Windows Phone 7 Mobile OS Reviewed

 Windows Phone 7 is a brand new mobile platform, and a step in a completely new direction for Microsoft. For many, this is Redmond’s last throw of the dice as far as mobile operating systems go – if this fails, for whatever reason, they might just withdraw from the market.

Yet this seems a remarkable statement to make; one look at the digital technology market reveals one increasingly geared towards mobile technology. Even if – and at current it seems unlikely – the new mobile platform fails, Microsoft will be back in this market at some point.

Besides, Microsoft has based Windows Phone 7 on their successful Zune portable media player platform – definitely a step in the right direction. But what else is going on with a Windows Phone 7 device?

We’re going to take a look at each key element of this new mobile platform and rate it.

(Image credit: microsoft.com)

 The most stunning aspect of the Windows Phone 7 platform is the user interface. Put simply, it is simply fun. While stroking your thumb or forefinger across a touchscreen display might not sound like much fun (unless you’re playing a game) the fact is that interacting with this mobile OS is just pleasurable. It is responsive in a way that its predecessor, Windows Mobile, wasn’t, and in this respect it can be favourably compared to iOS and Android 2.2. In my opinion it surpasses each of these, mainly due to the striking use of lettering and the simple up/down, left/right navigation. Windows Phone 7 also borrows the convention of pinch/zoom made popular on the iPhone.

Microsoft has worked hard to make everything easy with Windows Phone 7. As a result, as few taps or thumb strokes as possible are required to perform pretty much every task. Similarly, the software keyboard is surprisingly responsive, possibly being the first I’ve tried that is genuinely designed for big fingers, and features a great spell check system.

The vertical thumb scrolling style of much of the UI has been borrowed from the Zune media player, and it sits beautifully as a core element of this remarkable new mobile platform.