Upcoming prototype WP7 device from LG - quick hands on impression!

[m4f1050]

I am a WM fan but... not for nothing but the Android phone's browser seemed faster than the WP7 in scrolling, surfing and redraws and it came out already. Only hope that WP7 speeds it up a bit if they are going to have Flash and newer technologies that slow it down..

[ace741]

This is another one of those "Me too" products from microsoft. Still don't see anything compelling that would make me leave my EVO for WP7. What's the difference between this and other OS? Xbox live integration? Bing? I hope thats not that only thing they are using to set themselves apart. I don't have an xbox live account on the principle that they charge for something that Sony provides for free. So live is actually a disadvantage to me. I'm still waiting to be impressed.

[m4f1050]

Im hunting down an EVO myself (on craigslist and ebay) but they are mad pricey still. Too bad I can't get it on Boost, I might just switch to the $69.99 Sprint plan... For $99.99 a month I think Verizon is coming out with a new play unlimited everything, I would pay the extra $30 for Verizon in a heartbeat..it's supposed to be a "test" campaign..lets see if it gets approved for an actual plan. Still waiting for economy to get better and hopefully I finish my MCPD next 2 months and get a decent job.

[darren.wlsn1]

Originally Posted by Whosdaman

Is it me, or is everyone just dumb? I mean I know I havent used WM in a year, but Widnows Phone 7 is ugly. It looks like something that is completely unfinished.

hero might look better but its junk plus wp7 will have sense and theres a link with info. in my wp7 thread or google it. i will take ugly ass wp7 over a hero anyday of the week.

[fsp48]

Why are there so many negative WM/WP7 comments? I'm actually looking forward to the new offerings from MS. I want full working two way MS Office integration like I had with my TP2. My Evo/Android is still lacking all around common video codec support, it's still not as easy to play all the various file formats I could on my TP2, not to mention 2.2 f-ed up my Slacker sound quality even with the "fixes" it still sounds too hollow and tinny. As for WP7, maybe they really should have named it Zune Phone but in any case the Zune HD is extremely fluid and intuitive. I like the proposed WP7 interface based on my SPB MS 3 themes I ran on my TP2 which ran fast and were really easy to use. Aesthetics is nice but functionality is more important to me. I'll admit that it does kinda suck our old software probably won't natively run on WP7 but oh well just buy some new stuff you like or try to figure out how to port it if possible.

Android is new, I like it. At least there is the app store to get most of what's missing by default in it like a file explorer (Root Explorer for me) All in all I don't really care what OS I run as long as it does what I want it to do, same goes for hardware maker. I just want a powerful portable all in one device for apps(utilities/games), cam/vid and multimedia, surfing/email and communication. Last year it was the TP2, right now it's the Evo, soon it will be the Epic to get back full landscape use and have a keyboard, then later this year, depending on Sprint's offerings, it may be a new WP7 handset. I wish there were some high end WP7 choices right now to give WM another chance but I will probably burn my new phone credit on this Epic soon. Good review/early look, I'm just tired of seeing constant bashing before they even give it a try.

[Whosdaman]

Originally Posted by darren.wlsn1

hero might look better but its junk plus wp7 will have sense and theres a link with info. in my wp7 thread or google it. i will take ugly ass wp7 over a hero anyday of the week.

Originally Posted by dishe

No, I think we all already know that the new OS is NOT backwards compatible- I mean, the classic WM/PocketPC framework contains elements of the UI that don't exist in WP7 (scroll bars, menu bar on top, background threading while apps are jumped into/out of, etc). Remember- don't think of the new OS as the next Windows Mobile version, rather think of it as the first ZUNE PHONE combined with some features people expect in a Windows branded device (Office, Exchange, etc). I think even IF you managed to find some code written for a previous version of CE that would actually run on the new CE core (which in it of itself isn't so simple I think), the UI elements missing would either make it display improperly or just crash.

