Preview of the new OS
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Mango update is still months away. There is no confirmed date from Microsoft only the promise that it will be some time this "Fall" (that's Autumn for our British readers), and there are still features to turn on, fine tuning and tweaks to be done.
Still Pocket-lint was one of just four UK publications to be given access to Mango ahead of the official launch later this year to see what we thought.
Seven days later, and we've got an extensive preview of what to expect, whether you should be excited about upgrading and whether it's going to make you want to switch from the iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device you've currently got.
Caveats
It's worth pointing out that everything below is based on our play with a beta build of the new operating system. The features aren't entirely locked down, some things are likely to change, and that there is still 4 months at least at the time of writing whereby Microsoft could change things up or hone performance. This is clearly a work in progress, but that said it is enough of a work in progress that Microsoft is happy to let us loose on our own.
We tested the new Mango update first on the rather clunky Asus developer phone for 24 hours and after that an HTC 7 Trophy. We've lived with the phone as if it is our only device, ditching our Samsung Galaxy S II and the Apple iPhone 4 with iOS 5 that we've been using recently. The build is stable and with that out of the way, here's what we think.
Design
It would be easy to say that design-wise nothing has changed. That's wrong of course, but to those unfamiliar with Windows Phone 7, showing you a Windows Phone 7.5 (as listed on the phone) or Windows Phone 7.1 (as listed in Windows Phone 7 Connector on the Mac) Mango device you aren't going to notice a massive difference.
The operating system's core Metro UI is still two panes - the home screen with the interactive tiles, and a list of apps (alphabetical) that you can scroll down to find what's what. Within the apps themselves the ethos is still about scrolling through panoramic vistas of information. It's very different to Android. It's very different to iOS 4 or 5. It is very different to any phone OS out there at the moment and its grid of apps.
Look slightly closer and there are changes however. The homepage tiles have become more interactive with developers given greater control over what information and how often that information can be displayed. BA's new app is a good example with the live tile giving you gate information and other bits and bobs over just a company logo that WP7 users get currently.
Other design elements that have been added include a stronger use of the search button. It's everywhere, so much so we aren't really sure how Microsoft can insist on a dedicated hardware button (leaked pictures of the Nokia Windows Phone 7 "Sea Ray" smartphone suggest maybe they aren't in the future). That's no bad thing. A new search button on the apps list not only lets you search for the app on your phone, but also lets you search for the app in Marketplace - handy if you can't remember whether you have a weather app or not for example.
the design is clean and intuitive, while all the same integrating apps in the daily use of the phone. Like the original release of Windows Phone 7 you never have to think about opening an app, it's just there on your phone, and that's a very different philosophy to the other operating systems.
The social network
This is the bit that we are most excited about to be honest, and sadly the bit that we haven't been able to test out as much as we had hoped as some of the social networking features have yet to be turned on.
Twitter and LinkedIn have both been promised, are both present in the settings menu, and both say "Coming soon". It's understandable - it's an early build remember, but frustrating too, and we'll make sure we cover those elements if further detail when they do become available. Needless to say like Apple's iOS 5, Twitter will be "baked-in" to the operating system giving you a chance to share and interact with your Twitter followers without having to resort to the app.
The end result is that we've been conversing more on Facebook in the last week than we ever have with the iPhone or Android handsets, and yet haven't actually installed the dedicated Windows Phone 7 Facebook app. We aren't even sure why you would bother. If Microsoft can deliver the same experience for LinkedIn - think contacts book - and Twitter for managing what's going on right now - they really are on to a winner.
However it's not without concern. Facebook integration works well within the People Hub's "What's New" pane because chances are you don't have hundreds of people that you follow. How it will work in practice with such a large group of followers is yet to be seen, and as such, an option could possibly overwhelm you with status updates to the point it becomes useless. Let's hope that's not the case and you can manage it.
People
It's funny that we said there needs to be a way to manage the flood of information because that's exactly what a new feature within the People Hub lets you do. Microsoft has introduced a new feature we just can't get enough of. Groups. Why are we about to rave about a feature so much? Well because it allows you to block out the noise that little bit easier - especially at weekends. The idea of Groups is that you select a group of people (Apple call them Favorites) and then that gives you access to them and only them alone in isolation of everything else going on in your life.
We set up one for the Pocket-lint team, one for the family, and then one for a group of close friends. The result is that we could easily see, at any given moment, what those people were up to without having to filter through all the other Facebook friend’s status posts (you can also pin the group to the start to make it even easier to see). Add Twitter into that later and you can see the power of it, especially if you use either for work and then want to dip in over the weekend without feeling like you're going to spot something that makes you want to jump back into action work wise.
But it's more than looking at Status updates. You can group email and group text those in the group making communicating (isn't that the point of a phone) so much easier. It even tells you if people within the group don’t have a phone associated so you know they aren’t going to get the message. We love it.
We also love the new history feature that lets you see when and what you last said to someone be it a text message, an email, or txt message.
Me, myself, and I
If you hadn't already worked it out, if you're into Twitter, into Facebook, into LinkedIn, into any social networking platform you're a bit of an egotistical, narcissistic, kind of person that loves to gloat about what you do and why you are doing it. You might not agree with that, but if you do, Microsoft has you covered with called "Me" that's been enhanced for Mango.
That's right, you're so important that you've got your own live tile to see what's happening with you in case you find yourself waking up and forgetting who you are (Memento, Hangover, a regular Saturday night).
New is the ability check in (Facebook), as well as, set your Windows Live Chat Status, beyond giving you a constant reminder of what you look like and letting you quickly post a message. It's like you have a quick access button to tell the world that you're at the funky exclusive restaurant and they’re not with you.
