Hardware

You might have noticed that the releases of the Windows Phones last year basically had the similar specs for their hardware, and most of these phones do not have significant customization. Microsoft holds a strong grip on which hardware their OS will run on. With the release of the Mango, Microsoft still has a good list of components needed for the phone that will run their OS.

The Windows 7.5 devices will be making use of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, hardware for DirectX graphics capable of Diect 3D, a minimum requirement of 384 MB of RAM, minimum of 4 GB flash memory, WVGA display, micro USB 2.0, WiFi, BlueTooth, FM Radio, and four sensors or more.

The camera of the Windows Phone will also be more customizable with Mango. One good feature will be the ability to save the settings for the camera and video captures. This might solve the frustration reported by users as the earlier Windows Phone reset the settings to the original configuration when you exit the camera app.

User interface

If everyone was complaining about the inability to multitask with the Windows 7. The new 7.5 version tries to fix this. It is not true multitasking yet since the apps in the background are suspended but the mobile OS has a way t deal with it. We heard though that the apps will be updated to allow multitasking. Users can switch from one app to another using the Back key.

The email client gets improved too with the messages being threaded instead of individual email treatment. The Mango also comes with Twitter integration, SkyDrive, Internet Explorer 9, and Bing Search.

Verdict

The new 7.5 version Windows Phone seems to be heading in the right direction and will most likely help Microsoft catch up with the current market leaders.

Granted, for most people, they will not be concerned about what proved to be the most popular phone of 2010, but frankly, this is Cell Phones & Smartphones, and we are interested in such things. That’s kind of our job, you know?

For all intents and purposes and by all available accounts, the winner of that title is none other than the iPhone.

But is that true? I do not have an iPhone, and my life is not in some way lacking because of it. I am inclined to like it better than the Android, but that is only because my half wit brother in law and his pseudo clever hag of a fiance insist it is better than the iPhone, which they have never in life used.

So you, the public: what do you guys think?