The Windows Phone 7 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on October 20, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Microsoft
- Mobile
OEM/Carrier Customization: One Part Apple, One Part Google
For the past couple of years we’ve had two options at the forefront of the smartphone race. If you want the ability to choose your own device, customize your OS and run virtually anything you want to: Android has you covered. If you want more of an appliance experience and don’t mind giving up freedom in hardware choice or OS customization, there’s always the iPhone. Apple will never sell iOS on non-Apple hardware, and until Android 3.0 Google won’t enforce a consistent UI across all partners. Microsoft falls smack in the middle. If you weren’t totally happy with either option, Windows Phone may be what you’ve been looking for.
The OS and user experience are pretty much off limits for carriers and OEMs to customize. Microsoft will not allow any custom skinning or replacement of default apps. While Android lets you switch out the virtual keyboard software, Microsoft takes a more Apple-like approach and instead delivers what it believes is the only keyboard software you will need. Microsoft wants all Windows Phones to look and feel the same from a UI standpoint, so custom UIs are out. Don’t expect to see HTC’s Sense or Samsung’s TouchWiz permeate Microsoft’s latest OS.
Even hardware specs are pretty well dictated by Microsoft. All first generation Windows Phone 7 devices must use a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC with Adreno 200 GPU, they must feature at least a 5MP camera and an 800 x 480 screen. A physical keyboard may be optional but all must implement Microsoft’s virtual keyboard via a capacitive multitouch screen.
There are three buttons that must be present along the bottom of the face of any Windows Phone: Back, Start and Search. The buttons must be present in that order, avoiding the confusion of reordered buttons we sometimes see on Android devices. The type of button is up to the OEM to decide: either capacitive touch or physical buttons can be used.
At the top left of any Windows Phone there must be a volume rocker. The top right has to have a power/lock button. The lower right has to have a physical camera button capable of waking the phone up from sleep and putting it directly into the camera app. Microsoft views the smartphone as the replacement for the point and shoot camera and thus Windows Phone needs to be able to function just as quickly as a P&S. Finally, all Windows Phones must have a 3.5” stereo audio out jack and support for headsets with three button integration. These are headsets similar to what Apple ships with the iPhone with button(s) on the cable itself.
Microsoft wants OEMs to compete based on hardware design. Windows Phones can take any shape and size, but they must meet these basic requirements. It’s Microsoft’s way of saying: feel free to differentiate, but don’t ruin what we’ve built.
With this approach Microsoft hopes to avoid the mistakes Google has made with Android, where there’s an inconsistent user experience going from HTC to Samsung to Motorola Android phones. It’s almost as if Microsoft is taking Apple’s approach and simply letting everyone build iPhones.
The OEMs are understandably nervous of what Microsoft is proposing. From what I’ve heard, Google is putting a lot of pressure on its partners to remain pro-Google. That combined with Microsoft’s unproven track record in this new smartphone world resulted in many OEMs shipping very conservative designs for their first Windows Phones. Many of these designs are recycled from previous phones. The Samsung Focus is a lot like the Samsung Captivate, and the HTC HD7 is very similar to the HD2. If Windows Phone gets enough traction, then (and only then) will we see riskier designs from Microsoft’s partners. If you’re wondering why there aren’t any truly sexy WP7 phones out at launch it’s just a matter of OEMs wanting to see if Microsoft really has a chance before committing to a more impressive design.
There’s also no carrier exclusivity here (although I suspect the Apple/AT&T deal is close to being over at this point). Microsoft is launching first in the US with AT&T, however T-Mobile and Sprint phones are forthcoming. Verizon is curiously absent, but if you paid attention to my Google pressure line above it’s not too surprising.
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x0rg - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - link
To me it looks like Microsoft just needed to release something ASAP. Later they can work on interface improvement, I mean fonts, sizes, blocks, text location, easy shortcut access, backups, etc. There are tons of things to improve.landswipe - Thursday, November 4, 2010 - link
"The downside to this layout is that every time you want to enter a different URL, you’ll have to rotate to portrait, enter it, and then swap back. Same if you want to change tabs or use a favorite. That can get a bit frustrating if you’re used to viewing pages in landscape, but not totally killer. There’s an impressively fluid rotation transition between portrait and landscape, however."Same theme through the whole article...
