It was a bit like Christmas in November here in the office yesterday with the release of Windows Phone 7 to the geeks. Nearly everyone in Public Sector chose the HTC-HD7 – their reasons are their own, but for me I like and trust HTC and now have 3 models, the latest is the HD7.

At first glance it does not look much different to the HD2 from HTC – same general shape, same general weight. But start pealing back the covers (metaphorically speaking) and things really start going WOW and BANG and all those other exclamation marks. We have all seen the interface and some of us had played with the prototypes that had been floating around at industry events and the like – but until you hold it in your hand and play with the WP7 interface you do not have a clear idea of just how different it is to anything you have used in the past.

To start with, it is different to an iPhone in one simple way – it feels more functional to use. Now this will immediately get the backs of hard core iPhone-iacs up, noses out of joint and other contortions – but the simple fact in this is that this is my personal view, no matter how inappropriate it is to theirs’. So get this – I like it – get over it!

One of the key features I am liking is the way in which data is converged into single points yet separable on choice or action. Getting to a point of action – such as email or messages is fast and intuitive. Ok so you can do all this with an iPhone or Android but having used both I do find the WP7interface much faster. Take the “Me” tab for instance – it consolidates all data from multiple sources into one point related to you – right now I have my Facebook, windows live and outlook information accessible within one touch of the “central” tabs. If I go into pictures, the same thing again – images from Facebook, Windows Live and my local phone images are all there. Next up is the slick interface – this definitely is along the same lines of iPhone and android – but here again there are little Tweaks such as the font scrolling and responsiveness which really make it smooth and engaging. Personally I think it is better than that of either other one – but this bit is *really* subjective.

Ultimately the biggest thing for me is that HTC have put a lot of effort into reducing action lag across the phone so the gesture actions are fast and responsive to the user.  Yes, iPhone and Android did not have the lag either and Microsoft had to wait till WP7 to get rid of it – but seriously – while both the others look like they are way ahead they really aren’t any more – Windows Phone 7, I think, is resetting the bar…I just want to see how health takes it up…

Last night was the big test – I turned it over to my 6, 4 and 2 year old geeks-in-the-making to see if they can get into it as fast as they did the iPhone. The time to beat is 2 minutes for the iPod to get to the games. On my new WP7 phone it was 2 minutes to download games for the 6 and 4 year old and about 1 minute for the 2 year old to say “MINE” and not want to give it back…not a scientific endorsement, I agree, and they did have the iPhone experience – but still, guess what they want for Christmas now (not that they’ll be getting one).

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

My next big thing is to get an application published on Marketplace…