theMolisticView

As I said in my last post I bought a new HTC Mozart 7 Windows Phone 7 from Telstra. Quite a mouth full of a phone name definitely not as easy to say as Nokia, iPhone 4 or Android. After the usual muck around by Telstra’s courier service I had the phone on Thursday night.

HTC Mozart 7 Windows Phone 7 in the box

HTC Mozart 7 Windows Phone 7 un boxing part 1

HTC Mozart 7 Windows Phone 7 un boxing part 2

HTC Mozart 7 Windows Phone 7 un boxing part 3 - the back of the phone

HTC 7 Mozart Windows Phone 7 The back off the phone, battery out to add the SIM card

So having un boxed the phone and read the instructions it was time to fire it into life. With the phone connected to its power supply I started.

The get started screen of Windows Phone 7

From the initial start screen (as seen above) you are prompted to enter the SIM PIN to unlock the phone to progress. The next step is to add your Windows Live ID, this is how your people’s Hub works (more on People and Hub’s later). At this point the phone does not have wifi access only 3G, for me living where I am in Kurrajong that is an issue as 3G connectivity is a hit and miss affair at best, no matter who the carrier is. So for me the login to Windows live was unsuccessful. Not a problem though the phone moves on and starts up with its Windows Phone screen then quickly on to the “Tile” interface.

Live tile interface on Windows Phone 7

From here you can use the settings and set up your wifi before adding your Windows Live ID. What happens once you have added your Windows Live ID is that all your contacts on Windows live are associated with the phone and are downloaded from the cloud, this includes phone numbers, email address’s. Also any linked accounts that are supported by Windows Live are added to. So for instance if you have Facebook, a summary of information is added to the People Live Tile which on touching takes you to the People interface where you can see their’s and your lastest updates and all your contacts in the one place. If you have an Xbox live account associated with the Windows Live ID you simply add that via the Xbox live tile and all your Xbox information is added as well.

Windows Phone 7 tile interface

Xbox live on Windows Phone 7

Xbox live games collection and store

So already you can see how this Windows Phone 7 differs from the competition in the smart phone market. Speaking of the market, Windows Phone 7 market place and syncing is whole different experience to the competitors as well.

I’ll start with syncing the phone first. Before you connect the phone to a PC via USB you need to download the ZUNE software first and set up your Windows Live ID. The Zune player is a Silverlight based application from Windows which is similar in effect to iTunes. However in Australia you cannot buy music from the store, you can only rent movies.

Zune software with phone connected

However Zune has a Phone market place where you can purchase applications for the phone. This is where any similarity to any other market place finishes. Windows Phone is unique in that the applications that you add to the phone are stored with your Windows Live ID in the cloud not on your PC’s hard drive.

Windows Phone market place on Zune

So say you purchased applications for your phone from the Zune market place, they will only be updated or downloaded to your phone when connected to your PC with the Zune software open via either USB cable or wifi (you set the software so that if Zune is open and you are on a wifi connection to sync the phone that way).

Phone applications bought using the market place or Xbox Live application on the phone are only updated or downloaded via wifi or 3G (you can choose how). What this means is that when you upgrade your phone to the next model it will automatically populate your applications once you have signed in using your Windows Live ID. This is very similar to the way that Android works.

The only syncing that has anything really to do with your PC or Mac is your media libraries. On a Windows PC you can do this using the Zune software again either via USB cable  or wifi. Simply drag the media content you want to add to your phone to the image of your phone in Zune and it will sync automaticallly.

Windows Phone 7 connector for Mac however is different as you would expect.

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac

The Mac software only allows you add media content via USB. The content which you can add has to be DRM free, so many of your iTunes purchased Tv shows or movies wont be able to be synced. it is nice though for Microsoft to add support for Mac users.

So that’s the initial look at Windows Phone 7 on a HTC Mozart 7. From here I will be looking at what applications there are and how the phone works. So far I am happy with the phone knowing it doesn’t have cut and paste (which I have never used on any other device and I actually find quite annoying), and I don’t miss either of my other phones multitasking.