Microsoft finally released the WINDOWS 10 technical preview for phones after so many teases, leaks, rumours and a slight showcase of it at the event held by Microsoft on 21st of January. Windows phone users including developers, internals and also the normal public has been waiting for it eagerly.Talking about the preview, lemme call it the TECHNICAL PREVIEW, isn’t at all complicated in terms of installation, but, what about the usability? Despite Microsoft’s various warnings and bug reports, being a fan of Windows Phones I decided to install it on my phone. The results? This first build of windows 10 for phones basically includes some UI improvements and a set of features and some System app updates. The performance cannot be judged as it is not yet advisable to run it on your primary device or so called daily driver. Although, there isn’t any major issue with the build. It runs pretty fine. Lets focus on the changes in the phone for now.
UI changes
The keyboard has also got a few new things.
The pointer now makes it easier to move the cursor in between alphabets precisely. You just have to simply drag the small dot on the bottom right corner of ‘Z’ alphabet to move the cursor.Now you can access emoticons by holding the number pad toggle. They have also added a speech to text option in the word prediction bar above the keyboard. It is pretty precise in catching words and even the punctuations are automatically added.
The new system apps
The new update also brings updated and redesigned system apps.
Alarms-
Calculator-
The new calculator is pretty cool and has a whole lot of things. Various functions have been added to the main screen along with the simple numbers and symbols. Tapping the hamburger icon on the top left leads you to a more specific list which not only includes 3 different types of calculators but also has an inbuilt converter.
Cortana-
Cortana now has a PC like UI. One disappointment is that it only supports US English for now.
File Explorer-
Yes! Now the phone has an inbuilt file explorer with many features and easy pretty satisfying.
Phone-
The new phone app now has a new look and a new dial pad too. Though no T9 name prediction is added yet which is a must.
Photos-
Sound Recorder-
Yes a new, simple and beautiful sound recorder has been added in windows 10. You can also share, delete or rename the recordings from the app itself.
A windows feedback app has also been added which is a simple way to report bugs and talk to Microsoft about the problems in the OS. Many of the things suggested in the feedback were added to the Windows 10 builds for PC. Hope the same goes with the phone.
BUGS-
With these great improvements comes a bag full of bugs. Have a look at these as it may concern you if you’re going to install the preview.
[post_ad] This list of bugs is taken from the official site (blogs.windows.com). The bugs vary from device to device and not all have been listed here. (For example, due to some issue you cannot set a background wallpaper on the Lumia 730, A weird accent colored blank screen appears while
opening apps.) These Bugs will surely be fixed in the upcoming updates and there will be a lot of
improvements and changes taking place. Again, this is just a technical preview and is not appropriate for your primary phone.
Please note only devices listed below are compatible for this first roll of build-
1. Nokia Lumia 630
2. Nokia Lumia 635
3. Nokia Lumia 636
4. Nokia Lumia 638
5. Nokia Lumia 730/735
6. Nokia Lumia 830
UI changes
As you can see, the concept of tiles in windows phones remains the same. The wallpaper can now be set in the background of the tiles where there was just plain black/white color before. Setting this wallpaper also makes the tiles translucent which, looks nice and neat. Moving to the app list, the app list has a kind of a black or white tinted translucent background through which the wallpaper is visible. Though if you don’t like this wallpaper thingy you can remove the wallpaper by going into settings> personalization> background and tap on the remove background option.
The action centre now behaves a bit differently. Instead of the limitation of just 4 quick toggles, you can now tap ‘expand’ to get the whole list of toggles right there in the action centre. This pretty much makes it easy to reach that stuff for which, you, previously had to go to their individual pages in settings. Every single notification from an individual app can be swiped of now. You can also interact with the notifications from banners that show up when you receive it. This makes replying to messages much snappier. Though this feature is not available for each and every app as the apps are not yet updated for Windows 10. For example you cannot reply to a messages on WhatsApp by this.
The keyboard has also got a few new things.
The new system apps
The new update also brings updated and redesigned system apps.
Alarms-
The new alarms now can do a whole lot of things. It just doesn’t let you set alarms but also now include 3 new sections apart from alarms.World clock displays time from around the world as well as your local time. The Timer lets you set timers for reminders, etc.The third section is a stop watch.All of these have a simple and modern design and are easy to use. You can also pin the stop watch and timer individually to the start screen for directly accessing them.
