Gadgetory

hey guys Boston windows phone' launched seven years ago however today it's on life support why does it still exist in 2017 first of all we have the Alcatel Idol 4s what's interesting about this phone is that not only can you get the Windows version but there's also an Android Edition which is essentially the same hardware even though there's a little bit more of a mid-range phone we actually take a look at it it looks really nice so what you're getting here is a large 5.5 inch display and some nice features like a fingerprint reader as well as a glass back and a metal chassis and because we've got the Windows Phone version here we also have a VR headset which comes in a block so it looks very much like something like gear VR and omission curious I've never tried a Windows Phone that actually has any kind of VR support Wow this is actually really nice packaging what you're getting here especially for 200 bucks is pretty solid it should be the full continuum experience what I will say the hardware of this guy definitely is not on par with idle is very much plasticy and the bezels are pretty giant but again 230 bucks including all of this stuff one of the most promising features of Windows 10 mobile is continuum so paired with this dock which gives you not only USB 3 and HDMI visible as a couple of USB 2 ports is that you could take your phone dock it and once you have a mouse keyboard monitor essentially this single device can do double duty as your phone as well as your desktop at least in theory the last point I took a look at that ran continuum was the HP elite x3 maybe fear that was a very premium phone but also came with a premium price tag of about $700 the Acer in theory supports all of the same continuum features and there's a lot of potential here however it feels like it really isn't fully baked so you take a look at it once you're actually plugged into the dock and monitor this looks very much like standard Windows however once you actually get into it you realize that this is definitely not a full copy one of the big problems here is that everything is just really slow now saying we're an edge and yes we can kind of scroll but it's very jerky not particularly smooth and it's annoying I mean sure this is phone hardware so you shouldn't expect to be as fast as a laptop but this is a lot slower on top of that there's just not that much that you can actually do so to refigure the Microsoft edge browser is fairly full-featured but once you actually open up the windows main you'll see that beyond these standard apps that come with Windows Phone there's not a lot of extra support this guy does not run full Windows application it's really disappointing because continuum feels way ahead of its time in phones like the galaxy s 8 have actually supported a very similar sort of setup and honestly done a lot better which just sucks I mean come on this is Microsoft if anyone is going to pull off running Windows on a phone and a desktop it's going to be done with the idol 4s the big feature is the VR headset that comes in the box and I'm actually kind of curious to see how this is going to work I'm actually I'm totally sure how this is connected since it actually doesn't connect via USB see but I do have some buttons here I will say it is a 1080p screen which makes it a little bit uh get you looking but let's just see oh man a 360 video right now and I mean the traffic looks ok I mean it's VR it works I guess I mean the 360 effect looks okay but if nowhere near as polished is something like gear VR I honestly don't think anyone would spend some serious time in this gaming sucide what I'm curious about is how usable Windows Phone is today so the big downside to basically all Windows Phones beside this and a couple of the more recent ones such as the HP is that they are no longer supported so Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 8.1 none of these are going to be getting any updates and if the rumors are true Windows 10 is actually not going to be that much farther behind can be fear there are some apps that are still supported on Windows Phone mostly because a lot of the apps that are meant for the Windows 10 store will run here when you look through the top category the the apps are pretty slim once you get past a few of the main one there's not a lot that's actually still going to run on this phone it is very clear that the software is what's holding back these phones as the hardware actually isn't too bad so with the Acer not only are you getting a 1080p AMOLED display which looks pretty nice but it also has a Snapdragon 808 maybe not the newest thing in the world but totally decent and yet not a lot actually works the idol 4s even bump that up to a Snapdragon 820 you're still getting the nice glass and metal build there are a lot of nice little features like having the fingerprint sensor as well as the dual front firing speakers something that does hold it pretty well on both phones however are the cameras well especially not bud so i o4s actually does a lot with HDR to pull everything in here and now with the Acer and the cameras are not bad on these phones but it is really really slow to take an HDR photo these look pretty similar but I should have to give it to the Acer here especially when you look really up and close there's a little bit less compression you can see a lot more detail on the tile to me it's pretty obvious that Windows Phone is on its way out now again so you can get pretty good deals on phones that are still technically supported but don't expect much of a future here unless you are a hardcore Windows fanboy it is really difficult to recommend picking up one of these in 2017 but what do you guys think let me know in the comments below and I will catch you in the next one