My WP7 Experience so far.

[dpodblood]

I just picked up an HTC HD7 the other day to replace my busted Samsung i7500. Found one in my local classifieds for $280. So far I am kind of undecided whether I like WP7 or not.

Pros
-Smooth user interface.
-Love the "people" app. The ability to link contacts together from Windows Live, Facebook, and Google is excellent.
-Seamless integration with Gmail, and Google calendar.
-Zune software automatically converts video files to readable format.
-IE web browsing experience is excellent.

Cons
-The Zune software is terrible. The way it organizes music, and videos is absolutely terrible with no option to arrange by folder, or simply treat the phone as a mass storage device.
-No ability to use custom ringtones (without unlocking the phone, and I've had no luck with that so far). Seems like a pretty basic feature they left out.
-No official messenger app. Considering this is a Windows phone tightly integrated with Windows live it's pretty hard to believe that there isn't a 1st party WLM app. There is only 1 3rd party messenger available, and it isn't very good at all.
-Market. The app itself is OK, but there is a serious lack of apps in the market. I'm sure this will improve over time. Also there are a lot of paid apps which you can find for free in the android marketplace.
-No Skyfire, or Opera available in the market.

Overall I like the phone so far. The 4.3" screen is great for typing and viewing web content. The OS is very smooth, but on the other hand it's also very locked down and leaves a lot to be desired. Honestly I prefer Android, and if I was able to find and Android phone for a decent price I probably would have gone with that instead.

I guess for now I will stick with it, and hope that hackers and devs can find a way to unlock some of this phone's true potential. If things don't improve I may try and trade the phone for a Galaxy S, Nexus One, or HTC Desire.

 

[alent1234]

you paid $280 to figure out that it didn't have any apps when everyone knew that? the market share is in the low single digits. why would you buy it in the first place?

 

[dpodblood]

Nah I knew about that before hand. WP7 is still young, so I expect we will see many more apps enter the market over the next year. If I can ever get this phone unlocked homebrew apps will be an option as well.

 

[RedRooster]

I'm excited to see where it is by Christmas. New Nokia v2 phones, large OS update, marketplace probably 4x in size.
IMO, WP7 is a better base to build on that any of the competitors, such a fresh design. Once the features come, I really hope it takes off, because it deserves to.

 

[TheStu]

I like my Surround most days, but sometimes I have to reboot it because something happened to make apps not launch. I use it as the music player in my car, so use that function all the time, and every now and again, something will happen that will cause the Zune Player to not open, so I have to restart the phone if I want to choose a new song.

The browser could stand some improvements, hopefully the Mango update will bring them. As it is now, it isn't terrible, but some sites dont' recognize it as a mobile browser, others see it as a piece of crap dumbphone browser, and there are some other issues (like landscape mode).

More apps, sure, but as it is now I have most of what i want/need. The fact that I had to download a separate app for a timer/stopwatch was a little annoying.

The Zune Software... I don't want to talk about it. I am one of the rare few people that actually likes iTunes and how it does things (though it has gotten crazy bloated over the years and wouldn't mind them isolating the syncing functions out to something else) and the Zune Software is lacking when you are coming from iTunes.

The lack of Smart DJ on the device is also annoying.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

I for one really enjoy my phone overall. Sure, the marketplace is lacking but so was Android when it first came out but the Windows marketplace is growing and growing fast, faster than what Android did. I do miss the tinkering of my old Android phone but I actually prefer now to not tinker with my phone. It feels to me it does everything my Android did but it feels better now. I can turn on my phone scroll up and down and have all my statues right there. There's no need to open an app and refresh.

 

[smartpatrol]

I also own an HD7 and I love it so far. I went from an Evo 4G to the HD7 and I couldn't be happier. It's true the app store is lacking, but it's only 7 months old! They reached 10,000 apps not too long ago, and they reached that milestone faster than Android or iOS did.

It has Zune Pass, Xbox Live integration, and Netflix, all of which are incredibly cool to have on a phone.

I'm hoping WP7 will really catch on. It's a great platform with tons of potential.

 

[simonizor]

Sounds like all of the reasons that you like it can be achieved on Android. WP7 might look nice, but it's pretty much just a pretty UI with nothing else new, and less customization than Android. I really like to be able to tweak the way my phone looks, so customization is huge for me.

 

[Nebor]

The lack of custom ringtones is unforgiveable.

