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There was a time when Microsoft was one of the major players in the smartphone market. Windows Mobile was one of the three biggest smartphone operating systems, the other two being Symbian and Palm. However, with the advent of the iPhone, Windows Mobile quickly became irrelevant. 

It was clearly showing its age, even before iOS came into the picture, and when it did, Windows Mobile suddenly seemed even older than what it did before. And while Microsoft desperately needed a new operating system to stay in the mobile race, it kept stalling with newer versions of Windows Mobile.

With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft finally has a shot at the lucrative smartphone market with a product that is not past its expiry date. Windows Phone 7 is a brand new piece of software that has got what it takes to take on the best of the smartphone market, or at least that's what Microsoft believes. Unfortunately, they haven't launched Windows Phone 7 in India officially, but thanks to HTC, we managed to get our hands on a Windows Phone 7 device even though Microsoft doesn't want us to. Let's see how good this new OS is and how it compares against the likes of iOS and Android. 

Let's start with the interface of Windows Phone 7. The Windows Phone 7 UI is codenamed Metro. Anyone who has used the Zune HD, which introduced this UI, should be familiar with its workings. It has, however, gone through multiple changes on Windows Phone 7. The UI has three main sections; the first is the homescreen, the second is the application screen and the third is the 'hub'. 

The homescreen on Windows Phone 7 uses what Microsoft calls 'Tiles'. Tiles can be considered as a combination of shortcuts for application icons and widgets rolled into one. Not only do they launch the respective app when you tap them but they can also display information depending upon the application, and can update it in real time. 

So for example, a Tile for a weather app can display the current temperature or the Tile for the mail application can show you the number of unread messages. In the same way a Tile for the Marketplace can tell you if there are any updates available for the installed apps. The Pictures app can show you the last photo that you captured through the camera. Not all tiles show information, however, and some can only serve as shortcuts for their respective applications. 

By default the phone comes with several Tiles but they are customizable and you can add or remove them and move them around. You can add tiles by going to the application list and selecting an app. Some apps even let you create Tiles from within them for specific content. For example, Internet Explorer can create a Tile out of a web page or the Office app can create a tile out of a note. Each Tile takes a square but some such as the Calendar or the Pictures app can take two squares to display more information. 

Tiles can be useful to quickly display certain information, which was one of the main features Microsoft advertised in its Windows Phone 7 ads. Their goal was to let users quickly access the information they are looking for without having to spend too much time with the phone, and spend more time doing something else. But adding too many tiles means you have too much information going on at once on the screen and you would also need to scroll to access it. 

This is where you miss the multiple screen arrangement on Android, where you can have information spread around and still be able to access it conveniently. Having it all on one screen as on Windows Phone 7 means you cannot have too much information at once, and if you do, it invariably ends up beating the purpose of making your life easier. 

Next we come to the application screen. To access this screen you have to swipe left on the homescreen or press the arrow button on the top right. Here you will find all the applications that are installed on the phone, arranged in alphabetical order. The list view is much different from the grid view that we are now used to, thanks to almost every other phone out there, smart or otherwise, using this arrangement. 

But the list view is not without its merits. For one, it is easier to find applications in list view compared to grid view. In a grid, your eyes have to move horizontally as well as vertically, which makes it bit difficult to find an app. In a list view, you just have to move your eyes vertically, which is a lot easier. 

As for the scrolling, you have to do that anyway, regardless of the display method. Having said that, you only get to see up to 11 applications at a time in list view on Windows Phone 7 compared to 16 icons in Android (on phones with 800 x 480 display) and iPhone 4. Still, we like the vertical list view on the Windows Phone 7 just as much as the grid view on other platforms and more than the utility, we actually are glad that we don't have to look at another grid of icons. 

Next we move to the main application view, also called the hub. In the Metro, the interface is spread across horizontally in one continuous layer and you see one portion of that layer at a time depending upon the section you are in. Let us take the example of the Marketplace app. You will see the app name on the top in large character, which more often than not is too large to fit in one screen. 

So you will see part of the name (in case of the Marketplace app you will just see 'marke' on the first screen) and as you scroll horizontally you will see the app name scrolling. Some apps also have a background image (they change automatically periodically) that moves as you scroll, as is the case with Android wallpapers.
Source: techtree