Decided To Pick One up Today: My Review Part 2 (GUI)
Now, for anyone that has never used Windows "Metro UI" it is most similar, IMO, to iOS, in terms of comparing it to another mobile OS GUI. One can say there are two pages: your homescreen, which fits virtually as many apps as you want on it, and then "everything else", which encompasses a list of alphabetized apps that you have installed. It is very minimalistic, and aside from being able to move tiles around, not very customizable. Most tiles are even forced to be all one color. You get a choice (of something like a dozen colors), and maybe you can download more, I am not sure, but the fact remains they are more or less all one color. The tiles are "live", which is their saving grace IMO, in that they give you real time information, to an extent. Let's call it a marriage between an Android Widget and an iOS notification number.
This is not a UI for the person that wants things customized to the extreme. I came from a heavily modified iOS (intelliscreen, etc.) Some of that functionality is gone, but some of it is built into the OS, so it's a bit of a give and take. I have not yet made a full decision on whether I like it or not. Some quick searches on "root" and "jailbreak" for WP7 seem to produce some hits. Whether it is worth it, and what functionality I get from it, may be another story.
I figure we damn near all use the phone, mail, web browser, and texting, and I have given them each a good look over.
Phone
The phone functions very much like it does in iOS. Rather than tabs, you swipe through pages (a common theme across the UI). There isn't anything more or less here than what iOS offers, but it is presented differently. I didn't find it different enough for there to be much of a learning curve. Muscle memory has me going for tabs at the bottom of the screen as in iOS, but I am sure that can/will change in time.
Mail
I actually really like the mail application. It is easy to sort unread, flagged, etc. with the swipe of a finger. One complaint I do have is that when looking at ALL mail it is not quite as easy to tell what is unread (it's not in heavy bold like iOS). A quick swipe takes that pain away. Again, probably something to get used to. Or maybe there is a setting? Doing some reading, and even talking to the ATT rep, this phone is supposed to magically push all emails, including gmail, without any fancy setup. I didn't find this to be true. It was fetching, by default, when set up as a gmail account. I set it up as exchange (much like one would to get gmail pushed on iOS) and it works like a charm. A couple quick tests over wifi shows that my iPhone is getting the messages 3-5 seconds before the Lumia is. I am not sure if this is an OS thing or what. Not enough to bother me, but it might be enough to bother some email junkies.
There is also a default option for attachments. Files, MULTIPLE PICTURES, etc. can be attached right from the client. There is a tweak that does the same for iOS, but it is nice to see it here in WP7.
Web Browser
I don't have any complaints. It is a lot like safari, in many ways. It renders fast, pinching and zooming is buttery smooth, and colors look good. I did mention before that a completely zoomed out page is impossible to read, due to the resolution. I don't find myself reading completely zoomed out pages anyway. Not trying to justify anything here. I do wish the resolution was a little sharper but, alas, WP7 doesn't currently support anything higher. The default search is bing... This can be changed, apparently through some registry tweaking. Should be easier than that IMO. I haven't used Bing much, so in a way I am sort of excited to be "forced" to try it out. If I don't like it, I plan to change it to Google. Anyway, shame on MS for taking the choice away!
Messaging
The messaging app is actually pretty cool. It's a one stop hub for texts, facebook chat, and windows live. If only gtalk was in there!
I think the messages app blows Apple's choice out of the water (the first clear winner for me). I have long been installing tweaks to reduce the clutter. MS did a good job with this one, however they could do more. I can see integration like this pleasing a lot of users. I am not much of a FB junkie myself (I post a couple times a month), but I know people who live on FB.
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Still reading the article, but this part made me go
"The Lumia 900 boots up in just under 30 seconds, which feels like greased lightning compared to nearly 50 seconds for the iPhone 4S."
I just turned off my 4S. And from the time I pressed the power button to getting to the lock screen was 27 seconds.
So....
Mine took 50 seconds on the nose too... I didn't believe it either, which is why I actually ran the test. Perhaps it varies depending on what you have installed? I am unsure.