Little Upside... bit more downside... a little frustrated?... but HEY come on we are friends!!! there is some cool animation by our designers to make up for it all :D <cheesy grin>
It stinks of slight of hand, and overall sounds like an epic fail waiting to happen... This just won't compete.
As a developer, I don't think the apps/games produced are going to cut it... With Android and iPhone you can at least write cross platform opengl games in C++. dotNet is just pure lock-in.
I hope they sell just enough of these things to put an early end to it... I have a feeling a lot of people are going to get fooled.
jeans_xp - Sunday, November 7, 2010 - link
It's bad news for us, AMOLED is not used.www.mobilegoing.com
vhx - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Only problems I have are no custom ring tones (really now...). No messenger support yet. No clue about 3rd party apps, no one is talking about it. Will it be like Android or the tight control Apple has? I couldn't find any article talking about this.DKant - Saturday, November 13, 2010 - link
I got through 15 pages and that was it. I have already decided this is my next mobile-platform anyway (unless I start hearing rumors of a hologram-projecting iPhone 5), no point reading the remaining 200. I can't imagine the amount of patience it must have taken to WRITE this behemoth! :) Of course it's your job, you've been doing this forever etc, but still.Man, finally. A "proper" competitor to iOS, which was getting a little stale. And I have too many issues with Google's approach to consider any of the quadrillion models on offer.
Well. I do hope WP7 sells and lives longer than the Palm. :_(
(And I'd never imagined I'd finish a post with this..)
To Microsoft!!
CSMR - Saturday, November 13, 2010 - link
Very informative review, but shouldn't this site be serving people who are technically minded rather than the average consumer?There is no question WP7 has a lot of excellent points.
But I'm not sure how you can accept a system that does away with files, and uses a limited sync system to move content around in approved ways.
Or call software "The Best Smartphone for Music Lovers" when:
- it believes that music consists of "songs" written by "artists" and put into "albums", when only a minor part of the history of western music is of this form
- it does not allow a folder structure for navigation, only limited tags of the above form
- gapless playback is incomplete
Microsoft needs prodding to update the system in a way that retains the new features and GUI but also implements the basic features. If it doesn't get this from tech sites, where are we left? Perhaps Windows 8 will decide Turing completeness is no longer important, people just need to be able to do x, y, and z as simply as possible. I'm sure there are a lot of people at Microsoft who want WP7 to be a real OS - without changing usability. They just need a bit of support.
Millsington - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - link
Excellent point about folder navigation, I had forgotten about that. It is sorely missed in modern music players.Sadly, I don't see the issues you raised being addressed for some time unless WP7 really takes off.
billybarker - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - link
Check out these Windows Phone 7 Application Icons - there are 350 icons in the set. http://goo.gl/rMk08warden6 - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I've had my HTC 7 Mozart for a fortnight. I like it. I like the big square icons on the Start screen (although I've toned down the colour as much as possible); I like the integration with Google Mail, Contacts and Calendar (yes it does work, set it up as an Exchange server); I like the threaded conversations for texts like the iPhone; the music player is good; oh, and it's not a bad phone either.There are some issues -- there's no Messenger client, gapless track playback is haphazard to say the least, there's a limited range of alerts/ringtones and you can't add more, and battery life is a bit short. Especially with push email. Hopefully some of those can be fixed, but they're definitely not deal-breakers for me.
What I can't figure out is how to do "Inverse" on the scientific view of the calculator. No inverse-sin, inverse-log, etc. That's not a deal-breaker either, I don't use those very often! But it's an odd omission.
anistoona - Sunday, November 21, 2010 - link
" but while home I don’t use those apps as much. Instead my smartphone behaves more like an SMS, phone, email, camera and web browsing device, and it’s in those areas that Windows Phone is easily just as good as the competition."With all my respect: If I need only the SmS, phone, email, Camera and web borwisng things form my handheld device, I would like to buy a 150$ Symbian phone, I don't need to buy an up to 700$ smartphone to do that things!!
WinMob 5, 6.x was the system which puts the definition of what " Smart Phones" should capable of, and disappointingly Microsoft chose to give up that system and replaced with a modified copy of Old, aged and discontinued competitors system ( I mean first generation of iOS ) ..
Really good choice Microsoft !