Best Windows Phone 7 Mobile Phones

Windows Phone 7 is available on a range of phones manufactured by partner companies to Microsoft. Current Windows Phone 7 handset manufacturers are HTC, Dell, Samsung, LG and Nokia. Nokia were the last company to begin manufacturing smartphones employing the Windows Phone 7 OS. As a result of a highly publicised partnership with Microsoft, Nokia released their first WP phones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, in late 2011.

All phones running Windows Phone 7 feature large touchscreens as their main input method alongside 6 hardware function keys. Microsoft issue minimum hardware requirements to WP7 manufacturers, so all phones have internal components of sufficient quality to ensure a smooth user experience.

Windows Phone 7 phones feature downloadable third party applications through the Windows Phone Marketplace. There are currently over 30.000 apps available for users to download, including a mixture of both free and paid apps and games. The Windows Phone Marketplace also offers a trial service that allows users to try out the features of paid apps before purchasing.

Further downloadable applications are available through the Zune Marketplace, which features a number of apps and games developed by Microsoft. Windows Phone 7 handsets also come with a number of pre-installed Microsoft apps, including mobile versions of Microsoft Office applications.

Though Windows Phone 7 is the successor to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS, it is generally considered to be a new and separate operating system. Since its initial release in September 2010 WP7 has received one minor update and one major update, codenamed ´NoDo´ and ´Mango´, respectively.

The minor update, ‘NoDo’, implemented copy and paste functions and also included software tweaks to significantly reduce application loading times. The major update, ´Mango´, updated the OS from version 7.0 to 7.5 and was rolled out to Windows Phone 7 users internationally in autumn 2011. Notable additions and improvements in the 7.5 ´Mango´ update include the ability to multitask third party apps and games, improved social networking, battery saving features and an improved browsing experience, among many more new features.