Introduction: As I’m this writing, Microsoft is ready to launch its new Windows Phone 7 devices in America and has already begun doing so across the world. You may ask yourself “what exactly IS Windows Phone 7 and why do I care?” Windows Phone 7 is a completely new mobile operating system for consumers. It completely leaves behind everything from its predecessors in an attempt to start fresh from the ground up for a chance to capture a new mobile audience. I have had a good bit of hands-on time with one of the initial launch devices, the HTC HD7, and I am going to share some of my initial thoughts with you about that device and more specifically the intriguing new OS.
Why the change: The big question is “why?” Why did they leave behind their Windows Mobile 6.XX platform and reboot from scratch? It’s an easy answer… survival. Windows Mobile is one of the oldest mobile smart phone platforms there is. It was around long before Apple, Android, or even Blackberry. Back when it was mainly MS and Palm competing for PDA space they had a huge market share. Both Palm and Microsoft had the same problem though. Neither was willing to make major changes to its OS to suit the growing needs of its consumer base. As the years have passed on, both MS and Palm took a nose dive in the smart phone market as new OS manufacturers claimed a piece of the pie. Palm was just recently bought out after a failed reboot of their OS that while good, was completely overshadowed by the rise of Android. Microsoft’s plan was to slap Windows Mobile on any device it could. That has led to many compatibility and stability issues that have made consumers look at other OS’s that were more stable and fun. Microsoft is well aware of the stakes because it now finds itself in the same precarious situation that Palm did of “reboot or become a footnote in the mobile industry”.
What’s new with the OS: Well, so they rebooted the system. So what’s new? Nearly all of it is. The system has been rebuilt from the ground up to be a finger friendly, smooth, and stable experience. Gone are the days of Microsoft slapping their OS on any phone they can. It is now a controlled experience from hardware, to screen resolution, to what manufacturers can do to customize the interface. Some people will, of course, cry foul at this change as it removes much of the open customization that Windows 5 and 6 enthusiasts kept close to heart. But also gone are the days of continuous hardware crashes, battery pulling reboots, and freezing errors. As a person that survives by selling and helping maintain consumer devices, I welcome the change as do most consumers. The new UI is fast, its buttery smooth, and it seems incredibly stable. In saying this, I would feel remiss if I did not point out that the phone I tested it on, the HD7, is actually the exact same phone hardware wise as the HD2 that ran windows mobile 6.5, with some minor additions. The difference is night and day. The HD2, like pretty much all Windows Mobile phones, was buggy, crash happy, and over all a headache. The HD7 is the exact opposite. The only real difference between the 2 is the software. It really is that much of a difference. The system itself simplifies and streamlines the experience. Now instead of an interface that tries to mirror the home windows experience, you get an optimized UI that makes finding things a breeze. Looking at a Windows Mobile Phone 7 device, the first thing you notice is tiles. The main screen is now broken up into blocks of tiles that are widgets and shortcuts to programs. You can customize these tiles and have up to 250 active tiles. Within a second of turning on the screen, you can see your texts, missed calls, emails, news, facebook, and whatever else you feel like putting in front of you. It is kind of a half way point between the iPhone’s endless Icons and Android’s ability to have widgets placed as you see fit. You can swipe the screen to the right and change it from the tiles to a sorted list of apps and settings.
The choice is yours. The kinetic scrolling in the device is beautiful. It just works so well you wonder why it took a full reboot for them to get it right. For those that prefer a more graphical look to the device, you can activate Sense Mode on HTC based WP7 devices. Anyone that has had a Sense enabled phone will be at home here with the familiar clock and weather widgets and easy access to your information. It also has a super cool animation for switching between cities for information on weather and such. It “flies” through clouds and over land like a first person view through superman’s eyes to get to the next “city”. Is it useful? No, it’s just darn cool. Also Internet Explorer has been completely revamped from a subpar browser to something on par with iPhone’s Safari browser or Android’s native browser. It does not include Adobe Flash at this time, but it is promised down the road. Zune Marketplace is heavily integrated into the OS now -- think of it as iTunes. It is very similar except the UI is much nicer in Zune. Flipping the screens between different categories is quite nice. It groups items by music, games, apps, most used, and newest. It is very graphic heavy with pictures of the app, descriptions, and reviews. It is much like the Android market, except maybe a little better organized and definitely prettier. It also contains the “try before you buy” option which is similar to Android’s 24 hr return window. In addition to buying individual songs, or listening to music apps such as Pandora, you can also subscribe to Zune for a monthly fee of $15.00. Before you scoff at it, it does offer some value. It gives full instant access to any music in the Zune library for personal play, and it also gives you 10 DRM free downloads each month of any songs you want. So it’s roughly the same as buying a CD a month while getting access to just about every song out there for free.
This feature review continues on the next page, please click below to see our final thoughts on the Windows Phone 7 HTC HD7 review.
