Symbian-Guru’s thoughts on Windows Phone Mango
Ricky Cadden was for a time, the Symbian-Guru, which along side All About Symbian was one of the main sources to go to for Symbian related news, reviews, tips etc.
Famously of course, he (and the team) left their site, due to frustrations with Nokia, Symbian and their combined efforts of ‘craptastic’ flagships.
He made a move over to Android (if I recall the second time as the first one wasn’t so pleasant) and has been pretty happy over the Green-Bot camp.
After the Nokia-MS partnership announcement, like many Nokians (current and ex) they went and picked up some Windows Phones to try out. So you know, they can make appropriate praise and criticism of a platform after having experience with it.
On Saturday, Ricky posted his thoughts on his personal blog about the leaked Windows Phone Mango that he put on his HTC HD7.
http://www.rickycadden.com/2011/08/thoughts-on-windows-phone-mango-on-the-htc-hd7
Ricky puts together an even account both of things he likes and things he doesn’t.
- Although beauty is subjective, a lot of bloggers (non nokians) have been quite pleased with the aesthetics of Windows Phone. Ricky agrees and calls Windows Phone “freakin gorgeous“.
- Â He also likes the out of the box sync (which I’ve found flawless too, and btw DOES work to sync back to Google calendar or Live as I recently found out). Ricky notes that GMAIL, work mail, twitter and facebook are what he needs and Windows Phone does that really well.
- Also loving live-tiles as well as the voice control features.
- Notifications. Ricky wants more of them. (I did not know HD7 had LED light notifications. I want some N900 style LED notifications please)
- More customization – still pretty limited in how you can change the look of WP
- Improve twitter notifications – says the live-tile needs to notify you of mentions and DM (I thought one of the demoes showed this?) update:  AH yes. Surur says the ‘Me’ tile does the @Notifications
- Market place – Ricky wants to see what apps he’s already installed when browsing lists. BTW, NoDo already shows what apps you’ve installed – if it says “share” instead of “install”. I’d like to somehow have launch actions like Ovi Store.
- Xbox Live – I don’t have an Xbox – I just use this as a folder for my games. Ricky wants more integration for games between the actual Xbox platform. (We’ve seen titles coming and demoed at E3)
- Internet Explorer. Â Ricky doesn’t state why he thinks it sucks. I think it’s really good. It’s really fast, accurate rendering, smooth and simple to use UI. The only concern I have is the lack of flash but Symbian Opera owners or iPhone owners have not had an issue with this. update: Ricky says he dislikes IE jut because it’s IE and has hate carried over – so not actually it’s usability.
“ if you think Windows Phone is a DOA platform with no hope, you’ve obviously not used Mango, and let’s face it, you probably won’t. But you’re missing out. Just remember how lame iOS was on the first iPhone…..”
This isn’t a single isolated Nokia blogger who had gone to another platform and LIKES windows Phone. @DhruvBhutani at FoneArena who owns a Nokia N950 loves Mango too. Ed who used to have a Nokia Blog too, went the way of Android but is now extremely happy with his two Windows Phones, not to mention @MichaelXHell, one of the main Symbian-Freaks, he also went Android (and also on Fone Arena) though also stayed to play with some Nokias, is also enjoying the Windows Phone experience. Matthew Miller who left the Nokia Experts scene also has a windows phone as a main and fsvourite device.
Why is this important? Because essentially, Windows Phone Mango is NOT a bad product. If given the chance by Nokia users, you might be surprised by how much you may enjoy it. There are of course some die-hards that will not be satisfied, some because it simply isn’t Symbian, whilst for others due to their understandable requirements that WP currently does not do. For the majority of Nokia’s intended future consumers, Windows Phone brings them important features that function very well and that they’d be happy with. That’s what counts too, right?
Category: Nokia, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and  Facebook.com/mynokiablog. Check out the tips, guides and rules for commenting >>click<< Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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