3 ms·

This probably won't be a popular opinion on HN, but as much as people usually make fun of reviewers citing design, it does matter to me and many other people. I

This probably won't be a popular opinion on HN, but as much as people usually make fun of reviewers citing design, it does matter to me and many other people. I'm not saying I would REFUSE to own a device that wasn't pretty (and honestly even some of Apple's stuff strikes me as a little ugly) but design does matter, especially when you're a multi-billion dollar company and you could easily locate and supply some designers to wrap your electronics in a spiffy housing. To me, it's less about you should have something pretty, and more about why don't you have something pretty? It's not like a case made of silver plastic with a few chrome bits or maybe something in matte black with accents is massively expensive to make. This is especially true for Windows Phone I think, because it has such a rep already for being dull even by Blackberry standards. FTR: I had a Lumia Icon for about a year, and dumped it for the same reason as the author: Ecosystem was glitchy, the app market was way out of touch with Android and iOS in terms of quality and diversity, and the iPhone 6+ finally offered an iOS device of a decent size which was my final beef with it. Sold.

vegabook 11y ago
Agreed. You're carrying this thing around with you 16 hours a day. Design is crucial. And if it isn't then increasingly, you'll be fine with a 100 dollar generic phone. Unfortunately, design is something that you can't just throw dollars at, unlike the tech. Your people have to have some form of inspiration, that they're doing something beautiful, that their aesthetic efforts are appreciated, that they work in a place that has some measure of artistic thinking. MS doesn't seem to have that mojo. Just look at the Xbox One vs the PS4. Throw decent components into the most generic black plastic box you can source then scratch a few patterns on it. Awful.
- FussyZeus 11y ago
  Then you contrast that with the Halo 5 XBox one, designed in a place that does have artists in a creative environment... I mean it's not gorgeous but it's a hell of improvement, accomplished with just different printing on the outside.

vegabook 11y ago

Agreed. You're carrying this thing around with you 16 hours a day. Design is crucial. And if it isn't then increasingly, you'll be fine with a 100 dollar generic phone. Unfortunately, design is something that you can't just throw dollars at, unlike the tech. Your people have to have some form of inspiration, that they're doing something beautiful, that their aesthetic efforts are appreciated, that they work in a place that has some measure of artistic thinking. MS doesn't seem to have that mojo. Just look at the Xbox One vs the PS4. Throw decent components into the most generic black plastic box you can source then scratch a few patterns on it. Awful.

FussyZeus 11y ago
Then you contrast that with the Halo 5 XBox one, designed in a place that does have artists in a creative environment... I mean it's not gorgeous but it's a hell of improvement, accomplished with just different printing on the outside.