Handsets

Galaxy Nexus smokes Windows Phone, Microsoft backpedals

35

In their quest for smartphone relevancy Microsoft has resorted to one-upping the competition through the presumptuously-titled “Smoked by Windows Phone” challenge. And while most would find it hard to name more than a handful of reasons why the latest Windows Phone release “smokes” the competition, the reality is that no one has bested Microsoft’s platform in a series of head-to-head challenges that aim to prove Windows Phone is faster than the rest when it comes to things like taking pictures and checking the weather. According to Microsoft, the OS remains unbeaten, but that’s not the story being told by one Galaxy Nexus owner.

Yes, the Galaxy Nexus “smoked” Windows Phone, and here’s how. Sahas Katta took his Android 4.0 smartphone down to a local Microsoft store where he was challenged to show the weather for two different cities faster than an employee of the store could do the same with a Windows Phone. The employee already had two tiles pinned to their homescreen for finding weather in two different locations, but Katta was himself not unprepared. In advance he disabled the phone’s lockscreen and placed two weather widgets pointed to different locales on the homescreen of the Galaxy Nexus. The Nexus easily won.

But the employees of the Microsoft store didn’t see things the same way. Reaching into their bag of excuses, Katta was told that in order to qualify as a winner he needed to show the weather for two different cities in two different states. Given advance notice there is no doubt Katta could have met this criteria, and he isn’t buying the bull that MS is throwing. He took to Twitter to voice his complaints and sure enough, Ben Rudoplh, the Microsoft man pushing the “Smoked by…” campaign, has apologized for how things were handled and offered a rematch. Katta’s response? “I would be happy to smoke a Windows Phone with Android, again.”

[via The Verge]

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35 Comments

  1. Typical of Microsoft to be sore losers!

  2. So MS is the kid that claims to suddenly have a force-field when playing cowboys and indians.

  3. My friend has a Windows Phone. He loved it until he played with my Galaxy Nexus and my girlfriends Epic 4G Touch. Lol

    The only thing Microsoft is good for is Xbox and Windows. Their phone will die just like Zune did.

    1. You mean it will be abandoned just like Zune.

  4. So someone made a mistake, and what? Ben Rudolf apologized and offered remach, so please don’t be blind androidisch kids and stop calling MS loosers.
    BTW: About 10 minutes ago, Microsoft offered Katta an Windows Laptop, WP7 Phone and an apology.
    BTW 2: This is from official YT channel:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYFok3gqUlI

    1. A rematch shouldn’t be necessary, he clearly won on the first try. Microsoft needs to pay up, if they don’t they will end up spending a lot more money clearing up all of the bad PR this has brought.

      1. You’re right and about 10 minutes ago, MS offered him an apology, Windows Laptop and WP7 Phone.

    2. A laptop and a WP7 phone? I might try this!

  5. Every Android phone smokes every WP7 phone…

    1. did you ever own a Samsung moment or htc hero? lol…. not exactly true. Windows phone is VERY smooth but, like webOS needs MUCH better apps to be relevant…

    2. No.
      I love Android as well, but let’s not be stupid. You don’t seriously expect a G1 or an Eris to “smoke” a new WP7 phone, do you? (Don’t hesitate to refrain from posting something ridiculous regarding custom ROMs that no one, especially myself, is going to believe).

  6. so what if wp7 fast… gaming much?? apps?

    no wonder wp7 work with nokia…. same target markets.

  7. This is on every Android site, but the article hasn’t been updated to include that:

    Microsoft apologized and gave him the laptop and a phone!

