Windows Phone 7 Series has swept out the Windows Mobile cobwebs and Microsoft has finally realised that a phone is not just a teeny, tiny PC. Instead, it's made an innovative operating system that focuses on finger-friendly clarity on the small screen.
It's not an entirely new OS -- it's still based on the Windows CE kernel that has served us loyally for years, Microsoft told us, which gives us hope that some of our Windows Mobile apps could potentially work on future Windows Phone 7 phones.
But the user interface is a total re-thinking of how Windows looks on a phone, and we got our hands on a prototype device running the pre-beta software. The flat, cubist graphic design reminds us of Vodafone 360 on the Samsung H1, but that was our favourite part of that disappointing UI, and Windows Phone 7 takes the design to a new and pleasing place. We especially like the incredibly crisp, elegant typeface, which should look good on all Windows Phone 7 phones, thanks to Microsoft's strict rules for minimum screen resolution.
This is far from a final version of the software, so you'll have to wait for our full review for our view on the speed and responsiveness of the OS. But even in this pre-beta version there are lots of dynamic, fun transitions and animations that testify to some serious creativity at work.
Watch our hands-on video, then click 'Continue' to see what the boys and girls in Redmond think we'll be poking by the end of 2010.
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Anonymous 13 October, 2010 20:33
It doesn't matter how good it is. Reality is apple could sell a calculator for 2 grand if they stuck an "i" infront of it. The whole "i" product line has become the way to present yourself as being a forward thinker and wealthy all at once. Everyone knows an ipod, iphone, ipad or macbook is going to cost you signifigantly more then the competition. an iphone is running for about. Shopbot canada is showing the iphone selling from between 600 and 1100 dollars... Thats multiple hundreds more then the equivalent blackberry, samsung, nokia or HTC phone. macbooks start at about 1800 dollars at the local futureshop here and its hard to find a PC for more then 1500 on the shelf. The examples just go on and on. People are "i" crazy. My university is full of Apple products. Thats despite the fact that most of the stats classes and science classes we have require programs that only run on windows. Figure that out.
Its all branding and until Microsoft figures out what Apple did and start to create a real image for their products they simply wont outsell Apple. Very few people know what the difference is between the various hardware and software componenets in their favorite electronics so they buy the one their friends have which is the one on TV. And in this case its the Apple products.