See what Mumsnetters think of the Microsoft Lumia 735, Xbox One and Linx tablet *NOW CLOSED*

[KathrynMumsnet]

This thread is for the 10 Mumsnetters who have been testing the Microsoft Lumia 735, Xbox One Console with Kinect and a Linx tablet.

Here’s what Microsoft’s marketing manager says, “As a marketing manager for Microsoft and mum of 2 boys, I know that things at home and at work can get pretty busy – especially this time of year with present buying, decorating the house, nativity play outfits, pantomimes……you know the rest :-). That is why we wanted to show you the collective power of some of these Microsoft products and how they can be used for the whole family. We would like to find families that can try out a Nokia Lumia phone, XBox One console and one of the new very affordable Linx tablets. All of these work together in a way that your family’s life can be fun and organised, productive and producing lots of laughs.”

Testers:
Once you’ve had the chance to try out all three products, please answer the questions below.

1. What were your initial impressions and how did you find setting up the devices?
   
2. Overall, what do you think of the following products? Do you like them? If so, why? If not, why not?
   a. Microsoft Lumia 735
   b. Xbox One console with Kinect
   c. Linx tablet
   
3. Who uses each of the products the most and what do they use them for?
   
4. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend the Microsoft Lumia, Xbox One with Kinect and LInx tablet? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
5. Do you have a favourite aspect about any of the products? If so, what is it?
   
   Microsoft would love to have some video clips of your thoughts about the products or seeing them in action. You can use your Microsoft Lumia to film this very easily. If you choose to do this you can upload your clips onto YouTube and please post the link to the film on the thread.
   
   Microsoft has made these products to sync up together allowing a more inclusive experience.
   
   To ensure the Mumsnetters got the most out of the products, Mumsnetters attended an event at Microsoft’s offices in London.
   From this event Microsoft would like to know:
   
   
6. Did you find this event useful for outlining the various opportunities offered by the products both as individual devices and collectively? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
7. Do you think the products work well together? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   If you complete your feedback as above you will be able to keep the products you were sent.
   
   Thanks,
   MNHQ

[codandchipstwice]

1. • (just me no DH) _ found the event useful definitely but only up to a point, you could spend days going through all the opportunities. As stated previously some more info on the accounts/safetly controls would be great - we are struggling setting the kids up as themselves to play games as they don't have email accounts;
     
     
2. • the products work well together definitely, but a lot of that is due to Smart Glass, ie DH has it on his iPhone and kids on their tablets, so it's more due to the app (and OneDrive - love this) rather than the actual phones/tablets etc themselves. I was a bit disappointed when we couldn't use the tablet as a second controller on lego Batman however, that would have been really cool!
     
     Many thanks
     
     cod

[xboxnovice]

Kathrynmumsnet It has let me back in again now, seems to be a random thing, saying " pc is not live"

I love exploring all the different things and it is going to take us some time to be really competent with the package, so the user life is endless!

I have set up Amazon prime and the littles get to watch something on the Linx in the car on the 20 miles school run, and as they are both in extended rear facing car seats it sits in the middle of the rearmost seat quite nicely!

[XBoxTesting]

I've just bought this tablet case with keyboard for my Linx from Amazon and it's unbelievably good value (especially for the Prime users with free delivery). The keyboard's a bit small and fiddly, inevitably, but it you fancy extended typing it's definitely better than the touchscreen.

[xboxnovice]

I'm sure I downloaded Microsoft office 360 on the lynx, how do I find it? And does it have Access on it? I need access to open database, any ideas please?

[bucksmstester]

The xbox was the star of the show for dd1's party, she got just dance as a present and so the girls spent a large chunk of the party dancing- ymca was a massive hit, but the Latin style dances- with lots of hip wiggling are not approved of! Funny child

My tablet stopped working today though. I'm a bit lost, which is surprising. It didn't charge properly this morning, so I took the charger over to fil's when we went for dinner, and still not charging. I've now tried several different plugs, cables and still nothing

Before that though, I still really like it. I am loving having office so accessible, and the ease which I can access my OneDrive. My only grumble was that when using a certain site (not mn ) every two or three pushes it would lose my sign in and I'd have to sign in again. Irritating, but not the end of the world. On the plus side, I was finding it really intuitive, and simple to use. There have been a couple of times where I've had Sunday school plan on my OneDrive, and I've ended up using the phone to connect the tablet to run my session! (blooming thieves stealing our WiFi extensions!)

We are loving watching tv through the xbox. Struggling a bit with the kinect, but I think some of that may be the timbre of my voice...
We now have Minecraft on it, and the kids are all impressed with the graphics. DP isn't into gaming, but he liked the forza game. Not sure if buy a car off dd2 if she drives in rl as she does on it!

[xboxnovice]

I too, have had quite few problems with the Linx and have given up on it as a 5 minute wonder. I bought a new charger and also a genuine Linx keyboard which also had to go back as it was warped and the touchpad on the second one does not work, so using my Apple wireless mouse with it for a while till the Linx wouldn't start up and as you say bucks constantly losing sign in.

I bought a very expensive database which is available for Microsoft Access for my business which is not on Windows for Mac and now can't use it!

Looking around for a cheap pc laptop so I can use the database I saw the Microsoft Surface which does look amazing, at a price, perhaps the Linx is like a basic Kindle, cheap and cheerful does, or in our case, doesn't do the job!

