Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

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smoky004

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t's been a long road, hasn't it? Well, in some respects, it hasn't -- in fact, it's only been about two years since development of Windows Phone 7 as we know it today kicked off -- but when you consider that this product will be replacing Windows Mobile 6.5, that puts things in proper perspective. In fact, even the very latest maintenance releases of good ol' WinMo are based on the same rickety underpinnings as version 5.0 was way back in 2005, at a time when WVGA smartphone displays were science fiction, 4G networks were a good two Gs beyond the average American's comprehension, and Engadget looked like this. Nowadays, it's a very different game; eight year-olds have access to mobile email, your phone understands German, and "Yelp" is a verb (okay, actually Yelp is a verb). Indeed, mobile devices are the new PCs -- and companies like Apple and Google are dominating an industry that had once been practically handed to Microsoft on a silver platter. No one -- either inside or outside of Redmond -- is arguing that change isn't desperately (and quickly) needed, because it simply isn't enough to dominate the desktop anymore.

Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview -- Engadget
 
The device won't support copy and paste, and won't support third-party multitasking of apps.
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That's quite pathetic considering its coming from Microsoft. Building the OS from ground up is dandy and all, but what were they thinking when they decided to exclude these? Its outright criminal.
 
i used window phone 7 and dude it rocks. Android (2.2 Froyo) doesn't even compare to it. Touch Response is as good as iPhone (android is very bad). Overall its snappy and much faster than iphone or android. Zune is much better than android music app. only thing good about android is its apps store and once WP7 has a good one, it might kill android. maybe android 3 will be better but who knows. Overall neck n neck with iOS leaving android behind.

For now i'm just waiting for them to launch. Few problems like facebook contact integration n all are there but should get ironed out by release time.

Only problem its not free and not opensource but same is true for iOS.
 
6pack said:
^ :O its not yet released, how did you use it?
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Developers and occasionally reviewers do get Pre-release versions of software. How did you think engadget put up their preview. :P I have myself worked on pre-releases of every Mac OS X release 6 months to one year before they get released.

gauviz said:
Android (2.2 Froyo) doesn't even compare to it. Touch Response is as good as iPhone (android is very bad).
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Super sensitive touch is not essentially a good thing for everyone. I never liked the feel of it on the iPhone, but if you want super sensitive touch on an android phone, then try Galaxy S which is pretty much on par with iPhone in touch sensitivity. While its not such a bad thing for navigation, I am having hell of a time typing on this phone. Its too easy to make mistakes and I never like to use predictive input on my phones.

gauviz said:
Overall its snappy and much faster than iphone or android.
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I haven't used an iPhone long enough personally to make a fair assessment about its performance, but I have been using my Galaxy S the last 3 days and I can say for sure that Performance is not exactly a strength of Android. Compared to Symbian, Android feels like beta quality software. Eye candy, sure enough, but its not an efficient user of resources and neither are the apps. The key strength of Android is its customization and basically the ability to mess around with it as you please which is why its a platform for geeks and enthusiasts to experiment with. You have so much choice that if you what you can make sure its snappy. Android is simply enthusiast material.

gauviz said:
Only thing good about android is its apps store
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I don't think Android market is exactly a key strength for Android. A lot of the free apps are poorly coded and amateur quality (a lot of them seem to be leaking memory which is really bad) and the good ones are either lite feature restricted versions of paid software or alternatively adware. In any case app stores are over rated. I hardly find myself installing 20~25 apps. Its doesn't matter whether you have 1M apps or 5M. Give me an app store with just 100 apps out of which at least 20 are actually useful ones and I would be happy.

gauviz said:
and once WP7 has a good one, it might kill android. maybe android 3 will be better but who knows.
Overall neck n neck with iOS leaving android behind.
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Android, Symbain and iOS are not going to die out even if WP7 turns out fantastic. Each have their own consumer/fan bases and WP7 is going to be competition mainly to iOS, not to Android.

gauviz said:
Only problem its not free and not opensource but same is true for iOS.
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Not being open source is not exactly a disadvantage. While Android has certain advantages because of its open source nature, there are many cons as well. WP7 is going to target a market for whom open source nature of the OS means jack. App development just needs solid SDK's and that is an area MS excels in.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
Developers and occasionally reviewers do get Pre-release versions of software. How did you think engadget put up their preview. :P I have myself worked on pre-releases of every Mac OS X release 6 months to one year before they get released.
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Can't Comment

Super sensitive touch is not essentially a good thing for everyone. I never liked the feel of it on the iPhone, but if you want super sensitive touch on an android phone, then try Galaxy S which is pretty much on par with iPhone in touch sensitivity. While its not such a bad thing for navigation, I am having hell of a time typing on this phone. Its too easy to make mistakes and I never like to use predictive input on my phones.
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I do agree on point of being super sensitive, i meant that it's much better than android infact i've used android on Nexus One and it doesn't even register touch many times. I've heard all's well in Galaxy S, then again i was pointing to android in general. PS: i loved typing on WP7

I haven't used an iPhone long enough personally to make a fair assessment about its performance, but I have been using my Galaxy S the last 3 days and I can say for sure that Performance is not exactly a strength of Android. Compared to Symbian, Android feels like beta quality software. Eye candy, sure enough, but its not an efficient user of resources and neither are the apps. The key strength of Android is its customization and basically the ability to mess around with it as you please which is why its a platform for geeks and enthusiasts to experiment with. You have so much choice that if you what you can make sure its snappy. Android is simply enthusiast material.
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True but very small percentage of people who'll actually mess around their phones. Hence if a good alternative is present it surely will impact market share
I don't think Android market is exactly a key strength for Android. A lot of the free apps are poorly coded and amateur quality (a lot of them seem to be leaking memory which is really bad) and the good ones are either lite feature restricted versions of paid software or alternatively adware. In any case app stores are over rated. I hardly find myself installing 20~25 apps. Its doesn't matter whether you have 1M apps or 5M. Give me an app store with just 100 apps out of which at least 20 are actually useful ones and I would be happy.
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More the number of apps more is probability of finding what you are looking for.

