10 days with Windows Phone 7
I think it’s the first time in three years of being an iPhone owner that I spent 10 days without using my iPhone. Why did I ditch my iPhone 3G[S] during 10 days? A friend of mine lent me his Windows Phone 7 phone. So during these 10 days, I was using Windows Phone 7 as my primary mobile OS. The next couple of paragraphs are thoughts and comments about my experience with the Samsung Omnia 7 on the latest mobile platform from the people at Redmond.
The first time you boot the phone, WP7 guides you to setup your phone. This assistant helps you setup your Windows Live Account for the Marketplace and the Xbox Live integration. Also, it lets you add your email account for syncing contacts and calendars (more about syncing later). This initial setup lasts like one minute maybe two, depending if you have all the information needed.
After the initial setup, the phone guides you to the Tiles screen. The Tiles screen is a two column screen with little squares that represent your apps. These little squares can be updated based on what’s happening in the application they represent. For example, the messaging tile will show you how many unread text messages you have, the calendar tile will show you your short-term schedule (next few hours of the day). Microsoft did a great job with their tile concept. It helps you stay up-to-date on what’s happening on your phone. The second most important screen of the phone is the Applications screen. If you swipe the Tiles screen from right to left, you can access to the list of the installed applications on the phone. This list included apps pinned to the Tiles Screen. It’s a simple list of apps which show you a small icon and the name of the app. It’s from this screen that you can pin app to the Tiles Screen or uninstall an app. Touch and hold the app you want to pin/uninstall and a little pop-up menu will appear with the options.
Since my testing device doesn’t have an physical keyboard, I needed to rely on the WP7 virtual keyboard. The onscreen keyboard looks like the iOS keyboard. Some keys aren’t at the same place so if you’re an iPhone user, you’ll need some time to change your typing habits. A nice addition on the WP7 virtual keyboard is the Emoticon section. Click on the little emoticon beside the spacebar and it reveals commonly used emoticons.
I need four apps to survive on a daily basis : Facebook, Twitter, 1Password and an IM client. Facebook and Twitter have official apps on the Marketplace. Agile is currently working on a WP7 version of 1Password. At the moment, the app is currently in beta (free). For the IM client, I chose to use the first good-looking IM client I found. It’s named IM+.
Speaking of other apps, the Marketplace has a little selection of applications. It might be the biggest problem on the platform. Some classics like Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies or Flight Control are available on the Marketplace. Sadly, a small part of the big names in the iOS App Store are available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. I’m a big fan of Camera+ : Not on the Marketplace. I hope the Nokia-Microsoft partnership will help sell WP7. More devices in the hands of customers equals more developers willing to port their apps to WP7. At the moment, Windows Phone 7 users represents 1% of smartphone users in USA .
Since I'm a Mac user, I need to use Windows Phone 7 Connector. A quick Google search helped me find where I can download this app. Microsoft has made a great move by putting the app on the Mac App Store. High five to the Microsoft Mac Team. But wait! Since I'm a cool guy with a hard drive formatted with a case-SENSITIVE file system, WP7 Connector is not launching ... Not so great Microsoft Mac Team. Trying it on my new correctly-formatted MacBook Air works as expected.
WP7 Connector uses two libraries on your computer to synchronize your media. First, it uses your iTunes library for your music, movies, TV shows and podcasts. The other library used by WP7 Connector is the iPhoto library for your photos and videos. The interface of the app is very similar to iTunes and simple to use. One minor complaint I had with the music syncing feature is you can't sync music by albums. You can via Artists or by creating a playlist for a specific album but it's an extra step for no reason.
Contacts and Calendar syncing is only via the cloud. If you’re like me and you’re using iCal as your calendar app, you can’t synchronize your calendars to your WP7 phone. You need to use some cloud service (Gmail, Windows Live, Exchange) to have access to your calendar. The same apply to contacts. Uploading my personal agenda in the client isn’t an option for me(I want to have control of my data …). Tried the Calendar app a bit. It works great but I can’t say much about it.
Qualcomm QSD8250 1GHz Scorpion (Snapdragon)
8 GB of Flash NAND Memory2
5MP autofocus camera capable of recording 720p video, LED Flash
Wifi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 3.0, FM Radio, USB 2.0
The Samsung Omnia 7 is only sold all over Europe and in Australia. My great friend Yanik decided to import one from UK. I think it’s one of the best WP7 devices on the market to date. WP7 phones currently available in Canada don’t have compelling hardware. They aren’t competitive with the iPhone or the lineup of Android phones available here. One key component of the Omnia 7 is its display. The Omnia 7 has a 4” Super AMOLED display, which is gorgeous. Colors are bright and crisp. I have the same Wow feeling every time I look at the iPhone’s Retina Display. I found the build quality of the Omnia 7 is better than some other phones currently available on the market. The back of the Omnia 7 is made of gray-brownish aluminum. The device feels solid in hand compared to some Android phones with plastic back, for example the Samsung Focus which is a cheap plastic version of the Omnia 7.
I loved to spend quality time with Windows Phone 7. Microsoft did a great job modernizing Windows for mobile devices. Sadly, the biggest problem is the lack of apps. The Windows Phone Marketplace has a small selection of apps compared to the iOS App Store or the Android Market. Like I said in the Apps section of this post, if WP7 devices were selling more, I think developers would create great apps for the platform. At the moment, there’s only a small market of consumers on WP7. If you’re currently looking for a new smartphone, ask your local carrier about the WP7 phones they have and give Redmond’s latest mobile OS a try. You’ll find a compelling platform to use on a daily basis.
A 16 GB model is also available. ↩︎
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