Ren Buenviaje

For many months, I downloaded apps, bought music, obsessively checked e-mail, and happily wasted time on my iPhone 3G. But by the time my contract expired last month, my phone was slow, buggy, and virtually unusable. So I abandoned my iPhone and made my foray into the new, the unknown: a Windows Phone 7-based Samsung Focus. Despite its reported shortcomings, WP7’s well-reviewed interface (and very attractive $0.01 price tag on Amazon Wireless) had me sold. A month later, here is a rundown of what I like and dislike about the phone thus far:

Stuff I like.

There are lots of things I like about WP7, but here are the top three:

User interface - In brief, it’s hyperfast and beautiful. Rather than repeating other great reviews of the WP7 UI, let me direct you here, here, and, for a super thorough review of the phone, here instead.

It’s worth mentioning that Microsoft does stay true to the whole glance-and-go concept: without even unlocking my screen, I can see my next scheduled meeting in Outlook, how many work and personal e-mails and texts I have, and how many calls/voicemails I missed. The only down side? Breaking the habit of fidgeting with my phone to look all that stuff up.

Facebook integration - The Facebook integration is so good on the WP7 OS that there is no reason to download the Facebook app from Marketplace. The reviews I link to above have more detail, but I’d say the two coolest Facebook features are being able to 1) pin a friend’s profile to your homescreen (for ease of stalking that special someone), and 2) upload photos to Facebook straight from the Pictures app. Some people have complained about the inability to filter the Facebook friends you sync to your phone; I say maybe it’s time to clean up your friends list

The back button - This is pretty much the next best thing to multitasking on WP7. If I’m playing a rousing game of Fruit Ninja and someone sends me a text, I can open it, reply, then hit the back button and pick up where I left off in the game. It’s not multitasking, but a vast improvement from hitting the home button and restarting the app from the beginning.

Stuff I dislike.

As with any new OS release, WP7 does have a few issues. Besides the obvious copy/paste (not that I miss it) and multitasking functionalities missing in action, here are a couple of others:

Camera doesn’t save settings - The camera has a ton of fun settings to play with, but it can be a pain to reconfigure a setting you like if you close your camera app after each photo. On outings where photos ops are abundant, I make it a point to leave my camera app open when I lock my screen.

Meager app selection - Some of the standard fare—Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Shazam, etc—IS out there, but I am still waiting patiently for Gowalla and Angry Birds

Browser - I’m definitely not an IE fan, but haven’t found reason to dislike the mobile version too much… yet.

In conclusion…

I’ll admit, I was skeptical about Windows Phone 7. I was intrigued by the UI when it came out, but had to think real hard for a couple of months before I finally bought the phone (as I’m sure is the case with a lot of people). But all in all, I was pleasantly surprised! WP7 is a pretty solid mobile OS that I’d easily recommend to anyone looking for a new smartphone. It’s still in its early stages, but I look forward to seeing what Microsoft does in the coming months to lure more folks in. Oh, and give me my Angry Birds!!!

Posted in blog |
Previous Entry: Google Translate fail
Next Entry: Five ways to make the Yelpverse a better place