[inflagrantedelicto]

I had high hopes of the linx, my dad, and fil both have the surface and it's been fab. If these problems -I suspect one software, one hardware- were solved it would be great, the tablet had proved great for homework and other stuff. The sign in thing was odd, it only kicked me out on one site, none of the others I used.

[YvesJutteau]

1)What were your initial impressions and how did you find setting up the devices?

Initial impressions were very positive -- the devices were all pretty intuitive and quick to respond. I was terrified of setting up the Xbox but it was pretty simple in the end (I was glad others had prewarned me that it would need to download loads of stuff, though)

2)Overall, what do you think of the following products? Do you like them? If so, why? If not, why not?
a.Microsoft Lumia 735

In most respects I love this phone. The interface is intuitive, it responds quickly, it takes nice photos. After the introduction session I came away all enthused about Cortana and the manifold possibilities. I am surprised at how much I like it given that I was an Android woman through and through. I really love the keyboard text entry and the Lumia OneLens app.

My reservations are

1. Cortana. To be fair, this isn't a reservation so much as a disappointment (and I know Cortana is getting better all the time so it may meet expectations in time). It has great trouble working out what I'm saying and I generally need to repeat things several times. The whole "remind me to buy cornflakes when I go to the supermarket" thing? Nope. I go to the supermarket and nada. I'm sitting happily at home minding my own business and the alert sounds "buy cornflakes". Sigh. That's not very helpful.
   

1. There are no apps available. OK, "no apps" is an exaggeration, but look about you -- everything is "available for iPhone and Android". Most apps I like aren't available.
   

So, I love the phone, but unless the app situation improves I probably won't go for another Windows phone next time I upgrade. If it were on a par with iPhone and Android for app availability I would get another Lumia like a shot, though.

b.Xbox One console with Kinect

I've been very impressed by this, and how much it's made itself the heart of all our audiovisual stuff. The children love Kinect-controlled bits of games, the fact that it recognises them, and the voice recognition.

I THINK I like the clever way it integrates family controls into the whole thing -- for example, if I am watching a 12 certificate movie on Amazon Instant Video and my 6yo walks in it will recognise her and pause the film. On the other hand, until I went in and tweaked the settings to allow her access to 8+ content it would do that if she walked in on a PG film. And if the children have been logged in (even if they are now happily asleep in bed) we can't put on a 15+ film until we've manually logged them out.

For some reason (having been given their dates of birth when setting up the Microsoft accounts) it defaulted my 6yo to 3+/U content (easy to up this to 8+/PG content, though) but defaulted my 10yo to no restrictions/18 content (and I had to go back and forward a bit to get to the right settings to put that down again).

c. Linx tablet

I really liked the tablet to begin with. And it is useful if I want to do specifically Windows-y stuff when I'm away from home (one thing that has changed since I got the tablet is that my laptop stays at home). But it's a bit flaky about charging (generally fine, but sometimes it displays a charging light for hours but then refuses to turn on)and is also very stubborn about WiFi connection -- again, normally fine, but sometimes it will claim that there are no connections available when I KNOW that there are because I can see the WiFi network on other devices (sometimes rebooting it fixes this, but sometimes not). So I don't like relying on it. I also keep expecting it to do some of the stuff that the phone does (so it would be good to have Cortana for the Linx, or the same kind of touchscreen keyboard).

It does have a lovely screen, though -- really good for streaming TV or movies. I think maybe I'm just not using it to its full potential.

3)Who uses each of the products the most and what do they use them for?

Phone - me, for calls, texts, Facebook, web browsing, taking pictures. I use the Lumia Lens app for photographing documents instead of scanning them (this is probably my favourite app).

Xbox - we all use it to watch TV through. The children and I use it for games (but they don't get much time to play except in school holidays -- this was why I held back the review until they'd had a good long run at it in half term). The 6yo likes Zoo Tycoon (but mostly she just wants to ride around in the buggy and feed/interact with the animals rather than play the game itself) and the 10yo is enjoying Project Spark. My husband is building up to trying some gaming but isn't quite there yet (we nearly bought a rugby game the other day but then noticed it had really bad reviews)

4)If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend the Microsoft Lumia, Xbox One with Kinect and LInx tablet? If so, why? If not, why not?

I would recommend the phone to someone who wasn't likely to be bothered about apps. For example, it would suit my mother or mother-in-law well as a first smartphone. I have said to other people that it's a really lovely phone but the lack of apps would drive them crazy within a few weeks. If there were more apps available I would recommend it unreservedly.

I would recommend the Xbox One as a family interactive media system. I suspect it's not for hardcore gamers (I have relatives who sniffed at it when I mentioned we were getting one) but for using as a hub on the main houshold TV and playing games on sometimes it's a very good solution.

The tablet I would recommend to someone who was quite Windows-focused and was looking for a portable solution smaller and lighter (or just cheaper... I will say that the Linx is great value for money) than a notebook. I think it would fill that role really well. For someone who just wanted a tablet... I'm not sure. I'd probably still recommend an Android tablet as first choice.

5)Do you have a favourite aspect about any of the products? If so, what is it?

The phone - the touchscreen keyboard. I find typing on other touchscreen devices slow and clunky now in comparison (and I love the Lumia Lens app)

The tablet - the quality of the screen and display

The Xbox - how easy it is to set up and maintain profiles for each member of the family