But I don't see what's not to like about the Zune software on your PC and on the device. I have a Zune HD as well as a Samsung focus, and I love Zune. My only complaint is that audiobooks work for the Zune HD but not WP7.

 

[tdawg]

Sounds like all of the reasons that you like it can be achieved on Android. WP7 might look nice, but it's pretty much just a pretty UI with nothing else new, and less customization than Android. I really like to be able to tweak the way my phone looks, so customization is huge for me.

After having a WP7, I definitely can't get the same feel and usability on my android phone that I could with WP7. WP7 just feels more unified and efficient than Android and definitely more efficient than iOS.

Everybody's going to have a different experience and different aspects they like/need in their phone, but for me, WP7 is just an elegant OS that provides a great overall UX. All that's missing is access to Google Talk, which I use all the time on Android and am hard-pressed to give up.

 

[smartpatrol]

Sounds like all of the reasons that you like it can be achieved on Android. WP7 might look nice, but it's pretty much just a pretty UI with nothing else new, and less customization than Android. I really like to be able to tweak the way my phone looks, so customization is huge for me.

The three things I listed are not available on Android phones.

 

[TheStu]

The lack of custom ringtones is unforgiveable.

But I don't see what's not to like about the Zune software on your PC and on the device. I have a Zune HD as well as a Samsung focus, and I love Zune. My only complaint is that audiobooks work for the Zune HD but not WP7.

Scrolling through long lists (like say a music library!) is laughably slow and bad. If my mouse didn't have hyperscrolling, I would be totally boned. It can only have 1 active playlist at a time, the auto-playlists are a joke as there are no exclusion rules, nor can I define a playlist by size instead of count. Broken Heart/No Heart/Heart? I need more than 3 levels or none at all. Spacebar doesn't work to play/pause, but that has been the case with every microsoft made media player in the history of ever. I haven't figured out yet even a hard way to buy an actively playing song (which you can do on the phone, it isn't the easiest way, but it is the only phone that you can do it that I know of).

Smart DJ is really cool though, and the Zune Pass is totally worth it. Easy beats free.

 

[Deeko]

Sounds like all of the reasons that you like it can be achieved on Android. WP7 might look nice, but it's pretty much just a pretty UI with nothing else new, and less customization than Android. I really like to be able to tweak the way my phone looks, so customization is huge for me.

Don't discount the benefits of a nice UI...it really is a plus.

As for uniques, well, as you'd expect, WP7 integrates with other Microsoft services far better than other platforms. The Zune, Xbox and Office integration are all very good (although I, like others, am eagerly waiting for on device SmartDJ...that's my favorite feature of the ZuneHD).

After having a WP7, I definitely can't get the same feel and usability on my android phone that I could with WP7. WP7 just feels more unified and efficient than Android and definitely more efficient than iOS.

Yep...I carry both my Venue Pro and Vibrant with me at all times, and while the Vibrant still can do more than the Venue Pro, pretty much everything the VP does, it does better.

Everybody's going to have a different experience and different aspects they like/need in their phone, but for me, WP7 is just an elegant OS that provides a great overall UX. All that's missing is access to Google Talk, which I use all the time on Android and am hard-pressed to give up.

I do definitely miss Google Talk. I tried out Flory on WP7, it was decent, until Google and Facebook both got really pissed off and insisted someone was hacking my account. Bah.

 

[tdawg]

Scrolling through long lists (like say a music library!) is laughably slow and bad. If my mouse didn't have hyperscrolling, I would be totally boned. It can only have 1 active playlist at a time, the auto-playlists are a joke as there are no exclusion rules, nor can I define a playlist by size instead of count. Broken Heart/No Heart/Heart? I need more than 3 levels or none at all. Spacebar doesn't work to play/pause, but that has been the case with every microsoft made media player in the history of ever. I haven't figured out yet even a hard way to buy an actively playing song (which you can do on the phone, it isn't the easiest way, but it is the only phone that you can do it that I know of).

Smart DJ is really cool though, and the Zune Pass is totally worth it. Easy beats free.

I personally don't get the rancor at the 3-level rating system. Either I hate the song and don't want to hear it at all, I'm indifferent, or I love the song and want to hear it a lot, include it in playlists, etc.