    1. Yeah I feel this site just now copies are other sites. No originality anymore. 

      1.  Actaully AndroidAndMe provided full complete story.

      2. It’s been getting worse and worse. This site was a lot better when it was just Rob, and occasionaly, Talton writing the articles. Nothing against the current bloggers, for the most part, but Phandroid put quantity over quality quite awhile ago. I think Rob should stop trying to make websites for everything he can think of, bullshit copy-cat AFs (seriously guys, I tried to check out the “Carrier Coverage Forum”, and it was the exact same people from Phandroid’s forums. It destroys your credibility even further when you have a long-time mod from AF “introducing himself” to Rob like it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of each other). It also doesn’t help when you try to apologize way too late for leaving out root users for an app that turned out to be crap anyway, then go on to explain that website a,b,c and d and art project e,f and g are all “owned by a parent company”. Are you kidding me? They’re a bunch of little websites clustered under one roof, not Google, CNet, Newsgroup, or AP.

        1. Every time I have read a story like this on Phandroid it has always been written by Kevin. I don’t even bother saying anything anymore.

    2. the power of the internet!! 

    3. Chris tries and he does offer a different approach to the topics, but the rest of them are just copy and paste blogging fanboys, who try to skew the news to their point of view or what they like. Its lazy and in poor taste.

  8. Taking my Acer Liquid in tomorrow. Gonna load CM9 onto it tonight and get all the tasks down. If I lose, who cares? Its an Acer Liquid, I’ll take the Windows Phone. If I win, MONEY!

  9. IMHO, if MS would get rid of the ugly tiles, WP8 could be a serious contender to Android.  They’ve done a lot of things right but limiting the user on freedom to customize their phones, they’ve missed what all us Android users have fallen in love with. Personalization carries a lot of weight.

  10. Because 2 different cities in the same state aren’t 2 different cities? Pardon? 

  11. Can someone better explain this contest to me

    1. You take a non-WP7 smartphone to a Windows Store and put it head-to-head against an employee’s WP7 smartphone.

      They give you the task (could be take a picture or write a status and post to Facebook/Twitter/etc, could be check the weather in 2 different cities, could be send a text, whatever some daily task of their choosing) and whomever does it faster wins.

      If you win, you get a laptop worth $1049. If you lose, you get the option to trade your phone for any unlocked Windows Phone (excluding the Lumia 800 and maybe a couple of others)

  12. The HTC Trophy, Verizon’s current WP7 offering, sucks horribly bad. Under powered, small screen, low memory size. While smooth, it just feels like a piece of junk from 2 years ago. 

  13. I loved all of my Windows phones, from my Motorola I930, to my htc touch, touch pro, and touch pro 2. I tried the New Windows phone and I couldn’t like it. The tile system was horrendous, I don’t understand why they would take the GUI from a failed product and put it on their phones. However, if I were forced to choose between a Nokia Windows phone and a Sammy android disaster, I would choose the Nokia. It is a necessity for my phones hardware to last more than two weeks!

    1. I’ve had 3 Samsungs. The Moment was a disaster. The Epic was great, except for battery life. The Epic Touch is bliss, except that I miss my physical keyboard now and again. 

      Oh, and I agree with you on one thing: Since day 1, I’ve cringed at that fugly tile system. It’s horrible. And I was a strong proponent of Windows Mobile from about 3 to 6.5… I even hacked (Thanks XDA!) my Axim over to 6.1 and 6.5…

  14. The way I see it, this is a great way to get a free upgrade. Just bring some P.O.S. phone that you have lying around, try the competition, and trade up. I might bring my old Blackberry Pearl 8100 with a broken trackball
    and trade for a new windows phone.

    1. This! I can’t wait for a Microsoft store to open in Canada so I can trade in a Samsung Spica and a Nokia N82 lol

  15. Have to agree. Still a noob here, but I’m also noticing repeat articles from other sites… This one always being last to report lol

  16. Good idea to have the competition however the implementation is garbage if MS doesn’t admit a loss. Both phones were prepared for specific tasks, tasks should be random and neither MS nor the challenger should be allowed to choose.

  17. Regardless if it smokes it or not, I love my Nokia Windows phone<3
    :) Still love Galaxy Nexus but my tiles plus the smooth OS of windows phone 7 is the phone for me!

    I do wish they posted the whole story though.

  18. If only Android was as smooth and snappy as WP7 :-  Even my Galaxy nexus with all it’s power feels sluggish next to an HTC Trophy.

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