[suddenexample]

Is it just me or is Windows phone looked back on with really heavy nostalgia? I never found it to be revolutionary or beautiful, and while I would welcome more players in the mobile space, I think Microsoft's behavior in every other part of its business makes me glad that their foray into mobile never took off.

[peruvian]

Windows Phone and Zune are looked back with nostalgia. As someone that had both (including a Zune HD), I don't get it either. I wish I could go tell my teenage self to get over my short-lived "anti-Apple" phase and just ask for an iPod Touch in 2009.

[iforgotpassword]

I used 8.1 until 2020 and 10 until a few months ago, so no nostalgic distortion. 8.1 was the pinnacle of the platform, clean, snappy, no-nonsense. 10 already was much more bloated, apps looked crammed, and if it would still be in active development today, it would probably suck as much as the desktop pendant.

I think the team behind 8 had just a lot of freedom and could work on their vision, but then with 10 everyone had to leave their mark somewhere because they knew how to "fix" it and get it to succeed.

[hakfoo]

I wonder if part of it was that they filled a gap that was sort of broken.

Low-end Android phones used to suck. Hell, even high-end ones. There was a lot of jank, battery life was mediocre, software looked and felt patched together.

Windows Phone delivered a really good experience even on the bottom-of-the-line hardware, Things were smooth, and most stuff (because it was either first-party or from committed devs) was built to fit the design language.