[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Instinct121:
WP7 and SG2

I happen to have an LG Optimus 7, LG Quantum, and a Samsung Galaxy 2. I'd like to point out some of the differences that I've noticed when using these phones.

The SG2 gives an impression of being a great phone. Open source development, powerful hardware, and a very large screen should be a recipe for success. But is it? At face value the SG2 is a fast, beautiful, and feature full phone with a long lasting battery, however this impression does not hold over time.

The WP7 devices have a consistency like no other multi-hardware platform out there. With each WP7 device you can expect that:

1) Each app that you install should* work for your phone. (I have read up on issues, but have not confirmed if specific devices can be incompatible with apps)

2) No matter which phone you choose, the responsiveness of the phone and its general battery life will be very good.

3) It will have the same interface, and will not be loaded down with useless apps that you can't uninstall.

4) The keyboard, whether hardware or touch screen will always respond without delays, hangs, or unreasonable inaccuracies. This makes typing a breeze, no matter how fast you are.

Now I'll explain the things that SG2 and WP7 do not have in common. Here's a list of things that the SG2 can do that the WP7 phones cannot (officially).

- Create a tethered WiFi hotspot. [Now available on WP7 phones running the Mango update]

- Initiate wired tethering

- Save email attachments.

- Download files to the phone, confirmed for music and email attachments.

- Download potentially illegal apps.

- Download malware. :P

- Run multiple apps at the same time with no software limit. (WP7 even though it can multitask in Mango has a limit)

- Customize the home screen (background).

- Have multiple home screens (up to 7)

- View old and new notifications in one place. (WP7 has limited support, and notifications only display for a moment if the app isn't displayed as a live tile)

- play flash videos, although it's quite annoying to view anything through the browser.

- Customize pretty much anything with the phone. Set any sound on the phone as a ringtone, install custom keyboards, etc.

- Share videos to YouTube. (WP7 has less sharing options than Android)

- View the filesystem.

- View as a USB storage device when connected to the computer.

- Adjust screen brightness below 40%.

- Backup phone data to cloud servers. (Settings mostly)

- Connect to a wireless N network.

- video calls (wp7 mango may later support this)

- haptic feedback (vibration when typing)

- Call rejection messages.

- Block numbers automatically.

- View/track what uses the most battery life.

- Graphically view battery life charge.

- Print. (Though I haven't tested it, I would expect that it is quite limited. Many printers are starting to support email based printing as an alternative method, so this isn't exactly the only way to send a print job)

- Wake the phone by pressing the home key.

- Easily manage music playlists. Seems a little too awkward in WP7 right now (MangoBeta2).

Now I'll explain the things that WP7 and SG2 do not have in common. Here's a list of things that the WP7 can do that the SG2 phones cannot (officially).

- Built-in native support for facebook, twitter, linked-in.

- Built-in facebook and msn chat.

- Built-in cloud synchronization with skydrive, for photos and documents.

- Built-in voice command. (requires data connection)

- Built-in Microsoft Office support.

- Conversation support in email.

- Consistently expect apps in the marketplace to work for your phone model. (rare exceptions, imo)

- automatically sync multiple accounts with the built-in contacts, calendar, etc. Supports facebook (including events), gmail, windows live... I don't remember what all else.

- Easily figure out what buttons mean or do. I find many buttons or features are hidden or unexplained in the SG2, without doing a side readup on how the phone/app works. People don't read instructions anymore you know. :P

- Apps don't stay running in the background draining battery life, there is an allegedly very good model for multitasking yet keeping battery life unaffected for WP7's. I consider the lack of native automated application control the source for all the battery issues on SG2.

- A camera button. Unless I missed a button combo (not reading instructions here), there isn't one on the SG2.

- A speaker on the front of the phone. Some WP7's have theirs on the back, but the SG2 only has its on the back. It's quite annoying to have the speaker facing the wrong way, or get muffled by the surface it's on.

- Notification lights. (Technically only a feature on select HTC phones, but still doesn't exist on SG2)

- On screen notifications, which allow you to immediately go to and respond to whatever it was. My experience so far with the SG2 is that you can only do this from the locked screen. Otherwise you have to open up the notifications display.

- Linked inboxes.

- Contact groups, which includes mass sms messages, emails, tracking facebook/twitter/msn status/photo updates, etc.

Anyways, I consider both very good phones. I dislike WP7 because it's so specifically locked down (can't even download files to the phone, even though it saves files 'temporarily'. I dislike SG2 for the slow keyboard despite customizations, and the constant need to manage apps with the task manager to keep the battery life from disappearing. I've been frustrated trying to do something as simple as add a contact number to an existing contact and I don't know what I did wrong. You could say RTFM but I say, if I can't figure it out, how is the average consumer supposed to? That being said, I think the SG2 is overly complicated, especially when running Android 2.3 with the stock firmware.