Creating playlists and sync groups in the Zune software has been nice and easy for me, so not sure what the issue is there. All the smart playlists can be created with several layers of filters to get to a very minute focus (artist, 4 stars, no files smaller than X, no files larger than X, limit playlist to X number of songs...).

 

[TheStu]

I personally don't get the rancor at the 3-level rating system. Either I hate the song and don't want to hear it at all, I'm indifferent, or I love the song and want to hear it a lot, include it in playlists, etc.

Creating playlists and sync groups in the Zune software has been nice and easy for me, so not sure what the issue is there. All the smart playlists can be created with several layers of filters to get to a very minute focus (artist, 4 stars, no files smaller than X, no files larger than X, limit playlist to X number of songs...).

Well, like I said, I actually use iTunes, and don't hate it so that is where my perspective is from.

There I have the sidebar with lists of playlists, and can grab files from the library and put them into any given playlist in just one step (I just noticed that an update must have changed the Zune's behavior on this slightly, there is still only 1 playlist icon, but if you drag files to it, a contextual menu comes up and then you can drag to the playlist in question).

The Smart Playlists in iTunes can have both inclusion (give me everything from this artist) and exclusion (except that one album of theirs which is crap), and it is, from my point of view easier to set it up as well. Plus I could dictate that I wanted X GB of songs instead on X number of songs. I want to put 10GB of music on my phone, I don't care how many songs it is. I don't want any audiobooks, or these particular albums, and I want it to auto-refresh when I connect my device (it does this well). I can only do the last bit with the Zune software.

My issue is that how I used my star ratings on my iPod and iTunes was a little different;
0: null
1: Kill it with fire, delete immediately
2: Bad tags
3: Duplicate
4: Really, really like this
5: LOVE this, play it all the time.

So, I guess if it were Broken, Half and Full Hearts, I could work with that, I can do without the duplicate and bad tags markings I suppose, but I do like to differentiate between songs that I really like, and songs that I love.

For example, i really like 'Rolling in the Deep' by Adele right now, so it would get 4 stars. However, it is always the right time for 'Sympathy for the Devil' by the Stones, so it would get 5 stars.

 

[Deeko]

Its contentious...I personally agree that I like a more in-depth rating system, but as I've pointed out on here before when people complain about it...its the way the industry as a whole seems to be going. Blame Facebook I guess, after "liking" things became all the rage, things started slowly shifting this way. YouTube now just has thumbs up/thumbs down, etc.

 

[TheStu]

Its contentious...I personally agree that I like a more in-depth rating system, but as I've pointed out on here before when people complain about it...its the way the industry as a whole seems to be going. Blame Facebook I guess, after "liking" things became all the rage, things started slowly shifting this way. YouTube now just has thumbs up/thumbs down, etc.

Yes, but the Zune Software has been this way since version 1, which came out what... 4-5 years ago?

I like my phone, but in my opinion the Zune Software needs some work. If I could store my music library on my laptop, I would just use the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac, it is actually quite decent (and what I think that Apple should make for the iPhone, just a syncing app) and can pull from playlists set up in iTunes.

But I don't have my music on my laptop, and I love SmartDJ and ZunePass a little too much.

 

[Nebor]

Scrolling through long lists (like say a music library!) is laughably slow and bad. If my mouse didn't have hyperscrolling, I would be totally boned. It can only have 1 active playlist at a time, the auto-playlists are a joke as there are no exclusion rules, nor can I define a playlist by size instead of count. Broken Heart/No Heart/Heart? I need more than 3 levels or none at all. Spacebar doesn't work to play/pause, but that has been the case with every microsoft made media player in the history of ever. I haven't figured out yet even a hard way to buy an actively playing song (which you can do on the phone, it isn't the easiest way, but it is the only phone that you can do it that I know of).

Smart DJ is really cool though, and the Zune Pass is totally worth it. Easy beats free.

I just don't have any of those problems. I'm not going to sort through your list one by one, but I've never even considered any of those things.

If you like iTunes so much, why don't you use the hacked mac plug-in an use iTunes on your PC to sync your WP7 phone? Or better yet, just get a Mac.

 

[TheStu]

I just don't have any of those problems. I'm not going to sort through your list one by one, but I've never even considered any of those things.

If you like iTunes so much, why don't you use the hacked mac plug-in an use iTunes on your PC to sync your WP7 phone? Or better yet, just get a Mac.

