December 8, 2010 at 11:11The experience of using Windows Phone 7 on the example of HTC HD7
After the first presentation of the platform from Microsoft Windows Phone 7 at the beginning of this year, as a fanatic, I watched new announcements every day, subscribed to the developer’s feed on Twitter and joined the group on Facebook. I read the news about how to port WP7 to HTC HD2 and much more. At that moment, I was also interested in a new platform from Google - Android. In the beginning I put it on my Samsung Witu, for this I even bought a 2GB microSD card. The first experience on a non-Android phone disappointed me. But I did not give up and decided to buy HTC Desire. In this article, I will slightly compare WP7 with Android, as well as HTC HD7 and HTC Desire.
HTC HD7 is a descendant of HTC HD2. From the latter, he got a big screen, a fast processor. Compared to Desire, the HD7 looks like a huge shovel. In the beginning it was not familiar, but after 2 days I got used to it and now I use it with great pleasure. I will not conduct a scratch-resistant test, as Boomburum did , since I still feel sorry for my phone. But the quality of the glass should be at least no worse than in HD2.
I can say that the phone with a slight minus - it has the control keys Back, Windows, Search - touch. And they are very sensitive, sometimes being in landscape mode, you can touch them with your thumb and return to the main screen, for example. Related to this is the difficulty of photographing and playing some games.
The power key and the key to take photos are also very recessed. To turn on, sometimes you have to use a fingernail. It is difficult to take a photo “humanly”, since the key for photographing has two positions. The first to focus, and the second to photograph. Due to the fact that it is recessed, it is impossible to either visit normally or take a picture. So the presence of hard keys for the photo can hardly be called advantage in this case.
In my opinion, the usual buttons, like on Desire or HD2, would be more suitable for this phone. But the design was a priority for the creators.
Apparently, in Russia and Ukraine official sales of HD7 should not be expected before the spring of 2011. But you can buy a smartphone now on the European Amazone or Ebay.
I bought my HD7 on ebay, as it came out cheaper. That is, if in Europe it costs 600 euros, then in the USA - $ 600. The difference is palpable.
They delivered it to me within 1.5-2 weeks. Reached without flaws and problems.
For the past couple of years, I have admired iOS: the simplicity of the interface, the ease of installing applications, and the ease of use. After, Andoroid appeared, but he seemed to me less interesting.
The first inclusion of WP7 caused delight, either from the fact that I had been waiting for the phone for so long, or from the fact that it has a completely new interface that is intuitive and convenient.
Yes, you can’t do customization of everything, but to be honest, it is not needed. You put the picture only on the lock screen. You can change the color scheme of system elements, replace the black background with white. I honestly say more and do not. I ate with the old WM, starting from 2003 and ending with 6.5.3.
Frankly, I did not expect that the phone will work very quickly, and everything will be so convenient!
The next Update MS promises in January 2011, that is, in about a month. The following features should appear in it:
Updates will not be distributed through phone manufacturers, but directly from MS servers. Those. 100% of users of WP7 phones will receive it. I believe this is the right step, unlike Android - in which updates, like in the old WM, come from phone manufacturers.
In my opinion, Market Place is made a little better than the same App Store or Android market. To date, it has about 3-4 thousand applications. True, most of them, like Android, are cheap crafts. Apparently MS is not very actively filtering the market, as it comes across applications that are unstable or do not start at all. Those who developed them, or did not test at all on real devices, or I don’t know what else can be thought up.
Purchases are made through a Windows Live account that is linked to your Zune profile. Those. You must have a U.S. account in order for it to work on Zune.
To buy something, you need to tie a credit card. BUT! The credit card must be in the same region as the account, i.e. registered in the USA. With this, I suffered a little. As a result, I bought a virtual card of a US bank. At the moment, I already bought applications for $ 30.
Learn more about the HTC Hub here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xb9rP6_QM4
But in short - this is a beautiful view of the weather, + add-on on Market Place and mini-applications from HTC:
I started using Zune on my PC a month before WP7 appeared on hand. In the beginning, I just watched how many applications appeared for WP7 (you can see it yourself, just install Zune and change the region in the system settings for the USA, otherwise you will not even have a market in Zune and you will use it as just a media player).
Zune Music + Video in WP7 is a collection of your songs, videos, podcasts and radio in WP7. Everything you listen and watch is happening in Zune. Youtube videos also appear through it when you click on them in a browser. In Zune you can buy listen and buy songs from the market.
Minuses:
I did not expect such a breakthrough from Microsoft in the mobile version of IE. It does not work fast, but very fast. On the Internet, I even found video comparisons with iOS and Android. The video confirmed that MS’s mobile browser is a little faster.
The video is here for those who are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7hr7hjyOU
Very thoughtful UI, quick work with tabs.
Minuses:
Mail
I have not yet tried to manually configure receipt from third-party servers, but by adding a Google account, the Google Mail icon immediately appeared on my main screen. Mail is received immediately, the work is convenient. Plus, unlike Android, it is possible to mark all messages to mark as read or unread.
