Windows Phone 7

[kane249]

Has anyone else got a Windows 7 enabled phone yet? I got an LG Optimus 7 yesterday and i've been impressed with it thus far. Liking the integration into Facebook, email as well as it's seamless ability to hook into Windows 7. Am looking forward to testing it's ability to hook into TV's as well.

My only gripe at this stage is the ability not to have your own customized ringtone and you stuck with the stock standard phone ones, but hopefully this is resolved with subsequent updates.

 

[weevil]

Has anyone else got a Windows 7 enabled phone yet? I got an LG Optimus 7 yesterday and i've been impressed with it thus far. Liking the integration into Facebook, email as well as it's seamless ability to hook into Windows 7. Am looking forward to testing it's ability to hook into TV's as well.

My only gripe at this stage is the ability not to have your own customized ringtone and you stuck with the stock standard phone ones, but hopefully this is resolved with subsequent updates.

Yeah I have an Omnia 7, sensational phone, OS is fantastic, screen is amazing.

The custom ringtone stuff will be be in the first update which will happen in January.

 

[kane249]

Good to hear with the update, I also miss being able to do custom profiles (eg silent, general, meeting etc) so hopefully that will get addressed as well

 

[weevil]

Good to hear with the update, I also miss being able to do custom profiles (eg silent, general, meeting etc) so hopefully that will get addressed as well

You know you can press a volume button to bring up the playback console and press the ring/vibrate button to swap between thosee 2 profiles?

 

[kane249]

You know you can press a volume button to bring up the playback console and press the ring/vibrate button to swap between thosee 2 profiles?

I do now

Cheers

 

[kane249]

Liking it's ability to automatically sync it's self wirelessly to your home PC/laptop if you leave it charging for more then 10 minutes, saves the trouble of doing this manually

 

[TRAWP]

Hmm interesting...

So what stunning features do these phones have to poop on iFail?

 

[kane249]

Pros:
For mine I like the interface a bit better but i've heard others say they prefer the iPhone. The integration with social media sites like Facebook and twitter is a lot better on a Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft looks like they have banked on this to appeal more to Gen Y. It ties in your phone contacts with Facebook so you can check out any friends Facebook updates/photos/wall posts etc and give them a call about it right after. Linking existing contacts between Facebook/Hotmail and your phone contacts is very easy to do and it makes for an easy way to keep them all together.

With Windows Phone 7 you can choose different handsets from different manufacturer and not just stuck with the same manufacturer and it's limited features. If you don't like the Samsung phones and it's features you can go to LG or HTC or Dell and still get the same interface on a different phone with different hardware specs. Call me picky as well but the ability to buy a spare battery for my phone, and be able to change it myself is something I like the freedom to be able to do.

As you can imagine it syncs wonderfully with Windows 7. Like I said you can set it to automatically sync over your home wireless network after it's been charging for 10 minutes so any music or movies you want to upload to it can be just left on your PC and then phone will do it for you whilst it's charging. The LG phone i've got also has the ability to stream songs and videos from the device wirelessly to either Windows 7, XBox 360 or to a TV/Stereo which is DLNA compatible. Eg as a test I uploaded some episodes of How I Met your Mother to my phone, took them around to my mates place and hooked it up to his wireless network and then streamed the episodes from my phone to his PC. The extra bonus being I could use the phone as a remote to skip episodes.

As you can imagine being a Windows device Office and sharepoint are also good on the device and come pre-installed so you don't need to download these later. The calendar and email shit all over the iPhone in terms of ease of use as well.

Cons:
-Not being able to set your on ringtones does shit me as I like to customize my phone, however with the new update due in January this will be resolved.
-Copy and paste is also currently not supported, but will be fixed in the coming update as well
-Turn by turn navigation in maps, ok not something I used but missing at the moment again fixed in January.
-Can't Multitask, again see January update
-Apps are still limited at this stage, but given the technology is still new that's to be expected. This will grow as the popularity of the phone grows.
-Flash player support is not there yet, but Adobe has announced Flash 10.1 will be supported on Windows Phone 7 and should be available shortly (probably rolled into the January update like everything else)

So that's my review after 1 week of using. The phone does have a lot of nifty features, but like a lot of Gen 1 products it does have it's flaws as well. Microsoft will be releasing it's effective SP1 in January and a lot of these flaws will be addressed however so this should make the OS a lot smoother to use and detract less from it's great features.

 

[TRAWP]

Sounds great, after the death of my n97 a few months ago I was at the stage of tossing up between going to the darkside with the iFail or going with another Nokia.
This sounds like my resolve


Found a handy review as well of both the top handsets.

 

[kane249]

CNet reviews of some of the handsets

LG Optimus 7 (9.0)
http://www.cnet.com.au/lg-optimus-7-339306541.htm

LG Optimus 7Q (8.0)
http://www.cnet.com.au/lg-optimus-7q-339306545.htm

Samsung Omnia 7 (8.8)
http://www.cnet.com.au/samsung-omnia-7-339306547.htm

HTC Trophy 7 (7.9)
http://www.cnet.com.au/htc-7-trophy-339306542.htm

HTC Mozart 7 (7.7)
http://www.cnet.com.au/htc-7-mozart-339306540.htm

So the LG or Samsung are your best options at the moment

 

[red+black]

Hmm interesting...

So what stunning features do these phones have to poop on iFail?

Sounds great, after the death of my n97 a few months ago I was at the stage of tossing up between going to the darkside with the iFail or going with another Nokia.

OK, I'll bite. Maybe you can enlighten us all on how the iPhone has failed. Sales? Market share?

 

[TRAWP]

OK, I'll bite. Maybe you can enlighten us all on how the iPhone has failed. Sales? Market share?

Sales were always going to happen with this phone.
It was marketed at the youth and Mac users, and then become a must have item over the net as it was proclaimed a first of its kind.

It excluded many items when it was first released as well. Then it brings out it's new brother iPhone4 which was marketed as a sensation. But what did it have that was revolutionary or different then every Nokia etc for the past 3 designs... Multitasking and its skeleton antenna design... oh which didnt work for over 50% of users anyways...

They're just as bad as Microsofts every second OS releases... (W2000, Vista)

 

[red+black]

There's no doubt that the iPhone is not perfect and in my opinion, has been slow to offer features people actually want. I think the iPhone has entrenched itself more because of its relation to the iPod than Mac computers. Most iPhone owners don't have a Mac and would never consider getting one.

The platform that definitely excites me is Android, although I played with a Chinese Apad and was less than impressed with that, but the Android phones are definitely exciting.

Microsoft dropped the ball with Windows Mobile and there's no doubt that Windows Phone 7 will bring the platform back as a serious player. I was disappointed with WM6 in that it still looked like a PC desktop on a mobile device, and needing to use a stylus to click an X to close apps was very tedious. Microsoft has had a long time to get version 7 right so I'd be surprised if they didn't do a pretty good job with it.

 

[kane249]

There's no doubt that the iPhone is not perfect and in my opinion, has been slow to offer features people actually want. I think the iPhone has entrenched itself more because of its relation to the iPod than Mac computers. Most iPhone owners don't have a Mac and would never consider getting one.

The platform that definitely excites me is Android, although I played with a Chinese Apad and was less than impressed with that, but the Android phones are definitely exciting.

Microsoft dropped the ball with Windows Mobile and there's no doubt that Windows Phone 7 will bring the platform back as a serious player. I was disappointed with WM6 in that it still looked like a PC desktop on a mobile device, and needing to use a stylus to click an X to close apps was very tedious. Microsoft has had a long time to get version 7 right so I'd be surprised if they didn't do a pretty good job with it.

Agree, previous versions of Windows mobile were very bad, but Microsoft have got it right in a big way with Windows Phone 7 and have learnt a lot from previous mistakes

 

[weevil]

There's no doubt that the iPhone is not perfect

There is no such thing as a perfect phone.

Apple and Android are obviously awesome platforms. Apple is very closed and Android is very open.

To me both of those cause problems and I personally think Microsoft has picked a great path right between the 2.

But that is just me, some people are going to love the super tweakability of Android and others are going to love the super strong, simple Apple brand.

There is no one answer that is going to be the ‘best phone’ for everyone. There is plenty of room in the tent for all of them.

 

[weevil]

Rumour going around the traps that the update in January is going to be 'massive'.

The other two quotes were 'Lets just say, they could have called it Windows Phone 8' and 'MS took 3 months to do what it took Apple 3 years'

Could well just be BS.

 

[kane249]

Rumour going around the traps that the update in January is going to be 'massive'.

The other two quotes were 'Lets just say, they could have called it Windows Phone 8' and 'MS took 3 months to do what it took Apple 3 years'

Could well just be BS.

Have heard the same, **** christmas i'm counting down the days till January now haha

 

[Borgsta]

Rumour going around the traps that the update in January is going to be 'massive'.

The other two quotes were 'Lets just say, they could have called it Windows Phone 8' and 'MS took 3 months to do what it took Apple 3 years'

Could well just be BS.

what add copy and paste function?

 

[.Shotties.]

Had my heart set on a Desire HD. Might wait till the January update an see what that does.

 

[weevil]

MS have quashed the January mega update rumour; it appears it will basically be copy/paste. They have however indicated that there will be a lot of regular updates following.

 

[red+black]

I read that Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies have been released for Windows Phone 7.

Not that I can find them on http://marketplace.windowsphone.com/Default.aspx.

 

[weevil]

I read that Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies have been released for Windows Phone 7.

Not that I can find them on http://marketplace.windowsphone.com/Default.aspx.

Yikes those are windows mobile apps.

A whole world of difference.

 

[weevil]

Windows Phone 7 games:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/apps/paid-apps.aspx

 

[red+black]

Oh my bad, that's for WM6 apps isn't it?

Maybe this is the place to start:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/apps/paid-apps.aspx

 

[soonarmee]

Rumour going around the traps that the update in January is going to be 'massive'.

The other two quotes were 'Lets just say, they could have called it Windows Phone 8' and 'MS took 3 months to do what it took Apple 3 years'

Could well just be BS.

I was actually waiting to see what W8 was going to deliver.

Rumor was it was going to cross-mojinate their standard OS with touch phone and tablet abilities...

How does W7 mobile compare with the smartphone phone scene...that is, is it up to the same standard as iOS or Android??