After one day: WP7

So I did it. I broke down and got a new phone. I am saddened by the fact that it isn't a Palm phone (sorry the HP thing is very foreign to me). I ended up switching to the HTC Arrive running Windows Phone 7. After 2 years running webOS and a brief stint with Android with a little sprinkle of Blackberry in between I switched. Now mind you I am still well within my return period for this phone (come one Palm and Sprint give me a Pre 3 soon) so who knows how this is going to go. Here are my thoughts on the phone and the OS.

The hardware:

With the Arrive we get a 1Ghz CPU so it's plenty quick (I have a Pre 2 for App Development with an equally fast processor). My main phone was a Palm Pre which we OG Pre users call the Pre minus which had a 500Mhz CPU. So the difference is very noticeable just going through menus and such. The screen size is bigger on the arrive but not monstrous clocking in a 3.6 inches which is a good in between in my opinion. I have always like the design of the HTC phones so if you have never paid attention to them check them out. It's a super solid phone then again it's an HTC.

Enough about the hardware the real deal for me is software namely the operating system. Having used a lot of the different OS's out there (sans Symbian) I feel like I can comment on all of them. Since this is my first day with a Windows Phone 7 device I will talk about how this OS compares to the rest of them. Now let me get this out in the open I hate Android I mean absolutely hate it and as far as iOS goes it was awesome 2 years ago, Now that I wrote that we can move on.

The Software:

Windows Phone 7 (we will abbreviate that as WP7 from now on if that's ok) has a very unique look to it. The main menu is a bunch of squares called Live Tiles which give you info at a quick glance (sometimes) to me it is the most daring interface design of them all. Many call it ugly some say it's beautiful, I think it is very cool looking and ballsy. Everything from the cut off text to animated tiles it has a really clean but extremely modern look to it. When you look at the Blackberry for instance it's very boring (yes I know it's functional but it's fucking boring) and bland. With Android the screen can get too cluttered with icons (cough iOS cough) and with webOS you get the super clean minimalist look. 

Going through the menu on WP7 is like going through a list unlike iOS, Android and webOS which are more icon and small text, it's more small icon and the text is right next to it. There are no pages for the apps everything appears in a list form in the sub menu that is accessed by a swiping gesture.  

Now onto functionality. Customization is a big one for people let me hit that one first. So yeah in WP7 you can change the background color, the color of the tiles, location and what tiles are on the main menu...that's about it.  No you can't use your own ringers for stuff so there goes that. I mean to me I could care less about ringers because I keep my phone on silent anyway. But the option would be nice.

I like how streamlined everything is in the OS (minus email more on this in a bit) you have to see it to understand it. I am digging it so far. It runs smooth with no lag the transitions are really nice to look at and since all phones with WP7 look and feel the same anyone can use any of the WP7 devices (Fucking Android and you letting people skin your OS). Xbox live integration is great having access to netflix is really cool (not the first phone to do this but it's still cool). Good experience so far I recommended it once already to my cousin before I got a chance to play with the OS and it worked out fine for him. I was interested in WP7 for a while now so I why not give it a try (read: forced by Palm and Sprint with the lack of webOS based devices) and I am impressed.

Now there are things that I don't like about WP7 that I have become accustomed to (read: spoiled) thanks to webOS.

One is multitasking, I can't stress this enough. being a able to have 3 apps open at the same time and switch between them all is so great that it makes it to the top of the list of things I don't like. Being able to text switch to Facebook and Twitter and check email without closing any of those programs is good very good =). I don't mean multitasking the way Android does it that you need an app killer to close out the programs or the way iOS does it with the little freeze frame pictures. No one has a better multitasking system than webOS plain and simple. Pure elegance.

Two is unified email inbox. I have 5 email addresses (don't ask) and I have to switch to a different email client every single address. I really hate this. Can't I just have all my emails come to the same client and let me go through them? It's pretty annoying.

Three I want to be able to press enter to send a text. Yes just like it sounds. I don't want to press a send button when I have an enter key. So simple.

Four text and IM threading. The ability to go from text to IM with the same person on the fly without switching apps.

Five access to Google Calender. Yes I know it's a Windows Phone but you know you should have access to your google stuff since you are allowed to have your gmail and google contacts. Just Saying.

Now I love webOS wish I could have it now. These 5 things aren't deal breakers they are just what I got 2 years ago with webOS. These are 5 things I miss the most but I know not every OS can be as elegant and as straight forward as webOS. Apple has great hardware they need to re think how the operating system is running it worked well a few years ago now it is just cluttered and unrefined with their horrid notification system and stupid folders. Blackberry is a lost cause. Android whatever it's as big as it is because no device manufacturer has to pay for it. That's right I said it why pay for sex with Olivia Wilde when you can fuck Megan Fox for free, sure it's not Olivia Wilde but it's free.

WP7 is a very young OS and a lot of this is supposed to be addressed with the Mango update but really this was in webOS on the day of release 2 flipping years ago. And no Microsoft is not the only OS that is missing some of these things but I am using WP7 at the moment so there you go. 

I will still recommend WP7 big time because it is daring, different and very user friendly. 

Now the fanboys remember these are my opinions and I know you will not agree and I don't care. If you want to talk about the differences cool but be intelligent about it.

RoX over and out.