Should I Keep Waiting?

[GoodThings2Life]

As an actual user of WP7 for all of 48 hours now (after being a WM6 user for 3 years and an Android user for 1 year), here's my perspective (and anyone is entitled to disagree):

1. I love the Tiles. Yes, the default ones are bland-looking, but many application tiles are much more decorative... check out the Weather Channel app for an example. More importantly, however, is the fact that they are dynamic and show you useful information. This distinguishes them from the rows of icons you see on iPhone and Android, in my opinion, and makes them much more useful.

2. I've never owned a non-HTC phone, so of course I enjoyed using HTC Sense when it was the only real option available to me without jumping on the custom ROM bandwagon (I'm a corporate user and can't really do that with my phone since I have to be able to readily support the same experience I provide my users). However, I find the WP7 UI to be so fluid and simple that Sense actually seems convoluted and unnecessary to me now. To be blunt, Microsoft has spent much more time properly and thoroughly integrating their components where-as Sense is clearly more of a skin-deep overlay, and Mango makes it even better. I installed it this morning and am playing with it as I write this.

3. I find the notifications mechanism to be fairly decent (and effective), but then again I don't get bombarded with them like many people might. I'm not sure (yet) how disruptive they might be if I got many notifications at once. I turn off pretty much ALL Facebook notices except if somebody sends me a message or posts on my wall directly (I prefer to check manually), so the only ones I get are e-mail and SMS/MMS notifications and the occasional wifi notice if I'm not already connected.

4. Everything else about the phone as-is creates a very SIMPLE experience that, I feel, is perfect for the technophobe/technostupid people we know. For the more experienced users, I think Mango will satisfy most of our expectations.

5. I do not find the lack of an SD card to be a problem, because having the phone tied into Facebook and SkyDrive provides me with more than adequate storage needs. I suppose if you're trying to store a LOT of music and videos on it that might be an issue for some.

6. Limitations, in my opinion, are the speed with which Microsoft is developing updates, lack of tethering options, lack of hardware options on carriers, and lack of third party keyboard options (I'm thinking SWYPE). Aside from these, I think Microsoft has an excellent platform that is a VERY HAPPY medium between the hyper-locked-down iPhone experience and the hyper-free Android experience.