The Windows Phone 7 is a long work from Microsoft, to have a fight with the fruit company and the robot company that we all know and love (or hate). It’s heavily integrated with Xbox Live, which means Microsoft intends to put mobile gaming heavily into Windows Phone 7’s core, much like what Apple’s doing with their GameCenter thing in iOS 4.1. Microsoft’s approach is very much different from Apple’s approach, where once you unlock, you’re greeted by a sea of icons. Let’s have a look.

All Windows Phone 7 will have 3 hardware buttons, consistent on all phones. When the phone is in locked mode, you’ll still see your next calendar appointment, if there’s any. Once unlocked, you’ll see the tiles lined up lightning fast, and you’ll see the Xbox Live icon, with your Xbox Live avatar, and the pictures hub customized with your photos. Twitter is also integrated, as you’ll also see a Twitter icon among the tiles. Tiles are customizable. You can move tiles around and easily delete them. Very customizable to fit your personality and your preference.

Windows Phone 7 is cloud based. That’s mean that you can ‘easily’ upload photos that you’ve taken immediately to the cloud services, though you should be careful not to overuse your data plan in order to avoid hitting the data quota. Joe Belfiore of Microsoft demonstrated in the event that taking photos is as easy as taking your phone out of your pocket, press the camera button, and point-and-shoot. Very snappy.

The Windows Phone 7 has Microsoft Outlook integrated in it. You can easily email your friends for invites to tonight’s dinner. The platform is smart enough to even look at your calendar to see if there’s any ‘conflict’ to your marked events. Now that’s pretty sweet. There’s no need for SMS anymore, as email will be easily accessible through Windows Phone 7, and any other smartphones. Great thing about this is that you don’t have to waste your limited SMS in your data plans. There’s also a one-touch “I’ll be late” button over at the calendar area if you’re running late to an event. Not sure how that works, perhaps the phone will SMS or email to your friend, or the organizer of the event to notify him.

It’s even capable of opening PowerPoint documents directly from the email, so I assume you will have no problem opening all Microsoft Office documents in Windows Phone 7. Joe Belfiore of Microsoft also mentioned that you can also send out Microsoft Office documents through email in Windows Phone 7. Text wise, there’s no auto correction like Microsoft Office, but Windows Phone 7 will provide you with options for word selection if they think you’ve made a mistake in typing.

Hot links for addresses found in emails or SMS will jump to Bing Maps spontaneously. Bing Map will provide two options for you: walking or driving directions. Cool enough. But why no mass transit? Too complex? Bing Map will also spontaneously suggest places if you search for local restaurants, for example. There’s even integrated reviews in Bing for places. That’s sweet. Hopefully there’s someone to moderate that.

Bing is heavily integrated into the Windows Phone 7 platform. By using Microsoft’s TellMe service with servers at Microsoft’s end, you can easily name an Airline and the flight number, and Bing will swiftly nab flight times via Bing.

There’s the Windows Phone Hubs as well, six to be precise. People Hub is your social network integration. Facebook, Twitter, and… what else? Nevermind. Everything’s there. Easy posting on a friend’s wall. I guess every company is emphasizing on Facebook integration these days.

“I can see all of my contacts aggregated together. The People Hub idea is that it brings together everyone you care about.” – Joe Belfiore of Microsoft.

There’s also the Photo Hub. Nothing much to talk about here. Everything photo, online and offline will be here. You can easily comment on a photo in Facebook using Photo Hub.

There’s the Office OneNote app on Windows Phone 7. There’s the locally created and saved documents, and there’s the SharePoint area, where all documents will be synced to the cloud and to any OneNote app you have, be it your notebook or desktop or another Windows Phone 7. Something like Dropbox.

Next up is Music Hub, where you can easily listen to your songs, or subscribed podcast. Any new contents will pops up a new tile in your Music Hub.

Apps wise, Windows Phone 7 seemed promising. There’s few apps being demoed on the launch event. EBay app where you can easily browse for stuff, and very much integrated into Windows Phone 7 to provide easy navigation. IMDB also appears in Windows Phone 7, where you can easily check for info and reviews of movies before you buy that ticket.

Finally, Games Hub. This would obviously mean Xbox Live integration into the platform. There’s the Xbox Live Extras, where you can change your avatar’s style and fashion. You can also view your friends’ avatars and their achievements, which can be unlocked through games and collecting points or prizes. Games Hub also allows you to invite your friends to game with you. If you receive multiple invites, you can choose between, or you can just ignore and play your own games. There are even 3D games in Windows Phone 7, which is rather odd. No mention of whether you need colorful glasses to play or not.

Microsoft also mentioned that “we’ve heard feedback, and early in 2011 we’re going to add copy and paste. Everyone who buys a phone now will get that update”. Ouch! Aren’t you supposed to provide that right now? Copy and paste is so 1998 and yet right now in 2010 you can’t do it in your phone? You messed up your clipboard codes Microsoft?

“Not my fault!”

|Photos courtesy of Engadget|