Two Weeks With WindowsPhone 7

March 1 2011, 1:27 PM  by The Head

This is going to be the first in something of a two parter. The second part will be posted when I am less angry and likely to drop F-bomb after F-bomb. 

At any rate, I have had my Samsung Focus for about 2 weeks now, and they've been an incredibly sad and eventful two weeks (you can get an idea as to why HERE if you feel like it) which is why it's taken me a while to put my thoughts up on the device, and the Windows Phone OS in general.

I find myself struggling to give it a "grade" as it were. The issue is that what it does, it does very, very well. But what it doesn't do, it just doesn't do at all. What I mean is that there is precious little that the phone does poorly. The problem is that there are plenty of things that are simply impossible to do with the device. How do you grade that? I find it impossible to really compare it to my old iPhone 3G, since it had become so incredibly sluggish and next to impossible to use with the iOS 4 upgrade. The comparison just doesn't seem fair. 

I'll start with what I like. For the device itself, the obvious answer is the Super AMOLED screen. It is just gorgeous. The screen is bright and vibrant even on the lowest brightness setting, and the colours and transitions just shine through. Even though the iPhone 4 has a higher resolution screen, the screen of the Focus still manages to blow it away. The one big downside here though is that the screen is almost unusable in direct sunlight. The glare makes it next to impossible to see anything. For me, it honestly isn't a huge issue. I don't tend to use my phone a ton outdoors. For people constantly texting and emailing though, it can be a big concern.

The rest of the device itself is fairly nondescript to be honest. The phone looks and feels a little on the cheap side. It's just too plasticky. The good side of that is that the phone is feather light, the bad side is that you really feel the need to get a case of some sort. I generally dislike phone cases, but it just feels like a solid whack will crack the casing without one. I got a rubberized casing (side note: actually finding a case for this phone was difficult. I couldn't find a store that carried them and had to shop online) that adds to the weight a bit, but it still comes out lighter than the iPhone.

The buttons on the sides of the device all feel good and work well. They have just the right amount of tension and give for my liking, and are responsive to a nice press. The phone has three soft keys along the front (back, home and search) that are just a tad too sensitive for my liking. There have been several occasions where a stray finger or the palm of my hand has triggered one accidentally. 

Other than that, there isn't a ton to say about the device itself. I added an 8gb Sandisk class 4 micro SD card, and haven't had any issues with it so far. The volume on the phone itself could be higher for my liking, as some ringtones can be tough to hear even at max volume. And call quality has been good, but you do need to keep the phone aligned well otherwise people might have trouble hearing you. This might be more of a problem for a guy with a huge head and big hands like myself than for your average Joe.

And now we get to the meat of the discussion: Windows Phone 7.

Right off the bat I have to talk about the UI. The UI, named Metro, is absolutely stunning. It seems to be a love it or hate it sort of thing, but I absolutely love. It looks great, has nice big icons that doesn't require scrolling, and is just in general incredibly user friendly. Many programs are "live tiles", kind of like widgets. They are automatically update throughout the day, so you can get a lot of information right from your home screen. The transitions between screens, applications, and functions are amazing. We're talking about fully animated, smooth as butter transitions that really look next-gen when compared to other mobile operating systems. Whereas iOS, Blackberry OS and Android have an interface that is very functional, Windows Phone has made an interface that is both functional and incredibly stylish.

The other really strong suit of Windows Phone is how it manages contacts. It pulls information from multiple sources (such as Google Contacts and Facebook) and merges them logically. In cases where they aren't merged, you can very easily link them together. What this gives you is incredibly easy access to multiple points of contact for a single person. Then, you can take the people that you contact the most and put them right on the Start screen. It's simple, elegant, and makes repetitive tasks very easy.

The last positive I want to bring up is navigation on the device. It's very easy, fluid, and logical. Your three softkeys really make for a simple method of finding what you need. A dedicated back button is just wonderful. Instead of every developer having a different method of navigating backwards, this one button makes it incredibly easy to back up within an app or whilst navigating menus. The Start button is pretty much a Home key, but it works well, and gets the job done. The search key though, is great. It brings up a context relevant search menu depending on where you are. Looking through your music? The search button allows you to search through your library. Browsing the Marketplace? The search button allows you to look up apps. It's simple, effective, and makes navigating the phone a breeze. And finally, special mention goes out to the camera button. I am now convinced that every smartphone should have one. It works well, even when the phone is locked, and makes it much easier to get quick and candid shots.

When it comes to what I think needs to be tweaked, there are really only a few things that jump to mind:

• The marketplace is somewhat buggy at times. It will occasionally freeze up, and you will have to perform a soft reset if you want to access it again.

• The camera is good, but not spectacular. My wife's iPhone 4 will all produce a better shot.

