[funambulistic]

My current phone is a Nokia 1520, running Windows 8.1 (have not been able to upgrade to 10) and I absolutely love it. It is great for work (Office, PDF reader) takes phenomenal pictures, has a seamless OS and, if someone were to attack me, I could use it for self-defense. Unfortunately, support is severely lacking; my bank dropped its app, there is not one for my car insurance nor my health insurance (or the MyMazda app!). Just about any time I see “Download the app!” I can feel the impending disappointment. Now, I really do not need all of the aforementioned things to live (I have been surviving quite nicely, thank you) but the new Mazda Connect is treating Windows like my bank; I cannot receive or respond to texts (my ’13 MS3 did) and this is a major thing for personal and professional reasons as I am the road quite a bit. Lesser inconveniences are no support for Pandora (I bypass that by just going the Blutooth Audio route but it would be nice) Aha or Stitcher (no Windows apps available) and, though not really important, phonebook picture import and personalized ringtones (need my Cyprus Hill, yo!). BTW, all this can all be found on the infotainment.mazdahandsfree.com site as I was wondering why I could not receive text messages.

TL/DR

My Windows phone sucks! What OS have you been using and to what degree of success? I am not inclined to iOS (had it in the past) or Android (never had it, but willing to try). Phone model suggestions would be helpful too. I know with Apple I am limited to size and memory, but there is a myriad of Android devices out there. Any experiences and/or suggestions/recommendations would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[drs88]

I've used both an iphone with iOS 9 and a Galaxy s6 Edge with Android Lollipop.

Without a doubt it is an Android phone FTW.

You will be happy with the integration with the iphone and MZD connect, it's just that you are able to do so much more with Android such as send text messages and view emails. I also found that with the Android integration your notifications clear, where as with iOS they didn't.

From the Mazda website I found that the Samsung and HTC phones have the best integration between the phone and MZD connect.

 

[SlyCoopers]

I had a lg g4 on lollipop (5.0+) which worked perfectly and now have a Nexus 6P (the pure google phones aka the iphone of android) running marshmallow (6.0+) which was unique to say the least.

Story time:

Everything is smooth except for one setting which has caused pain amongst nexus owners in general. Not sure if it is the phone itself or the "soon to arrive to other phones" marshmallow update but there is a setting under location which wants it to actively scan and connect to nearby registered bluetooth sources even if location is off. This has been an issue because the phone would frequently drop the connection while rescanning/connecting and would disconnect and glitch out of the audio connection to the mazda infotainment system. Disabling that setting which was automatically on and impossible to locate with the knowledge of it truly did fix all of my connectivity issues.

Just a heads up for future android marshmallow and/or nexus owners.

 

[funambulistic]

Thank you for the info! It seems the Galaxy ticks all of the boxes except personalized ringtones (Cyprus Hill, yo! - no, I really don't care). Of course the S7 is coming out in a month or so...

 

[greaseman85]

I have an HTC One M9 (running 6.0 now), it works flawlessly. Since Android and the Mazda software are both Linux-based, I'm not surprised they work so much better together than iPhones and Windows Phones.

HTC is getting ready to announce their next phone, if you want some alternative to the Galaxy

 

[Craigh]

Out of interest do any of the Android users have large music libraries that are accessed via USB (Not Bluetooth)

Wondered how well it handles it - on the Mazda 3 forum people don't seem very happy with Android or iPhone when music is 30-60g, but would like some more current opinions if you have tried that.

My tests of ios devices show small collections up to 10G seem to be fine but the more you add the slower and flakier it becomes.

 

[funambulistic]

Update: Just got a Galaxy S6 edge+ and everything works flawlessly - thanks folks!

Just as an aside, Best Buy was offering a $100 gift certificate (I missed the $200 at Christmas) so I got the Gear VR (I do not recommend using it whilst driving! [jk]) and am having a blast with it. They were also offering a free Samsung Gear 2 watch for free if I simply added it to my data plan.

Okay, back to our awesome car!

