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such a large (4.9x2.54x0.4-inch) device.
The only real downside of the plastic is
that it makes for a slippery phone. Dur-
ing our fi rst few days of use, we found it
constantly slipping from our grip.
In general, we’ve found that this fi rst
batch of WinPhones possess superior
battery life to similarly high-end Android
devices, like the Epic 4G and the HTC
Incredible. Keeping with this theme, the
Focus’s battery easily lasted an entire
day without charging.
During testing, the Samsung quicklybecame our favorite. Its only weakness
is 8GB of internal memory, although this
can be expanded via a microSD slot.HTC HD7
HTC’s version of
the WinPhone for
T-Mobile emphasizes a
sturdy aluminum build
and a gigantic 4.3-inch
TFT LCD screen, making
it the most visually striking
smartphone reviewed here. Unfor-
tunately, while the jumbo-size 480x800
screen is nice, the colors literally paled in
comparison to the Samsung Focus. This
is a minor bump, however, because the4.8x2.7x0.4-inch HD7, which weighs 5.7
ounces, felt great in our hands.
Like the other three phones here, the
HD7 has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor
and a 5-megapixel camera, although it is
the only phone to have dual fl ash. It has
16GB of internal memory and permits
expansion through a microSD slot. Battery
life is solid—the phone made it through
a day of heavy use without charging—but
it’s not as good as the HTC Surround or
the Samsung Focus.can only save your documents locally or on a
Sharepoint server, and not to Microsoft ’s cloud-
based SkyDrive service. (You can automatically
save your photos to SkyDrive, however.)
Given the prevalence of touch-screen
smartphones, the quality of WinPhone’s virtual
keyboard is important. We confess to feeling
initially disappointed. In comparison to the
competition, it feels too small and the keys are
too crowded, particularly in landscape mode.
We were pleased to discover that the virtual
keyboard’s adaptive traits were top-notch. It
constantly adapted to and corrected the errors
caused by our clumsy, meaty thumbs.GAMES, MUSIC, PEOPLE,
AND MORE
One signifi cant change is the way the OS treats
your friends and social networks. Instead of
shunting your social life into a series of ap-
plications, Microsoft has created a dedicated
channel—People—that allows you to keep
track of all your real and faux friends’ posts,
status updates, and more. This aggregated
view also extends to the Photos category of the
OS—here you can see all of your friends’ most
recent photo posts.
The integrated Zune support is a beauti-
ful thing; it essentially means that every
WinPhone is also a Zune HD.
You can download and stream
the entire Zune catalog of
music, podcasts, and videos.
The only exception to this rule
is that, for some reason, you
can’t stream or download Zune
music channels. The Zune PC
soft ware functions as a sync
client for WinPhone devices in
the same manner that iTunes
does for iPhones. Plugging your
device into your PC initiates an
automatic two-way sync (if you
prefer), although you can also
set up your phone to sync with
your home PC via the wireless
network if you prefer.
Application support is
clearly Windows Phone’sbiggest weakness. At launch, some hyper-
basic categories such as instant messaging,
Dropbox, and Google Voice weren’t available.
That’s a big concern. It’s probably just a mat-
ter of time before we see thousands of apps
fi lling Windows Phone 7’s marketplace. But
if you’re looking for apps right now, you’ll be
sorely disappointed.IN CONCLUSION
Days aft er the launch, one of Maximum PC’s
Facebook fans, I Jedi, summed things up with a
key question about Windows Phone 7: What is
Microsoft bringing to the table that will encour-
age adoption of its platform? It’s a fair ques-
tion. The user interface design is so strikingly
diff erent that everyone wants to touch it. That’s
a great start. But smartphone users are going to
need more from WinPhones. More apps, more
features, more functionality. More.
We confess to being intrigued and enam-
ored by Windows Phone 7 as much for what it
does well now as for what it might accomplish
in the future. In 12 months’ time, we envision
a mobile OS with built-in remote connectiv-
ity to our desktop, our media server, and our
home network. We envision a massive games
library, with deep hooks to our Windows and
Xbox games. We see built-in fi le sharing via
SkyDrive. And yes, we see cut and paste.
The 12–18 month smartphone-upgrade
cycle we all live by means that Microsoft has
defi nitely inserted itself into the smartphone
conversation. We’ll see what happens next.VERDICT$200 with two-year commitment
($500 otherwise), http://www.samsung.cpm^9SAMSUNG FOCUSVERDICT$200 with two-year commitment
($500 otherwise), http://www.htc.cpm8
HTC HD7The Xbox Live channel func-
tions as a games marketplace
and a place to check in on
your Gamerscore.
The photos channel allows
you to see the pictures your
Facebook and Live friends
have taken.