I have been an early user of Windows Mobile (as it was called earlier) with BenQ P50 (disaster when it came to Battery life), HTC S710 (a versatile phone I liked and used for a long time), but over the years I have moved to Nokia 9300 and finally settling with iPhone for last few years. Though Windows Mobile had a lot of technical capabilities, they lacked on user experience and ease of use – it had a lot of Desktop Windows legacy carried forward unnecessarily.
From the time of early previews of Windows Phone, I was impressed with the new User Interface of Tiles and Microsoft focus on standardizing and simplifying things. I was not ready to switch yet from my iPhone but still wanted to check out WP7. At my firm, Vishwak Solutions we are developing a WP7 News App that presents data from any Media Portal powered by VPF. Though the emulator is very capable, we needed a WP7 physical device to check the touch and flow experience. I wanted a basic WP7 device, so I ruled out Samsung Omnia 7 and HTC HD7 – both of which I rate as high-end/costly devices. This narrowed the list to HTC Mozart 7 and LG Optimus7. WP7 is not yet launched in India, so I was planning to buy either one of them when I visited Singapore last week. But before the trip, I saw in one of the tweets that you now get HTC Mozart in National Market, Bangalore. I checked out for the same in EBAY India and ordered it from a seller from Indore for Rs.29,190 (incl. of shipping). I had my fingers crossed expecting more of a brick delivered to me but was feeling a little safe with PaisaPay guarantee the site offered.
Disclosure: I write reviews about products that I have bought for my usage and paid in full. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post.
Within two days I got the phone delivered. It was a brand new HTC Mozart 7 device from T-Mobile Germany – it was obvious the box was opened but was new nevertheless. I didn’t want to risk having any rootkits, so immediately I factory-reset the device. It came back to live in the German language, I selected a few screens clicking on the word that didn’t start with N aiming to get “YES” correctly selected. Then English UI appeared, everything worked fine. I assume the importer had opened the box to do precisely this. The device feels quite sturdy and well build. Microsoft has a good chance with WP7 if they are able to quickly release more features, get momentum on Apps development and gain overall market traction.
When I checked for the same device during my trip to Singapore last week, I was hearing prices of SG$800-850, which makes it Rs.30,000 plus taxes. I think I have got a good deal once in my life!
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@Vinod, I got it from a Reseller called "e-next2" from Indore.
Hi Venkat,
Am planning to get the Samsung Omnia 7. Checked on eBay India and found that the US Seller->Indian Reseller->Me route will cost me approx. Rs. 36K incl. shipping and customs – which is not too bad.
Wanted to know which reseller did you get it from? And did you avail of the Easy EMI option as well?
@Karthik, it depends on what you want to do. If you want a proven phone with better battery life, lots of apps and want to play it safe I will recommend iPhone4. You can’t go wrong with it.
If you want to be experimental, enjoy the new UI then go for WP7 – it feels a lot v1.0 product yet, but I am sure Microsoft will be working on improving it and apps selection are limited. If you go with WP7, choose a good device – HTC Mozart does feel good, but battery life might be an issue. I have heard Samsung Omnia 7 is good amongst the WP7 device.
On Windows Phone 7 Vs Iphone 4.0, what do you vote for? I am seriously contemplating to upgrade my HTC TyTn II (Win Mobile 6.1)