Before I begin the Windows Phone 7 review, I would like to mention that my application – NextGen Reader (a google reader client engineered for performance) is available in the marketplace.

Now let’s dive into action:

The first thing Microsoft always said – “It’s a different phone”, well that’s true … really true I mean it! Here’s the reason why, you don’t ever feel of it as a phone (in fact I like to think of it as an entertainment device). The Metro UI is a wonderful experience and I have never seen anything of this sort before, it’s truly innovative.

As you start using, you will come to know that it’s designed for always in motion. The complete experience just flows from one thing to another e.g. switching through apps, swiping to different views in hubs and moreover the OS is buttery smooth. This can’t be felt in videos – you have to try it yourself in order to see the beauty.

On the whole, I will say after sometime with phone you will begin to feel like beneath your unlock screen there is someone actually living (a world in motion) and when I went back to my older phone after few days, it felt like a dead OS.

Let’s talk of some cool stuff on Windows Phone 7:

· First of all, the Facebook integration is fantastic.

Yes, if you are a Facebook user – even a casual user then WP7 is really a good choice. The integration is beautiful, comes in very handy e.g. you could check the status quickly before calling your social friend. On the whole “People’s hub” is a brilliant concept which is deep and yet simple enough for the first timer. Only thing I feel missing is no twitter integration.

· Xbox Live: It’s the one big thing that on it’s own can bring Microsoft back to top in smartphone world. As it seems the Microsoft Studios themselves have taken up the challenge, they release exciting Xbox Live games every week. You will find completely new games e.g. Harvest made only for WP7. If Microsoft can bring the complete Xbox live integration with future updates, then imagine the scenario where gaming will go beyond the current 42+ million Xbox gamer’s.

Reality: Gaming is very important for Microsoft to succeed in smartphone which comes from the fact that the most paid and successful software on iPhone are games.

· Zune: It’s a wonderful good looking sexy music experience. Zune started as the competition to iTunes, but couldn’t challenge despite being an amazing product. But let me warn you the WP7 + Zune combination is a killer feature and things are different here. With Zune Marketplace – there are unbelievable options e.g. Zune Pass which is your entry to world of streaming music on Phone, Xbox or PC and of course normal options of buying albums or songs are also present.

· Office Hub: Microsoft did a really good job to bring Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to WP7. You can add quick notes by using OneNote and they automatically sync up to cloud. Office hub does includes SharePoint Integration as well, to attract Enterprise customers.

· Wi-Fi sync is one of the cool small feature that I like very much. Since my PC is always on Wi-Fi (@home) and whenever I put my Samsung Focus on charge, it syncs up with PC automatically. Amazingly, it also resumes my podcasts from same point where I paused it on my PC.

· Internet Explorer on WP7 is really good if not better than what’s available on iPhone or Android. The kinetic scrolling is very smooth and zoom in/out is faster than chrome on android.

· Great Camera experience – being able to start camera without going through unlock is indeed very useful.

· Super fast boot time – beats iOS or Android by big margins.

· Great SIP (software input panel) a.k.a. virtual keyboard.

On the side note I would like to mention something important – Xbox Live, Zune, Office hub are differentiators that can really bring Microsoft into the smartphone game. I find Android struggling with not so good counterparts and also no 3rd party apps can match Zune/iTunes experience on Android.

Philosophy

iPhone

The fact that iPhone/iOS has tough time in keeping Android down from rising is it’s worldwide availability or the high price. On top of it there is only one handset to choose when it comes to Apple’s iOS and that’s iPhone. What if you wanted:

– QWERTY keyboard

– really big screens for watching movies/episodes on the go

– 8 megapixel camera on the phone, etc.

Well there is no choice or options. Apple products are based on closed phenomenon which really brings the best end user experience but also has some limits.

Android

This is where Android fitted in exactly, people needed great hardware options with constant innovations like the last year’s 1Ghz snapdragon processors or super-amoled touchscreen or HTC’s great build quality. Now the Google’s phenomena is completely opposite i.e. completely OPEN – meaning less control over the end-user experience, with each subscribers or vendors trying to add something of their own.

Windows Phone 7 a.k.a. WP7

Welcome to Windows Phone 7, a top-notch end user experience with different hardware options in addition to minimum requirements. Well it seems Microsoft did got the recipe right and it means in future Google might see a big battle from Microsoft but not Apple. I still do believe that Apple’s iPhone is the single most popular phone on the planet.

