Pay Attention to the Windows Phone...or Don't.

So the day after Thanksgiving, I went to Best Buy and looked at phones. At the time, I had a Nokia 5530, which is from Nokia's Symbian 5.0 OS series. It's a reliable, yet primitive operating system. But right now Nokia's making so much cash selling cheap cell phones in second and third world countries (and even smaller European outfits like the Netherlands) that they can still peddle a 10 year old OS and get away with it. The phones they sell in other countries went obsolete here in 2004. Even their new Symbian^3 OS, Nokia's still got a lot of work to do, especially in their shoddy App Store.

Anyways, I went to Best Buy and looked at their new Windows 7 Phones, which were less than a month old at the time. Microsoft just did a major overhaul to the Windows Phone 7 brand, and it shows a vast improvement over the Windows Phone 6.0 series. I played with the HTC Surround, and let me tell you, I was amazed at how fluid it was. This is not Windows packed into a phone- Microsoft has finally developed a living, breathing OS that can stand alone and apart from its desktop brethren. This is definitely a phone that given the right marketing and third party app support, could keep up with the iOS and Android.

The HTC Surround (left) and Samsung Focus (right) are two of the
handsets in the first generation of Windows 7 Phones.

As it was on sale, I bought an HTC Surround with a brand new service plan. Since I had been a customer with AT&T for 5 years, I didn't have to pay a security deposit, which some internet posters claim can be as much as $500 or $600. Major crisis averted.

Like I said, the phone is great. It's incredibly smooth, the apps are nimble, and it pulled all the contact info from my Facebook profile to add to my current contacts. Great.

Unlike its two contemporaries, iOS and Android, the Windows Phone uses a tile-based home screen. It minimizes having an overwhelming amount of apps, and it really does help you focus on what's most important on your phone rather than cause you to browse aimlessly. My biggest knock on iOS is that there's no dedicated home screen to summarize all of my content; it's just pages upon pages of apps; Android tries to summarize, but is too much like iOS and ends up being more cluttered; with a techie like me who tends to wander in my pages of apps, the Windows Phone keeps me focused. My lock screen notifies me of all missed calls, texts, and emails at the bottom of the screen with distinguishable, yet simple icons.

An added plus for a gamer/techie like me is that the phone is Xbox Live compatible. Certain Windows Phone games come packed with Xbox Achievement points, which add to my overall score. It's a big relief that I don't have to create a new profile and start from zero again. I can also edit my avatar, send Xbox friends messages, or buy more points on the go. Having an extension of my Xbox in my pocket is pretty sweet. Now if only I could actually connect it to my Xbox and transfer data. Sony? Take notes.

I only have two faults with the phone; the more noticeable one being that the phone's battery life is shoddy. For the first time in my life, I have to charge my phone every day. That's the one good thing about Nokia phones; their standby battery life is so good that I can forget to charge it for two or three days and still not get a low battery signal. My Blackberry was the same way. This phone? Not so much. I've heard that a lot of Android phones are the same way, and I guess if the phone is running so many different syncs and Bluetooth tethers, your battery life is bound to suffer a bit. Considering that the battery is removable, if a more power-efficient one comes along, I can easily fix this issue.

The second is the App Store. Sure, the phone is less than 4 months old, and it's got a pretty good start. But Microsoft has to make sure that programming apps for the Windows Phone isn't a complicated process. They've also got to have as many third party developers on board as possible. Apps with partners like Capcom, EA, social networking companies and popular websites are what will make or break this phone. Better third party developers leads to more quality apps.

Overall though, this phone is a great start by Microsoft. A major update is coming this quarter which will add many new features to the phone; but even without the update, the Windows Phone 7 is definitely a solid start by a company who has a lot of ground to make up.