I am not a reviewer. I am a news reporter. I’ve never written a product review in my life. (And I don’t intend to start now.)
But I did — by a stroke of luck plus a little persistence — talk my way into Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 reviewer’s workshop, which Microsoft held in New York City earlier this month. And I walked out with two loaner devices: A Samsung Focus WP7 and an HTC Surround WP7.
There are a lot of places you can go to read about speeds, feeds, and comparative performance data for Windows Phone7. Here are a few:
Hands-on with the Samsung Focus and HTC Surround (from my colleague Matthew Miller)
Video walk-through through Windows Phone 7 third-party apps
Windows Phone 7 screen shots (phones and software) galore
To set the stage: I also am not now and never have been a Windows Mobile or Windows Phone user. I have considered getting a Windows Phone in the past, thinking as a reporter/blogger who writes about Microsoft, I should try to use/learn their products. Every time I asked (different carriers in different stores in Manhattan), the clerks talked me out of getting them. They said they were hard-to-use, unreliable and just not all that functional compared to the competition — even the cheaper competition.
I use a feature phone — an LG enV touch. Don’t laugh: It has the best mobile keyboard I’ve ever tried — and I text a lot. I find soft keyboards unusuable. (Yes, I know many people think I’ll get used to them one day. I won’t.) My enV also never broke even though I’ve dropped it on New York sidewalks, in a deep puddle in the gutter (yes, I sanitized it well afterward) and off my kitchen counter onto my hardwood floor.
(Microsoft is counting on feature phone users as one of its primary targets with Windows Phone 7.… so maybe my word has more weight than I thought originally.)
Coming into this WP7 ‘review’ process, I was still not 100 percent sure I’d want a Windows Phone, even this time around. I was perfectly willing to get a Droid, except the keyboard on the one I tried was awful. I wasn’t keen on an iPhone, especially when I heard it wasn’t so good as a phone. (I also use my phone for phone calls. What a concept!)
After a week-plus using a Samsung Focus WP7, I can say I am thinking seriously about getting a Windows Phone 7.
But. (Yes there are a number of buts, actually.)
I hate the soft keyboard. I keep hearing the one on WP7 is better than anything out there. If it’s the best, the state of the soft keyboard world is pathetic, in my view. Because of my soft-keyboard loathing, I will not be getting the Focus. The bright AMOLED screen, the super thin body, the responsive performance (except for the letter “O” on my soft keyboard which cannot be pressed in portrait mode) — not enough to win me over. I really would like to try the Dell Venue Pro — the vertical slider model. Or an LG with a real, easy-to-type-on keyboard.
I also am not sold enough on WP7 to break my contract with Verizon. I am half way through a two-year contract. Verizon has said they will have WP7 phones in 2011. I sure wish they’d say when. If it were early in 2011, I’d be more content to wait. If I hear nothing more from Verizon by next spring, I will start looking at other carriers and/or other non-WP7 options.
The phones I tried are definitely generation-one at this point. There are going to be about 1,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace by the time the first WP7 phones go on sale in the U.S., which is November 8. (They go on sale in Europe, starting October 21.) That number pales compared to the competition, but that’s not my objection. As I’ve found with my iPad, there are lots and lots and lots of apps in which I have zero interest. I’ve only found about a dozen I’ve downloaded to my iPad. So as long as the basics are there for WP7 — a Twitter client (check), Facebook (check), a level (for making sure the crooked pictures in my apartment look straight, check) — I am OK with what’s out there.
However, it’s pretty clear to me that WP7 version 1 phones are built to be consumer phones. The biggest category of apps for them is games. Xbox Live integration obviously was a huge priority for Microsoft. I don’t game, and I don’t care about gaming. Especially not on a phone. So for me this is not a draw.
The other places where integration is flawless on WP7 phones is with Zune music/videos and Windows Live activity streams (letting you see what your contacts are doing). I have a ZuneHD and I think the many, many people who don’t are going to be really pleasantly surprised by the Zune experience and ZunePass subscription model. But I would still rather listen to my music on my ZuneHD and not my phone (because of battery drain, first and foremost). So while Zune support handy, it’s not a killer for me.
Read on: So Is ‘my next PC is a smartphone’? Hmmm
