Windows Phone 7 Is "Operating System Of The Year"

I used WinPhone7 on a HTC Surround 7 (that I won in the HowardForums Contest last summer!!!) and really liked the interface. It is silky smooth and intuitive. My wife had a samsung sidekick 4g and hated it and she took the surround 7 and loved it and has used it since. My son liked it as well and ended up with an HTC HD7. It is less customizable than android, but the tile approach is unique.

Originally Posted by cyberstoic

I used WinPhone7 on a HTC Surround 7 (that I won in the HowardForums Contest last summer!!!) and really liked the interface. It is silky smooth and intuitive. My wife had a samsung sidekick 4g and hated it and she took the surround 7 and loved it and has used it since. My son liked it as well and ended up with an HTC HD7. It is less customizable than android, but the tile approach is unique.

Glad to see you kept it. Do you have any observations on how the platform has evolved with Mango?

I've tried WP7 (name still reminds me of Word Perfect 7).
The display is a little too much eye candy for me, even through its fairly streamlined.
Apps for business (not for media) are still not there yet, and I have to rely on my WinMo 6.1 Treo 800w. Overall, I still prefer the iPhone.

Was thinking of trying one but then I decided that Google's Cloud services are far more important to my productivity than Microsoft's.

My friend bough an HTC Surround and when I asked him about it, he said he couldn't stand using it after 15 minutes. My guess he feels he needs to get an iPhone.

I love the damn thing!

Everything just makes sense and was designed for the people...

WP7 is definitely my favorite mobile OS by far. I just wish Microsoft and Verizon would allow tethering on the HTC Trophy. Until that happens, it's a non-starter for me.

I actually own a WP7 phone (the Samsung Focus), but I just can't bring myself to LIKE the O/S. That said, the UI is buttery smooth and there's eye candy galore, but perhaps TOO MUCH of it. Despite Microsoft's claim that you "get in and get out" quickly, I found that the UI slowed me down far too much, basically because of the over-abundance of eye-pleasing transitions.

If I were interested in a phone with a super-slick UI however, I'd buy an iPhone long before I ever considered WP7 again. There aren't many apps for it, and many of the apps from major names are pale imitations of the Android and iOS versions (especially the Slacker Radio app, which sees more use on my Android phone than any other).

I've heard that the game apps on WP7 are terrific, but I rarely use my smartphone to play games, and so this aspect is irrelevant (to me).

In the end I gravitate to custom ROM versions of Android, despite some of its weaknesses. I'm a hacker at heart and even if I don't actually do much of the hacking personally, I greatly appreciate what the hackers offer. Even a jailbroken iPhone doesn't match the sheer flexibility of a rooted Android phone running a custom ROM.

As for WP7, there isn't yet a way to "jailbreak" the O/S, even after a year of being on the market.

But I'd be the first to admit that I'm NOT an "average" user, and what's important to me is most likely of little value to the average non-tech-savvy smartphone buyer. In that regard WP7 is certainly a contender, but I fail to see how it would ever win out against iOS, even with the ghost of Steve Jobs telling you what you can and cannot do. At least the late Jobs was the devil we knew.

It's a nice UI and maybe a contender for "Phone UI" of the year. I agree with the other posters in that the UI is currently about eye candy. Once you have a lot of apps loaded, the side menu gets crowded and it becomes hard to find what you are looking for by scrolling up/down. It might have been better for functionality to have additional UI pages to allow for grouping of apps.

Mango OS itself reminds me of Android 1.5. It would have been a great OS if MS had released it in 2009. With quad core devices on the horizon, an OS that can't even support dual core certainly can't be called modern. Where are the WP7 LTE phones?

The MS app store is a bit of a joke. The few apps that are there now are grossly overpriced. MS should have made the app store free for a year to attract new users. The $25 free app credit for new users is "too little, too late". How can there still be no Skype app? The official MS youtube app is so lame, it's not even funny

If I had old Windows Mobile or S60 and had to buy a brand new phone. learn a new UI and also re-purchase all my apps, why would I upgrade to Mango where I would pay double for apps and have a fraction of the selection? I'd simply buy an iPhone or Android phone and be done with it

Stability wise since Oct, I've had the phone freeze once and had to pull the battery. I've also had the phone crash once and reboot by itself.

I do not trust these types of awards. It is a just strategy of marketing.

I have to agree, while I enjoy the UI watching the tiles fly out over and over again got tiresome quickly. It would be nice if there were a way to turn them off, speed them up or if they were more subtle.

Basically any software which has eye catching GUI and is simple to use becomes the people's choice

Originally Posted by howard

Glad to see you kept it. Do you have any observations on how the platform has evolved with Mango?

I only used it a short time until my wife stole, errr , decided that she liked it and took it. She was previously using a t-mobile sidekick 4g, which she absolutely despised. She tried WP7 and her comment was, "it just works, you don't have to study a manual or put up with constant FC's or battery pulls. It just works". My son (17 yrs old) also liked it, especially for the games and xbox live, and got an HD7. I can ask my son what he thought of the functionality after Mango and see what he says. As for me, I continue on with the Nexus One with Miui (today at least until some other rom goes on.......)

I actually like WP7.5, it is easy to use and figure out. It needs more apps, but they are coming, remember the phone and OS is less than a year old.

@l69norm, hey WP7 doesn't need battery hogging dual-cores to run as smooth as ice, Android does. So if you want must have extra hardware to run your OS somewhat efficiently (a.k.a Android) go for it. When it is needed, it will support dual-cores and quad-cores, but by then they along with LTE will be more energy efficient and not battery drainers like Android and the new iPhone 4s.

They will have to do something about the app menu list, if you have some apps installed the list becomes too long and scrolling through the list frustrating .
Other than that it's really good