What Is Windows Phone 7?

WINDOWS PHONE 7: A TECHNICAL REVIEW: DISCOVERING THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Microsoft latest smartphone platform, commonly known now as Windows Phone 7, is the latest entry to the world of smartphones. It has been in news since long and has been hyped about a lot. But is it really what it is supposed to be? Is it worth your attention? For all these answers, I tried my hands on the newest Windows Mobile Device.

As a latest entrant in the Arena of Mobile Phones, Windows Phone 7 seems promising. It is miles ahead of the older 6.x series of windows mobile platforms. While comparing it with the Android and iPhone platforms, it seems to have its fair share of limitations and restrictions. But as we all know, is the newest one, so it can be called as a “work in progress”.

WP7 has got good reviews from the developers and the people who are using it. The fact that it is being seen by Microsoft As a Device which could change the future of gaming, music and mobile communications by miles.

GOODS:

· Not an app Centric Approach: The home screen of WP7 has been focused and made neat and good looking. It’s really eye catching. Here the icons are arranged in a good and impressive manner and occupy larger area on the screen.

· WP7 groups related content together. The approach used is called HUBS. In the concept of HUBS, the programs and related applications are grouped into a single unit. Example, If you want to look out for a person, Your home screen has the option of “contacts” which would contain all your cell contacts and even there Facebook, LinkedIn Profiles. Isn’t that Great?

· The home screen has a”live “interface. It means that you need not to go into an application to know what is happening out there on Facebook. You get all your notifications, recent updates of Facebook and call alerts being displayed on the home screen only.

· Microsoft believes that the user should spend less time on phone and gets the information quickly.

· As I got a deeper view, the home screen is really appealing, you need not to browse over all those application icons installed on your mobile to find the one which you are looking for. A user can, if he uses an application randomly, can tile it on the home screen too.

A Very impressive Touch and response.

When it comes to touch screen, iPhone has no competitor as said. But my experience with WP7 was very satisfying. The touch is really really very responsive. It competes the iPhone for this. Hats off To Microsoft for this. The fluidity was so great that I don’t have words to describe it. I just love the touch. This is one of the most probable areas that Brings WP7 directly in the competition with iPhone.

The Onscreen keyboard is one of the best in the business. I experienced minimal typing errors while I was going fast at the keys. You may miss a character on your desktop keyboard but on on WP7 device J

GAMING AND MUSIC

Microsoft Discontinued Zune PMP but WP7 has got the support of Zune HD player.If anyone has a feel of zune Media Player would definitely feel the buzz in a WP7 device. Like an iPhone doubles up as an iPod Touch too.

Overall the media experience is better as compared to Android class,the media is mentained centrally and you get a full list on display of popular titles.

XBOX as we all know ,is one of the best devices Microsoft has produced for gaming.Surely too ,the legacy continues with WP7 too J It is no surprise that WP7 ships with XBOX Live. WP7 is a great news for mobile gamers and if you are an XBOX user,you are sure to hit the jackpot. XBOX users can simply login with the credentials with their Avatar and can downloads demos for free. The list is not endless but some more and good releases are expected soon.

WORK:

Microsoft office is the Top selling product . And million of users use it worldwide making it the best in the market. What if you get that support on your WP7? Well.. yes, MS has provided Office Integration .Now you can work on MS Office ,MS Powerpoint and if you wish, you can save it on SkyDrive, Microsoft’s Online Document Sharing Website.

The editing options present on Office are simple tough.I just saw font color and basic resize options.

Browsing:

It was a good experience browsing.The browser is not lightning fast but rendering was good. I liked it J

Hoping for the newer MANGO Update (WP 7.1) which is expected to bring IE9 support for windows phone.

BAD ASPECTS:

Not Customizable

WP7 is not customizable yet.May be it would after some time.WP7 is not for those geeks who like to customize their Phones. The interface is more or less fixed and you cant expect it to behave as like there Android Counterparts. You cant add a custom ringtone. But while the time this blog is mpublished ,MS would be providing support for that too.

Moreover, you can’t tweet the OS as per your requirements so you can say you are stuck over there.

App support

Now, WP7 has got all basic apps, but as I said it has been just less than 1 year of its launch, its not really a competor of iPhone or Android that have million of apps.WP7 has 25,000 apps presently but the market is growing. It is expected to rise very soon.Like android , you cant expect of getting Free Apps.

Microsoft Centric:

As of now, there is no support of third party softwares. Microsoft has put the restriction on that.Expect the default search engine as Bing, map services as Bing Maps ,Default Browser is Internet Explorer as always. When it comes to device management , it is locked to Zune Software, again a proprietary of Microsoft. So it shows, Microsoft has the complete monopoly of it.

CONCLUSION

Now, the baseline, would it be able to survive? It has to face the music because it has very stiff competition with the iPhone and Android counterparts. Android although cheaper than WP7.

According to me, Microsoft sees WP7 as a long term strategy and they have pocket full for it. The drawbacks would be done with the release of MANGO update that promises to add 500 new features to the Device. It is expected soon.

Microsoft has tied-up with Nokia and Nokia is now going to develop Phones on Windows Mobile OS. This is really a big boost For Microsoft as Nokia is the world leader in cell phones and collaboration with MS can bring cheers to them and MS can concentrate in Countries like India and china where the customers trust Nokia like anything.

So now, I put a hold on my writing, and I say I really liked the phone. Its something new.Dont worry about the updates and the soft wares, If you liked windows 7 then you would love WP7 too J