 

[VANDAL]

moral of the story is dont ever buy a windows phone

 

[funambulistic]

Agreed. Windows came too late into the game and developers saw no money in the market. I prefer the GUI over iOS and Android and Nokia devices are pretty much indestructible, but if nobody is going to support it, then what's the point?

 

[harvey]

I have a Windows phone and haven't had any issues at all

 

[Bosse]

Has anyone sucseeded to transfer contacts from a Microsoft Lumia with Windows 10 OS, to mazda connect?

The phone is paired and I can use it to call through, but I just can´t import any contact, SMS or anything else.

Yes, I know it is is a Microsoft phone, but anyway....

 

[TallGuyNW]

Has anyone sucseeded to transfer contacts from a Microsoft Lumia with Windows 10 OS, to mazda connect?

The phone is paired and I can use it to call through, but I just can´t import any contact, SMS or anything else.

Yes, I know it is is a Microsoft phone, but anyway....

I have a Lumia 950 paired with my cx3 and contacts, SMS's, etc have been imported. Contacts sync every time I start the car. If I recall, when I first paired the phone, there was a dialog on the phone that asked me if it was ok to transfer contacts. I assume if you missed that dialog, the default is to not sync them.

On another note... not sure what I did, or if it was a phone update, but I'm back to having Cortana read incoming texts instead of the car's sms system. This is great because I can reply verbally with anything I want to say, not just selecting from the canned responses in the car.

 

[fapkonijntje]

Windows Phone/10 Mobile contacts will sync as long as you do not enable contact pictures when you receive the request for contact transfer on your phone.

 

[rockposer]

Out of interest do any of the Android users have large music libraries that are accessed via USB (Not Bluetooth)

Wondered how well it handles it - on the Mazda 3 forum people don't seem very happy with Android or iPhone when music is 30-60g, but would like some more current opinions if you have tried that.

My tests of ios devices show small collections up to 10G seem to be fine but the more you add the slower and flakier it becomes.

I thought access times on USB drives was bad. It won't get anywhere with my phone connected by USB (LG G3 with music on 128GB micro SD) I tend to stream via Bluetooth 90% of the time.

 

[TallGuyNW]

Windows Phone/10 Mobile contacts will sync as long as you do not enable contact pictures when you receive the request for contact transfer on your phone.

Hmm... Contacts transferred to my CX3 include their pictures from my Lumia 950 on Windows 10 mobile.

 

[Bosse]

TallGuy,
Here is my reply - one month later. You are right - i missed that dialogue-box. Thank´s

 

[Maxjolt]

My current phone is a Nokia 1520, running Windows 8.1 (have not been able to upgrade to 10) and I absolutely love it. It is great for work (Office, PDF reader) takes phenomenal pictures, has a seamless OS and, if someone were to attack me, I could use it for self-defense. Unfortunately, support is severely lacking; my bank dropped its app, there is not one for my car insurance nor my health insurance (or the MyMazda app!). Just about any time I see “Download the app!” I can feel the impending disappointment. Now, I really do not need all of the aforementioned things to live (I have been surviving quite nicely, thank you) but the new Mazda Connect is treating Windows like my bank; I cannot receive or respond to texts (my ’13 MS3 did) and this is a major thing for personal and professional reasons as I am the road quite a bit. Lesser inconveniences are no support for Pandora (I bypass that by just going the Blutooth Audio route but it would be nice) Aha or Stitcher (no Windows apps available) and, though not really important, phonebook picture import and personalized ringtones (need my Cyprus Hill, yo!). BTW, all this can all be found on the infotainment.mazdahandsfree.com site as I was wondering why I could not receive text messages.

TL/DR

My Windows phone sucks! What OS have you been using and to what degree of success? I am nhot inclined to iOS (had it in the past) or Android (never had it, but willing to try). Phone model suggestions would be helpful too. I know with Apple I am limited to size and memory, but there is a myriad of Android devices out there. Any experiences and/or suggestions/recommendations would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance!

You - or anyone else with a windows phone - might be interested to know that ms is working on allowing windows phones to install ios and android apps ;-)