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Comment by jackalope | Hacker News Reader

I can afford any phone I want, but I hated my (2.1) Android and couldn't read any text on the (iOS 6) iPhone even with my glasses on, so I bought a Nokia Lumia 920 with WP8. So far, I have no regrets, although the decision might have been harder if iOS 7 had been released at the time, with its flat UI.

I support Android, iOS and WP8 phones in my household and the Nokia/Windows Phone 8 is by far the most problem-free, which is ironic because I won't let anyone in the house near a Windows computer without supervision; I normally use Linux and switched the rest of my family to Macs.

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Why would you compare Android 2.1 to the Lumia 920 when phones like the Galaxy S III (with 4.0.4 ICS) were already available?

Because that's what I was using (and leaving) at the time. The Galaxy S III was the leading contender, in fact, but my negative experiences with Android 1.6 and 2.1 (from bad to worse) factored against it. I later supported an S3 for a few months that was buggy and unreliable, so I was happy I didn't get it instead.

It just strikes me as unfair to use a several year old OS as a comparison. I know how terrible WM6 was, but I'm not applying that experience to the current WM8.

Comparing Android 2.1 to latest phones is like comparing windows 3.1 to latest Mac OS X. Why not compare Android KitKat instead?

I was trying to put my purchase in context. At that time, I had been locked in a 2 year contract that only got me as far as Android 2.1, which was already obsolete by the time the carrier (AT&T) finally allowed me to update from 1.6. So my options were Android 4.x (fool me twice?), iOS 6 (hated the UI) or Windows Phone (loved the UI and updates weren't being significantly delayed or blocked).

And your analogy is apt. Imagine walking into a computer store today and they're selling PCs with Windows 98 preinstalled with the promise you can upgrade to Vista as "soon" as the manufacturer allows it (currently delayed until they rewrite some incompatible adware). That's what the US smartphone market feels like (or did then), especially with Android.

did on my Lumia

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