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
The First Phones: LG Optimus 7
We will have full reviews of all of these devices in the coming days, but we didn’t want to leave you with nothing on the hardware at launch so here are some brief thoughts on the three Windows Phones we’ve been playing with.
The LG Optimus 7 isn’t actually destined for US sale, it’ll be available tomorrow in Europe and Asia. The phone sports a 3.8” 480 x 800 TN LCD and unfortunately that’s both its biggest asset and its biggest weakness. The LCD sips power compared to the Super AMOLED in the Samsung Focus, but LG also sacrificed quality. Viewing angles and black levels just aren’t very good. The orange theme looks yellow on the phone when viewed at an angle.
The display is bright but it lacks the integrated design that you get from the iPhone 4 or Samsung’s Focus. There’s a perceivable gap between the touch screen and the LCD beneath it.
The display is the biggest problem, the rest is smooth sailing. The form factor is great, albeit a little thick. LG opted for quality materials including a brushed aluminum battery cover. The device is heavy compared to other WP7 phones but it’s a luxurious sort of heavy, not a brick-like heavy.
The Optimus 7 comes with 16GB of NAND on board with an empty microSD slot for future expansion. Remember the rules though, you need to perform a factory restore on the phone with the microSD installed to use it.
LG preloads the device with three apps: Play to, Panorama shot and ScanSearch.
The Play to app is the most interesting as it supports streaming of all of your non-HDCP content to DLNA devices.
The Panoramic photo stitching app is super easy to use and works well in practice. My only complaint is the live view frame rate leaves a lot to be desired.
ScanSearch is a location based augmented reality app for Windows Phone 7. Eventually it'll be able to identify products but today all it can do is point out nearby locations of points of interests using your GPS and WiFi.
Battery life is the best out of the three phones we tested here today. We got over 7 hours in our WiFi browsing test and just over 5 hours on 3G. We’re still running talk time tests.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
125 Comments
View All Comments
soaringrocks - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
I find it amusing that for a 'phone' there is often little to no discussion on call quality, reception, and ability to maintain connection in a difficult environment. We know that all phones are not equal on that score...It's like you don't expect people to actually make phone calls.
beefnot - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Making phone calls with your smart phone is just so passe.strikeback03 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
They said they have reviews of the actual phones coming, that is the type of info that would be in a review of the phone, not the OS.thartist - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
sick amount of quality work. the only WP7 review on the web so far as it had to be done.Anand, keep that quality work that puts you so above from the rest.
softdrinkviking - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
The lack of "change on the fly" micro SD is a deal killer for me.It's a shame too, because I really like everything else about this phone.
Smilin - Monday, October 25, 2010 - link
Curious: Why do you need such a feature?softdrinkviking - Friday, November 5, 2010 - link
whoa, i don't know if anyone else, or even you will get back to reading this but...i use SD cards to store music on. i have a situation where i can't always sync with my home pc very often, and i can't always carry around a laptop, so bringing along a handful of different SD cards with a variety of tunes has been important to me.
what i'd really like is for card-swapping to get more convenient, like in cameras.
btdvox - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
In your review you guys say the LG Optimus 7 has a MicroSD slot that we can expand on, yet nowhere else does it say that on the web. Can you verify this? If it does than this phone is a clear winner for me, It's also avail in Canada btw. I'd hope we're just as important as Asia and Europse but I suppose were not haha.softdrinkviking - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
the trick is that the microSD card gets treated like part of the built-in memory, and you cannot replace it without completely erasing your phone and starting over.so you basically have to choose a single SD card and stick with it, there is no changing on the fly like in android phones.
btdvox - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
Wasnt really my question but thanks.But still unanswered is, I dont think LG Optimus 7 has a microsd slot, Engadget just reviewed it and stated it doesnt have a memory slot. Can you guys confirm this?