Technology review : Windows Phone 7

If you’re shopping around for a new smartphone, the choice just got harder. Microsoft has come up with a revamped operating system for mobile phones, Windows Phone 7, and it’s an impressive answer to the current smartphone giants. The new OS was released in Taiwan at the end of last year and is available on two new phones from HTC, the HD7 and Mozart.

Windows Phone 7 couldn’t have arrived any sooner for Microsoft, which has taken a serious beating in the smartphone race over the past four years.

The software giant’s previous platform, Windows Mobile 6, fell into obscurity shortly after the iPhone and Android came out. As a touchscreen OS, Windows Mobile 6 just couldn’t compete with its frustrating keyboard, awkward interface and the lack of a central hub for purchasing apps.

Windows Phone 7 is not an iPhone/Android killer, but it’s shaping up to be a very worthy contender. It does an excellent job on the basics: The touchscreen keyboard works well and the apps for Web browsing, e-mail, music and video are all solid and generally as good as the competition. I tested the Windows Phone 7 on HTC’s HD7, on loan to the Taipei Times from Microsoft, and overall, I found the new OS to be beautifully designed and easy to use.

CAVEATS FIRST

But there are some caveats to consider before rushing out to get a Windows Phone 7 handset.

Power users will have to wait on a few features. Unlike Android and Apple’s iOS, the Windows Phone 7 does not have copy-and-paste functionality for text. There is no multi-tasking for third party apps (although you can listen to the music player while using other apps), nor is there tethering, which allows you to use your phone to connect a laptop or other device to the Internet.

Microsoft says these features will eventually be added (cut and paste is due sometime this year), but if any of the above are essential to you, then your choice is narrowed to the iPhone or Android, both of which have these functions.

There are also glaring inconveniences for Taiwanese users. The interface is not yet available in Chinese, and you can’t type in Chinese in native apps. But Microsoft says to expect an update that will allow everything to be displayed in traditional Chinese characters later this year.

And there is a temporary fix, with several free apps available that have specially designed keyboards on which users can type traditional Chinese characters using zhuyin fuhao (注音符號, commonly known as bopomofo; see sidebar on apps). Unfortunately, there is no free app yet for making Chinese language searches on Bing or Google.

ELEGANT AND SMOOTH

Shortcomings aside, Microsoft did a fantastic job on the Windows Phone 7’s user interface. It feels quite different than the iPhone or Android, but it’s just as intuitive and elegant in its own right.

Everything is organized into large “tiles” and “hubs,” arranged on a long vertical home screen.

Think of tiles as oversized icons. They mostly serve to open apps, but they also can link to almost anything you want, whether it’s a single photo, map location, a favorite song or a document. For example, I pinned my shopping list (created with the included note program, OneNote) to the home screen, which made it easy to add to as I remembered things I needed. Just tap, and there was my list, ready to edit.

And the home page is easy to customize — you can put tiles wherever you want. My “shopping” tile went near the top, and I also liked how I could “pin” individual contacts to the home page, which effectively creates a speed dial.

Another nifty feature of tiles is that they show “live” information. For example, if you have a contact on your home screen, it shows that person’s picture and latest status (i.e., Facebook and Windows Live feeds). If you pin the Calendar app to your home screen, the tile shows your next appointment, removing the need to go into the app.

Hubs are tappable tiles, but have a different function. They provide a separate space with multiple pages that brings similar apps and files together.

For example, tap the Games hub and you can view the latest available apps on Microsoft’s Marketplace. Swipe to another page, still within the hub, and you can check on the progress of your games with other players, such as whether it’s your turn or if an online friend invited you to start a game.

Another page shows all of the gaming apps in your collection, and Xbox Live users will find a section devoted to Microsoft’s online games.

There are also hubs for music and video, pictures, Microsoft Office, Marketplace (for downloading and purchasing apps) and contacts (called “People”).

What if you just want to see all of your apps in one place? No problem. Just flick the home page away to the left, and you have another page with all of your apps listed in alphabetical order.

The Windows Phone 7 felt very responsive on the HTC HD7. Flicking and scrolling through apps or pages is as breezy as the iPhone, and the Windows Phone 7’s slick animations produce a “wow” effect of their own. Tap a tile, and everything on the page flutters away before a new app or hub loads.

As far as looks go, the Windows Phone 7 is futuristic compared with the iPhone and Android and their cartoonish icons. It has a minimalist look with a stylish typeface (carried over from Microsoft’s Zune HD portable media player) and bold color schemes.

