An honest-unbiased review of RTM Mango (Samsung Focus)

[ryude]

Let's be honest here, Mango has been hyped for a long time now. It's natural for everyone to believe that Mango will instantly turn this OS into an iOS or Android competitor. I have recently installed the leaked 7720 RTM Mango on my Samsung Focus and I will try my best to give an un-biased look at where it shines and where it falters.

Pros
+ Everything is smoother, animations happen quicker, and there is far less waiting on the whole
+ Hubs has been improved and this in my opinion is the best part of Mango
+ IE9 is faster, supports HTML5, and addresses some problems from the previous iteration
+ Live Tiles now work without flaw and you can even pin specific parts of an app to the home screen
+ Battery life has improved and when Battery Saver is turned on I get about 2 more hours of battery life
+ Custom Ringtones!
+ Bing Vision, Music, Local Scout, and Search all work great
+ Multi-tasking support
+ and many more features, improvements, and tweaks...

Cons
- IE9 seems more convoluted, takes more steps to open tabs, you no longer have find in page, and the address bar at the bottom in landscape actually seems worse than without
- Multi-tasking isn't natural, it keeps more tasks in the queue than what you actually put into it, and currently resuming apps is not instant (will be fixed when Mango apps are released)
- Custom ringtones require you to use Zune instead of being able to create them directly on the phone itself
- Notifications are still subpar to iOS and Android
- Marketplace still lacks high quality apps and games, I suspect this will get better once Mango is officially released

Most of the cons are nitpicking, but I have to be honest they are in my opinion cons.

I can't even list all the of pros, they are everywhere. Mango is almost every bit as good as what we've been waiting for. In short, I like to think of Mango as an evolution of the OS, not a revolution. It stays simple, smooth, and fun. I give this update an 8/10.

 

[foosball]

All good points. Now I would think MS should hear this feedback as well:

http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2011/01/11/providing-feedback-to-microsoft-about-windows-phone/

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

 

[bear_lx]

lacks quality apps? really? i dissagree completely.... android lacks quality apps flooded with crap... the xbox live games are far superior to its competitors games in both grapics and gameplay... especially considering it is so fresh...

agree with most everything else

 

[scottcraft]

Is there any difference in notifications between no-do and mango? I don't think WP7 notifications are that good, but I do prefer them over the way the iphone currently does it. Can't stand the pop-ups.

 

[HeyCori]

Nice pros/cons. I was also worried about having the address bar at the bottom.

 

[ryude]

lacks quality apps? really? i dissagree completely.... android lacks quality apps flooded with crap... the xbox live games are far superior to its competitors games in both grapics and gameplay... especially considering it is so fresh...

agree with most everything else

I'm just stating my personal opinion, I hope no one took it as otherwise. I do think there are some high quality games and apps, but far far less than iOS (and yes Android to a point).

 

[ryude]

Is there any difference in notifications between no-do and mango? I don't think WP7 notifications are that good, but I do prefer them over the way the iphone currently does it. Can't stand the pop-ups.

Live tiles are updating reliably now and they flip to reveal more information, but other than that nothing is different.

 

[scottcraft]

Live tiles are updating reliably now and they flip to reveal more information, but other than that nothing is different.

Thanks.

 

[thed]

- Multi-tasking isn't natural, it keeps more tasks in the queue than what you actually put into it, and currently resuming apps is not instant (will be fixed when Mango apps are released)

If you're talking about the app switcher, that has nothing to do with multitasking. Apps in the switcher aren't actually running. The way to control what is allowed to multitask is through the background tasks menu under settings.

- Custom ringtones require you to use Zune instead of being able to create them directly on the phone itself

The API now allows apps to create ringtones, so don't worry, we'll see plenty of apps that take care of this.

I agree on your other points.

 

[ryude]

If you're talking about the app switcher, that has nothing to do with multitasking. Apps in the switcher aren't actually running. The way to control what is allowed to multitask is through the background tasks menu under settings.

The API now allows apps to create ringtones, so don't worry, we'll see plenty of apps that take care of this.

I agree on your other points.

Thanks for the clarification, the task switcher is still a pain to use though.

I'm glad that ringtones will be easier to make and use since i have no desire to use Zune for making ringtones.

 

[Dark Mirage]

It really improved the battery life eh? It was that noticeable?

 

[ryude]

When battery saver is turned on, yes you can definitely tell the difference. With it turned off it's about the same as NoDo.

 

[wellsmanfu]

I don't think you have to use Zune to create your ringtones. I have all my old ringtones that i made for my android and palm pre installed on my Arrive. I just had to use Zune to put them on the phone. Took just a couple of minutes. I already had them sized properly and the length is 30 seconds max. I made a several of them a couple of years ago. I'm just hoping we can do custom alerts with Mango when it is officially launched (I'm running 7720 now).

 

[TheWeeBear]

I'm just hoping we can do custom alerts with Mango when it is officially launched (I'm running 7720 now).

I don't think the officially launched Mango will have any different functionality that what we have now with our 7720 wellsmanfu.

It will only have added carrier variations i would think.

While custom alerts may be a nice addition to those that want them, it's not a necessity. (IMO)
Users do seem to wan't to personalise ring tones which is fair enough I guess, as most phones on the planet can achieve this. Which we have now with Mango.

I'm sure Microsoft will be listening to us all, and add this, add that, tinker with this etc but remember the fantastic OS we have now is only 10 months old.

We have come a long way in such a little time. Didn't it take Apple around 2 years to add copy and paste ?

Things will only get better if we are prepared to wait and carry on with the WP7 journey we have embarked on. (Oh i sound a bit arty farty there lol)

I can't wait to purchase the ticket for my next part of the journey, so far it's the best mobile OS i've had, (it really is) and being 51, i've sampled a few over the years.

OK enough ranting i've stopped now. (My Omnia 7 needed a stroke, there there i'm here)

 

[wellsmanfu]

I agree that custom alerts are not necessary, but that and visual voicemail are the only things that i miss from android. I'm pretty sure Sprint will get visual voicemail working when they release their mango build with their tweaks. And I can wait for custom alerts.

WP7 is definitely the best OS I've used and I've used them all except the iphone (I was a tech at sprint for about 6 years).

Hands down the smoothest OS I've used and it has come a really long with in a short time. Too bad most people don't see if that way. They see iphone and android and want their app stores now. When I show people what my Arrive has integrated into the OS with mango they get excited, until they see that their favorite game (usually words with friends or one of the expansions of angry birds) then they think it's crap and go look at the Evo because of a couple of games. Makes you want to throw something.


Sorry, didn't mean to rant, it's over now.

 

[TheWeeBear]

Yeah its a bit stupid when some users look to see if a game or app is available on a platform and decide on that, rather than how the OS actually performs, but they do.

Everyone i've shown my phone to absolutely is blown away by it.

Unfortunately there are still loads around that think WP7 is just an updated Windows Moble platform, which as you know, could not be further from the truth.

It does get very frustrating at times, I agree.