According to the Windows Phone Blog the Windows Phone 7 is “now ready for the hands-on everyday use of a broad set of consumers around the world.” With this Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is finally seems ready to fight its competitor such as Apple, Palm and Google with Windows Mobile.

It’s only been about two years since development of Windows Phone 7 and today, the Windows Phone 7 Series will arrive this fall. A handful of prototypes made their way to press and developers early this week as part of a technical preview, giving a sneak peek at what’s to come. The technical preview follows months of daily testing by more than 1,000 Microsoft staffers, with WP7 now trialed across more than 10,000 devices where the tests have focused on usability, battery life, network connectivity and related subjects. It still doesn’t know which model will be the first smartphone that will be equipped with the new system.

BRG (Boy Genius Report) has posted their write-up of their experience with the Windows Phone 7 demo. They have been testing out a non-final, never ever going to be released to market Samsung prototype Windows Phone 7 device for a week.

The preview covers hardware briefly although it doesn’t cover the specific Samsung handset used due to it never being launched. The requirements though were mentioned which includes a 1GHz CPU, 3.7 inch 4 point capacitive multi-touch display, 5 megapixel camera, 3 hardware buttons, dedicated graphics chip and memory built in with no removable storage allowed. Microsoft are being strict on the requirements to ensure that the Windows Phone 7 experience is good on any approved device that runs it.

The bigger question about Windows Phone 7 is whether it has managed to drop the chains of Windows Mobile 6.5 that would essentially hold it back. It have seen a completely different UI in presentations indicating that there are no connections with Windows Mobile 6.5.

BGR said “Microsoft basically reinvents the mobile phone home screen, and we’re not sure we’re in love with it” and Mobile Crunch dug the minimalist nature of it. Windows Phone 7 shows some promise but it’s not yet as good as competitors like the iPhone or Android.

BGR describe the UI os being minimalist and so much so that it feels so minimalist that it’s actually too lonely and open.

“One last thing that really bugs us with the UI is that there is no application switcher. At all. On a BlackBerry you can hold the BlackBerry key, on Android devices you can hold the Home key, and on the iPhone you can double tap the home button. Just simply navigating back, back, back, back and back doesn’t really cut it, and during every day usage, it got tired quick”

Tags : Boy Genius Report, Samsung prototype, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7