THE LITTLE THINGS

Microsoft also got a lot of the details right with its Windows Phone 7, from how the phone displays information to contacts and syncing.

On the home screen pages, the screen looks clean and uncluttered, and there’s nothing displayed at the top, except for the time in the top right corner. But what if you want to know how much battery you’ve used? Here’s a slick move: just tap at the very top, and the battery level, WiFi, Bluetooth and phone carrier signal show up, and then disappear from view after a few seconds.

The minimalist approach also works well on the SMS messaging app. Microsoft tweaked the color scheme, layout and fonts just right. I found text message conversations much easier to read and follow than on the iPhone.

Facebook is tightly woven into the Windows Phone 7 in a way that will appeal to avid users. Tap the People hub, and Windows Phone 7’s contacts organizer and your Facebook friends are displayed under a What’s New page, where you can tap on a contact, read their latest status and directly write on their wall. It doesn’t have all the functions of the Facebook app, but it’s a convenient and quick way to keep track of what your friends are posting.

There are also some nice hardware features. The most notable is a physical camera button, a design requirement Microsoft has imposed on manufacturers building the Windows Phone 7 handsets, and for the better.

The button saves time: even if your phone is locked, just hold the button and you go directly to the camera app. With the iPhone you have to unlock, find the camera app, wait for it to boot, and tap the screen to shoot. With a Windows Phone 7 phone, taking a picture happens faster and you’re more likely to capture that decisive moment.

And here’s a feature that might make a few iPhone users envious: Music, videos and photos on the Windows Phone 7 can be synced wirelessly through a WiFi connection.

You do have to jump through a few hoops to make this happen, though. The phone has to be plugged into an AC charger and your PC computer has to be turned on with the Zune Desktop software (Microsoft’s answer to iTunes) running — but once those things are squared away, the feature works well.

I appreciated wireless sync the most when it came to saving photos. I’d go out during the day, snap a few shots, and plug my phone in to recharge when I returned home. And then maybe 10 minutes later, presto, those pictures would show up on my computer.

THE CHALLENGE

I didn’t really miss my iPhone while using the Windows Phone 7 — that is, until I wanted to use certain third-party apps only available on Apple’s iOS platform.

That’s really the challenge right now for Windows Phone 7. Microsoft’s marketplace already offers some very good apps, but with a total of 8,000 apps to date (compared with Apple’s 350,000 and Android’s 200,000), the store still has to play catch-up.

A side note about third-party apps: the Windows Phone 7 can be slow to load apps, especially games. I spent some time playing a fantasy battle game called Assassin’s Creed, and it often took longer than a minute to load.

And for now, the marketplace isn’t fully open to users in Taiwan. We can download free apps, but can’t make purchases, which is discouraging.

But right out of the box, the Windows Phone 7 does the job of a modern touchscreen smartphone very well. If you just want the basics, everything’s already there: Browsing the Web on the mobile version of Internet Explorer is a smooth experience; the music and video app, which is similar to Zune HD, looks fantastic and is easy to use; and the Office hub lets you create Word Docs and edit PowerPoint files. Setting up contacts is painless if you use Windows Live (Googlers will have to take a few extra steps). And Facebook is practically baked into the phone.

Users in Taiwan will probably want to wait until later this year, when Microsoft updates the Windows Phone 7 with Chinese capabilities, but for those seeking a good alternative to the iPhone or the many Android handsets, this is definitely one to consider. The world may not need another smartphone, but too many choices is better than none.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 APPS

Read on for a shortlist of free apps available for the Windows Phone 7

Chinese SMS

For now, the Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have Chinese capabilities, but this app fills the gap, allowing you to write text messages using zhuyin fuhao (aka bopomofo).

Chinese Mail (中文郵件)

Allows you to write e-mails in Chinese using either zhuyin fuhao or hanyu pinyin

Omi Jump

A fun game by Taiwanese developer Bungbungame (戲智科技), in which you play a cute alien that must dodge cute monsters

Facebook

Even though Facebook is well integrated into the Windows Phone 7, the official app is also worth having, and the look matches Microsoft’s stylish theme

YouTube

A must-have app that works smoothly on the Windows Phone 7

WATAHHH!

Throw a punch with your phone (but don’t drop it!) and listen to recorded sound bites of kung fu wisdom from Bruce Lee (李小龍)

Flickr

The popular photo management Web site offers an app that matches the Windows Phone 7’s stylish iconography and look