There's been an awful lot of talk about Windows Phone 7 this week.

First up came the much anticipated first update (which was actually just a pre-update update) then, disaster, it was discovered the update was bricking phones.

Then came the more welcome news that developers can now create up to 100 free apps.

But it's what it like living with this phone day-in, day-out?

V3.co.uk came across a Windows Phone 7 device, the HTC Mozart (why is it named after a dead Austrian composer anyway?), while at Mobile World Congress and has spent the last two weeks or so using it as an everyday, non-review device.

The Windows Phone 7 user interface (UI) marks a significant change from the normal, same-old tiles layout of Apple and Android devices, and is incredibly quick to load key applications like email and maps.

Text input is possibly the best on the market with word suggestion very intuitive and responsive while the internet browser is fast to load and is set to become even faster after Microsoft promised to bring the desktop version of IE9 to the platform.

The applications that are available are impressive too. Many major sites have created apps already, such as eBay and Flickr, while popular applications like Shazam and the Kindle are there too alongside a host more in many other categories.

And with the news today that the developer limit for free applications has increased from five to 100, there could well be a lot more apps to come - and even better they'll all be free.

Perhaps the biggest news of the week is that Angry Birds is coming to Windows Phone 7 too - confirmed yesterday by Microsoft for an 6 April arrival date. It'll need that app to tempt users to its platform.

However, there are some downsides.

First, there's been the update issue. If Microsoft is going to close the gap on its rivals it can't have headlines like it has had this week. For all the positives, people will never consider switching if they read such negative stories.

We haven't updated the Mozart yet, so fingers crossed...

Secondly, Microsoft needs to streamline the way you buy apps. You'd think that a system designed to make a company money would only require a working bank card and then, boom, off you go - but with Windows Phone 7 it's not that simple.

We had to ring the Zune support line only to find out that the reason the phone wouldn't recognise a valid bank card was because we had set it up on an account that used Gmail as its sign-in email to the Zune software.

The helpful woman explained only Zune accounts that used a Windows Live/Hotmail email account could be used to setup a credit card for the Marketplace store.

This is a bizarre situation. It's clear Microsoft wants users to sign up for a Windows Live email account, but why? If a customer wants to give you money, let them do so! Don't force them to sign-up for your own email service in order to do so.

Or, at least make it clear as day that only Windows Live accounts can be used to host the bank card details when you set up your Zune account.

The other update Microsoft need to address is including the capability of making groups for certain apps, as currently any application not "pinned" to the front live-tile screen is accessed by swiping right, then scrolling up and down.

This means if you have a sometimes-used app starting with Z, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom, which is a bit tiresome, whereas a sub section called, for example, "productivity" that contained this app and others, would be more helpful.

So, it's all a bit of a curate's egg at the moment but the positives outweigh the negatives and it has huge scope for growth and improvement when the first major updates start to hit the platform later this year.

Oh yes, and then there's the Nokia angle.

Well, it would seem fair to say if the phones Nokia develops are able to handle and display the UI well, there could be a lot of first-time smartphones users who make the transition to a WP7 device.

If you're in the market for a new smartphone, don't overlook Windows Phone 7, you could be surprised by what you find.

25 Feb 2011