By the way, my Google Mail account is on a different domain, i.e. not on gmail. I was surprised that there were no problems, and WP7 configured everything myself!
Since I am the proud owner of the Xbox, a WP7 phone was another way for me to earn Game Point. If you have an Xbox and you like earning Game Point - WP7 is for you!
Xbox Live on your phone is the repository of games that are on your phone. In the Market, games are divided into those that Game Point and others can earn. Also, right from your phone, you can chat with your friends on Xbox Live by customizing your avatar and more.
All contacts are downloaded from your Windows Live, Facebook and other social networks profiles. Automatically download phones, photos, a feed of the latest events of your friends. From People you can easily write a personal message to your friend on Facebook or Windows Live, comment on any events. In theory, thanks to People, you can refuse the Facebook client on the phone, since it completely duplicates the necessary functions.
This section is fully dedicated to your profile. In it, you can track your actions on Facebook and Windows Live: what's new with you, your photos, private messages from your friends, viewing all your comments and actions in the social. networks.
Turning on the Bing Map while in Russia (namely in Moscow), I was a little disappointed. Map in English. It looks unusual compared to Yandex.Maps or Google Maps. It also works very slowly, both on Wifi and on 3G Megaphone.
Bing Map, as a navigation on the terrain, is pretty bad. I already managed to write a letter to Yandex with a question, and when to wait for the version for WP7, to which they answered me - "Follow the announcements on the site." So, we are waiting for the cards from Yandex, as well as the more familiar map for me, from Google.
The camera in WP7 is combined with a photo album. As soon as you take a photo, it moves to the left, something like slides comes out.
Any photo can be easily saved on Live SkyDrive, as well as shared on Facebook, Live.Com.
My personal opinion is that WP7 has a good future. If you are not confused by the lack of a Russian keyboard, multitasking and copy-paste (all this was done with iPod Touch and iPhone 3 years ago) - you can safely order the phone right now on Ebay.
In the future, the Russian language will appear, and for writing SMS and Email you can now use third-party software called “Rus SMS Email”.
Ask all questions in a personal, as the moderators deprived me of the opportunity to comment, for the fact that I spoke poorly about Alexander Akopov for his copywriting mood ...
Posted by: FlexIDK
Screen Photos Here (Poor Quality)
About HTC HD7
HTC HD7 is a descendant of HTC HD2. From the latter, he got a big screen, a fast processor. Compared to Desire, the HD7 looks like a huge shovel. In the beginning it was not familiar, but after 2 days I got used to it and now I use it with great pleasure. I will not conduct a scratch-resistant test, as Boomburum did , since I still feel sorry for my phone. But the quality of the glass should be at least no worse than in HD2. I can say that the phone with a slight minus - it has the control keys Back, Windows, Search - touch. And they are very sensitive, sometimes being in landscape mode, you can touch them with your thumb and return to the main screen, for example. Related to this is the difficulty of photographing and playing some games.
The power key and the key to take photos are also very recessed. To turn on, sometimes you have to use a fingernail. It is difficult to take a photo “humanly”, since the key for photographing has two positions. The first to focus, and the second to photograph. Due to the fact that it is recessed, it is impossible to either visit normally or take a picture. So the presence of hard keys for the photo can hardly be called advantage in this case.
In my opinion, the usual buttons, like on Desire or HD2, would be more suitable for this phone. But the design was a priority for the creators.
Purchase
Apparently, in Russia and Ukraine official sales of HD7 should not be expected before the spring of 2011. But you can buy a smartphone now on the European Amazone or Ebay.
I bought my HD7 on ebay, as it came out cheaper. That is, if in Europe it costs 600 euros, then in the USA - $ 600. The difference is palpable.
They delivered it to me within 1.5-2 weeks. Reached without flaws and problems.
About Windows Phone 7
For the past couple of years, I have admired iOS: the simplicity of the interface, the ease of installing applications, and the ease of use. After, Andoroid appeared, but he seemed to me less interesting.
The first inclusion of WP7 caused delight, either from the fact that I had been waiting for the phone for so long, or from the fact that it has a completely new interface that is intuitive and convenient.
Yes, you can’t do customization of everything, but to be honest, it is not needed. You put the picture only on the lock screen. You can change the color scheme of system elements, replace the black background with white. I honestly say more and do not. I ate with the old WM, starting from 2003 and ending with 6.5.3.
Frankly, I did not expect that the phone will work very quickly, and everything will be so convenient!
The next Update MS promises in January 2011, that is, in about a month. The following features should appear in it:
- Multi-tasking
- Copy & paste
- and something else =) promise a lot.
Updates will not be distributed through phone manufacturers, but directly from MS servers. Those. 100% of users of WP7 phones will receive it. I believe this is the right step, unlike Android - in which updates, like in the old WM, come from phone manufacturers.
