Windows Phone 7 hands-on video round-up

Now that the initial post-announcement hubbub is over, hands-on videos of Windows Phone 7 are starting to appear. No handset manufacturer has Windows Phone 7 smartphones on show at MWC in an official capacity, but Microsoft does have the operating system running on a few generic devices and that’s what various tech sites seem to be playing with.

First up, however, is a video of Albert Shum, Director of Mobile Experience Design at Microsoft. Although its still based on Windows CE, Microsoft has completely reinvented the user interface for Windows Phone 7 and Shum talks about some of the design ideas that went into its development:

The first live demo video comes from SlashGear and although the audio quality is pretty poor, this six-minute clip does give a very clear view of Windows Phone 7 in action on an ASUS-manufactured device. The user experience isn’t quite as slick as it should be, but as the Microsoft rep explains, this is beta code — Windows Phone 7 doesn’t ship until the end of this year:

PhoneScoop’s video shows the same ASUS prototype in action and covers much the same ground — and is just as inaudible…

WMExperts.com snagged a clearer view of the same MS rep and the same ASUS smartphone, but the audio on this four-minute clip is much clearer and it’s much easier to get a handle on what Windows Phone 7’s ‘hubs’ and ‘live tiles’ are about as a result.

Finally, here’s a professionally produced video from MSDN’s channel9 in which Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone Program Management, gives a very detailed tour of some of the new features in Windows Phone 7. He also shows a couple of new on-screen keyboards that seem to address a long-standing complaint about Windows Mobile’s input options:

As interesting as the new user interface is, Microsoft has so far been quiet on the rest of Windows Phone 7 — specifically, software. Parts of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace have been on show, but there’s no word on whether or not this will be the only source of software, or how apps will fit into the hubs and live tile ideas.

There are also some reports about Windows Phone 7 not being backwardly compatible with Windows Mobile. Microsoft has yet to make an official statement to this effect, but wiping the slate clean makes a certain amount of sense if it is looking to enforce the new UI and create a mobile operating system to compete with the likes of Android and iPhone OS. We’ll no doubt know more over coming weeks, but in the meantime, if you were thinking of buying a Windows Mobile smartphone, the best advice is to wait…