Microsoft Windows Phone 7 devices launched

Finally Microsoft has launched its new Windows Phone 7 platform with a barrage of devices. At launch there are at least 10 WP7 devices with 5 coming from HTC alone. Other manufacturers jumping on board the WP7 wagon include Dell, LG and Samsung.

Windows Phone 7 will make its way to more than 30 countries and over 60 carriers worldwide. In the US, AT&T and T-Mobile will start offering the devices while other CDMA players such as Verizon and Sprint will be offering them early next year. European and Asian carriers will start having them by October 21st followed by US on November 8th.

The hardware themselves look very similar as most if not all of them are running on Qualcomm 1GHz processor with 800×480 AMOLED screen. With a glance of a spec sheet, you would probably mistaken it for an Android device if you missed the operating system part.

HTC

Over at HTC’s end, they have the 7 Mozart, 7 Surround, 7 Pro, 7 Trophy and HD7. First impressions, they all look like variants of the HTC Desire. The only exception is the HTC 7 Surround that comes with a slide out Dolby Surround Speaker and a Sprint designated CDMA based HTC 7 Pro that comes with a full QWERTY slider keyboard. The HTC HD7 however is like the Windows equivalent to HTC Desire HD with its 4.3″ display. Meanwhile the HTC Trophy and HTC 7 Mozart looked like Desire siblings but with 3.8″ and 3.7″ respectively.

Dell Venue Pro

Dell offers a single device called the Venue Pro or previously known as the Dell Lightning. It comes equipped with a 4.1″ AMOLED screen and a QWERTY slider. Now Windows Phone 7 too has a “BlackBerry Torch”-like form factor.

LG

From LG’s stable, we have the LG Optimus 7 and Quantum/Optimus 7Q. The Optimus 7 is a candybar device that spots a 3.8″ LCD display while the Quantum offers a landscape QWERTY keyboard with a smaller 3.5″ WVGA display. The Quantum is marketed as the Optimus 7Q outside the US.

Samsung

The Korean maker offers the Samsung Focus and Samsung Omnia 7. The Focus has a Galaxy S variant styled body and it is slimmest Windows Phone 7 at 9.9mm. As expected, it comes with AMOLED at 4″. If you want something that doesn’t look like a Android device, there’s a Omnia 7 with a more sharper looking body.

If the number of devices are too confusing, Engadget as a handset sheet of the Windows Phone 7 devices announced. This would make it easier to read in a single page. They even included the list of telcos worldwide that are bundling the devices as well. Check out the comparison sheet here. For further reading, we recommend checking out Engadget’s WP7 Launch guide that comes with short hands-on experience.

So there you have it, a massive number of device and we wonder how many of them will make it in Malaysia. Overall, the devices themselves isn’t that groundbreaking as they looked like mere hardware sharing with its Android counterparts. Therefore the determining factor now lies heavily on the OS itself. We will reserve our opinions on the OS until we have our own hands-on experience. Let’s hope Microsoft really turn things around after its Windows Mobile days.

The Windows Phone 7 Malaysia launch is happening tomorrow and we hope to report more updates by then. Stay tuned!

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