If that wasn't enough to tickle your "I'm more important than you" fancy you can use the same area to find out who is commenting on your status updates, and what you've said in the past just in case you're trying to piece together the last 24 hours of your life. If you love yourself, or even if you don't, you'll sadly find this is a good way of getting social on your phone and that can only mean one thing - those that follow you are about to get a lot more messages from you in the future.
Internet Explorer 9
Apple has Safari, Android hasn't got Chrome, but Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Mango has the latest iteration of Internet Explorer 9. If you've used an iPhone or Android you'll know that the browser is really the key element that you use a lot in day-to-day use and here it's no different. For Mango, the browser has been expanded, and improved.
It now has hardware acceleration support meaning the better the phone's hardware capabilities the better your browsing is going to be. In a test against the iPhone 4 running iOS 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S II running Android 2.3.3 our Trophy came second place to the iPhone based on a simple frames per second test provided by Microsoft (ie.microsoft.com/test-drive/).
Speed isn't everything and Microsoft knows that. We doubt it's been an influence, but the browser has a strong similarity to Firefox for Android in that it believes that the accompanying faff should be ditched. The address bar is now at the bottom - easier to access - the menu is hidden, and the only other key is the refresh button. That leaves plenty of space for the web page you are looking at, and little to clutter the screen. Windows Phone 7 smartphones to date have already benefited from a bigger screen, but it all helps none the less, and Apple's suggestion that you always need to know the network you are on, your battery life, and the time, seems rather redundant.
Other new features of note include the ability to now share the page via messaging, email, or social networks. We can't believe this wasn't here before but it's sorely welcomed. Surprisingly while you can still Pin to Start a website, it still takes the image of the page to that tile without updating it. That's confusing, especially if your favourite websites look similar, and we would much prefer Microsoft to take Apple's approach and use the website’s favicon or Windows 7 start bar icons instead, which we believe would have created a much cleaner more dynamic looking feel to the homepage tiles.
All the above aside, the Internet Explorer browser works, works well, and does what you expect.
Photos
If Nokia are going to bring their camera expertise to Windows Phone 7, then you'll want decent photo options within the operating system and Microsoft seem to have acknowledged that. New to Mango is Face Detection and People tagging that if you are sharing that image with Facebook or Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage option then will let you tag people before you upload.
That's handy if you're into your social networking, not so much if you don't care. None the less, no other OS lets you tag people in your photos at the point that you take the shot. Well done Microsoft.
Video can now be shared, alas not to YouTube, and you'll be able to go straight to the camera by holding down the dedicated shutter button on the phone. That dedicated shutter button can also be accessed when the phone is in locked mode, and for those that worry that might be accidentally taking pictures of your pocket don’t worry, you can turn it off.
Xbox
There’s the new look for starters, bringing the design into line with what the Xbox 360 interface will look like later this year, but also really just a move to include all the features in the Extra’s app into the main app. That means you get a 3D avatar that likes to bounce around, greater control over your achievements, profile and messaging.
Email, Calendar, and Office
By now you're probably wondering what hasn't been updated for the new Windows Phone 7 Mango update. Email and Office get a look in to with new features designed to make working from your phone even easier.
On the email front the biggest change is Linked Inboxes that allow you to join together a number of email accounts into one tile. It’s handy if you’ve got a couple of personal accounts or a personal and work account on the phone and just want to see what’s coming in in one go. Linking them is incredibly easy, as is unlinking them. Gripes? You can’t set a default email account within the Linked inboxes meaning you’ll have to choose every time from a drop down list of which account you want to send it to.
The other major improvement is threaded conversations. If you're used to Gmail that is a big plus and it goes as far as showing you the emails you've sent too within that list. Delete the conversation and the emails are deleted while yours remain. Clever.
Other email treats include the ability to read Rights Protected emails - handy if that's something your work uses. We weren't able to test this on our device however we did see in on our Microsoft contact's phone. You'll be able to read those emails, but neither send them on or copy and paste from them. We also like the ability to "Pin" email folders to the start, allowing you to highlight a group of emails be it from someone in particular or a project on your home page as a tile.
As for the Calendar there is now a To Do list that lets you set Due Dates. It’s handy if you’ve got to remember to do something later in the week/month and will no doubt be loved by the forgetful.
On the office front there is greater support for Microsoft's SkyDrive service (now with 25GB of storage) and Office 365 support (this service isn't live at time of testing). There is also support for Lync, but again we don't have a means of testing this. Excel gets formula assist for those doing auto sum - it works - while Word gets better comments usage for marking up documents. All in all it's just easier to access your documents and then work on them.
What's missing?
There isn't any real "Cloud" backup. No re downloading of apps if you loose your phone, or saving of those Groups and tiles you're going to create. In swapping phones mid-way through our test it was easy to see how even in the short space of time we've been using iOS 5 and the longer use of app backup in Android, how switching phones in Windows Phone 7 isn't as easy. For many that shouldn't be a problem yet, but it's going to be something that Microsoft should fix for the next update. We don’t want to have to re-setup the phone when we upgrade. Apple's iCloud, and Google's app backup features, are nice and it's a shame they are missing here.
With data at a premium, especially for those that travel, we also wanted the ability to turn off certain areas of the constant updates and notifications. It's something none of the mobile operating systems do very well, and Microsoft is no exception. When abroad you might not want Facebook or Twitter, but you do want email.
Review Recap
Made by : Microsoft
Price as reviewed : £
The good : Groups, Me, IE9, Bing Local Scout, auto-fix, multitasking
The bad : Still a lack of apps, not much cloud support, Bing
First Impressions : Everything bounces, swishes, swirls, and dances on the page
making this a spritely jovial experience to enjoy.
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