Software, services and conclusions
Even more than with Android phones, all WP7 phones are likely to have a near-identical user experience. Not only do they all have the same chip and ‘hard' buttons, but there's less scope for the OEM or operator to customize the UI. This is why I was so careful not to read Pete's review.
The first thing that strikes you about using a WP7 phone is that it's different. Of course that's the whole point but often, when an attempt is made to reinvent the wheel, what results is still a wheel.
The UI paradigm established by Apple, and also adopted by the other main mobile OSs, is the ‘wall of apps. So everything you want to do on the phone is done via an app, all of which are accessed via the equivalent of desktop shortcuts arranged on your home page(s) as you see fit.
Microsoft has gone for a more structured approach with WP7. Yes, there are still shortcuts to cardinal phone functionalities such as calling, texting, contacts, etc, but even these are different. For a start the icons are much bigger and of a uniform shape and style. And, whenever possible that have dynamic, widget-style functionality.
For example WP7 is very highly integrated with Facebook, so all your Facebook contacts are automatically added to your contacts and the ‘people' icon shows dynamic random selection of their profile pics. You can also ‘link' contacts derived from various sources to reduce duplication.
But the real cunning plan behind WP7 is to bring its various other services together on a handset. In no particular order this includes Bing (including maps), Office, Xbox Live and Zune. Microsoft has spent a hell of a lot of time and money on developing these services, as well as the cloud infrastructure abortively demonstrated on the Kin, and it has been clear for some time that it needs to make it easier for mobile users to access them.
Hubs
But the question is - has it succeeded? The various services available have been grouped into themed ‘hubs', to provide some kind of hierarchical order to things, as opposed to the more anarchic wall of apps.
Let's look at them in turn. Bing is integrated in much the same way Google search is to Android. Not only is it the default web search option, but pressing the search button when in a hub opens a search within that category. The Maps service seems to be as good as anything Google or Nokia has to offer, and offers some nice graphical flourishes.
This does bring me onto my first big moan, however. HTC and Microsoft between them have conspired to make the Wi-Fi connection on the Trophy highly unreliable. I sit right next to my router, and don't have any trouble connecting to it from my Android phone, but more often than not, despite my router being identified, no connection.
Furthermore despite the phone showing a healthy 3G connection it refuses to connect to data services when the Wi-Fi connection is down. Now it's quite possible that there's a solution to this somewhere in the phone, but if there is I couldn't find it and no help was offered. I think it's vital that help/tutorial tips are built into the core of an OS - especially with smartphones being such amazingly complex pieces of technology these days.
The people hub, with its heavy emphasis on Facebook, works well. The font used throughout WP7 is pleasing on the eye (take note, Nokia), and importing SIM contacts is easy. Setting up email accounts is also very easy. While you would expect Outlook/Exchange integration to be excellent - and it is - it was pretty easy to set up a Gmail account too.
But, of course, Gmail integration isn't anywhere near as good as on Android, and it updates sporadically. But this could once more be down to the weird Wi-Fi data connection issues I encountered. There's a Twitter app, but it's nowhere near as well integrated as Facebook is and doesn't seem to display alerts. There's also no sign of excellent third party social networking apps like TweetDeck in the marketplace.
Funky
The marketplace has a fresh, funky feel like the rest of the UI. Apps are well organized and there was a decent amount, but nowhere near the choice you get from Android, let alone iOS, and that's including the handful of unique HTC apps thrown in. It felt more like the Ovi store in so much as I suspected many of the apps were unique to this platform.
The first person to write a piece of software that makes apps and games compatible with all mobile platforms will get very rich very quickly.
One thing the WP7 marketplace does that I wish others did it do offer to implement all app updates it finds, rather the than the piecemeal way you're obliged to do so with Android. On the flip side, when you've downloaded and installed an app, all it offers is the option to ‘share' a link to that app. If you want to actually use the app, you have to exit the marketplace and find the icon for it. Annoying.
You can buy games and media from the market, but Microsoft would rather you went through the respective hubs dedicated to those products. The games one is based around Xbox Live and if, like me, you don't own an Xbox, it's still pretty easy to set one up via the phone. This gives you access to, not only an impressive games marketplace, but all the cloudy functionality of Xbox live. Gaming is definitely a strength of WP7.
Media is based around the Zune platform, which is Microsoft's answer to iTunes. While standalone Zune devices never took off, we feel the phone was always the ultimate goal for this service. Once more there's a slick interface and access to a lot of media, but once more the experience is incomplete, with no guidance on how to sign up for Zune streaming contracts, and frequent reminders that the experience would be better if I'd just sync the phone with my PC. I didn't want to.
The Office hub gives you access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and SharePoint. Viewing, saving and editing Office docs is a pleasure, although I has expected to find greater integration with Windows Live/SkyDrive than I found. Also, you can open Office docs in other mobile platforms thanks to the open-source software on offer.
The picture hub is fine, as is the camera functionality, and there is good integration with Windows Live/SkyDrive here. The social media integration - a vital part of a smartphone's camera armory in my opinion - is wildly inconsistent. There's no easy way to share a photo you've just taken on Twitter, while I found my every photo cropping up, unbidden, on my Facebook page via Windows Live Messenger. Thank God none of my photos were of the ‘artistic' variety!
Great first effort
On the whole WP7 comes over as a great first effort, but one that will improve considerably when v2.0 comes out, which should happen across all phones at the same time thanks to Microsoft handling the updates, rather than leaving it to OEMs.
A lot of the features were one or two refinements away from being a lot better, and the cloud integration had a piecemeal feel. Access to Xbox Live, Zune and SkyDrive should all be unified via your Windows Live account and control over this process should be a lot easier and more transparent.
Conversely, in the name of simplifying the interface, some controls are either absent or hard to find. This lead me to wonder whether things had really been simplified, or simply swept under the carpet. The Wi-Fi/data connection issue was a big one and it really annoyed me.
How much of this is HTC's fault I don't know. Otherwise the Trophy is a solid, well-built and good-looking phone. Furthermore it's available ‘free' from Vodafone for £25 per month. Compare that to the HTC HD7 or Samsung Omnia 7, which cost £35 per month from O2 and Three respectively, and you save yourself £240 over two years for a phone that does pretty much the same job. This extra value earns the Trophy an extra half-star from me.
I was perfectly happy to use the Trophy as my main phone for a month or so, and I enjoyed exploring its novel interface and unique services. But I have to admit that when I reverted back to my Android phone there was a certain reassuring familiarity and reliability to it that I warmly embraced.
Good:
- A breath of fresh air for mobile UIs
- Excellent array of Microsoft services
- Great value for what you get
Bad:
- Feels like a v1.0 product
- Erratic data connection
- Developer ecosystem is in its infancy
HEXUS Rating
