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I have a smartphone. A Windows smartphone. I'd say at least 60% of websites fail to render using the (obsolete) version of Internet Explorer on the phone (but Hacker News renders fine). Windows Phone OS support ends in December 2019 so I'll have to switch to a new phone at some point.

Why do I keep using it? Familiarity and I like the simplicity of the OS. It does have a few essential apps like offline maps. Windows Phone OS is probably the best UI that Microsoft created. It's also refreshingly different compared to the converging design and behaviour of Android and iOS (grid of icons vs tiles).

Ironically, a little-used, dead-end OS with few apps available on the platform means you can't do a great deal on the phone apart from call or text people. Maybe a blessing in disguise?

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>Ironically, a little-used, dead-end OS with few apps available on the platform means you can't do a great deal on the phone apart from call or text people.

This right here.

I am quite fond of how using a Windows phone replicates the early cellphone experience from the late 1990s/early 2000s. One only has what they need, but most of the time, it's exactly one would want anyway.

Most commonly used apps are being phased out as well, meaning one has no choice - there is no way to use them, so it's almost as if the passage of time strips the phone down to the barest essentials. Mine functions as an alarm, watch and flashlight. I must admit a VPN and Signal/Matrix/Riot would be nice occasionally, though, but WhatsApp, notwithstanding its ownership by Facebook, works well.

I was this until tmobile changed their network and it no longer connected to me L1520. I loved that phone. I stopped using it right around the time that WP really fell out of favor (End of 2015, when tmo dropped it) but I wish I could still use a current version. Microsoft somehow really got most things right with that UX, the UI was fun and made sense, there were small quirks that I didn't realize other people on iOS (which I switched to) didn't suffer from but for the most part it was a better experience.

By far my favorite thing was the home screen and folders. the ability to have different size tiles and folders made my homescreen unique and incredibly powerful.

Are you me? :)

With my Windows Phone I am immune from websites continually trying to push me to use their app ( take that, reddit! ;) ).

And it makes a great smartphone for my son... just enough capability to stay connected, but a lot of distractions are just not possible to indulge in...

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