Calculator-
The new calculator is pretty cool and has a whole lot of things. Various functions have been added to the main screen along with the simple numbers and symbols. Tapping the hamburger icon on the top left leads you to a more specific list which not only includes 3 different types of calculators but also has an inbuilt converter.
Cortana-
File Explorer-
Phone-
The new phone app now has a new look and a new dial pad too. Though no T9 name prediction is added yet which is a must.
Photos-
The photos app is totally new and has a clean layout. Some features are not yet available in the app.
Settings-
The settings menu has also been massively changed in terms of looks and also it is now more organized than before. The icons seem a bit different from the overall icon scheme in windows phones, though, it doesn’t make that of a difference as Microsoft will continuously be changing UI elements in the future technical preview updates.
Sound Recorder-
A windows feedback app has also been added which is a simple way to report bugs and talk to Microsoft about the problems in the OS. Many of the things suggested in the feedback were added to the Windows 10 builds for PC. Hope the same goes with the phone.
BUGS-
With these great improvements comes a bag full of bugs. Have a look at these as it may concern you if you’re going to install the preview.
Issue
|
Workaround
|
|
1
|
Existing alarms will not be
migrated.
|
Reset alarms after upgrade.
|
2
|
Wi-Fi settings don’t roam when phone is upgraded to Windows
10
|
Manually set Wi-Fi settings when on Windows 10
|
3
|
VPN not available in current Windows 10 builds. Setting
will fail to launch. Coming in a future update
|
-
|
4
|
Additional language keyboards may not be present and may
not be able to install on US builds after upgrading to Windows 10
|
Reopen the Windows Insider app and re-select Insider
Fast/Slow again. The download of keyboard packages will then work
|
5
|
Photos app will fail to launch periodically when attempting
to add a photo attachment to an email, OneNote or Facebook item.
|
Try again. Succeeds after a few attempts
|
6
|
Quiet Hours is missing the automatic rule that enables
Quiet hours during calendar appointments marked busy. Also the setting
“Anyone breaks through if they call 2 times in 3 minutes” us unchecked but
enabled
|
-
|
7
|
Apps are not displayed in Battery saver after the upgrade.
|
-
|
8
|
Access Point Names (APNs) in recovery images can fall out
of date. For some phones/networks, this will block the cellular data and MMS
capabilities of a phone when recovering back to the base image.
|
Before using the Windows Mobile Recovery Tool to recover,
record the specific APN settings on your phone. Set manually once phone
restored
|
9
|
Cellular data not working while roaming, despite enabling
data roaming
|
The setting doesn’t work the first time it’s enabled.
Turning off and then turning on again will enable data while roaming
|
10
|
Using a Bluetooth headset while playing back video results
in low frame rate for video, due to a bug in the interaction between video
playback and Bluetooth.
|
Use wired headset for listening to audio when playing
videos
|
11
|
Sync to Microsoft Band doesn’t work after updating to
Windows 10. If you have your phone synced to Microsoft band, it will not pair
after the update to Windows 10.
|
After upgrade to Windows 10, go to Bluetooth settings,
un-pair the Microsoft Band device and re-pair it.
|
12
|
DataSense resets data use history on upgrade to Windows 10.
|
No workaround. Will calculate correctly after the reset.
|
13
|
Trying to set lock screen picture will fail at times
|
Re-attempt the operation.
|
14
|
After upgrade, tapping on “Playlist” from start screen or
from within Music App fails to play music. Playlists are greyed out.
|
-
|
15
|
Cortana tile and settings are missing on the start screen
after upgrade
|
Go to app list and re-pin the tile
|
[post_ad] This list of bugs is taken from the official site (blogs.windows.com). The bugs vary from device to device and not all have been listed here. (For example, due to some issue you cannot set a background wallpaper on the Lumia 730, A weird accent colored blank screen appears while
opening apps.) These Bugs will surely be fixed in the upcoming updates and there will be a lot of
improvements and changes taking place. Again, this is just a technical preview and is not appropriate for your primary phone.
Please note only devices listed below are compatible for this first roll of build-
1. Nokia Lumia 630
2. Nokia Lumia 635
3. Nokia Lumia 636
4. Nokia Lumia 638
5. Nokia Lumia 730/735
6. Nokia Lumia 830