That's assuming we managed to copy the files manually into the device because it does not support .cab files natively. So, I didn't really try it (not sure how I could, really) but I'm fairly certain the answer is a resounding NO.



Yes, yes... I've been the biggest critic/opponent of 7 since the press releases. We'll all seen the demos and media presentation from a few months back... and it looked awfully cluttered to me. But let me ask you something- have you ever used a ZuneHD?
I touched one for the first time recently, and actually found the UI extremely intuitive. There's a reason people actually LIKE the Zune now (something I never expected to hear when the first Zune was released)...
Meanwhile, using WP7 in person was admittedly much nicer and less cluttered than the demos I saw.

I think it has to do with all the crap they populated it with for the demo- pictures of people and social networking contacts that aren't relevant to you, so it just seems like a big mess of stuff.
But when you see it clean, you see how simple it actually is- then if you start adding contacts and networks to sync, you start to see how the integration offers what is relevant to YOU in a way that is surprisingly elegant. I can't explain it really unless you've tried it.

I'm not saying its for all of us- I'm still not really interested in it personally for my own phone (Windows Mobile died with 6.5 as far as I'm concerned), however don't dismiss it too quickly. Its actually not half bad.

Originally Posted by w7excursion

I guess you didn't realize you don't have to buy one?

Originally Posted by itster

microsoft has gone in a different direction to actually CHANGE the look of mobile devices. apple and google has gone the same direction palm/handspring did 10 years with grids of icons.

talk about unfinished... how many updates has android had? every 2 months they try and finish a product that is unfinished. apple keeps adding MS ideas ever time MS announces something.

it's you

Let me say this to all of you, I don't know why you keyed in on the fact I have a Hero, but I never said it was a great device. Even though I do believe otherwise. I am getting the Samsung Epic, and when's the last time MS actually had a big hit? O that's right, the HTC Vogue, my old smartphone. Some may say the Touch Pro 2, but people had more issues and problems with that phone then any other I've dealt with.

As well, you said Android is constantly updating and MS isnt?!?!?!?! Are you serious??? I was a chef for the Vogue, and every 2 or 3 days there was a new build for 6.1 and 6.5. It was never finished. WP is the buggiest software ever made. It will never be finished. The reason why there are chefs is to finish what WP started, and that's still nearly impossible. WP7 looks like a child's play thing, and their phone they are releasing for WP7 are crap. Tell me when they release a phone play can play 55 frames per second and run smoother then a babies bottom?

O btw, Android is open source....so everything they add just comes from the users. In Froyo the things added was, Apps 2 SD and Mobile Hotspot. And guess what, I'll inform you that Android is working on 3.0 now. It's going to be made for high end phones only. Sounds like WP7 right? WRONG. Google is almost done with 3.0, and WP7 still is and will always be in development. It took 1 and half years to leak about a device coming with WP7. Heck, I remember last year when people were talking about if the Touch Pro 2 will get WP7. Now it's a thing of the past. Get real...MS and WP are nearly dead, and WP7 will prove it once people realize the lack of support for it.

[dishe]

Originally Posted by Whosdaman

Let me say this to all of you, I don't know why you keyed in on the fact I have a Hero, but I never said it was a great device. Even though I do believe otherwise. I am getting the Samsung Epic, and when's the last time MS actually had a big hit? O that's right, the HTC Vogue, my old smartphone. Some may say the Touch Pro 2, but people had more issues and problems with that phone then any other I've dealt with.

As well, you said Android is constantly updating and MS isnt?!?!?!?! Are you serious??? I was a chef for the Vogue, and every 2 or 3 days there was a new build for 6.1 and 6.5. It was never finished. WP is the buggiest software ever made. It will never be finished. The reason why there are chefs is to finish what WP started, and that's still nearly impossible. WP7 looks like a child's play thing, and their phone they are releasing for WP7 are crap. Tell me when they release a phone play can play 55 frames per second and run smoother then a babies bottom?

O btw, Android is open source....so everything they add just comes from the users. In Froyo the things added was, Apps 2 SD and Mobile Hotspot. And guess what, I'll inform you that Android is working on 3.0 now. It's going to be made for high end phones only. Sounds like WP7 right? WRONG. Google is almost done with 3.0, and WP7 still is and will always be in development. It took 1 and half years to leak about a device coming with WP7. Heck, I remember last year when people were talking about if the Touch Pro 2 will get WP7. Now it's a thing of the past. Get real...MS and WP are nearly dead, and WP7 will prove it once people realize the lack of support for it.

I did not intend for this thread to become a Microsoft vs Android flame fest. That being said, I disagree with many of your points.

First of all, you're complaining about bad hardware and calling it Microsoft's fault. If the TP2 is really buggier than the Vogue (and that subject is highly debatable), it would be HTC's fault, not Microsoft. In fact, if anything, the biggest problem with Windows Mobile has been the fragmentation, the lack of MS's involvement in the actual hardware, and the "too many cooks spoil the broth" syndrome. By the time you buy a handset, MS wrote the OS, HTC wrote their UI "enhancements", and the carrier branded it / crippled it / added their services, to the point that it is so far removed from the original intended interface.
If you followed the long history of Pocket PC (since before they were phones), you'd have seen this first hand and understood where this is all coming from.

Microsoft has had plenty of "hits" in the past, dating back to Pocket Pc / Windows Mobile. The problems have been more recent, where there has been a paradigm shift within the company that sort of left the smaller subdivisions of MS unorganized in their efforts. The result is that many of the teams working on Windows Mobile / CE were not really on the same page as the other divisions (their acquisition of Danger is a prime example of this, as is the crack team assigned to release incremental 6.x updates while they figure out where to go with 7).

That, I can say, is a thing of the past. After Windows Mobile 6 was released (crossbow), the mobile space was already heating up, and it was pretty soon thereafter that MS realized they are losing their foothold in the market.
After seeing that the original planned Windows Mobile 7 ("Photon", google my article on MoPocket for more info on that) was not going to be enough to revolutionize anything, they canned it, went back and decided to focus on something completely different- something they have never done before, tapping the consumer market team specialists who are responsible for the Zune HD and Xbox.

The result is decidedly very un-Windowsish, and much more consumer friendly. And like the ZuneHD and Xbox, they appear to not be cutting any corners on the polish this time, even cracking down on hardware and software requirements for 7 to discourage the fragmentation problems between hardware manufacturers and developers (can you imagine if Xbox came from a choice of hardware manufacturers and branded by local game stores? You'd have bugs and compatibility issues up the wazoo! No- like a page from Apple's playbook, MS needs to step in to the hardware game a little as well- or at the very least, be way more specific about the requirements and NOT just license to the OS to anyone).

Meanwhile, they had to release SOMETHING to keep Windows Mobile in the arena, even if only half @$$ed, so they developed 6.1, 6.5, and 6.5.x. Microsoft did not invest too many of their resources on those releases, as was apparent even in their name- in the history of Windows Mobile/Pocket PC, you never saw this many incremental releases in the same generation of OS.

You appear to be judging a LONG history of a very powerful OS dating back to over a DECADE with just what you've seen from the vogue until now, which we can all clearly see has been much of a turning point for them. That's not really fair, and seems awfully short-sighted.

WP7 looks like a child's play thing, and their phone they are releasing for WP7 are crap. Tell me when they release a phone play can play 55 frames per second and run smoother then a babies bottom?

I already mentioned that this model is a no-frills one. The others are not. Samsung has a really nice one, in fact!

As for performance... um, I take it you haven't touched a ZuneHD, have you? Its about as smooth as mobile devices get these days, and the games yield a solid fps. This, even as a "no frills" model, can easily perform as well, especially with the minimum specs required for it to run the Xbox tab. Have you even SEEN the demoed games?

