LG Optimus 7 Windows Phone Review

Don’t forget my Optimus Quest, where you can win an LG Optimums 7.

For the last few days I’ve been using an LG Optimus 7 Windows phone. I really like it. Actually, I like all the Windows phone models. They all run the same operating system and so their look and feel is going to be the same. They also have to hit the same platform specification which means that display, camera, performance and battery life are going to be good.

However is interesting how different phone manufacturers have taken the platform and worked at making it their own. LG have done quite a few things to make their phone special. They also seem to have had some luck getting access to parts of the hardware that other phones can’t reach.

The phone itself is pleasingly weighty and is rounded to fit the hand very well. The back has a brushed metal finish that pulls off the trick of being shiny but not showing any nasty fingerprints. The screen is bright and clear and very responsive. Unlike other Windows Phone devices it actually has physical buttons along the front which add a nice tactile feel to using it. Inside the phone you can find 16G of memory, which is useful if you have a Zune pass and want to store a bunch of music on the device. From a hardware point of view the design is nicely understated and classy.

Each Windows Phone manufacturer has their own application store and this is where the LG phone starts to pull away from the crowd a bit.  For a start there are more than a handful of programs in there and a few of them are actually useful and fun. The Panorama shot makes a reasonable job of controlling the camera, letting you stitch together up to 5 pictures to make a panorama. The Voice to text application takes what you say and puts it into a Tweet, Note or email. And it works too. The Scan Search application is very interesting in that it is the only program I’ve ever seen on Windows Phone that actually uses the compass and a video overlay from the camera to provide an augmented reality display that points you at nearby points of interest. 

If you are in the market for a Windows Phone I’d start with a look at this one.

Got your Zune Pass Yet?

If you’ve got a Windows Phone and you haven’t checked out the Zune pass yet then you are missing out. Zune pass is an “all you can eat” deal which lets you download and store loads of music onto mobile devices and PCs. You pay a monthly fee to keep the music going and you can have as much of it with you as you can fit onto your Windows Phone or Zune. You can chop and change your tunes as much as you like and keep a different range of sounds on each platform. Of course the bad news is that if you stop paying, it stops playing but I think that for around nine quid a month it is actually a pretty good deal.

I really like the way that you can hear a tune you like and then have the whole album on your phone a few minutes later. Windows Phone even has the amazing Shazam application (one of the few programs that I reckon is actually powered by magic) that will put a name to tunes that you play to it, to make the process easier. I’ve been happily downloading content and listening to it. Current favourites is “Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter Plays the Hits”. Country music (and other stuff) done real well.

Rob Miles XNA 3.0 eBook at Half Price

On Friday 10th December (although I think it might extend over the weekend too) you can get a copy of my XNA programming book as an eBook for half price. Use the discount code DDXNA at the O’Reilly book web page.

This brings the price of the book down to not much more than a couple of Big Mac meals. Well worth it (and a lot less fattening).

Win an LG Optimus 7 Windows Phone

Coming to your pocket soon?

Thanks go to Sheryl for sending me an LG Optimus 7 phone to take a look at. She has also sent one for me to give away, so I proudly announce the “Optimus Quest” competition.

Send me your ideas for Windows Phone Marketplace programs and I’ll give the phone as a prize to the best idea. You can find full details in the Rob Miles Optimus Quest Competition pages.

I’m going to be using an Optimus 7 (not the prize one – that is staying in the box all shiny and new) for the next few days and I’ll let you know what I think of it. First impressions – very nice indeed.

Final Battleships Tutorial Podcasts Available

I managed to find a quiet time at work today to record the last two podcasts for the 08101 Battleships tutorial. You can find all the tutorials here:

• Session 1: Getting Started
• Session 2: Handling player Moves
• Session 3: Making Computer Moves
• Session 4: Creating the Game Behaviour

These are tutorials to support programming coursework set for our First Year programming course. The students have been asked to produce a C# program that will take the part of one player in the game of Battleships.