While I was pondering if I should swap my iPhone 3G for the new iPhone 4, I was amazed by the number of people that are using iPhone 4 around me. It seems that iPhone 4 has won over the hearts of many Singaporeans (I live in Singapore), and it is very common for people here to carry an iPhone, listening to MP3s or playing games on public transport.

That triggered a thought in me — I needed something different. And as I chanced upon the new Windows Phone 7 (HTC HD7, LG Optimus etc), I did not hesitate to switch over to the Windows Mobile side. Since my current subscription plan has expired already, I had a really good deal and purchased a HTC HD7 at SGD $148. (Usual price would be $648, but heh, I’m purchasing at staff rate!)

So, here we go, an unbiased view (and to some extent, a comparison to iPhone) of Windows Phone 7.

The Software

Applications & Games
Windows Phone 7 is not like Windows Mobile 6.5. In fact, it experienced such a major uplift that it has surprised me greatly. The ability to run Microsoft Silverlight Application and XBox Live games (through XNA framework) is a very strong point, and may win over iPhone. Having developed applications on both Windows Mobile and iPhone, I must say that Silverlight applications are far more easier to develop, and the learning curve is not as steep as Apple’s Objective-C, which opens the door to many .Net programmers.

XBox Live games run very smoothly on my HTC HD7, the interface and response time are all better than iPhone 4. The only weak point in Windows Phone 7 is the lack of games at the moment. iPhone had a great head-start ahead of Windows Phone 7, and the latter is also way behind Android phone apps. Another worrying area is the lack of quality in some applications — some applications that I downloaded are very primitive and buggy.

The pricing of XBox Live games are on the high side, compared to iPhone’s relatively competitive pricing (most games can be purchased at USD $0.99, at most $2.99), the starting price of most games on XBox Live (and the apps at the marketplace) is at USD $4.99. However, as we are able to try out the trial version for free (something sorely missed for iPhone, you would need to download a separate app to test out the software), you will be sure that the app you purchased is what you need.

Verdict: I prefer Windows Phone 7′s approach

Zune’s Music and Video

The user interface of Zune’s Music and Video is very much simple. You can easily browse through your collection of musics and videos in at most 3 touches. For me, the response time of the music player is much faster and smoother than iPhone’s, but the downside is that it does not support lyrics display, and the actual playing menu is not very user friendly.

The Sound Enhancer that came with HTC is very powerful, and if you are on speaker mode, make sure you turn on the Sound Enhancer and the quality of your music will immediately receive a significant boost!

Verdict: It’s a close draw, both platforms have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Organizing Contacts

On Windows Phone 7, there is not a concept of contacts. All contacts are stored as people entries, which can also be your FaceBook friends, Windows Live friends, or contacts on your Google account. The moment you link your phone with a Windows Live ID and Facebook account, the phone is smart enough to link up all people profile with identical names. There are still a degree of manual work needed though.

Once you have added the phone numbers to your people entries’ profiles, it will be stored on Windows Live. Due to some hardware problem (HTC has assured me that this was an isolated case, so I will not dwell on it) my phone got rebooted a few times before completely breaking down, but during that few times I was able to re-setup my whole phone in a matter of minutes.

iPhone’s contacts, on the other hand, is much easier to use, but offer lesser functionalities.

Verdict: Windows Phone 7. Once you get hold of it, it becomes the central hub in which you receive latest updates of your friends. The interface is clean and simple.

The Hardware

Camera

The HTC HD7 comes with a relatively poorer camera at 5 MP (much lower than HTC Mozart, LG Optimus and others at 8 MP). Not that it matters to me, but the camera quality has nothing to shout about. The ability to shoot full-HD movie was, quite standard as all Windows Phone 7 should be able to achieve the same thing.

Verdict: iPhone. iPhone’s video editing capabilities are far more superior than Windows Phone 7′s.

Touch Screen

The HTC HD7 has a very responsive touch screen interface. So smooth it is bordering on being overly-sensitive. The touch-sensitive buttons on the lower part of the phone are too sensitive as well. It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that I accidentally brushed over the buttons while I was tilting my phone in a racing game and the whole program exited abruptly.

Verdict: iPhone. The physical home button gives you a more assured feeling when you want to exit your application.

Battery Life

The HTC HD7 offers a very accurate feel for your phone’s battery life. Unlike iPhone, which stays at full power for some time before dropping quickly, the HTC HD7′s battery meter is more like a laptop’s reading. The HTC HD7, however, shows you exactly how much power you have left in your battery, which gives you a better feeling of what to expect, how long more are you able to use your phone etc.

Verdict: HTC HD7!

Conclusion

The HTC HD7 is nice, very nice. But it has a long way to go before stabilizing and reaping the full benefits of what Windows Phone 7 has to offer. To date it still feels very raw, and hopefully with more optimizing and fine-tuning, HTC’s next release of Windows Phone 7-ready phones will be more stable and fun to use!