• Some way of organizing apps would be appreciated. Games will be filled with Xbox Live, but everything else is put into one long list of apps. Some method of categorizing them would make it a lot easier to find one seldom used app in a sea of options

Like I said, what Windows Phone 7 does, it does well. While there is always room for improvement, there are only a small handful of items that need direct improvement.

The problem is now the following: There is a crap-ton of things that Windows Phone 7 just doesn't do, and a lot of it is incredibly, incredibly baffling.

Many of the limitations are well known and are being addressed in future patches. That being said, I can't judge a device based on what's coming, only based on what it can do right now. 

• Copy and Paste. The fact that the OS shipped without this functionality is just too strange for words. This is doubly true since WP7 ships with a full mobile office suite. The ability to edit documents on the go loses some lustre without this basic functionality.

• Multitasking. This one actually doesn't bother me that much. It does some native task multitasking already, similar to the iPhone pre-iOS4. I am of the opinion that most multitasking isn't worth the extra strain on the battery, but having the option and disabling it is preferable to not having the option at all.

• Web browser content: This one is odd. I can understand the lack of Flash right out of the gate. Flash is finicky and hard to implement on a browser. The lack of HTML5 is slightly more troubling. It is an emerging technology that has made a ton of progress and is mobile friendly. The one that gets me the most though, is no Silverlight support. Silverlight being a Microsoft baby would seem to be a no-brainer. And yet, you cannot load Silverlight plugins on Windows Phone 7.

• Inability to tether the device. Hell, even iOS is gaining this ability. The ability to share your connection with other devices should be one of the defining characteristics of a smartphone. This is not a good area to be lacking.

• Very poor customization options. You have 30 ringtones, that's it. You cannot use your library or make your own. Those 30 ringtones are all you have. Same thing with text message alert tones. You have 10, that's it. You also have 10 accent colours to play with (essentially the colour of your tiles on the Start screen). There are no other colour options, no grades of colour, no shades. Everything is locked down tight here, and it honestly makes little sense to me.

• No Office Live synchronization. Microsoft has an online Office service very similar to the Google Offering, and in some ways better. It has a ton of online storage for your documents, and offers easy editing on the go. Windows Phone 7 has a mobile version of Office, that while limited, is still quite functional. But for whatever reason, they cannot access one another when it comes to Word or Excel docs. So despite this amazing online Office suite being available, by Microsoft, if I want to get, say a Word document on my phone, I have to email it to myself. I then have to save it on my phone, make the changes, and then email it back to myself. This is ridiculous. 

• Xbox Live. This was supposed to be a big advantage of Windows Phone 7, and honestly, the possibilities are amazing. The problem is that the execution is so lacklustre that it might as well not be present. Having an Xbox Live account doesn't actually amount to much. There is no real synchronization between the phone and the console. We aren't getting awesome WP7 ports of 360 games, or even smaller mini games/accompanying apps. The service doesn't really amount to much other than a set of achievements. Imagine game tie ins. The next Halo has a WP7 component. The next NHL game allows for a managerial mode on your WP7 device. The execution of this is so underwhelming simply because you can see how awesome it *can* be.

• There are many glaring app omissions in the Marketplace. For example, there is no official Dropbox app. There are no Angry Birds. There is no official Evernote app. But the single most glaring omission, is the fact that there is no official Live Messenger application. How this is even possible is mind boggling. Microsoft has what is probably the most popular peer to peer chat application in the world, and hasn't even bothered to port it to their own mobile platform. 

• And finally, the lack of Twitter integration is glaring. This is designed as a social phone. Facebook is pretty much baked right in. By playing with your Contacts, you can just as easily write on their wall as call them. However, there is no Twitter integration at all. It really struggles to feel like a device with dedicated social networking built in without this option.

Part of the problem is that everything looks great on the surface. The UI is fantastic, the daily experience amazing, and the functionality that a lot of people need is rock solid. The problems only creep up when you get past that first layer. The glaring omissions become apparent. A lot of the missing functionality is actually what I'd consider minimum grade stuff for a modern smartphone. It rubs you wrong because you can see the potential. WP7 has amazing potential. It has the potential to absolutely blow iOS and Android out of the water. But it simply isn't there. The way it feels right now is that it is either the smartest dumbphone in the world, or the dumbest smartphone. What it does, it does phenomenally. What it doesn't do just plain makes me sad. Now, Microsoft has promised updates. The first is supposed to be in March and will bring copy and paste. A second will come later this year and bring stuff like multitasking. When these drop, a lot might change. Windows Phone 7 might be able to hang with the big boys. But right now? It's just missing too much.

For people looking for standard features only (email, text messaging, browsing, etc...) : 9/10

For tech geeks that need advanced features and integration with desktop services (looking for a portable PC of sorts): 5/10