Experience Using Market Place
In my opinion, Market Place is made a little better than the same App Store or Android market. To date, it has about 3-4 thousand applications. True, most of them, like Android, are cheap crafts. Apparently MS is not very actively filtering the market, as it comes across applications that are unstable or do not start at all. Those who developed them, or did not test at all on real devices, or I don’t know what else can be thought up.
Purchases are made through a Windows Live account that is linked to your Zune profile. Those. You must have a U.S. account in order for it to work on Zune.
To buy something, you need to tie a credit card. BUT! The credit card must be in the same region as the account, i.e. registered in the USA. With this, I suffered a little. As a result, I bought a virtual card of a US bank. At the moment, I already bought applications for $ 30.
HTC hub
Learn more about the HTC Hub here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xb9rP6_QM4
But in short - this is a beautiful view of the weather, + add-on on Market Place and mini-applications from HTC:
- Notes - notes
- Flashlight
- Stocks - quotes
- Calculator
- Equalizer
- And much more.
Zune Music + Video
I started using Zune on my PC a month before WP7 appeared on hand. In the beginning, I just watched how many applications appeared for WP7 (you can see it yourself, just install Zune and change the region in the system settings for the USA, otherwise you will not even have a market in Zune and you will use it as just a media player).
Zune Music + Video in WP7 is a collection of your songs, videos, podcasts and radio in WP7. Everything you listen and watch is happening in Zune. Youtube videos also appear through it when you click on them in a browser. In Zune you can buy listen and buy songs from the market.
Minuses:
- Not enough buttons to mix songs. You can shuffle the entire library, but you cannot shuffle an album or set of songs.
- You cannot rewind a song or video with your finger at the right time.
Internet explorer
I did not expect such a breakthrough from Microsoft in the mobile version of IE. It does not work fast, but very fast. On the Internet, I even found video comparisons with iOS and Android. The video confirmed that MS’s mobile browser is a little faster.
The video is here for those who are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7hr7hjyOU
Very thoughtful UI, quick work with tabs.
Minuses:
- There is no HTML5 support as it is done in Android and iOS.
- In landscape you can only read. To enter the address you need to turn the phone.
- There is no story.
- There is no such thing as a start page. The last one opens where you were.
- In my opinion, it renders in a mixture of IE7-8 and a bit, something from IE6 =) so some bugs showed up as in IE6.
I have not yet tried to manually configure receipt from third-party servers, but by adding a Google account, the Google Mail icon immediately appeared on my main screen. Mail is received immediately, the work is convenient. Plus, unlike Android, it is possible to mark all messages to mark as read or unread.
By the way, my Google Mail account is on a different domain, i.e. not on gmail. I was surprised that there were no problems, and WP7 configured everything myself!
Xbox live
Since I am the proud owner of the Xbox, a WP7 phone was another way for me to earn Game Point. If you have an Xbox and you like earning Game Point - WP7 is for you!
Xbox Live on your phone is the repository of games that are on your phone. In the Market, games are divided into those that Game Point and others can earn. Also, right from your phone, you can chat with your friends on Xbox Live by customizing your avatar and more.
People or Address Book
All contacts are downloaded from your Windows Live, Facebook and other social networks profiles. Automatically download phones, photos, a feed of the latest events of your friends. From People you can easily write a personal message to your friend on Facebook or Windows Live, comment on any events. In theory, thanks to People, you can refuse the Facebook client on the phone, since it completely duplicates the necessary functions.
Me
This section is fully dedicated to your profile. In it, you can track your actions on Facebook and Windows Live: what's new with you, your photos, private messages from your friends, viewing all your comments and actions in the social. networks.
Maps
Turning on the Bing Map while in Russia (namely in Moscow), I was a little disappointed. Map in English. It looks unusual compared to Yandex.Maps or Google Maps. It also works very slowly, both on Wifi and on 3G Megaphone.
Bing Map, as a navigation on the terrain, is pretty bad. I already managed to write a letter to Yandex with a question, and when to wait for the version for WP7, to which they answered me - "Follow the announcements on the site." So, we are waiting for the cards from Yandex, as well as the more familiar map for me, from Google.
Camera
The camera in WP7 is combined with a photo album. As soon as you take a photo, it moves to the left, something like slides comes out.
Any photo can be easily saved on Live SkyDrive, as well as shared on Facebook, Live.Com.
Conclusion
My personal opinion is that WP7 has a good future. If you are not confused by the lack of a Russian keyboard, multitasking and copy-paste (all this was done with iPod Touch and iPhone 3 years ago) - you can safely order the phone right now on Ebay.
In the future, the Russian language will appear, and for writing SMS and Email you can now use third-party software called “Rus SMS Email”.
Ask all questions in a personal, as the moderators deprived me of the opportunity to comment, for the fact that I spoke poorly about Alexander Akopov for his copywriting mood ...
Posted by: FlexIDK
Screen Photos Here (Poor Quality)