Ask any smartphone enthusiast the major difference between iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 and the generic reply is that WP7 doesn’t come up to par with industry benchmarks, nor does it bring anything new to the table. However, Microsoft has just released Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) which apparently has at least 500 new features, though over 90% of them won’t do too much to the normal user experience, according to experts. However, the rest of them make all the difference between the previous versions and are probably what will probably attract new users too.
One of the most noticeable improvements is the direct inclusion of social networking, multitasking and some sought after modifications to email and Exchange support. This is coupled with voice recognizing capability for dictation. On a broad perspective, it features everything that people who have used Android or iOS would have wanted.
Amongst the many changes, Microsoft has decided to retain some part of the older version such as hardware restrictions. Unlike the Android OS which can run with any processor, Microsoft restricts the WP7.5 to a few variants from Qualcomm. However, the phones will be having Direct 3D Support and a minimum of 4GB of flash memory and a 800×480 WVGA screen. Mango still doesn’t support dual core processors and it is unclear how long it will take Microsoft to release this very necessary compatibility.
In addition to the hardware compatibility, Microsoft has decided to go with the current user interface aesthetics, retaining the Metro UI as it was before. The overall layout of the tiles is the same but they feature more content and applications can have live tiles that update automatically.
The major improvement comes in the email division where a unified inbox has been included. This might not seem much but it was a major drawback of the previous version. Unlike other operating systems which forcibly link all email accounts, Mango lets the user choose which of the mailboxes should be synced. Moreover, conversations are now in the thread format, which again was absent in the previous version. The messaging service now consolidates, SMS, MMS, facebook chats and the like as per the social network integration feature.
The calendar bears a new look too and Mango features Groups, which lets users organize contacts as needed. The calendar however still cannot synchronize with various scheduling apps including the popular ones from Google. The update also comes with a number of smaller changes such as customizable ringtones, details of which are available on the Microsoft website.
