21 Missing features in Windows Phone

Pretty good list.

I just got my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 900) from using a Blackberry. So far I love it but there are some thing I wish it could do/do better. I would like about half of those things from your list implemented in future phones. Every one has different needs and mine aren't as stringent as others but I'd like higher resolution screen and MicroSD expandable memory. That and some other software tweaks and I'm golden.

Good list; thanks for this.

- Memory expansion MicroSD Support on Windows Phones,including capacity information displayed somewhere in the OS.

 

It has this feature, unless I'm not understanding what you mean by it.  I currently have a 16 GB MicroSD card in my Focus making a grand total of 22 GB usable space.

 

You can see the space in Settings > About > More Info

 

 

- Wi-Fi should stay on when screen is shut off.

 

I wasn't aware of this one though.  I'll have to try this at home tonight.

Didn't know that was an issue to be honest. I don't use Facebook messaging on my phone (too annoying when one person suddenly sends a bunch of messages and each one triggers a full text alert on my phone). That's what live tiles are for. Windows Phone 8 is said to have MicroSD support Windows Phone 7 doesn't need multi-core processors; it runs smoother than most Android phones even with multi-core processors because the OS is well optimised.
Windows Phone 8 will support more resolutions (though I don't know what they are)
Not sure what you mean here, but there are options to hide accounts from your people hub. For example, I have about 4 email addresses and I hide contacts from all of them, whilst allowing my Facebook contacts to show alongside my gmail contacts.
Not sure what you mean by the tiles having that option, but you can set your synchronisation settings to download all of your email.
Um, WP7 kills background tasks automatically; programs don't run in the background unless you've got them open. For example, if you have a web browser open and WhatsApp, you can switch between the two, but if you use the back arrow on the web browser, you'll exit out of it and it won't continue running.
All of that is synced through Zune or Skydrive (for documents).
Again, not entirely sure what you mean, but you can easily disable them in settings.
Most phones don't have support for that, not just Windows Phone. A quick search on GSMArena found 54 touchscreen smartphones with dual-sim support, and none of them are mainstream.
Coincidentally, I did find one that's running Windows Mobile 6.1

Why? It just drains battery and push notifications can come through a cell network.
On a related subject, I would like to see the option to keep the screen permanently on when the device is plugged in.
I'll admit, this one bugged me to begin with. I have a number of different live IDs, but I can see the purpose of only allowing one. The live ID is so integrated to the phone's services that having multiple live IDs / accounts on the phone would actually decrease the quality of the experience. That said, you can link up multiple live accounts for email, but only one will be your primary which is tied into all the other services like Xbox live, Office 365 etc.
Not going to happen. Microsoft, surprisingly, is pushing for standards compliance, so they're sticking with HTML5. Flash isn't going to make its way onto mobile IE9 any time soon unless someone from the xda-dev forums does it.
As for those, screenshots I completely agree with. Encryption - not so sure; there is always remote wipe in the event that it's lost. Text message threads - fair enough, but it's relatively minor. File storage, there is a hack for it on xda-dev, but I'm neither here nor there on that one. It would be nice to have, but I can't see myself using it much.

I don't own an windows phone. So I can't tell you if some secretly exists or not. But Some are more general smartphone orientated.

- Dual core and quadcore processors support.
Odd but true, multicore doesn't actuality help much. Although at gaming (or so nVidia continues to push) it does.
My single core iPhone 4 runs like a charm, and is smoother then the high-end androids I see around me (who are all dual core). It's mostly OS related though.

- Ability to close applications in Multitasking mode.
Although [Adz] is correct apps in the background don't run and take up virtually no resources. You should be able to force quit apps however. iOS has this in the press-home-for-a-while-bar. Android does this with 3rd party apps (maybe ICS can do this natively).

- Separate ringer and volume levels.
Wut really? I'm surprised it doesn't do this already. Sounds so... pre iPhone. (please correct me if I sound like an Apple prick while this was already available pre 2007)

- Ability to choose if Wi-fi or Cellular data connection are priorities or not.and option to disable them in certain circumstances.
Why would you want to prioritize 3G over WiFi? 'cause I assume it prioritizes WiFi over 3G per default.

- Wi-Fi should stay on when screen is shut off.
It's normal for a spamrtphone to disable both 3G and Wifi. They eat battery and you cannot aachieve days-standby when they remain active. The phone should, however, be vast at reactivating them and setting up a connection before you are even notice. If not, well.. let's just say there are phones who manage this feat.

- Ability to make screenshots.
Is there an app for that? It's not a must have, but a nice thing to have for sure.

- VPN support
Also shocked. man, Microsoft must take their enterprise users more seriously. (I know, iOS didn't had this in the beginning either)

- Storage files encryption
Don't think any other phone does this. perhaps BlackBerries.

- Multiple Windows Live ID accounts per phone.
You cannot switch? Thats unexpected. Multiple at once wouldn't make for a elegant experience however.

