Windows Phone Mango hands-on

 It was eight months ago that Microsoft launched its revamped mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. Overall, the platform was well-received both by users and the tech press, as they lauded the fresh, bold, and easy-to-use interface; thoughtful integration of features; and improved performance. However, it also had its fair share of shortcomings and pitfalls. 

This fall, Microsoft will release its first major update for Windows Phone, bringing more than 500 new features to the OS. Known up till now as Mango, the update will formally go by the name of Windows Phone 7.5; it focuses on improving three key areas: communications, apps, and Internet. 

We got a brief look at some of the enhancements during a preview event in late May, but recently, Microsoft gave us a chance to dive deeper into Mango with a technical preview of the OS. Since the software wasn't final, we weren't able to test out everything, but below you'll find our hands-on impressions of some of the more major features you can expect from Windows Phone 7.5.

Contacts
When developing Windows Phone 7.5, one of Microsoft's main goals was to deliver an experience that was "smarter and easier." In the area of communications, this meant offering a simpler way to connect with contacts and share information, and part of the solution was to add support for group contacts and dynamic live tiles.

Messaging
Windows Phone 7.5 addresses a couple of issues we had with the platform's handling of e-mail and messaging in the original release. The first is the addition of conversation view. E-mail threads are now grouped together, so you no longer have to scroll through every single message trying to find a response. Each thread is clearly marked and shows the number of messages in the thread and the number of unread messages. Expanding and collapsing the conversation is done with single touch--very simple, very clean.

Apps
Microsoft's 18,000 apps can't possibly compete against much larger markets like Android's 200,000 titles and Apple's reportedly 500,000 apps. Instead, Microsoft wants to better integrate your apps into other areas of the phone.

Music + Video
One of the things we love most about Windows Phone is the Zune integration, and it only gets better with Mango. There's a new feature called Smart DJ that creates a playlist similar to the artist, song, or album you're currently listening to using the content available on your phone.

 

Voice-to-text
The first thing we noticed about the enhanced voice-to-text app is that the voice software, powered by Microsoft's TellMe division, sounds slightly less robotic when it confirms our voice prompts to open apps and launch Web searches. Although Microsoft is pushing these features to reviewers, this variety of prompts already existed.

 

Multitasking

Like the other mobile platforms, Windows Phone 7 runs multiple system programs simultaneously, but it won't be until Mango that you'll be able to seamlessly switch among open programs. To switch, just press and hold on the Back (arrow) touch-sensitive button beneath the screen. The program you're in will shrink to a thumbnail size, and you'll be able to swipe left and right to see thumbnails of other open programs. You can open any other by tapping it; Mango will keep your place so you won't have to reload every time you leave and return to the app.

Internet Explorer 9
The differences in Internet Explorer are more subtle than those found in other new and enhanced Mango features. Microsoft tinkered the interface a tad, moving the address bar to the bottom of the screen, for example, and hiding certain icons to increase page real estate.

Office Hub
Microsoft teased some of the new business features of Mango early on, and there is quite a bit of added functionality in the Office hub. This includes the ability to share and store documents through Office 365 and Windows Live SkyDrive cloud services and a new locations pane to access documents from various locations (SkyDrive, Office 365, SharePoint, and so forth). At launch, Microsoft will also make available a Lync app in the Windows Marketplace that allows for meetings and instant messaging capabilities across companies.

 

Final thoughts
Windows Phone 7.5 Mango is a work in progress, and that's not to Microsoft's detriment (yet) since this is a preview and not the final release. The features aren't necessarily new, but Microsoft's approach embraces the company's idea of the smartphone as more than just an app launcher, and instead as a device that fluidly takes a task, a game, or any other experience from start to finish. From our vantage point, both the incremental and more ambitious changes are fairly successful at doing this. However, some of Mango's features are so zealous that the gaps and inconsistencies tend to seem glaring. Never mind that similar features and services on other mobile platforms usually perform about the same, with mirrored mistakes, but with Microsoft trailing Android and iPhone, critical eyes are especially sharp.