The Official Window Phone 7 devices thread....

[kaerflog]

I know there is a Window Phone 7 thread but its long and its about the OS.
This will be for the devices out there.
My favorite is the Omnia 7 but that won't be coming to the US.
We get the ATT Focus.
Its a nice device but I don't like the egg shape form factor.
Early review of the Omnia 7.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/samsung-omnia-7-review/

My 2nd favorite is the HD 7 and thats coming to my carrier T-mobile.
I hate to say this but I'm over the 4.3" screen and its size.
The HD2 was my first smartphone and its still a great phone but after a while its a hefty phone.
After going to the Captivate and now the IP4, I like the fact I can comfortably do everything one handed, especially the IP4.
Because of the pixel density of the IP4, I don't miss the 3.5" vs 4.3" at all.
I'm still getting the HD7 once theres a used market for it.
I'm a phone fanatic.

Whats your favorite Window 7 phone ??

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Trophy 7, but we dont get it. Lame.

 

[Narmer]

The review for the OS itself by Engadget says it's poor. Worse, 3rd party apps run poorly on the OS. For a software company, MS should be ashamed.

 

[Bryf50]

The review for the OS itself by Engadget says it's poor.

No it doesn't...

 

[zerocool84]

No it doesn't...

He obviously didn't read the review:

In our original preview, we said that Windows Phone 7 didn't quite feel like a complete smartphone OS yet. We'd like to come back and report that it finally has the fit and finish of a fully realized product, but that isn't exactly the case. Don't get us wrong: there's a lot to like or even love in WP7. Microsoft has done an outstanding job with lots of aspects of this UI, particularly when it comes to navigation and ease of use -- but there are holes here as well. It still feels like the company is a good year behind market leaders right now, and though it's clear the folks in Redmond are doing everything they can to get this platform up to snuff, it's also clear that they're not there yet.

But that isn't -- and shouldn't be -- a deterrent to taking a close look at the handsets being offered. Microsoft isn't walking away from Windows Phone 7 anytime soon, and the company has created an incredibly promising base set of features to build off of. With terrific Zune and Xbox Live integration, a fast and smart method of getting around the OS, great Office and email experiences, and a genuinely beautiful and useful user interface, Microsoft has definitely laid the foundation for the next several years of its mobile play. Now it's time to get the upper floors finished.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/windows-phone-7-review/

 

[Deeko]

I want the Venue Pro, definitely. I do love the SuperAMOLED screen of the focus and omnia 7, though. I'm also over the 4.3" screen after the hd2.

 

[arod]

The review for the OS itself by Engadget says it's poor. Worse, 3rd party apps run poorly on the OS. For a software company, MS should be ashamed.

techcrunch, anandtech, gizmodo, pocketnow etc don't mention that as a problem.... it is disconcerting that engadget had problems but I would think if it was that big of an issue the other guys would have mentioned it as well.

 

[kaerflog]

I want the Venue Pro, definitely. I do love the SuperAMOLED screen of the focus and omnia 7, though. I'm also over the 4.3" screen after the hd2.

Early review of the HD7.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/htc-hd7-review/
Doesn't look very enticing.
Same internals as the HD2.
What the point ??
A few weeks afterward, we are goin to have Win 7 ported to the HD2 so I'm going to keep my HD2.
The HD2 is easily the best hacking phone ever.
Can also be found for as little as $200 on CL.

I forgot about the Venue Pro.
Its a sharp looking phone.
I would never buy a big screen smartphone with a physical keyboard but the Venue is a beauty.
My 2 negatives of that phone is 1) not super AMoled 2) its thicker than other keyboard phones (14.9mm vs 13.9mm).

 

[basslover1]

The Venue Pro looks pretty slick, but being on Verizon I'll just have to wait till after the first of the year to see whats up.

 

[quest55720]

I am sold just not sure what to do. The only sprint WP7 I do not like. I really like the focus but worry about it being gimped ram wise. I really hope spring gets a version of the focus with more ram. I would do the HD7 but T-Moble does not have good coverage in my area. I will give it a little time I do not want to go back to ATT&T unless I really have to plans cost to much that is why I ditched my Iphone.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

WP7 looks pretty good right now but I believe it wont be until the second gen until its amazing. Which is good for me since I just got locked to a 2 year contract with Sprint so right after that hopefully the market will have nice competition between Windows, Apple, and Android.

