[Russ Smith]

On the one hand, I tend to agree that WM is underpowered, but not from a processor perspective at all (unless, like bitbank points out, you're dealing with the TI OMAP). I've been using my hx4700 (with a cooked WM6.1 ROM) since I returned to WM after a two-year stint with handtops (OQO and Sony UX). I had no problems with responsivity. Now I've got an hp 210 and it's even a bit better.

The issue, in my mind, is software; both OS and applications. The OS has only incrementally improved over WM2003SE in what is now going on five years. I understand that WM8 looks pretty impressive, but that's two years away. WM still has some functionality "holes" that Microsoft not only hasn't fixed, but has not intention of fixing. (For example, they don't add printing capabilities because they don't want WM to compete with Windows.)

On the application side, some WM apps are phenominally good. Pocket Informant sets a standard that even handtops with full OSes don't match. PlanMaker and TextMaker, CoPilot, and Pocket Bible are very, very good too. If someone wants me to jump, they'll have to have at least the functionality of the WM apps and OS I'm using right now and then add something compelling.

On the other hand, there are some apps that haven't made any significant improvements in five years. If I wasn't somewhat happy with what I have I'd be looking elsewhere too.

iPhone? Not likely. The GUI is nice, true, but it lacks some basic functionalities that I'm way too used to (like cut-and-paste and external keyboards).

Linux? More likely by far. I'm actually hoping for a pretty good release of Mobile Ubuntu, but I'm still waiting.

In the interim, WM, underpowered as it is, is still my choice.

[Russ Smith]

On the one hand, I tend to agree that WM is underpowered, but not from a processor perspective at all (unless, like bitbank points out, you're dealing with the TI OMAP). I've been using my hx4700 (with a cooked WM6.1 ROM) since I returned to WM after a two-year stint with handtops (OQO and Sony UX). I had no problems with responsivity. Now I've got an hp 210 and it's even a bit better.

The issue, in my mind, is software; both OS and applications. The OS has only incrementally improved over WM2003SE in what is now going on five years. I understand that WM8 looks pretty impressive, but that's two years away. WM still has some functionality "holes" that Microsoft not only hasn't fixed, but has not intention of fixing. (For example, they don't add printing capabilities because they don't want WM to compete with Windows.)

On the application side, some WM apps are phenominally good. Pocket Informant sets a standard that even handtops with full OSes don't match. PlanMaker and TextMaker, CoPilot, and Pocket Bible are very, very good too. If someone wants me to jump, they'll have to have at least the functionality of the WM apps and OS I'm using right now and then add something compelling.

On the other hand, there are some apps that haven't made any significant improvements in five years. If I wasn't somewhat happy with what I have I'd be looking elsewhere too.

iPhone? Not likely. The GUI is nice, true, but it lacks some basic functionalities that I'm way too used to (like cut-and-paste and external keyboards).

Linux? More likely by far. I'm actually hoping for a pretty good release of Mobile Ubuntu, but I'm still waiting.

In the interim, WM, underpowered as it is, is still my choice.

[ScottC]

I don't think the phone itself is underpowered, but there are some applications that need a clearly need a rewrite.

If I browse the web using PIE, things are sluggish and rendering is slow. But the same web site with Opera loads fast and efficiently.

Pocket Outlook is terribly slow, especially switching to or from it.

Opening the phone dialer is a nightmare, some keypresses take 3 seconds to respond.

I'm sure that the core of the OS is nice and fast but they really need to look at some of the bottlenecks in the applications and fix them.

[eagle63]

The whole performance problem started a few years ago when the data model for WM was changed to persistent storage. (WM5) That coupled with the fact that clock speeds haven't changed gives you a double-whammy.

From a usability standpoint it was absolutely the right thing to do, but they just haven't been able to get the performance back up to pre-NVRAM standards. (and maybe it's unrealistic to think that they can without more CPU/GPU power)