Windows Phone 7 won’t come out for several months, but the lucky folks at Gizmodo already have their hands on a prototype Samsung device sporting the new OS. This prototype won’t ever be sold in stores but it is carrying a beta version of the operating system that consumers will have access to later this year, most likely October.
I encourage you to read the entire account, but I’ll help you out with the main takeaway points:
- It’s a completely fresh start and very neat
- They built something entirely new and unique from the competing platforms
- They successfully leverage Bing, Xbox Live, Zune, and more
- Oversized text and focus on design, “gloriously modern”
- Apps are replaced with Hubs, portals to the content that you want with numerous screens each
- Live tiles on the start screen are like widgets with dynamic content
- You can “pin” whatever you want to the start screen
- 3 Buttons: Start, Back, Search
- Impressive speed
- People/Accounts handled like a mix of Andriod & WebOS
- Solid Google and Facebook support
- Music and video are just what you’d hope, with Zune HD inclusion
- Dedicated camera key on every device
- Bing search is excellent
- Bing Maps is nice
- Outlook app could be the best mail app on any phone
- Internet Explorer is competent and quick (surprisingly)
- Microsoft Office is basic but delightful
- Marketplace has all goods (apps, games, music, etc…) in one spot
- Xbox LIVE doesn’t do much just yet, only shows avatar and gamerscore but more integration coming
And the whole things is summed up with, “Windows Phone 7 is good. Really good.”
So far I really like what I’m hearing. Windows Phone 7 can’t come soon enough!