 

[zsdersw]

Anandtech's got their review up: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3982/windows-phone-7-review

 

[Narmer]

He obviously didn't read the review:



http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/windows-phone-7-review/

A 70% rating isn't exactly good for a company who's been around the mobile OS block a couple of times. MS is following the Apple route and it's worse than pathetic to see. Sad, if you ask me. The more I use the iPhone the more I like it but it's too restrictive. I'm not 100% sold on Android yet. I was hoping WP7 would be the platform for me but it's a completely different culture from the Windows Mobile I'm used to.

 

[Deeko]

Anandtech's got their review up: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3982/windows-phone-7-review

Seems pretty positive. I noticed a descrepancy between this and the Engadget review - Engadget says 3rd party apps won't save state when you leave them, Anandtech does.

A 70% rating isn't exactly good for a company who's been around the mobile OS block a couple of times. MS is following the Apple route and it's worse than pathetic to see. Sad, if you ask me. The more I use the iPhone the more I like it but it's too restrictive. I'm not 100% sold on Android yet. I was hoping WP7 would be the platform for me but it's a completely different culture from the Windows Mobile I'm used to.

Have you used other platforms in their initial form? I had a G1 on launch day, I used a Palm Pre early in its life. Every platform had glaring omissions on day one. I honestly think that while its missing things, it will get them with updates, and I feel its a lot more complete than other platforms were when they started. Android and iOS lacked a ton of core features early on. WP7 lacks some, yes, but overall they've included a lot, and what they have included they've done very well.

 

[dougp]

Anandtech's got their review up: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3982/windows-phone-7-review

OK, note to all review sites - THIS IS HOW A REVIEW IS DONE!

Jesus, that walkthrough is just disgustingly awesome. And, turns out the HTC Surround isn't that bad of a phone - I've heard that the Focus has the same GPS issues that the other Galaxy S line does.

 

[Deeko]

OK, note to all review sites - THIS IS HOW A REVIEW IS DONE!

Seriously. So much more depth, more objective, images to point out everything they're talking about. It was a very well done review.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Have you used other platforms in their initial form?

Uhm, this is 7.0, I would say it is a rather large stretch to call this its' initial form. I understand it is a new major overhaul for them, but iOS5/Android 3.0 sure as hell won't get any slack because they are 'new'- and neither should MS. Just because their previous mobile OS was a travesty that doesn't issue them a get out of jail free card.

Is there any decent review talking about how contacts are imported? I can't tell if you are forced to use FaceBook and then can cross reference, or if you are allowed to import from Exchange/GMail and never approach anything resembling FaceBook.

The way they handle MicroSD is *TERRIBLE*- just go the Apple route- you get what we give you. No, instead anyone who thinks that WinMo7 is as high tech as say, a Razr, gets their whole OS hosed back to factory defaults if they change out the "expansion" memory? That is terrible.

Also performance- ouch. I know there are two different camps here, one that think the definition of performance is how smoothly screens scroll, and it looks like WinMo7 should keep them extremely happy. I am on the camp that likes to get things done and damn, the iPhone4 which isn't a top three performer obliterates all the WM7 offerings. Not by a little bit-

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3982/windows-phone-7-review/9

iPhone 4 is ~400% faster then the best WM7 phone. Maybe something is wrong with the early phones, maybe it will be patched later, but that level of performance would make me think twice if these were cheapy cell phones for a ten year old. The reviewers insist it isn't as bad as the benches make it look, but wow do the benches make it look *very* bad.

Looks like the music handling on the phone is stellar which doesn't surprise me in the least, they have had the best PMP for quite a while now. ZunePass is also a really good deal for people(best I'm aware of). This would have been close to a perfect PMP except due to the moronic handling for external storage I can't carry all my music in WMA-L with me in a reasonable fashion, meh

 

[Deeko]

Its a new platform, just like WebOS was considered a new platform. Its ridiculous to assume a company can build a new platform (regardless of their prior experience in the field) that both works well & has every desired feature out of the box. Literally none of the other platforms had that. Could Microsoft have done that with WP7? Only if you wanted to wait another year for it, and people are already calling it too late, so obviously that would have been a bad move.

Just like WebOS, Android, and the iPhone, it will improve with time. I really think most people forget just how much those other platforms lacked when they launched.

As for the browser performance - the ZuneHD browser benchmarks incredibly slow, too, and in practice its not nearly as bad. According to Engadget's review, it loads pages just a hair slower than the iPhone. I know some poeple think they need to live and die by SunSpider, but it doesn't necessarily translate into the real world.

