Windows Phone 7 Review

I got my hands on a WP7 device, the Samsung Focus, and I've been using it for about a week now. Since I've used an iPhone 3GS for over a year, I put that phone in a drawer so I could concentrate on a new device. Here's what I think at the end of the week.

The hardware is outstanding with one or two minor issues. On the Focus, all attention goes to the Super Amoled screen that's ridiculously better than my 3GS. Several of Samsung's Android phones use the same screen and it's stunning. Blacks are deep and colors pop. It's thin, has rounded edges, and is comfortable in my hand. The 5MP camera takes great pictures, aided by LED flash, and records HD video. It's not all rosy, though. I miss having a physical mute switch like I do on the iPhone. If the phone's asleep, I have to tap the power button, tap either volume button, then press the "mute" icon on the screen. It's a hassle. Also, there are three touch-sensitive buttons just below the screen. If I'm typing with one hand (heyo!), it's easy for my palm to accidentally tap the "search" button and kick me out of what I'm doing. Sure, you only need to press the "back" button and you haven't lost any progress, but it's annoying when it happens. Last, there is expandable memory via MicroSD, but it requires a particular class/speed of memory so what I had handy didn't work. That was disappointing.

Underneath the hardware is the Windows Phone 7 OS and I'm in love. It's gorgeous. It's smooth. It's easy. Compared to my iOS, it's simple and sophisticated. The combination of hubs, live tiles, and bold colors really stands out. Transitions from screen to screen are fluid without being obnoxious and the design is consistent across apps and areas. A coworker handed me a Motorola Atrix on Monday, the latest and greatest Android device, and it took me awhile to get my bearings. On the other hand, I gave my girlfriend the Samsung Focus and she knew where to go without direction. Here's how some of those little differences break down.

Hubs are a major part of the simplicity of the OS. A hub is a collection of similar content in one place. MS likes to call it a "panoramic view" because, with their design style, you swipe the screen left or right to move to different areas or information. There are several hubs: People, Pictures, Music & Videos, Games, Office, and Marketplace. The best example is the People Hub, which replaces the contact list found on most phones. Rather than just firing up a list of contacts and that's it, the People Hub tries to be a one-stop place to keep track of the people in your life. It starts off with a regular contact list, featuring small pictures next to each name. When I started up the phone, I linked up my Facebook account and it added all my FB friends to the phone in addition to importing all of their information and profile pics to my existing contact list. That was a bit overwhelming, so I changed the option to only bring over the information for people already on my contact list and it merged the lists. No problems. Press on a contact's name and you see their profile picture, latest status update (if applicable), phone numbers, email, a link to their Facebook wall, and other various information. Slide to the right and you get a list of all of that person's latest status/wall updates. Go back to the main contact list, move to the right and you go into a "What's New" section that gives instant access to the latest status updates from various social networking sites, Facebook being the most popular. No need to fire up a separate app to see what people are up to or comment. The downside is that you don't see when someone's responded to something you've commented on. Move to the right again and you have a "Recent" section that shows everyone you've had contact with lately, whether via call, text, or social networking. All of that is in one place. All other hubs follow the same idea, which overall reduces the reliance on separate apps and extra steps to perform the most common tasks.

Live Tiles are animated icons that update over time. For example, the "People" icon cycles through a 3x3 array of people's pictures from your contact list, the "messaging" icon changes from a smiley emoticon to a winking one with a number designating the number of messages, the "Music + Videos" icon updates with a picture of the last artist you listened to, and the "Xbox Live" icon has your avatar randomly pop on the screen. Not all tiles are live, but it's cool that the phone somewhat personalizes itself and useful in some cases. I don't need to launch the Weather Channel app (or go outside for that matter) to see that it's 49 degrees and cloudy right now. It's nice.

Beyond the obivous things there are many nice touches throughout. The keyboard is fantastic. It's more responsive than my iPhone, more accurate, and the way it recommends words and helps correct mistakes is excellent. You can search at any time with the dedicated search button and do voice commands if you have no dignity. The Xbox Live area lets you play mobile games and bump up your gamerscore, send and receive messages to your friends list, modify your avatar, and view achievements. Last, comprehensive support for MS products lets you modify Word, Excel, and even Powerpoint docs all the while backing all of those things up (along with pictures and videos) to a free 25GB Skydrive account. It's nice.

The OS isn't perfect, though, and many of the reviews online have pointed out the shortcomings. There's a distinct lack of apps compared to iOS and there are a few that I miss, but nothing I can't live without. Searching the marketplace is a pain in the butt, since it brings up all results from apps, music, and videos. Last, nd the most significant to me, is the difference in using Internet Explorer versus Safari. I use Google's web apps, especially Google Reader, and they've been kind enough to tailor the interface specifically for the iPhone. It's a halfway point between the barebones mobile version and the unwieldy-on-a-smartphone regular version. On the iPhone, that means I don't need a separate RSS reader to be completely happy but, on WP7, I'd eventually break down and pay money for one. There's no copy and paste, you can't slap on your own ringtones, and it would be nice if it were more customizable. For me, none of those things is a dealbreaker.

Yesterday, I decided to put my SIM card back in the iPhone. Days of reading about some of my favorite apps being updated had me chomping at the bit. After 20 minutes, I put it back in the drawer. After a week, all the apps didn't matter at all and damn that's a crappy little screen. The hardware itself obviously makes a huge difference and the OS isn't nearly as enjoyable to navigate. That said, I don't get to keep this phone indefinitely and I'm not up for an upgrade until September. By then, Microsoft will have issued one or two major patches for WP7, Apple may likely have a new iPhone, and the fruits for the Microsoft and Nokia deal may be even greater than this current device. Plenty of time to make up my mind.

It's a wonderful time to be alive with the first-world problem of picking between great mobile operating systems.