[Windows Phone 7 General] Speedn:
Since Mango, will WP7 continue to evolve..

So I have been playing around with WP7 for a couple of weeks now.

In terms of the future, I hope this is a short lived OS. It is nice smooth interface but it does feel very empty. Coming from WM6.5 it is horrendous. But I wanted to try it out and get the feel for it.

The tiles are nice, but I agree with other people who think MS should be able to nicely fit all 8 tiles on the first screen. Having the bottom two tiles hanging off the bottom looks cheap. The same is true of the windows icon to switch to Apps. Unnecessary and a waste of screen real estate. It would have been nicer to have 8 larger tiles or even 12 tiles. I think 12 would suit me better. That would give me most of my daily needs on the first page without unnecessary scrolling.

The Apps page is ok, not great but workable. I would like to see a third page for settings. An Icon( as a kind of lock) leading into that would be even better. It is Pretty annoying to have scroll down to settings to turn off wifi etc. I know there is an app to put them on the live tiles screen, but frankly I don't use them frequently enough to justify the space. with 12 tiles I probably would put wifi there though. The other settings I use infrequently but I do like to able to find them easily. I mean that is the main concept behind WP7, simple and concise. Personally I just flick left to find everything, I like that idea it works well. So getting to apps is easy enough, I just think MS should have made a third page for settings. no big deal but it would be a nicer look I feel.

As a phone. Well it works, I do really like the integration of contacts in the people hub. Being able to link contacts is really nice. Having facebook news there is nice too. I could live without it. I am not a huge fan of social media. I don't have a twitter account and never will. But I do like the implementation of the people hub and well the Me hub too. I can see how it would be useful for people who are deeply involved with social networking.

What I find to me a Major failing for a phone is how difficult it to use the phone. I mean it is a phone, that should be its primary goal. It is even named as such. The lack of smart dialer is annoying. Intuitively if I go to ring someone I hit the phone, well honestly I still go for the answer key(I think removing a HW button dedicated to dialing is a bad idea too), but I am getting past that. Anyway I hit the phone tile. Usually home then phone, because I usually have left my screen sitting in apps or something. So the phone comes up. That defaults to history. Ok that is usually good enough. I like that assuming the person I am trying to call is in history. I do really miss the smart dialer with history visible. That way if you can't see the name you just punch a couple of keys and the name pops up. Super simple. I think it is giant omission from an OS dedicated to being a phone.

The next failing for the phone function is related to text. So you bounce a couple text back and forth, great. Its smooth, its threaded, and you can switch to another chat service. That is cool, easy to read and smooth. So how does it fail? Ever tried going from text to call?

To switch from text to call, you have to press home>Phone(or contacts but as I said above I intuitively go for phone) now that person is not in your history you have been talking over text.. so press contacts> scroll or press a letter and scroll abit more. select number> call. How many moves is that? 4 taps and a few scrolls. I just wanted to make a phone call! It should be easy. It would be, if you could "switch to" call instead of text only options. Another glaring fault in my mind. Yes I know there is a beautiful looking smart dialer floating around, but it doesn't integrate as nicely as I would expect from a phone(no offense Deadknight, I realise you are trying to fix a flaw in a locked down system and doing it in your spare time. I think you have done a great job so far.)

Email integration is smooth and push works great. The agenda not having a week view is mildly annoying, but I can live without that for now. Syncing my calendar and contacts from Gmail and outlook was flawless, mind you about time too.

As a locked down system. Ok I can understand that sentiment from a big company, reduce piracy, people stuffing up their phones and giving the company a bad name. Fine I can accept abit of locking down of an OS. I mean iPhones seem to work out of the box fine for the mindless masses, and iTunes locks them in. Fine, but that is not for me. I will never willingly choose an apple product. I have had touch based phone since 2005. I have loved watching convergent devices evolve and become more user friendly and more appealing to the masses. One day hopefully batteries will catch up. I like being able to upgrade/tweak my phone. It is a hobby, but I do like to be able to do it. So I can understand why a company would want to lock down their system and give the carriers abit of control and stop people breaking their phones. I mean they don't want to deal with unhappy customers any more than MS does. I understand profit is their bottomline and anything else is gravy.

Apps, yeah I dont mind paying a couple of dollars for a decent app, I will take a free anyday, who wouldn't. So fine the marketplace is starting to grow. Do I think that should mean an OS can withdraw features so app makers can get abit of action too? sure why not. They generally do it better than a big company anyway. Will I pay $50 for a GPS interface on a phone that I intend to have for at best 2 years, without knowing that software will follow me across to my new phone? No. why? because that is about the price of where it is more convenient to wire a GPS unit into my car. Do I use GPS, sure, not every trip, but enough to miss it when I don't have it. Would I upgrade to a phone without a GPS radio? No. Same can be said of a camera. Do I occasionally kill time with a game sure, or read some news on the internet or google something random, you bet. That is why I wanted a convergent device in the first place all those years ago. Does WP7 achieve that? Yes I think so. Do I punch out an email or a document, rarely, but i know I can if I need to. xbox live? ok if you want. Do I want to track my bad scores. It is not a make or break feature for me. I don't own a console. I guess I probably will one day. When kids come running around, but I would prefer to get them a computer they can play games on, break, upgrade and learn to fix when they are teenagers. Still doubt ill ever need xbox live on my phone. Do I think omitting tethering is a good idea? No its ****.

So in conclusion do I feel this is a good solid OS? No, it is a toy OS for the masses. That is fine, thats the direction MS wants to take. Do I want convergent device/mini pc in my pocket, Hell yeah. Do I think it can evolve into a workable system, Yeah I guess. Will my next phone be a WP7. No. Where does that leave me? Taking my market share to android it seems. It is a shame, I have really enjoyed our last few years together but without WM6.5 being looked after you have lost me, and anyone else I would recommend a new phone to.