- Flash support in Internet Explorer
Adobe has officially dropped support for Flash on Android devices, so I expect they never did so for Windows Phone. And if the developer of Flash doesn't bother, why should the OS dev?
Maybe you can tell an Apple fan why one should want it on a touch-device anyway? I haven't missed it once.

- Ability to delet all text messages threads at once
More control over messages is always better? (save when the GUI gets too cluttered)

??? Isn't that like saying "stupid phone does not ring when i turn it off?"
Protip: If you wish to be in online mode and recieve messages like you were online, put it online mode... live tiles bro...
Does not really need dual and quadcore processors. learn to use the phone???
Learn to use the phone???
ahhh! learn to use the phone.
wait wut??? You can assign ringers, have you learned to use the phone yet?

Survey says!! learn to use the phone...
I agree with you on this, it is a total pain surfing the web on 4g when the screen is off.
Just get the app
You are right, it doesnot do those.
Not going to happen, they are pushing HTML5
Learn to use the phone

I think what you meant to say was "Windows Phone is not Android" Not really as a large part of it is you not knowing how to use it.
Edited by Zaiger - 5/17/12 at 4:17pm

Couldn't quote you so I figured I'd just reply.
Ability to recieve Facebook messages from people in offline mode in the messaging tile.
Link Phone already does apparently as of Article date.

Reinstaller Backup APP sounds like you wanted an app to be able to Reinstall everything more simply, there it is. Seems like every other issue has been addressed, since most of them are coming in Windows phone 8, or they're already in the phone. But none the less features that I would of loved to see on the first generation phones.
Edited by Dtrain - 5/19/12 at 8:37pm

Weird, I can't seem to quote your post at all Eduardv. I'll have to do it manually.


It really doesn't trigger a text alert,it just makes a sound and it goes to the messaging hub

That's the same as a text message.
Receiving text message: phone plays sms alert sound, goes to messaging hub
Receiving FB message: phone plays sms alert sound, goes to messaging hub.
It's one of the features of the messaging hub; that you have one unified thread for each person.

Yes, the problem is that WP 7.5 does not support it natively
There are some WP7.5 phones that do have MicroSDs, but they're just not very common.

The OS is very well optimized,however if microsoft wants to push the mobile gaming to new boundaries,the phones and the OS will need more cores.
Fair point if it's for gaming, but I've yet to come across a game on a phone that is optimised for multicore processing, or would even benefit from it.

What i meant is that the People hub does not have the ability to delete friend in facebook or any other social network,i can't delete anyone from the people list in my phone,i have to go to facebook and do it separately. You know what i mean?
Two reasons for that:
First, the people hub isn't designed to replace the social network, it's complimentary to it.
Second, the Facebook API doesn't allow you to delete a friend. Even if Microsoft wanted to implement that feature, they couldn't because Facebook doesn't support it.

Exactly ,it's kind of strange that you have to hit the back button to close apps,why not a close option in multitasking? It's not fully functional.
There's no functional difference between closing it via the back button and closing it via the screen that shows your running tasks; there's nothing there that it's not doing, it just closes them in a different way. The end result is still the same.

Yes you can disable it but you can't set which one is priority.For example.
You have a data connection on your carrier plan,but when you go into a mall,you'd prefer to use the WI-fi internet connection which saves battery to the phone.
Windows phone can't do this switch automatically you have to do it manually.
Actually, you can; it connects to your preferred WiFi network if you tell it to connect automatically. When I'm at uni, I haven't told it to connect automatically so it will use the cell network rather than WiFi. At home, it's set up to connect automatically, so it will use the WiFi instead of the cell network.

Yes that's right,i wish Windows phone would have the option of 2 phone tiles for 2 separtate carriers,in this case the phone will recieve calls from the 2 assigned cel phone numbers and the software should have a compatible UI and functionality with 2 micro Sim cards jeje
&
I don't see why it will be degraded all the notification and functionality will be the same under the tiles.
So basically, you want to have all the functionality of two phones but only have to carry one.
It'll be degraded because imagine having to select which account you want to use every time you do something. Load up Xbox Live; choose your account first. Access Office 365; choose your account first. Want to upload something to Skydrive; choose your account first. Buying an app; choose your account first.
Or if you want to go the other route of having to log into the phone with your Live ID and then being able to switch (basically like a computer with multiple user accounts, but on a phone instead):
Logged into your skydrive account but realised the file you want is on your other account? Log out and log into the other account.
Bought an app that's suddenly not there any more? Oops, must be logged into the wrong account.
And the list goes on.

What if the carrier plan doesn't have data connection?
It will surely be useful for this kind of people.I think it's not common in the U.S ,but in Latin America it is.
Then your notifications will come through when you reconnect. Sure, it might be slightly inconvenient, but getting your latest WhatsApp push notification, in my opinion, is not as important as having enough battery to make a call after lunch; because with WiFi constantly connected, that's what would happen.