs still extremely well and fast on a hundred dollars device, something that on android devices is simply fantasy, no comment for ios.whatsa - Sunday, April 27, 2014 - link
Nice to see a fair review from this site...The brightness issue? I have found the auto to be excellent on the 1520
I was outside the other day comparing some offline mapping with some people who were camping
and all three of us could see my screen and map clearly but the Iphone was impossible to read and only if it was 4" from you nose and sheilded from the sun. So we all just discussed it looking at my phone from different angles in the sun.
Is it perfect ...no but there are a lot of basic things it just does better.
But thanks again its good to see anandtech willing to look at WP stuff in a more serious way.
bloonsfreak2 - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Being a Windows Phone user since the beginning (Lumia 800, 900, 920), I have to admit that one of my favorite features was the integration with Facebook and Skype in the messaging hubs. However, for some odd reason, MSFT decided to remove that feature in Windows Phone 8.1 and now messaging is only for texting, even thought the social integration was probably the best part about it and set it apart from its iOS and Android counterparts. Does anyone know why they did this? Is there any particular reason that make me feel better? All of the other features are amazing, but the messaging hub just isn't really a hub anymore.hangfirew8 - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
The Lumia 800 was hardly the beginning of Windows Phone, the 800 debuted at 7.5. There was a lot of wasteland before that. We had a Dash (5/6) years ago, and even that wasn't the beginning.