Windows Phone 7.5 Mango hands on review

It's almost a year since the first Windows Phone 7 devices arrived and, although the NoDo update added the much sought after copy and paste, it's the Mango upgrade that customers have been salivating over.

There are a number of key additions in Mango among the claimed 500 features, which could persuade business users to switch from iOS and Android. V3 has been testing Mango on an HTC 7 Trophy and here are our thoughts.

Design-wise, Microsoft has kept the same Live Tile interface introduced in the original operating system, but the tiles have been subtly improved to update faster and allow the pinning of multiple Live Tiles to the homescreen from a single app.

One of the most obvious upgrades is multi-tasking, which allows rapid switching between applications without having to close them. Holding down the 'back' key lets users move between the latest opened apps and resume from the exact place they left off.

Business features: Office 365, group creation, threaded conversation
Key additions include the ability to sign in to Microsoft Office 365 from a Windows Phone to access documents from the cloud service. Nine templates have been added to Mobile Office 2010, and downloading the Microsoft Lync Mobile app allows instant messaging on the move.

A great feature is the threaded message functionality built into messaging and Outlook. This means it is no longer necessary to search the device to find messages, as they are all grouped together. It is also possible to create a Universal inbox to synchronise personal and/or work accounts.

Another useful business feature is the ability to create 'Groups' and pin them to the Start menu. This allows the sending of emails, texts and instant messages to members of a team, for example, and the tracking of networking feeds, missed calls and other notifications for all the people in that group.

Information rights management software has also been built into Mango, meaning that employers can safeguard confidential information on Mango devices by preventing employees forwarding and copying sensitive emails or documents.