Windows Phone 7: The AnandTech Guide
by Brian Klug on March 21, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Mobile
Hands on With WP7S - Phone and SMS
This being a phone, it's surprising how little there is to talk about with regards to the dialer, phone, and messaging applications. I've been paying especially careful attention to what Microsoft is ready to show of the call in progress screens, incoming call dialogs, and the dialer. Of note is that all of the interface demos shown thus far completely circumnavigate the dialer; calls thus far have been entirely initiated from contacts, search, or contextually linked numbers in UI. The reason is that although the dialer is there, it isn't finished. You can't fault Microsoft for not showing something that isn't done yet. At the same time, it needs to get the same kind of re-thinking that the rest of the UI got between Windows Mobile and WP7S.
We've seen a handful of glances of the call in progress screen, but these vary from build to build. Notably, we can see the carrier string at the top right, although in one build it humorously shows "AT&T/Cingular Wireless," despite Cingular no longer existing under that name. On newer builds, it reads simply "AT&T."
This is blurry because it was up for all of 3 seconds
As far as the "text" SMS/MMS application goes, the interface in here is reasonably well fleshed out, but still not finished enough that Microsoft would let me get away with a photo or two of it. Our demo phone showed an interesting error message about failing to back data up to the cloud, but this was entirely because the phone hadn't had a SIM in it until 10 minutes prior. I did get a brief chance to play with the interface, and it has nice landscape to portrait transitions and the same sort of look as the rest of the interface, but I didn't get a chance to actually send or receieve messages.
These are the things that are likely going to be first on the list for WP7S Microsoft developers to tackle in the remaining months before launch. This basically wraps up the hands-on I had with the platform. You can check out the gallery below for all the photos we've got. Now let's dive into the rest of the details.
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glynor - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
I don't know... I'm no Apple fanboy but I've never understood why people get all excited about the supposedly superior Nexus One hardware:1. Crappy 6-bit dithered screen with horrible super-saturated color reproduction.
2. Multitouch broken in hardware.
3. 512MB of onboard Flash memory all that's available for applications.
Yes, it does have a really nice main processor, but that's really about all it has going for it hardware wise. The rest is at best equal to the much-earlier iPhone 3GS, and at worst isn't even up to that level.
Don't get me wrong... I love the open nature of the platform. But I really don't like MANY of the choices that both HTC and Motorola made in these current iterations.
n0nsense - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
LOL :)iPhone is a gadget. It has tons of apps, but has to be tweaked to be a powerful tool.
As for crap hardware, Nexus is one step ahead of iPhone, while many others on pair. Of course there are tons of cheaper (crappier)devices, but they are good for market share. More devices, more developers.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer plain Linux on my mobile (something like MeeGo), but if i had to choose, iPhone and Winmo sharing the last place.
bupkus - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
I'm sitting here with my Palm Treo Pro with Windows Mobile 6.1 and while understanding the douse and flame approach I'm wondering why just because my desktop Windows gets service releases I had imagined my phone would receive the same?Silly me.
gnesterenko - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Droid for me. Thanks for clarifying.kanabalize - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
unless android has lotsa eyecandy(icon style, chic GUI design) like iphoneOS, its going to be dead....Remember the real consumer is the non-technological savvy users not people who reads alot of reviews and familiar with the technology...
when people have to choose between iphone and other android phone they aren't really care about what is behind the OS but what is right there in front of their eyes....
dhaoracle - Sunday, March 28, 2010 - link
I'm mad that this world is still naive idiots when it comes to things of any such. I might do that with a nice piece of ass but i will at least to get to know whats her name and what she's doing here(wherever).And why is anyone talking about Windows Mobile 6.5. stop hating and do your research. Google is nothing but eye-candy nothing else but a pretty balloon with lots of helium and pastry at the bottom. thats it nothing more nothing less.I would go with iPhone before Android and i hate iPhone...
darwinosx - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Looks like the juvenile Droid ads found a sucker.CSMR - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
It makes sense. Android is competitive or almost competitive with WM6.5. Now WM has lost most of its features while android will only improve.deputc26 - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Seriously why no Android review? It is the most power-user friendly mobile platform. 2.1 is far superior to WinMo 6.5.Anand Lal Shimpi - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
I'm working on a review of the AT&T Nexus One :)Take care,
Anand