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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agag - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
Apple bought Quattro Wireless, an Admob competitor, which is now iAd:http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/05/us-apple...
ab_aditya - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
With reference to the last statement, the Nokia Lumia 720 has one of the best cameras at the mainstream price point. It includes a Carl Zeiss lens, and has pretty much phased out the costlier Lumia 820 since its introduction. I have been using the 720 for the last 10 months & have been a lot more pleased with its image quality than my Galaxy S3.Gadgety - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
"... I suspect the real chance to win is if Nokia can point its camera excellence at a more mainstream price point."Yes, I agree. A Nokia/Microsoft phone with the 41mp camera brings lossless zooming, and with off line maps, plus transit info for both public transport and traffic in general, a mid range WP would almost be worth their price just for travelling world wide. I know a journalist that bought the 1020 as a camera first, and spent a lot of time mastering it before even starting to use it as a phone. Merging WP and RT is probably a step in the right direction, too.
B3an - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
Finally some WP stuff on Anandtech. I would have liked this to go in to more detail though. It also doesn't really show just how big of an update this is, bigger than most updates Android or iOS has ever had, and certainly the biggest WP has had.PsychoPif - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
I agree. I'm the first to whine when they don't review WP new phones or when they act like they are not competitive in other OS reviews, but this time, they are both on time and give good treatment to the update.I must say that I disagree with their conclusion though. Being an owner of a sufrace pro, I see the synergies between Windows and WP and that for me is worth more than being the first to receive overblown hardware feature or the next Flappy Bird.
MikhailT - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
@PsychoPif, the problem is, we're not seeing any synergies yet for those who don't own either one. I see what Microsoft wants to do but Microsoft had a lot of awesome ideas over the last decade that never went anywhere.Windows 9 or Threshold is probably the moment that Microsoft can really reveal the purpose of their hard work over the past few years. I wish them all the luck.
Zepid - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
Just so we are clear reviewer, Apple didn't do the "swipe up to quit" or "swipe away to quit" first. It was Palm.Taurothar - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
Glad to see someone else make this comment. I loved the card system on my Pre, and I'm happy it has come to the other OS since the webOS died out.apinkel - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
So much to learn.beck2050 - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link
I'm on a Note 3, having looked hard at Apple and Nokia Windows and both those fell far short for my purposes, IMHO. If Microsoft wants to break Android's and to a lesser extent IOS stranglehold on mobile space they need something spectacular, not bringing up the rear.