My First Week With Windows Phone 7

Trade-offs. If I am asked to summarize Windows Phone 7 in one word or two, those words are trade-offs. There are several things that I like about the Windows Phone 7, but the question is, are they significant enough to overcome the negatives? Unfortunately after a week I have to answer no, but I have hope that a combination of improvements from Microsoft and the release of third party apps will change my answer in the future. First off, what do I like? For me the on-screen keyboard is by far the most impressive thing about Windows Phone 7. I find that I can type more accurately on the HD7 than with the on-screen keyboards on Android or my iPod Touch. I also really like how easy it is to correct mistakes. Most often all I need to do is tap the incorrect word and the correct word appears in a pop-up for me to select. Windows Phone 7 is probably the most visually stunning smartphone operating system that I have ever seen. While the start screen seems bland with it's square blocks, most of those blocks are displaying alternating graphics that make it less bland. However, the People and Pictures hubs to me are just stunning. I also really like the typography and the larger font size makes reading easier on the eyes. Unfortunately, there are little things that I have found regarding the on-screen keyboard and the Pictures hub that keep them from being perfect. Word recognition, which is an important part of the on-screen keyboard, is not available in all apps, one example is the TeleNav app. I suspect this is due to something the developers have not done, but it still affects how one views the phone. Flickr is the top photo sharing site on the Internet, but I can't directly integrate it with the Pictures hub. While the on-screen keyboard and Pictures hub items I previously describe may seem minor, the lack of support for multitasking is turning into a major issue for me. Both the Twitter and Seesmic apps cannot load my Twitter timeline in the background. What this means is that when I start Twitter I have to wait for the app to refresh before I can start reading, and this is far from the "get in, get out" experience that Microsoft is marketing about Windows Phone. Twitter on Android runs as a service and therefore is continually updating in the background, and that means that when I open Twitter on my Nexus One I can immediately begin reading the latest updates to my timeline without waiting. As I said, trade-offs is the word for Windows Phone 7. Microsoft says the trade-off for having longer battery life, which I am finding to be pretty good on the HD7, is having to wait for Twitter to refresh when I start the app. I, however, am willing to give up a little less battery life to not have to wait for Twitter to refresh. And thus sums up Windows Phone 7, I think. Too many trade-offs that probably are going to fall on the wrong side of the plus/minus equation for too many people at the current time. Why can't I specify how long to snooze a reminder in the calendar? Why can't I use a song track for a ringtone? Why can't I search for apps in the Markplace and not have it include songs? Right now Windows Phone 7 has too many "why can'ts," too many trade-offs, that are overshadowing the truly good things like voice-to text and the overall responsiveness, and unfortunately I think the trade-offs at the moment are prohibiting Windows Phone 7 from being the best that it can be.

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My First Week With Windows Phone 7

Frank McPherson

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Frank McPherson