Windows 10 for Smartphones Preview Rolls Out


Windows10SmartphoneA technical review of Windows 10 for the smaller screen is here. Announced Thursday, many Windows phone lovers have been waiting for this. The version, although expected to have a bunch of unfinished elements, will include Action Center upgrades, voice dictation support, improved apps, and more.

Windows10Smartphone1Upon launching the Start screen, we can expect to immediately see some old and some new, including new tile size options. Now, the choice of large squares or single width double height tiles allow for the user to create their own layout preference. Theme-colored tiles have gone through a change since Windows 8.1, now appearing slightly translucent rather than previously transparent to the background image. Some feel like the new format is less visually appealing. Context menus are also different, and now have larger fonts but don't take up much of the screen (Ars Technica).

Settings and apps have some structure issues, similar to the ones the Windows Phone had. Their organization and hierarchy are still in no particular order, and need some serious layout and font size alterations (how did Microsoft not catch this?). Still, it's a preview, so hopefully all of these setting mishaps will be detected and corrected by the time of release.

Windows10Smartphone2Good news is Cortana seems to be a little more proactive than she used to be, offering more detailed reports and answers to questions. Also, an entirely new built-in app, called File Explorer, allows the user to browse files already on the device. Ars Technica says this has the potential to “really come into its own” if users were to take it to the next step by installing an SD card and exchanging files to and fro. Other notable changes, good ones, include a browser rendering engine, more Quick Actions in the Action Center (up to three rows), interactive notifications that can be dealt with directly instead of going to the app, and enhanced speech-to-tech capability (Venture Beat).

For now, the Windows 10 preview will work on the Lumia 630, Lumia 635, Lumia 636, Lumia 638, Lumia 730, and Lumia 830. Don't worry, this will become more comprehensive soon. Also important to note that at least 8GB of storage is necessary to upgrade your device. A lot of the updates seem a little out of sorts and nil for now, but Microsoft promises to keep pushing updates to tester's phones; at the same time ensuring its users that they have the option to go back to their previous OS whenever they want.

Topics: Technology News Microsoft Smartphones & Mobile Devices

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