Windows Phone 7: handsets, operators compared
What to buy - and from whom
Following yesterday's launch of Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft's various operator and hardware partnership announcements, here's Reg Hardware's guide to the devices and suppliers that will be debuting the new smartphone OS when it debuts here on 21 October.
Handsets available in UK
How the specs compare
Network availability
Who is offering what
COMMENTS
So, which one will joe public buy...
Turns out its the iPhone...
better luck next time Mr. B.
Title Goes Here
Yep, it allows for SD Cards - but they can not be switched during use. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-gb/howto/wp7/basics/sd-cards-and-my-phone.aspx
From that page, one quote that really makes no sense to me is "Windows Phone uses a special high–performance SD card that works differently from SD cards in other devices."
From what it says in the rest of the article, it sounds more likely (pure speculation) that they mean it formats the SD card into a special file system that is encrypted and set up to distribute the data with the internal storage. Switch a card on that and watch data go bye bye.
Any chance of me getting one of these went out the window when T-Mobile opted not to stock the HD7. The Omnia looks interesting, but I'll be moving from Windows Mobile (for the last 4 years) to Droid and the HTC Desire HD.
If Microsoft do still have a mobile platform at my next upgrade, I'll look in again, but in many ways, it's too much of a risk to buy into. Making a phone choice for the next 18 months / 2 years involves a degree of peeking into the future, and with such a new OS... I suppose I'm saying I'll look again after SP1.
Please Miss Bee, the dog ate my title
"Granted one offers a 8mp camera with xenon flash, awesome just what i'm looking for."
So a 12mp camera would be even more awesome? And a 16mp camera twice as awesome?
Comment Fail
Gotta love people comparing products that don't really relate. Let's get some real world reviews before actually shooting the product down with the usual MS + Security lines..... Did any of the other windows mobiles fall to a "1-900" scam? I'm not aware of any.
The first round of hardware is somewhat uninspiring to me, but then so sadly was the iPhone 4. I expected more from the 4th gen phone in terms of the camera option, same as with these devices. Granted one offers a 8mp camera with xenon flash, awesome just what i'm looking for. Oh wait, only 8gb storage with no expansion option? Sigh.
For all it's faults my N97 has been a great all roounder with good image quality and bags of storage thanks to the 32gb card slotted into it giving me a replacmeent iPod, decent on the go camera with a flash that works in the dark for the most part. There's little in the current wave of phone's that really enhances this middle ground "all in one" device. Looks like it's probably the N8 for me, which hopefully will have somewhat more stable software with the new symbian OS arriving on it.
reviews
There are plenty of reviews & demos on YouTube.
From what I understand, the calendar is very good with a miniminist look, the contacts are pretty good (now they added selective Facebook contacts rather than all)
The email client is also very good, although lacking some features like unified inbox, threaded messaging (like Gmail) and doesn't support Gmail labels. The first two have been hinted at as being address via software update and only excluded due to lack of time to write the code. As for Gmail labels, I wouldn't count on them any time soon. I believe the top features of email are multiple message management (i.e. selecting/moving/deleting more than one at a time, and also the pivots allowing you to easily swipe through all, unread & flagged messages
The common theme with all 3 is they integrate back to the "cloud/server" if you add FB, Hotmail. Gmail, Exchange and I think Yahoo.
But take a look for yourself, as what I think is pretty good may turn out to be crap for you.