[Whosdaman]

Originally Posted by dishe

I did not intend for this thread to become a Microsoft vs Android flame fest. That being said, I disagree with many of your points.

First of all, you're complaining about bad hardware and calling it Microsoft's fault. If the TP2 is really buggier than the Vogue (and that subject is highly debatable), it would be HTC's fault, not Microsoft. In fact, if anything, the biggest problem with Windows Mobile has been the fragmentation, the lack of MS's involvement in the actual hardware, and the "too many cooks spoil the broth" syndrome. By the time you buy a handset, MS wrote the OS, HTC wrote their UI "enhancements", and the carrier branded it / crippled it / added their services, to the point that it is so far removed from the original intended interface.
If you followed the long history of Pocket PC (since before they were phones), you'd have seen this first hand and understood where this is all coming from.

Microsoft has had plenty of "hits" in the past, dating back to Pocket Pc / Windows Mobile. The problems have been more recent, where there has been a paradigm shift within the company that sort of left the smaller subdivisions of MS unorganized in their efforts. The result is that many of the teams working on Windows Mobile / CE were not really on the same page as the other divisions (their acquisition of Danger is a prime example of this, as is the crack team assigned to release incremental 6.x updates while they figure out where to go with 7).

That, I can say, is a thing of the past. After Windows Mobile 6 was released (crossbow), the mobile space was already heating up, and it was pretty soon thereafter that MS realized they are losing their foothold in the market.
After seeing that the original planned Windows Mobile 7 ("Photon", google my article on MoPocket for more info on that) was not going to be enough to revolutionize anything, they canned it, went back and decided to focus on something completely different- something they have never done before, tapping the consumer market team specialists who are responsible for the Zune HD and Xbox.

The result is decidedly very un-Windowsish, and much more consumer friendly. And like the ZuneHD and Xbox, they appear to not be cutting any corners on the polish this time, even cracking down on hardware and software requirements for 7 to discourage the fragmentation problems between hardware manufacturers and developers (can you imagine if Xbox came from a choice of hardware manufacturers and branded by local game stores? You'd have bugs and compatibility issues up the wazoo! No- like a page from Apple's playbook, MS needs to step in to the hardware game a little as well- or at the very least, be way more specific about the requirements and NOT just license to the OS to anyone).

Meanwhile, they had to release SOMETHING to keep Windows Mobile in the arena, even if only half @$$ed, so they developed 6.1, 6.5, and 6.5.x. Microsoft did not invest too many of their resources on those releases, as was apparent even in their name- in the history of Windows Mobile/Pocket PC, you never saw this many incremental releases in the same generation of OS.

You appear to be judging a LONG history of a very powerful OS dating back to over a DECADE with just what you've seen from the vogue until now, which we can all clearly see has been much of a turning point for them. That's not really fair, and seems awfully short-sighted.



I already mentioned that this model is a no-frills one. The others are not. Samsung has a really nice one, in fact!

As for performance... um, I take it you haven't touched a ZuneHD, have you? Its about as smooth as mobile devices get these days, and the games yield a solid fps. This, even as a "no frills" model, can easily perform as well, especially with the minimum specs required for it to run the Xbox tab. Have you even SEEN the demoed games?

There is a flaw to your whole arguement. The bugs are in the software, not the hardware. The hardware works perfect. Its up to the software people to make sure it work with the hardware. And that my friend is MS. HTC does make a face for the software they are provided with from MS though. So HTC can only do with what they are given.

[w7excursion]

There are some flaws in your sentences lol. You don't have to like wp7 and there is no point in trying to discourage people who want to try it.

[Whosdaman]

Originally Posted by w7excursion

There are some flaws in your sentences lol. You don't have to like wp7 and there is no point in trying to discourage people who want to try it.

Just trying to save them money. Why not get a device that is moving forward then one that is moving backwards?