[Windows Phone 8 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blakkheartt12:
I had the note 3 when it first came out for T-Mobile. I actually had every major galaxy phone S1, s2, s3, sIV,(I will be skipping S V, 1 because it didn't impress me, and 2 I'm so bored with Samsung phones), Note 2 and Note3, along with some HTC android phones and some Sony android phones. I recently switched to the unicorn model of the Lumia 1520. I say unicorn model because it's a very hard and rare phone to find. It actually supports the AWS band for T-Mobile along with the At&t bands and rest of the world bands.

I actually got bored with Android and wanted something different. Pretty much it comes down to the how much do you really care about apps/games. I don't game a lot on a phone that's why I have consoles, 3ds, vita, and a pc. I do a lot of productivity on my phone though. A lot of banking and emails. Not really into the social media stuff. As people always say, windows phone does not have a lot of apps. Some of my banks do not have apps on windows phone. But when you look at what an app does it is just a pretty UI that connects to your bank. In windows I can just pin the website to the home page and poof instant app for that bank or that website, etc. On the Lumia 1520, the screen is large enough where it's not hassle.

I can say that battery life between the two, are very good. Both will last all day with heavy usage. I normally am streaming music, checking emails, playing a game or two, viewing websites, and watch a little Netflix and I don't have to charge untill I go to bed. Normally the phone is off the charger about 6:00 am each day and I got bed around 11pm or 12am. Performance wise, I have to say the windows phone runs a little smoother.

When it comes to customization, Android wins hands down. I actually do miss the customization that Android allows. On windows phone you have the tiles you can put and you can resize them between small, medium, and large. Medium and large will show additional information, where as small tile just shows the app without any info.

Tethering works fine on both, although on the Lumia 1520 I did have to do a few extra steps to get it to work. Apparently the US carriers has some type of block on the built in tethering app. One last thing, if you heavily in with google services, pretty much none of those services are available on windows phone. So no google play, no google voice, no push service for gmail, no chrome, etc.

The things I don't like about windows phone:

1.) Unable to download large files - I tried to download a 2 GB map file for the nokia here and it said I had to switch to wifi. Android has no such restrictions.

2.) Lack of Customization

3.) Lack of Google services (Not sure if it's Google or MS)

The things I like:

1.) Very clean and simple interface,

2.) The Lumia 1520 has a great design

3.) Runs smooth and works

4.) Office intergration

5.) Native Email and Calendar apps are the best (much better than android or ios)

Things I like about android:

1.) Customization

2.) Tethering worked out the box

3.) No restrictions on file types to download or file size

4.) Multitasking with 2 apps on the screen at once.

Things I don't like about android:

1.) You have to root to really use the phone as you want

2.) A lot of bloatware

3.) You have to watch out for rogue apps (haven't heard of any in windows phone)

4.) You may or may not get the next version of the OS regardless of how new your phone may be.

This is just my thoughts. So far though I'm like the 1520. I have high hopes for the next update to windows phone and look forward to it improving. Windows phone is still young so still is playing catch-up, but I think it has a bright future.