Yeong Kar YanAfter much anticipated hype over the new Windows Mobile operating system over the last 9 months, Microsoft may have finally developed a winner – the Windows Phone 7.
Calling the WP7 a “reboot” for their mobile strategy, Microsoft is wiping the slate clean and has come up with a completely new user interface.
1. New Design and User Interface
2. People
3. Pictures
4. Games
5. Music + Video
6. Office hub + Calendar
7. Marketplace
8. Summary
New Design and User Interface
The first thing Microsoft has done right is throw out the clunky Start menus, folders and files to give us a brilliant integrated hubs system built up by a series of “live” tiles that are neater and more dynamic for the phone user.
The WP7 offers a sleek and minimalistic 2-column design that’s not only incredibly easy-to-use but also lets you receive the latest updates from your social network at one glance.
Navigation is also smooth and intuitive by way of sliding, scrolling left to right, tilting and swiping to view the rich content on your phone.
What’s most beautiful is that everything on the Start screen is customizable and built entirely around the user experience.
Can’t get through the day without calling your loved ones 3 times a day? Just “pin” them to your Start screen and you can reach them with a tap of your finger, without needing to go through your address book or to do a search.
Each tile can represent anything (and everything) you love and it can be a contact,your favourite web page, song, application or even a hub. Rearrange them any way you like or remove one simply by long-tapping a tile and choosing to unpin it.
A tap on the arrow at the top of the screen brings you a list of all your applications. One downside is that there’s no way to classify or categorize these apps and so the screen gets pretty cluttered once you install more apps.
The Windows Phone 7 is a great new mobile platform for consumers and what UrbanWire loves most about it is the seamless integration of all our favourite social activities within the 6 hubs – People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Office and the Marketplace.
If you are familiar with the Zune HD music player, navigating through the WP7 hubs becomes even more of a breeze. Both devices are defined by “Metro”, a typography-based design by Microsoft, which features large type (i.e. Zegoe or Segoe fonts), a panoramic design, clean colours and fluid animation. So yes, the cut-off text is not a mistake.
People
Everything you need to know about your friends and family is here in the People hub as the phone automatically streams information about them from various sources such as Facebook or their email accounts. This is a function also offered by phones like HTC Sense.
Call, text, email your friends or check their latest status update from Facebook simply by tapping on a particular contact.
Simply scroll across the hub to see “what’s new” for everyone’s Facebook updates.
The only question now is: When are we getting Twitter?
Pictures
As with the People hub, all your photos (including albums from your Facebook account) can be displayed. They’re shown in little thumbnails and viewable by date or favourites. Scroll to see your friends’ latest uploads and even comment on them if you like.
Capture those quick moments on the go simply by pressing the shutter button to activate the camera even when the phone is off or locked, and you’re ready to snap as soon as the phone’s out of your pocket.
Once you’re done, WP7 uploads and shares your pictures automatically on Facebook or SkyDrive, a Windows Live file storage and sharing system.
Games
Several notable Microsoft features have also been incorporated into the phone and they include a mobile Office suite, Zune entertainment platform and, of course, the highly anticipated Xbox LIVE.
The avatar’s extremely adorable – you can tickle or hit him/her, or shake the phone and watch them fall to the ground with a pained expression. If you have the Xbox LIVE hub pinned to your Start menu, your avatar will even pop up occasionally before disappearing back into the tile.
Basically Xbox presented in a mobile format, the Games hub lets you play your favourite games, look through Spotlight for the latest updates or check out your friends’ or your own achievements and gamer profile.
While there are only about 60 over game titles as of now according to PC World, the fact is incorporating Xbox LIVE games will offer users rich graphical and gaming experiences.
Music + Video
You needn’t despair of not being able to get your hands on the Zune player (only available in US and Canada) anymore, as phone users can now enjoy the same music and video features of the Zune HD thanks to Windows Phone 7.
Syncing music is just a matter of drag and drop, though users will need to download the Zune desktop software. Apple users can also rest assured that using WP7 will be a breeze as Microsoft has come up with a basic compatible software, the “Windows Phone 7 Connector”, which allows users to sync multimedia content from iTunes or iPhoto to the phone.
Sadly, the Zune Marketplace won’t be available in Singapore though phone users can enjoy unlimited music downloads through service applications such as SingTel’s AMPed.
Office hub + Calendar
View, edit, share and sync your Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents with your PC. However, only simple edits are possible with editing options being rather basic: format, highlight and change font colors.
What’s new here is the powerful OneNote application, which allows you to make notes, do voice recordings or even snap pictures when necessary.
The calendar’s also pretty good and lets you plan your daily agenda complete with coloured labels in relation to the urgency of the task at hand. You can also view your calendar by month to find those free days when you can hang out with your friends.
Marketplace
As with any smartphone, this isn’t complete without apps and WP7 users can download everything they need for music, games, entertainment, news, sports and more through the marketplace.
The apps are sorted between free and paid.
It’ll be a long time though before Microsoft can catch up to the huge app libraries that make smartphones like the Apple iPhone such great successes.
Microsoft hit the 1000 app milestone yesterday while Apple reported a total of 300, 000 on Oct 20.
However, featured apps like Twitter, IMDB, eBay, are already on Windows Marketplace while more developers, such as EA Mobile, are jumping aboard to publish a slew of Xbox LIVE games for WP7 users.
We also like that all Xbox LIVE games in the Marketplace hub come with a free trial.
Summary
Microsoft has gained several positive reviews from critics and deservedly so.
In a world where connectivity and speed is everything, Windows Phone 7 can prove to be a huge lure for social- and multi- media phone junkies, especially with the integration of Xbox LIVE and Zune.
Some gripes however are that users need to sign up for a Windows Live ID, to gain full access to phone features such as SkyDrive or Zune. Fortunately, signing up is easy enough even if you are a Gmail email user or whatsoever.
Critics also lamented the lack of a copy and paste function (which will be solved with an update early next year), video chat functions and the inability to multitask when it comes to third party applications.
We aren’t sure if this release still isn’t a little too late when smartphone users are so hooked onto their iPhone, but those who want a breath of fresh air will love the new Windows Phone 7.
Here’s a look at the WP7 devices that will hit our shores by the end of this year:
SingTel
– HTC HD7
– LG Optimus 7
– Samsung OMNIA 7
Starhub
– HTC 7 Mozart
– LG Optimus 7
– Samsung OMNIA 7 (TBD)
M1
– HTC 7 Trophy
– Samsung OMNIA 7 (TBD)