Who is using Win10 like this?

As an important part of Windows 10's multi-screen integration strategy, mobile phones are naturally indispensable. Microsoft's previous failure in the mobile terminal also urgently needs to be proven by a revolutionary product. After acquiring Nokia, Microsoft made up for its shortcomings in mobile device production and design, and it can only save itself at the system level. So how does Microsoft's claim of "develop once, apply to multiple screens" perform on mobile phones?

The Verge reporter tried out a phone running the latest Windows 10, and the experience was mainly focused on several built-in apps in the system, such as email, maps, photography, Skype, and messaging.

Mail and Calendar

Among them, the biggest change is the mail system. The cross-platform Outlook application brings a seamless and unified experience to mobile terminals, tablets and PCs. It integrates Word, and users have more space and freedom in text editing in Outlook. Tables can be directly inserted and multiple text formats are supported. At the same time, gesture control has been added. Swipe from right to left to delete emails, and swipe from left to right to add tags. The changes made will be automatically synchronized to the PC, which is convenient for subsequent operations on the PC.

The new version of Calendar fully supports Gmail, and also has more complete support for other mail services such as IMAP, POP, Exchange, etc. This also means that Microsoft has put a lot of effort into ensuring the user's mail experience, and has also provided good support for competitors' services, which is undoubtedly a benefit for Windows and Windows phone users.

Photo album and camera

Windows 10 also has significant improvements in photo albums and photography. Like the mailbox, the photo album function can also run across screens, and the photos you take with the camera, stored in the OneDrive cloud, and photos on other devices such as mobile phones and tablets will all be displayed here. In contrast, the camera has not been improved much in terms of function, and there is no obvious difference from the current Lumia Camera, including the UI, the way to quickly start video shooting, and the manual control menu first introduced on the Lumia 1020, which are very similar to the previous app.

The biggest change in camera and photography is that it has changed from being exclusive to Lumia devices to a built-in application of Windows 10, which means that Samsung and HTC's Windows Phone devices can also get it after the update. This improvement is still worthy of recognition, and it also avoids the confusion caused by multiple built-in camera or album apps. A relatively small detail is that the PC version of the album application has the function of automatic correction and beautification, but Microsoft said that this function will eventually appear on mobile phones.

map

Like the camera, the map application also existed in multiple apps on Windows Phone in the past, one was Nokia's Here Maps, and the other was Microsoft's Bing Maps. In the latest mobile version of Windows 10, Microsoft removed Bing Maps and added full navigation and Cortana features to Here. Some of the noise points of the original map application have also been improved, and there is not much difference in function from the mainstream Google Maps. Microsoft has also added intelligent elements to the map. For example, when the location you searched can be reached by walking, it will directly present the walking route. In navigation mode, if you forget how to take the current route, you can just say "Cortana, repeat the route just now". Under the map, Cortana will "listen and send" at any time. These detailed improvements are still very considerate, especially important for some people who are lost in directions.

information

Windows 10 finally integrated Skype into the messaging app, which is similar to how Google integrated Hangouts. After the improvement, SMS and Skype will appear in the same information flow, and it is convenient to switch back and forth. The messaging function also achieves cross-platform synchronization. For example, if you block an app notification on the computer, the notification will be automatically blocked on the phone. Microsoft said that the information integration is currently limited to SMS and Skype, and it will not integrate all notification information like the BlackBerry Hub, so the information of third-party IMs such as Facebook, WeChat, QQ, etc. still needs to be operated in a separate app.

other

Some other detailed improvements include the wallpaper being displayed full screen and appearing translucently behind dynamic magnets; a virtual pointing stick is added to the keyboard, which makes it easier to move the cursor while typing and change misspelled words.

Microsoft has not yet demonstrated all the features of Windows 10 Mobile, such as the latest Spartan browser and the touch-screen version of Office, which are still being improved. As the official release date in February approaches, I believe there will be more news about the mobile version of Windows 10.