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
Video Playback
The video playback integration isn’t quite as impressive as the Zune audio experience on Windows Phone solely because there’s no Zune Pass equivalent for video. That’s of course the holy grail that we’re waiting for everyone with their toes in video to solve, but there aren’t any takers as of yet.
Windows Phone 7 supports mp4, m4v and wmv video formats (m4a, wma for audio). You’ll notice that the list overlaps with what Apple specifies for the iPhone. That’s right, without transcoding you can playback all non-DRM video content that’s in an iPhone-friendly format.
Your videos are grouped into personal, TV, music, movies and a category for all of them. As is the case with most tabs inside Windows Phone 7, these ones make a lot of sense. Any tagged content you download from the Zune Marketplace or sync goes into the TV, music and movies categories, and anything you record with the phone goes under personal.
All purchases/rentals in the Zune Video Marketplace happen in Microsoft Points. You have to first buy Microsoft points, then you get to spend them on content. Hooray.
When purchasing a TV show or movie you are presented with the option to view it on your PC or Windows Phone. The Zune application will deliver the appropriate version of the content accordingly. Once you’ve made your decision though, there doesn’t appear to be a way to go back.
Video playback on Windows Phone is very simple. The video player app has three controls: rewind, pause/play and fast forward. You can’t move your finger around the timeline bar to scrub through the video. Tapping the the forward/back buttons skips around in 30 second increments, while holding them down rewinds/fast forwards.
There’s no support for zooming ultra wide content to fit the screen, everything must be viewed in the original aspect ratio. I don’t have a problem with this, but my dad might. I prefer content in its original aspect ratio, while my dad is one of those people who wants the screen full of useful pixels - not black bars.
Like most anything in the OS, you can pin videos to the Start screen by tapping and holding on any video then selecting pin to start.
The app is very fast (notice a trend?) and does a good job of organizing your content. The biggest issue with the video player app is you can’t purchase content within it. You have to sync all videos from your PC. And allow me to reiterate: a Zune Pass for video content would be a dream come true.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
125 Comments
View All Comments
bplewis24 - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Check out page 26. It's dedicated completely to how the "update" process works. In short, it's more like iOS than Android....which is sounds like you'd prefer.ishbuggy - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Yeah I accidentally skipped that page :PI really hope it works out as well as Microsoft hopes it will
Voldenuit - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
Will AT be reviewing the Nokia N8 and E8 Symbian phones? Nokia is pretty obscure in the States (since they mainly sell direct from their website, with no carrier subsidy), but are pretty big in Europe and Asia.epyon96 - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
Anand,With such a glowing review from you, it's almost enough to bump Windows 7 above my initial choice of getting a blackberry. I need a physical keyboard. I'm very picky about it. You are simply a very engaging writer.
I really hope Windows 7 mobile comes up with a superior keyboard version
VashHT - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
The Dell phone coming out looks like it will have a really nice keyboard, I think it is called the venue pro. Also ATT is supposed to have a keyboard phone by LG I think.heelo - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
The Venue Pro *looks* great, but it's somewhat of a monster in size and weight.If I weren't stuck on a T-Mobile family plan, I'd probably opt for that LG Quantum. Like Anand said, WP7's interface is extremely usable on smaller screens, and the reasonable form factor and physical keyboard likely make for a very convenient real-world user experience. The drawback is that the looks and (supposedly) build quality are sub-par.
EarthwormJim - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
OMG a screenshot of me in action is on the Xbox Live page!! Woo-hoogstrickler - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
That's the ugliest and least interesting home/start screen I've ever seen on a smartphone. It may be functional, but even a 6 year old crackberry looked better (and I don't like the BB). The rest of the UI doesn't look too bad, but the start screen needs some work.bplewis24 - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
I couldn't agree more. I find it funny that people are claiming this UI is "100% right" as if everybody is going to like it. Obviously it's a matter of preference, but I just cannot see the overwhelming majority of people getting into this UI. I find it appalling to look at and couldn't imagine using it every day.Brandon
B3an - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Dont know what you're smoking but most people prefer an easy to use simple looking UI thats functional rather than cluttered eye candy.From the vids i've seen it seems to be the smoothest running, most functional, fastest, and natural UI on any phone to date.