Windows Phone 7 Series -- Yes, it can make a phone call!

[Eriq Cook]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/17/yes-windows-phone-7-series-can-make-a-phone-call/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/17/...e-a-phone-call/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Sure, we've been pushing Microsoft hard for Windows Phone 7 Series details like copy and paste (no) and multitasking (no), but we just realized that we've never actually seen a 7 Series device... make a phone call. A little running around later and we've got two demo handsets calling each other..."</em></p><p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/17/yes-windows-phone-7-series-can-make-a-phone-call/" target="_blank"><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1268886785.usr72.jpg" style="border: #d2d2bb 1px solid;" /></a></p><p>With all of the recent <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/17/yes-windows-phone-7-series-can-make-a-phone-call/" target="_blank">video</a>&nbsp;coverage of WP7, no video has shown a WP7 device make an actual phone call. Engadget recently posted a short video of two WP7 devices making a call between each other (and please don't call the number shown out of respect) that demos how the phone experience will work overall.</p><p>One glaring issue to me is how easy it'll be to respond to a call by applying accidental pressure to the Answer or Ignore buttons with incoming calls. HTC solved this problem in their most recent TouchFLO 3D interface by requiring users to slide a graphic control knob left or right to answer or ignore a call. I LOVE this feature in my Touch Pro2, and Microsoft should&nbsp;learn a thing or two from HTC when it comes to specific features like this, since "butt dialing" has been an epidemic problem with&nbsp;touch-screen smartphones for a while now.</p><p>While it's difficult to know WP7's phone features in detail at the moment, what are you thoughts and/or questions about the phone interface so far?&nbsp; Personally, I'll miss having dedicated physical answer/end buttons (it's great when your fingers "know" exactly where specific functions are) and I wonder if voice-dialing (VoiceCommand) will make it in WP7...</p>

[alese]

That's nice, at least they left that feature in...

But seriously, what I would like to see is how you use dial pad and I really really hope they left the "smart dialing" from WM in, so that I can access the contacts simply by "dialing" few letters.

[Eriq Cook]

...what I would like to see is how you use dial pad and I really really hope they left the "smart dialing" from WM in, so that I can access the contacts simply by "dialing" few letters.

That's a good question. "Smart dialing" is another subtle but very useful feature I appreciate in WM6.x. It's nice to just start dialing a name with the number pad or full QWERTY keyboard and the phone app automatically launches--and dials lol

I'm a little concerned about the WP7 dialer based on some photos (http://blog.techteamup.com/2010/02/wp7-series-dialer-simple-yet-attractive/) I've seen and hoping that there's a "more options" menu option. The dialer on my TP2 includes "Send text message", "Paste" (I think we know the answer for that right now), "Save to Notes" and "View" options.

The pics that I've seen for WP7 so far only include "Call" and "Save" on-screen buttons....

http://blog.techteamup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wm7dial.jpg

And with the 3 mandated physical buttons for Back, Home and Search, it appears that those options will be lost.

[doogald]

One glaring issue to me is how easy it'll be to respond to a call by applying accidental pressure to the Answer or Ignore buttons with incoming calls. HTC solved this problem in their most recent TouchFLO 3D interface by requiring users to slide a graphic control knob left or right to answer or ignore a call. I LOVE this feature in my Touch Pro2, and Microsoft should&nbsp;learn a thing or two from HTC when it comes to specific features like this, since "butt dialing" has been an epidemic problem with&nbsp;touch-screen smartphones for a while now.

They have this feature in Sense UI in my HTC Eris Android phone, and half the time it doesn't respond to the slide, so I end up having to hit the hardware button to answer the call anyway. I'd prefer a simple on-screen tap location to answer the call myself. (At least give me a setting to decide which way I want it to work on incoming calls - slide to answer or onscreen controls to answer or ignore a call.)

Of course, this may be that pesky background multitasking that's delaying the reaction to the slide. With no third party app multitasking, and a 1 GHz CPU, 7 may be better able to handle that.

[efjay]

Wasnt slide to answer first done on the iphone? Not really a good idea to copy that as well (ask HTC) but MS has copied almost everything else from the iphone so I guess this would be fair game to them as well.

And I can almost guarantee smart dialling wont be in there since iWP7S is a "mass market" phone and that feature is probably something those users either dont need or is too complex for them to understand.

[bigray327]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Eriq Cook]

They have this feature in Sense UI in my HTC Eris Android phone, and half the time it doesn't respond to the slide, so I end up having to hit the hardware button to answer the call anyway. I'd prefer a simple on-screen tap location to answer the call myself. (At least give me a setting to decide which way I want it to work on incoming calls - slide to answer or onscreen controls to answer or ignore a call.)

Of course, this may be that pesky background multitasking that's delaying the reaction to the slide. With no third party app multitasking, and a 1 GHz CPU, 7 may be better able to handle that.

Hmm, I've never experienced that issue and use the phone frequently. Must be an android issue :D I think with a 1GHz CPU and no "full" multitasking in background as WP7 does, it would work well.

I agree than an answer option (slider or basic button) is a great idea, but that would be too much control for a user have according to Microsoft ;)

[alese]

...
And I can almost guarantee smart dialling wont be in there since iWP7S is a "mass market" phone and that feature is probably something those users either dont need or is too complex for them to understand.

If that is/would actually be true, then this would trully be it. After a decade of Pocket PC/ Windows Mobile devices, I'm going to Android if they omit smart dialing.