Posted on 10-17-10 07:00 pm
There are all sorts of profanity that could be used in this situation, but for the sake of keeping it clean, I'll stick to the onomatopoeia of "Wow." Microsoft has lifted the curtains on Windows Phone 7, and we've got the phones, apps, and carriers easily at our fingertips. But if you're looking for a summary of the week's events, you've come to the right place:
Monday
This is where it all started. In the early hours of the day, the Zune Desktop was updated, giving users access to the Marketplace. Which, arguably, was not the best idea at this early stage. Moving on, Microsoft held their press conference in New York, featuring Steve Ballmer, Joe Belfiore, AT&T representatives, and a whole bunch of phones.
At the conference (and later on Microsoft's website), nine phones were announced. Here's the basic rundown of the phones:
Dell Venue Pro
- 4.1" WVGA Screen
- 1ghz QSD8250
- 5mp autofocus camera with 720p HD video
- 7 hours talk time/14 days standy time
- Runs on T-Mobile USA/Canada WIND frequencies
HTC HD7
- 4.3" WVGA Screen
- 1GHZ QSD8525
- 5MP camera with dual LED flash, 720p video recording
- 6 hours talk time, 13 days standby time
- T-Mobile/Canada WIND frequencies
HTC 7 Mozart
- 3.7" screen WVGA
- 8MP camera with Xenon flash and 720p video recording
- 5 hours talk time
- Running on Orange frequencies
HTC Surround
- 3.8" WVGA screen
- Slide out Yamaha speaker with surround sound
- 16gb storage
- 5MP camera / 720p video recording
- 4 hours talk time, 11 days standby time
- Coming to AT&T USA for $199
HTC 7 Trophy
- 3.8", 800x480 touchscreen
- 4.67" x 2.42" x 0.47"
- 140g
- 512MB ROM/576MB RAM/8GB internal storage
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8250 1 GHz
- Battery life:
- WCDMA - Talk time: 330 min/Standby: 435 hrs
- GSM - Talk time: 405 min/Standby: 360 hrs
- 5MP camera / 720p HD video
- Vodafone frequencies
LG Optimus 7
- 3.8" touchscreen
- 125 mm x 59.8 mm x 11.5 mm
- 157g
- 16GB internal storage
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8650 1 GHz
- Battery life - Talk time: 8 hrs/Standby: 179 hrs
- 5 mp camera / 720p HD video
- Media Sharing (DLNA)
- Augmented Reality
- Speech to Text
- Coming to Vodafone
LG Quantum/Optimus 7Q (aka LG Pacific)
- 3.5", 800x480 touchscreen
- 119.5 mm x 59.5 mm x 15.22 mm
- 185g
- 16GB internal storage
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8650 1 GHz
- Battery life - Talk time: 7 hrs/Standby: 466 hrs
- 5MP camera / 720p HD video
- Horizontal qwerty
- DLNA
- Augmented Reality
- Speech to text
- Coming to AT&T
Samsung Focus
- 4.0", 480x800 Super AMOLED screen
- 4.82" x 2.53" x 0.43"
- 110g
- 512MB RAM/1GB Flash/8GB internal storage
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8250 1 GHz
- Battery life - Talk time: 3 hrs/Standby: 250 hrs
- 5MP camera/720p HD video
- Coming to AT&T
Samsung Omnia 7
- 4.0", 480x800 Super AMOLED screen
- 4.82" x 2.53" x 0.43"
- 119g
- 512MB RAM/1GB Flash/8GB internal storage
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8250 1 GHz
- Battery life - Talk time: 3 hrs/Standby: 250 hrs
- 5MP camera/720p HD video
- Coming to Orange
And last but not least, the HTC 7 Pro, a CDMA phone coming to Sprint in 2011:
HTC 7 Pro
Carrier: Sprint
Form Factor: Sliding/Tilting keyboard
Weight: 185 grams with battery
Dimensions: 59x117x15.5mm
Screen: 3.6" WVGA
Camera: 5mp, 720p HD
ROM: 512mb
RAM: 448mb
Internal Storage: 8gb
Talk Time: 420 min
Standby time: 420 hours
Coming 2011
Another important detail that was announced, Copy-Paste support will be coming to Windows Phone 7 OS in 2011.
Tuesday
Starting on Monday and leaking on to Tuesday, it was discovered that some Windows Phone 7 devices will actually support expandable storage. But to clarify, this isn't removable storage: rather, users can add a storage card into select phones (Samsung Focus, for example) to expand the storage, but the card will not be readable by a PC, and removing it will hard reset the phone. More details here.
Wednesday
And for those of you on the European side of the lake, the October 21st launch of Windows Phone 7s have received a generalized pricing rundown, thanks to Amazon. The HTC HD7 will cost €599 unlocked, and the 7 Trophy £430 unlocked. In USD, that's $835 and $670, respectively. As far as the prices for unlocked North American devices, we still don't know.
Thursday
A Windows Phone 7 based Toshiba TG02 was spotted in a Microsoft lab, as pictured below:
What this means for consumers, your guess is as good as ours, but the device sure looks top notch.
Friday
You know that HTC 7 Pro we mentioned before? Even though it's not due until 2011, HTC has released a first-look video of it:
There's your summary for today, folks! There's still lots of news to go through, so tune in to here and to Windows Phone 7 Central to keep on top of it.
But do let us know: What do you think of WP7? Will it be enough to pull you away from Windows Mobile, or does the freedom to run whatever you want on your device triumph over apps and updates? Let us know below.