Has anyone got a WP7 phone yet?

[GringoFrenzy]

Just wondering if anyone has any useful info on any bugbears they have with it so far?
I really like the look and feel of it, but I'm completely torn between WP7 on the LG Optimus 7, and Android 2.2 on the HTC Desire.

I currently have an iPhone 3G.

My friend at work got the HTC HD7, had it for a weekend, and chucked it straight back on Monday because he couldn't sync his contacts from Outlook without having an Exchange server or cloud service.
Not an issue for me, but seems to be one of many annoyances the phone is shipping with.

Basically, what I want to know is if anyone is having buyer's remorse.
Even better if you could compare experiences versus Android.

As far as I've read:

WP7 Pros:
> Streamlined & FAST
> Can develop and publish my own apps in VS2010 Silverlight/XAML/C#
> Standardised H/W
> Audited/secure market place
> 8Gb+ of unigied storage (up to 40gb if you get a Samsung with 32Gb card)
> Xbox Live integration and decent games (not a major draw, but would be nice)

Cons:
> No HTML5 support (yet?) / browser based on IE7/8 (This could be a massive downer for future-proofing)
> No GoogleMaps....MS alternative might be poor, plus you can't link to a location from email/SMS like you can on iPhone.
> All apps are isolated from main O/S, meaning you can't get all the useful widgets you get on Android.
> Handling of Contacts seems a bit pants.
> No local searching capabilities. (contacts, emails, etc.)


Android pros:
> Infinitely flexible and customisable to your needs.

Cons:
> Apps could be dodgy, poor selection?
> Don't know Java for developing apps.

I'm more fussed about productivity apps than games etc., so Android seems best for this, but at the same time I want the main features (SMS, browsing, emails, etc) to be seemless and slick, which is obviously what the WP7 is aimed towards.

Has anyone got any thoughts? Don't want to get tied into a 24 month contract for a phone I end up hating!

[GringoFrenzy]

Reeeally?.....nobody has one?

Ah well, I plumped for the HTC Desire in the end

[MercutioUK]

I'm holding out for the HTC 7 Pro (the qwerty slider version).

[mrochester]

I've got an HD7 coming on Monday.

[Moby-Dick]

Had a play with one of the LG phones a few days ago - it was ok , but I don't know if I really had long enough with it to decide if I really liked it or not. I've got from WM6.5 to Android 2.2 and foudn Android just the little bit easier to pick up.

[GringoFrenzy]

Yeah, I'm really liking Android 2.2.
It's amazing just how much freedom you get with an Android device over an iPhone. Love the fact I can pretty much configure it exactly as I want, rather than having to stick to how the manufacturer thinks I should use it. (Which is what I'd have had with WP7 as well.)

Brilliant!

[gareth25]

Although I have an iPhone mainly for it's seemless Exchange integration, the Android platforms is light years ahead with many features such as Notifications which are far more refined than they are on Apple iDevices. The limitations in the iPhone really annoy me so much I wish I had Steve's phone number!

I think Apple wins on ease of use, Android on functionality and it'll be interesting to see what reception WP7 gets. Microsoft is pushing developers of Windows software to make mobile software so they may be at a small advantage there, while many developers are now realising Android is a viable platform.

[TheAnimus]

Well I've had the omnia 7 all weekend now, and before I should start, let me just add one thing.

Most people are willing to spend too much on a mobile phone imho. I also returned my iPhone 4 after 3 days because it was just shoddy. I'm by no means a poor man the iPhone 4 is less than days work for me, but for the cost it didn't offer enough.

Will the Omnia 7 be going back? No because even if its the biggest pile of junk, I've written some software for it because its silverlight and so relaxing to dev for.

So the screen, AMOLED, wow. With the metro UI it really shines, the strong bold colours and minimalist design are very striking.

The visual design of the OS shows its clearly the most recently concieved. The iPhone GUI really does look 2000 to me, it was the first time someone put glass effects on a grid of dumb buttons. Not intrested at all.

