Now that it's released, is WP7 worth it?

[cortez]

my 2 cents.... to answer the OP original question: is WP7 worth dropping WinMo 6.5 or android (or other OS)? i would answer no if you like to customize your device, your WP7 phone is your only phone and a simple interface doesn't cut it for you. if you want more on my experience please read below.

from my post at xda developers

used the Surround as a daily driver for 7 days and here are my personal, unscientific observations:

the good....
- responsive
- simple, straight-forward OS
- nice, clear, easy to read screen
- outlook integration; simple email setup with Outlook 03 or 07
- good calendar app for my needs
- good call quality and volume
- loud ringtones
- great keyboard!
- 16 GB of onboard space

the not-so-good or, things i've gotten accustomed to with other phones that i'd miss with WP7
- no conversation view in email, no integrated inbox
- no contact lookup via phone dialpad
- limited customization (e.g., cannot use your own ringtones)
- no text reflow; zoom in/out increases the font size but you have to move the screen to read text in web pages and email (a biggie for me)
- small fonts in txt msg app
- no shuffle for play lists; it's only available when playing "all music/songs"
- surround is heavy relative to my HTC Desire
- 5 minutes max on screen timeout and screen lock
- no tethering app
- external speaker is wasted space; give me a keyboard or reduce the size of device
- no copy & paste
- *sigh* battery life; for me it was not good. i had 3.25 hours in calls one day 2 and it simply killed my battery.

i've been majorly spoiled by my HTC Desire, Nexus One, Android and the wealth of options that are available with that platform. so, in summary, kudos to MS for delivering a good foundation OS. at this point, i'm not ready for WP7

[end of xda post]

despite all the not-so-good stuff, and my initial belief that i'm not ready for WP7, i've changed my mind and i'm jumping back onto the WP7 band wagon with the Telstra HTC Mozart (has the 850 3G at&t band). my decision was made easy due to an extremely generous return on a weekend sports investment (Cowboys vs. Giants and Iowa vs. Northwestern). don't know where this journey will take me, but if i find that WP7 isn't for me, i'll sell it on ebay.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by Musicman247

Yep, Android is just a few "homescreens" where you can put shortcuts to apps, and a couple widgets. iOS only differs in the inability to add widgets, and all your apps are on your "homescreens" all the time.

I honestly never saw the "innovation" in iOS. I was using a Treo 700p when the iPhone came out and I thought "change the background to a solid black and this is iOS."

So... a bunch of cluttery tiles on one screen is some sort of innovation?

[Musicman247]

Originally Posted by brownhornet

So... a bunch of cluttery tiles on one screen is some sort of innovation?

I'm not saying that either. I was commenting on Android and iOS being nothing but shortcuts to apps, much like the old Palm OS. I think WP7's interface is nicer than the other two's (personal preference, I know), but at the same time is offering very little in the way of innovation.

[dee91]

Wirelessly posted (Sprint Touch pro 2: Opera/9.80 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.2.13337/21.549; U; en) Presto/2.5.25 Version/10.54)

ok fellow sprint customers who are stuck in the major delema of using their upgrade for wp7 or android, do not fear! sprints 30 day free trial garauntee is here! and no restocking fee! on any plan! i recently tried the evo! now that i know how it is i will def compare when trying out wp7 for day to day stability.... they reimburse you for the plan too! so enjoy a free trial on the house!!

[darren.wlsn1]

Originally Posted by brownhornet

So... a bunch of cluttery tiles on one screen is some sort of innovation?

too funny, and thats not my biggest gripe. that clutter free innovation updates all the time and just kills the battery even if your not using the phone.

[smoove21]

Im still trying to figure out who the hell at microsoft approved the way text is displayed through the os. Why in the world isn't/doesn't the text automatically adjust to the size of the screen? Who doesnt hate scrolling to the left/right when trying to view/read pages on the internet? Now just to operate my phone i have to spend all day scrolling just to figure out where im at in the os? No wonder there's a grid (just as the iphone) of tiles a.k.a. widgets on the homescreen.

[Kliptik]

Originally Posted by DavidinCT

I still want to see someone who uses a WP7 phone on a daily use for a business or something else. Day to day with push mail (with more than 1 account would be nice), texts, e-mail attachments (excel/word docs, etc).

Someone must be a hardcore user here who can give the real performace in the real working world...????? Also battery life with active tiles going all the time.

I'll admit, my TP2 is not the worse in this, I have push mail on 2 accounts (hotmail and exchange) and use it all the time, I just hate the speed of the device and over clocking helps but, it tends to lock up a little more than normal..

Originally Posted by darren.wlsn1

too funny, and thats not my biggest gripe. that clutter free innovation updates all the time and just kills the battery even if your not using the phone.

I think I posted this a couple pages back, but the tiles do not poll the internet for data, thus they are not constantly draining your battery. Any updates to the tiles, are done via "push notiifcations" from the cloud. So basically every WP7 phone registers onto the cloud when it's activated. Then devs setup their servers to send various data notifications to their app users. The cloud then "pushes" the notification to the user, which updates the tile. So the only data transfer is done ONLY when there is actually something new. Pretty smart actually, as it doesn't kill the battery constantly polling for data.

Now I don't know how the rest of the battery life is, but short battery life shouldn't be caused by the tiles.

[brownhornet]

The "push" notifications was one of the biggest reasons I ditched my iphone in lieu of Android.. I hated em. Especially when you're in an area where AT&T has crappy coverage (which around here is a plenty). That and the fact that i had to sync through itunes to do pretty much EVERYTHING.. no real file system etc. pretty much the same reasons I couldnt seriously consider wp7 at this point. I think the tile thing looks nice though but I cant do it.

[nrfitchett4]

Originally Posted by Musicman247

Windows Phone 7 has been out a week today (Monday), and it seems that a few of you have purchased one.



What do you think? What has a week of real world use been like? How many resets have you had to go through? How would you compare it to your previous phone?



Curious minds want to know!

so far I am loving my hd7. The interface really is nice and easy to navigate. It seems to take less presses to get where you are going. I have had zero freeze UPS and only deserted the phone once due to marketplace not opening.
The only time I have missed multitasking is with twitter, clicking on links then going back to twitter it doesn't save where you are in the timeline.
Overall I think it is a very good 1.0 os that will only get better with time. The games and music hubs alone put winno to shame.

Sent from my HD7 using Board Express

[aximtreo]

This is what makes the world go around. I used android for over a year and all the flexability of the OS is what drove me away. I'm looking forward to the "bland" interface of WP7. I want to use email, contacts, calendar and surf; seems easier to do on WP7 than what I remember about Android. My 2cents.