 

[dougp]

Uhm, this is 7.0, I would say it is a rather large stretch to call this its' initial form. I understand it is a new major overhaul for them, but iOS5/Android 3.0 sure as hell won't get any slack because they are 'new'- and neither should MS. Just because their previous mobile OS was a travesty that doesn't issue them a get out of jail free card.

Is there any decent review talking about how contacts are imported? I can't tell if you are forced to use FaceBook and then can cross reference, or if you are allowed to import from Exchange/GMail and never approach anything resembling FaceBook.

The way they handle MicroSD is *TERRIBLE*- just go the Apple route- you get what we give you. No, instead anyone who thinks that WinMo7 is as high tech as say, a Razr, gets their whole OS hosed back to factory defaults if they change out the "expansion" memory? That is terrible.

Also performance- ouch. I know there are two different camps here, one that think the definition of performance is how smoothly screens scroll, and it looks like WinMo7 should keep them extremely happy. I am on the camp that likes to get things done and damn, the iPhone4 which isn't a top three performer obliterates all the WM7 offerings. Not by a little bit-

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3982/windows-phone-7-review/9

iPhone 4 is ~400% faster then the best WM7 phone. Maybe something is wrong with the early phones, maybe it will be patched later, but that level of performance would make me think twice if these were cheapy cell phones for a ten year old. The reviewers insist it isn't as bad as the benches make it look, but wow do the benches make it look *very* bad.

Looks like the music handling on the phone is stellar which doesn't surprise me in the least, they have had the best PMP for quite a while now. ZunePass is also a really good deal for people(best I'm aware of). This would have been close to a perfect PMP except due to the moronic handling for external storage I can't carry all my music in WMA-L with me in a reasonable fashion, meh

Did you read the portion about the browser, or just stare at the pretty graphs? They explicitly state multiple times that the browser performs MUCH faster than the benchmarks say, and renders properly even though they fail ACID tests.

As for the SD card, they give you the option to use one at least. I remember when the Creative Zen came out, people bitched about how the SD card was viewed separate from the internal memory and wanted it to perform how MS is doing it with this device.

 

[TheStu]

What I would like to know is if the Zune portion of it will support the blind swipe that the ZuneHD has.

 

[Deeko]

What I would like to know is if the Zune portion of it will support the blind swipe that the ZuneHD has.

You mean for changing tracks? That's a good question - its one of the key features the ZuneHD has that lets me use it. I use my MP3 player in situations where I don't look at it - in the car, running, etc, so that functionality is important. I was really hoping this could replace my Zune in most situations, but that might not end up being the case.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Did you read the portion about the browser, or just stare at the pretty graphs?

Maybe, and you may have to stretch your mind, I comtemplated the broader implications of what terrible Java performance would indicate for the platform as a whole. Both iOS and Android use Java as their basic development environment and between the two of them they utterly dominate the mobile development community. As it stands now it is taking some time for ports to happen from one Java platform to the other- if WM7 is significantly slower then either Android or iOS running Java then it could be a very, *VERY* bad indicator for the future of the platform.

As for the browser performance - the ZuneHD browser benchmarks incredibly slow, too, and in practice its not nearly as bad.

I have a ZuneHD, bad example to use Not saying your point in the abstract isn't valid, but put your ZHD against any remotely recent iPhone or Android.

 

[Deeko]

I have a ZuneHD, bad example to use Not saying your point in the abstract isn't valid, but put your ZHD against any remotely recent iPhone or Android.

When the ZuneHD came out in Sept 09, it held up pretty well to the competition. It was a better browsing experience than my phone at the time (G1), despite the fact that it benchmarked way slower. No, it was not as good as the 3GS. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the ZuneHD has the best browser out there - just that its a lot better than the benchmarks made it look. From the reviews, it appears WP7's browser suffers a similar fate.

 

[SLCentral]

Does anyone know off-contract pricing for the AT&T WP7 line-up?

 

[TheStu]

Maybe, and you may have to stretch your mind, I comtemplated the broader implications of what terrible Java performance would indicate for the platform as a whole. Both iOS and Android use Java as their basic development environment and between the two of them they utterly dominate the mobile development community. As it stands now it is taking some time for ports to happen from one Java platform to the other- if WM7 is significantly slower then either Android or iOS running Java then it could be a very, *VERY* bad indicator for the future of the platform.



I have a ZuneHD, bad example to use Not saying your point in the abstract isn't valid, but put your ZHD against any remotely recent iPhone or Android.

I thought that iOS used ObjectiveC and CocoaTouch for their basic development environment.