Have you looked at my sig... ever? I have had a Mac for the past 5 years or so. And as I said in my previous post, I would use the official connector on my Mac (which just grabs data from iTunes, like playlists and whatnot) except that then I wouldn't have SmartDJ or wireless syncing. And I just don't have the space for it.

You don't have the problem that it scrolls through lists slowly? Or do you just not care? I am cool if the answer is the latter, I have begun to acclimate myself to people that can tolerate mediocrity from where I work.

Have you ever used any other Media Player? Have you ever used Space Bar to play/pause? Don't you kind of want that on the Zune Software?

If you have ZunePass and are using SmartDJ, you can download the streaming music, but cannot easily buy it. It isn't the super duper easy on the phone, but at least it can be done.

And I would totally consider a ZuneHD for my car instead of my phone (swiping to change tracks is a wonderful thing) but after looking at them in the store, the screen just isn't high res enough. Where it lists the next three songs coming up under the currently playing one, the text is just really blurry compared to my Surround. Shame the rumors say that they are killing the Zune and not making an HD2.

 

[QueBert]

I don't even find 5 stars to be enough, wish iTunes had 1-10. So I use Grouping for my ratings which gives me the control I want. Since I've created all my smart playlists, all I ever do in iTunes outside of syncing is tell it which playlist I want to sync.

 

[kubani1]

my biggest problem with the window's phones is that they are terribly messy to look at. They try and fit too much crap on the main screen, its messy and cluttered. apple and android just look so much simpler and cleaner. i know that wp7 is smoother than android, but why oh why does it have to look like that?

 

[Deeko]

my biggest problem with the window's phones is that they are terribly messy to look at. They try and fit too much crap on the main screen, its messy and cluttered. apple and android just look so much simpler and cleaner. i know that wp7 is smoother than android, but why oh why does it have to look like that?

I don't know that I can agree with this statement, not for WP7. For WM6.x, sure, but WP7 is a pretty simplistic UI. Look at the home screen. You've got a scrollist list of about 8 live tiles. That's a lot less information than you can theoretically place on an Android home screen, and while it might have more info than an iOS page, its less total number of apps.

 

[Nebor]

Have you looked at my sig... ever? I have had a Mac for the past 5 years or so. And as I said in my previous post, I would use the official connector on my Mac (which just grabs data from iTunes, like playlists and whatnot) except that then I wouldn't have SmartDJ or wireless syncing. And I just don't have the space for it.

You don't have the problem that it scrolls through lists slowly? Or do you just not care? I am cool if the answer is the latter, I have begun to acclimate myself to people that can tolerate mediocrity from where I work.

Have you ever used any other Media Player? Have you ever used Space Bar to play/pause? Don't you kind of want that on the Zune Software?

If you have ZunePass and are using SmartDJ, you can download the streaming music, but cannot easily buy it. It isn't the super duper easy on the phone, but at least it can be done.

And I would totally consider a ZuneHD for my car instead of my phone (swiping to change tracks is a wonderful thing) but after looking at them in the store, the screen just isn't high res enough. Where it lists the next three songs coming up under the currently playing one, the text is just really blurry compared to my Surround. Shame the rumors say that they are killing the Zune and not making an HD2.

I can just press the first letter of whatever I want to skip to on my keyboard, or I could search... I just don't find myself scrolling through thousands of songs too often.

I've never used the spacebar to play\pause. I think my last 5 keyboards have had dedicated media buttons that are bigger and more accessible than the spacebar anyways.

I admittedly don't use SmartDJ very often, so I'm not familiar with buying music generated from it. I imagine if it generates it in a "Now playing" page, then it's probably a PITA to buy. I don't understand why right clicking on the Now Playing page doesn't offer you the same context menu choices as right clicking anywhere else in the Zune software. Anyway, I usually just buy whatever the best sellers\top 40 are.

I don't know if the playlist text is blurry on the Zune HD, it's pretty high resolution packed onto a tiny screen, it's just that they make the font very faint and it's also very small. Fortunately the new MS Devices chief confirmed a new Zune is on the way just a few days ago. Though I don't think minute detail resolution should be your focus while you're driving.

 

[Nebor]

My googling shows that this thread is the only complaint on the internets about the play\pause spacebar thing with Zune.

 

[shortylickens]

My googling shows that this thread is the only complaint on the internets about the play\pause spacebar thing with Zune.

Did your googling show we are the most advanced bitches on the entire planet?

:awe: