The featured phone is the same one I have and that I gave wife Barbara and daughters Kim and Xenia for Christmas. Barb explicitly told me not to get her one (after I had already bought it). But now she uses it all the time. She plays games on it, she listens to music with it, sends text messages, and she can even check the weather and make phone calls with it. She has thanked me repeatedly since Christmas for getting it for her even though she thought she wouldn’t like anything “too complicated”. It’s not complicated.
It is also the same one that son James and his fiancé Kelsey have. I evaluated all the Windows Phone 7 available just before Christmas and the Samsung Focus edged out all the others with it’s bright display, the camera, and the sound quality. Others apparently agree because from what I’m hearing it is a very, very popular phone.
Full disclosure—I work for Microsoft and I wrote some of the software that goes into this phone.
Heh, Better Half said the same exact things about our smartphones before we purchased them… and now I daresay she uses hers more than she uses her home computer, even when she is actually at home. There is definitely something to be said for having the device right there with you…
However, we get a service discount and stipend for our phones by way of work, and without those, we probably would not have smartphones… they are nice, but, for us, not worth the full cost.
I just got called “bizarre and highly abnormal” last night by someone who either was personally insulted that I do not have a cell phone (beyond a trackfone stuffed in the glove box for emergencies) or thought I was lying.
Heather,
I’m sorry to hear that. I fully support a woman’s right to choose and hope the Microsoft advertisements have not made life more difficult for you. If you want to stay at home in your igloo and not have contact with the outside world that should be your right.
😉
Heather,
You have more cell phone than I do. It would be cool, and handy to have sometimes, but it’s too expensive, I’d probably lose it, & I don’t want to be that dude who goes into withdrawal when his phone breaks. Plus I only ever call about 3 people with any kind of regularity.
While I’ve never been called “bizarre and highly abnormal” (at least, not on account of not having a cell-phone), I’ve freaked more than a few of my students out when they find out. I’ve had them go “oh, you mean you’ve got a BlackBerry.” No, I say, I mean no cell, no smart phone, no Crack-Berry, no sat-phone, no cable TV, no satellite TV. “Facebook?” they ask. No, nor twitter, myspace, or other web-site. They then say “but, but, but…. you know stuff, and can handle the computer better than most teachers!” They find it incomprehensible that I would choose to not have all these electronic leashes. I then ask them to ask their family what their annual tech subscription (cell, tv, etc) bill is, and they are generally shocked – the last number I heard was one mom said it was about $5k per year…. I tell them I’d rather know the answers in an emergency, or have the chains, jumper cables, firsst aid kit, and change of clothes with me / in the car, than be able to find out where I can go buy them in an emergency, because in an emergency, you, well, need them now. Besides, last earthquake I was in, the cell-towers were jammed in less than 60 seconds from the time the shaking stopped (I was in class at BCC during the Nisqually quake).
It’s not a phone. It’s a pocket communications, navigation and entertainment computer and I love the heck out of my Focus. The fact that I can also use it to talk with people is just icing on the cake. I’ve tried the iOS and Android alternatives and didn’t particularly care for them. Windows Phone hit the UI out of the park. Physically manipulating it is easy and the voice recognition features are very handy. And Joe, I think the location team did an awesome job allowing where I am to be such an seamless, integral part of so many applications.
Mark
PS – My secret delight with the phone is the FM radio.
I would never have looked at a Windows device if you hadn’t written about it. Thanks
Miles Digby
PS I hate Apple.
Oh, Joe. ESR has been dissing the Windows phone over at his blog. Not as being a bad piece, but as Microsoft being dumb at marketing. Is the phone really a nice piece? Knowing that you worked on it makes me feel a bit better about it, but I still hate sending money to Bill G., that disgrace to the autistic community. Yah, I know you get paid because people send money to Bill.
JustThisGuy,
ESR speculates too much and gets far too many details wrong and ends up off in never-never land. He is totally clueless in regards to the Nokia deal. This is probably because of ambigiuty in the publically released information. He speculates on quality and gets that wrong too.
The phone is really nice. Nearly everyone agrees it is better than the iPhone. I haven’t heard any unbiased comparison of Android and WP7. The sales numbers of the Android are a big concern but that doesn’t change the relative “niceness” of the two phones.