Lumia 720 OS

Question

Dear Nokia and Microsoft.
I have owned Nokia phones since they first came on the market as consumer products 18 years ago. I have found as I upgrade my phones the same reliability and similar functions have been available only to have been improved with the technology available.
Regarding my computing preference I have been a Microsoft supporter from W95, W98, XP, skipped Vista and now run my PC on W7. Though I have always found XP to be the best and still use it on my home and other office PCs.
I have never been a fan of apples, berries and other obscure space creature’s operating systems or products although they seem very popular and sell well.
When I found out that Nokia were going to use W8 as the operating system on the new Lumia products I believed it was the marrying of the best of both worlds. I believed this would include the great reliable features Nokia phones have always had over the years with a stable Windows OS and its features to complement.
I upgraded my Nokia E-7.00 to a Lumia 720 recently and have never been more disappointed with a Nokia product. Where have all the standard Nokia features gone?
If you are going to use someone else’s OS at least ensure they have the basic original manufacturers features installed so the product at least resembles the original brand.
You may as well put the W8 OS on a no-name brand as far as I am concerned.
I have posted some of my frustrations on this site and feel that many of the suggestions given as to why it doesn’t work the way I expect it to are given by people who do not own or use the product. Some of my queries have yet to be answered with an appropriate solution for the issue.
I purchased a Nokia because I wanted it to work like a Nokia. I do not bother comparing it to other brands OS and expected it to at least have the basic Nokia features. It may be worth your while collaborating with Microsoft and their OS people to at least include some of the basic Nokia features.
Some of my pet issues are:
When you receive a text message you have an option to attach or reply only. If you scroll up the screen then you can delete the thread only. If you tap on the message nothing happens. What ever happened to “Forward, Save to folder” or all the other options you had on previous models, never mind the ones you had on the wind up phones?
Now for the issue of my mail being removed from my server when accessing it with my phone, there does not seem to be a feature when setting up a POP3 email account, where you can retrieve Headers only or Msgs and attachments. I need my mail to go to my office PC besides being able read them when on the move. On the older version in the Sync content section when setting up a new account you had the choice. The W8 version removes the mail from my servers.
I gather I will just have to come to grips with the lack of being able to place the curser wherever I wanted but the feature on a keyboard is good and will be missed. It should be on the keypad.
And my all time favourite, the alarm clock. I don’t want to compare my phone to other brands and their OS, every Nokia I have owned so far had an alarm clock, and it worked when I turned my phone off, which I do every night, and I don’t care if it is in a deep sleep mode, I want it to work the way they always did.
I did add the Lumia storage check App so that I could move things to the Micro SD card; this should have been in the original OS though. It does work.
Please pass this on to product development and the guys who work on the OS as well as give them a few older Nokia models so they can at least give the Lumia a Nokia feel.
Thanks, a not to impressed Lumia 720 owner.
They should be built to survive a 3M drop.

Answer 1

Microsoft came back with some replies to my queries and concerns, here are 2.
Hold your finger down on the message to get the forward/delete option for that message. There are no folders for SMS/Facebook chat/Messenger since everything is now based on conversations.
The phone is a reflection of the server. All modern smartphones behave like this. And it also further shows how ineffective POP3 is as a protocol in 2013. Switch to IMAP if you can.
You have to hold your finger on the message, not tap it.
They should be built to survive a 3M drop.