WP7 software



Contact Management is really powerful and has the right tools for the first time user if you don’t have sync’d up contacts i.e. different stuff on Google, Facebook and SIM. On WP7, it should not take a big effort to setup a perfect contact list.

Here’s a tip:

– Add all your accounts – Windows Live, Google, Facebook, & Copy from SIM as well.

– Go to live.com, go to contacts and then go to options:

– You will find an option “Cleanup Duplicates” and it really is a great features; it brings in menu with options to merge contacts smartly. You just have to select right checkboxes and within minutes I was able to bring my 650+ contacts to 300 Sync’d up clean list.

– Even further, if you have any duplicates with different names, like dad (1st no.) in Google and father (2nd no.) in SIM, there’s an option “link” in contact’s, which will again smartly merge these two, without having you to do anything.

Let’s talk about the situation on 3rd party Applications, we all know there isn’t any chance for a platform to succeed if it doesn’t have huge application catalog. Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is definitely on a good start especially on games side which is just great. As of today total count is closing on 7000 that is awesome and faster than anyone else I believe for a new platform.

WP7 UI design is really nice, if apps follow them properly you can potentially see the WP7 being most beautiful platform. One of the things, I am amazed with is how good the IMDB app looks on WP7 and many others.

Missing



So far I have been just rambling about positives for WP7, but let’s see some negatives:

1) No Copy and Paste – Can’t moan much about it; It’s already expected in next update which is coming shortly & most probably this month. (Remember iPhone took 3 years to get this one, let’s not compare though, because iPhone is still miles ahead overall.)

2) Multitasking for 3rd party Apps – Microsoft did indicated that they are looking for perfect solution, I like the Apple one – controlled multitasking rather than 100% multitasking on Android.

Here’s the fact – Take the top ten paid applications except games and then compare Android list to iPhone top ten, you will come to know that with Android, three or four would be task-killer or task-managers which means customer are wasting money plus time in doing something that they shouldn’t have to do in 1st place 😉 plus + an added advantage of poor battery if you end up downloading some poor apps from market.

3) Smart Dialing by default, I like it, but however it’s not there in Android or iPhone as well by default, correct me if I am wrong.??

4) If you happen to receive lot of calls, then WP7 History shows them in one list, your incoming, outgoing and missed call with different colors though. But I would like to see in different tabs.

5) If you install lot of applications, then the list on right hand side of homescreen gets very long, may be they can use Grid like concept of android or some sort of categories.

6) Inbuilt Outlook App is certainly pleasure to use, but they can bring in Full Exchange Server support with advanced features and clubbing multiple-accounts like in iPhone 4.

When I think of all above, there’s nothing which can’t be achieved if Microsoft remains committed and deliver continuous updates (one coming this month). What’s required is to have good solid platform to build upon, and which they certainly have achieved with few biggies like Xbox Live and Zune Integration.

Final Verdict



Wow, glad you are still reading 😉 we have reached the end, and more interestingly this is my first ever and longest review of anything.

Many people think that Microsoft is late to the smartphone party but I feel different.

Fact: Smartphone sales are supposed to keep rising and reach maximum till 2014/2015, which means a hell lot of time before someone could settle and dominate. So from where I see there is definitely a possibility of not only Microsoft, but any one of Nokia/HP (Palm)/RIM to do something great and as innovative as Microsoft did.

Microsoft clearly was way ahead of everyone in Smartphone world with Windows Mobile in 2000’s when nobody new, but perhaps it wasn’t the right time or too early or the touchscreen innovation didn’t happen that time, but with Microsoft’s current attempt to abandon Windows Mobile 6.x completely and start from scratch has worked, but it still needs to have consistent updates before it catches up with iPhone or Android.

Finally I would be least surprised if it does so or to put in another way, most surprised if it doesn’t catches up with Android or iPhone and becomes the 3rd equal holder in smartphone world considering Microsoft’s commitment to through up any money for doing it.

OS Ratings

WP7 – 7/10 (if Microsoft delivers continuous updates then it will soon be a 9/10 experience)

iPhone – 9/10 (brilliant)

Android – 7/10 (may be for tech. enthusiast’s like me – 9/10)

I think I missed to describe few other good experiences with WP7 and rather than giving a thorough tour, I gave my philosophical review. But you could find those huge reviews on many tech sites but not the feelings of a developer 🙂 Finally one more important thing to mention – Microsoft made it really easy to develop applications and run across them on different WP7 devices by putting a common set of requirements on hardware whereas same on Android is really a challenge.

THANKS, that’s it for today.

-NGReader