Android, Symbain and iOS are not going to die out even if WP7 turns out fantastic. Each have their own consumer/fan bases and WP7 is going to be competition mainly to iOS, not to Android.
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Well iOS certainly has a fan base ,but i differ wrt android,they do have a fan base as of now but they need to prove they are loyal like apple's. Once their is a good alternative that'll really test the loyalty.
Not being open source is not exactly a disadvantage. While Android has certain advantages because of its open source nature, there are many cons as well. WP7 is going to target a market for whom open source nature of the OS means jack. App development just needs solid SDK's and that is an area MS excels in.
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Well if its open source developers come up with awesome mods so just seems that such a platform will be more customizable.

All in all good competition from WP7 will drive innovation for all, which i'm really happy about.
 
Isn't going to be released officially tonight some time along with LG E900 (Optimus7) phone? The preview videos (UI demo etc) on youtube were awesome looking :)
 
Lord Nemesis said:
That's quite pathetic considering its coming from Microsoft. Building the OS from ground up is dandy and all, but what were they thinking when they decided to exclude these? Its outright criminal.
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It's like MS is expecting the users of Win Phone 7 to be as dumb as iPhone users. :no:
 
Well on the app store front.

QUality is important and not quantity.

The death or growth of an OS depends on how users perceive it.

If some initial users do like it then its bound to get more mouth to mouth publicity
 
Windows Phone 7 OS review: From scratch

Key features:

* Premium mobile OS (high minimum hardware requirements)

* Clean, uncluttered interface with distinctive design language

* Easy and thumbable user interface

* Smooth operation with cool animations and transition effects

* A fresh start with no legacy support needed

* Backed up and developed by one of the largest software companies in the world

* Excellent MS Office mobile implementation

* Top-notch social integration

* Excellent cloud services integration (SkyDrive, Windows Live, Xbox Live)

* Wireless syncing of multimedia content

Main disadvantages:



* No system-wide file manager

* No videocalling

* Limited third-party apps availability

* No Bluetooth file transfers

* No USB mass storage mode

* No multitasking

* No copy/paste

* Too dependent on Zune software for computer file management and syncing

* No music player equalisers

* No Flash or Silverlight support in the web browser

* No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far

* No DivX/XviD video support

* No internet tethering support

SOURCE : Windows Phone 7 OS review: From scratch - GSMArena.com
 
ms rocks .. will throw my iphone out once the hd7 launches...from a corporate user's perspective windows phone will be much better in the long run than a bb or iphone .. cause winmo was the only true competitor to the bb earlier .. in the long run this os will give ios and bb a run for its money for sure .
 
khanvis2009 said:
ms rocks .. will throw my iphone out once the hd7 launches....
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I'm Ready to catch it if its 4...
khanvis2009 said:
in the long run this os will give ios and bb a run for its money for sure .
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Do you think Apple and BB fold hands or pluck flowers by the time...

Ios is already matured compared to the current WP7. (Bad time MS you had ripped function over form)
 
Lord Nemesis said:
I haven't used an iPhone long enough personally to make a fair assessment about its performance, but I have been using my Galaxy S the last 3 days and I can say for sure that Performance is not exactly a strength of Android. Compared to Symbian, Android feels like beta quality software. Eye candy, sure enough, but its not an efficient user of resources and neither are the apps. The key strength of Android is its customization and basically the ability to mess around with it as you please which is why its a platform for geeks and enthusiasts to experiment with. You have so much choice that if you what you can make sure its snappy. Android is simply enthusiast material.
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Err no. That's crappy Samsung's RFS file system at fault. Use one of HTC's or Motorola phones running Froyo, (N1 and Desire have somewhat limited multitouch recognition though) they are as smooth as the iPhone. My G2 out of the box is as smooth as it can be without any tinkering or modifying. That's why I don't like my Vibrant - too much dev time wastes in optimizing the OS to run perfectly.
 
thirumalkumaran said:
I'm Ready to catch it if its 4...
Do you think Apple and BB fold hands or pluck flowers by the time...

Ios is already matured compared to the current WP7. (Bad time MS you had ripped function over form)
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ios isnt matured for use for companies ..the advantage ms has is that 90% of the corporate world uses its systems so integrating a winmo phone will be easier .. i would see a lot of corporations switching from bb to winmo for its employees..and the apple iphone is still far behind to compete in the corporate space unless they improve their exchange support and battery life ... also, a lot of useless paid apps in the apple world will now slowly become free ..but after 6 months winmo will def rock .. and yes stand outside my window when winmo launches here..will def throw out my 4 then..lol.. the hd7 looks like the phone to get ..
 
I don't know if it's only me, but I hate that UI! Terrible waste of space on home-screen and whats with the huge fonts everywhere ??
 
Pat said:
I don't know if it's only me, but I hate that UI! Terrible waste of space on home-screen and whats with the huge fonts everywhere ??
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i am ok with the ui . the iphone and even the lg/samsung ui ( like galaxy s )are the same now .at least its something diff .
 
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