Metro is about drawing attention to the important bits, and contry to the kind of software projects I'm normally working on, its very minimalist. You slide across for info even thou it could have been sqeezed on the first screen. There is obviously a trade off, but I have to say they have it right so far.

What it does it does very well, but there are missing features (copy and paste!), but the thing I thought I'd miss the most, I don't. Google maps is good, it has bus stops marked but hey, I like the little black ones with the orange light that are going exactly were you want. That is the only thing google maps does better.

The bing search is actually quite good, this surprised me a lot. You hit the search key and you immediately switch seamlessly between web search results, local mapping, news. This is brilliant and far better than anything else I've seen, we wanted to grab some lunch yesterday and simply put in genre, tap on one of the listings get the reviews its map location (distance from us).

However despite the doing what I want better, how come there is no google maps? I mean if I wanted an evil phone which wouldn't allow competition that might make something better I'd buy apple products.

The next hitter? Web browsing.

No flash (yet, it is coming apparently soon) but apart from that its flawless, by far the best experience in class. What more can I say? Snappy and accurate. Just give it the flash plz.

Input is really quite swift, its one of those it just works things, but a physical keypad would always be better. (can't wait for someone making textured touch screens, come on haptics researchers!)

Games, its already got a fair few good games, my favourite been the starwars tower defence.

My complaint is I can't add info to the lock screen. I like the weather forecast for my location's next 3 hours. But none of them seem to do that now (looks at hd2 custom roms!)

Considering I'm on a 12 month, and it only cost me £70 up front, I think its got a fair price point.

[Moby-Dick]

A Worthy Upgrade from an HD2 ? or should I just wait for the guys on XDA-Dev's to sort something out

[kasavien]

What network did you get it on / what was the deal, I'm looking at getting a WP7 phone but I don't want to leave o2 but I want the omnia 7 :/

[TheAnimus]

A Worthy Upgrade from an HD2 ? or should I just wait for the guys on XDA-Dev's to sort something out

Hmm, the HD2 with xda guys roms and some loving I think its quite possibly the best phone out there thats a smart phone. Ok its short on games, but it does what it does very well.

As it stands the WP7 has great potential but its certainly not ready yet, its lacking flash, its lacking copy + paste, plus microsoft will need to allow people to do a little bit more in the way of development than they currently do imho. An example is how the txt messaging system handles delivery reports. Its just not good, and a 3rd party can't fix this.

What network did you get it on / what was the deal, I'm looking at getting a WP7 phone but I don't want to leave o2 but I want the omnia 7 :/

I'm on T-Mobile, 12 month £25 pcm and £70 for the phone.

[Moby-Dick]

Run Droid on and HD2 and you have the best of both worlds

isn't the sandboxed application stack the reason for some of the WP7 shortcomings ? Is there no Service bus an app can dump to ?

[McPhee]

Got my Trophy today. Impressed. While there are some serious niggles that I have (review coming) overall I think it's a definite upgrade from my iPhone 3G. I was never really an apps person, spent loads on them but don't use many. WP7's thing is information and connecting with people, much more up my street. Zune Pass could be an interesting extra too, giving it a trial at the moment.

[yanionse]

I have not.

[[GSV]Trig]

I'm going to wait for the next wave of WP7 phones tbh, all the ones that have been released so far are just last gen phones with WP7 on, like the HD2 vs the HD7 for instance, not really impressive at all imho.
Going to get a Desire HD in while and have a proper play with Android and then either sell the HD2 or the DHD depending on which I get on with...

[pipTheGeek]

I had a Touch HD and liked it. Although it was a little slow at times. My contract finished back in July and I was trying to decide whether to go for a Desire or hold out for WP7. In the end I went for a Desire. Other than the fact it's VPN support is a little lacking (l2tp/ipsec with a shared key or pptp) unless I want to pay, its a good phone and does all I have asked of it. Having seen the compromises MS have made to get this out on time I'm not sorry I didn't wait. I shall be keeping a close eye on the direction MS take with future releases, maybe when this contract is up (another 20 months) it will be time to switch back to windows phone.