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With terrific Zune and Xbox Live integration, a fast and smart method of getting around the OS, great Office and email experiences, and a genuinely beautiful and useful user interface, Microsoft has definitely laid the foundation for the next several years of its mobile play.

Windows Phone is more like the iPhone than it is anything else. If you don’t like the iPhone (for reasons other than an inherent dislike for Apple), you probably won’t like Windows Phone. If your sole reason is disdain for Apple, then pick up a Windows Phone.

Windows Phone 7 is really great. A solid foundation, it's elegant and joyful. True, a lot of that greatness is potential. But if anybody can follow through on their platform, it's Microsoft.

Yes, it's version 1.0, and it's missing some features and plenty of apps. But Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system is already a player in the mobile space.

Microsoft doesn't often get version one releases right, but this time, it has got the release very right indeed. Windows Phone 7 looks great, works well, and is a treat to use.

We have a new contender in the field of exciting smartphone operating systems. With Apple's OS X looking more like their iPhone and iPad operating by the day, it's not absurd to say that mobile software is the only software that matters today and for the future.

Obviously, Microsoft still has a lot of work to do, and it will be a long time before its store offers a decent selection of apps. The company intends to deliver free software updates as it fills in the holes. In other words, for now, this may not be the phone you’ll want to buy.

Overall, I can’t recommend Windows Phone 7 as being on a par with iPhone or Android—at least not yet. Unless you’re an Xbox Live user, or rely on Microsoft’s SharePoint corporate Web-based document system, it isn’t as good or as versatile as its rivals.

Windows Phone 7 offers a fresh, fun user interface, exciting features for music-lovers and gamers, and some gorgeous phones. But there's plenty of room for improvement, especially in the app store.

Microsoft is applying the defibrillator to its mobile phone platform with a completely new interface and approach. It's radically different - but still has lots of rough edges.

Windows Mobile tried to squeeze a desktop-like OS in your pocket but that never quite worked. The seventh iteration of Microsoft’s mobile operating system ... puts simplicity and usability first and then tries to add as much functionality as possible without making a mess out of the whole thing.

Swish and very, very slick, Microsoft’s new mobile OS makes an impressive debut. But it has a long way to go before it can be truly competitive.

Everything looks genuinely slick and stylish – but WP7 is neither cutting edge under the bonnet nor so effortless to use that it’s a plausible object of aspiration for anybody but a business person whose IT department won’t allow them a better option.

I can only conclude that I really like Windows Phone 7, because it is different in many ways. Especially the integration principles is something that I really like. However as a long term Windows Mobile user I also have admit that there is room for improvement.

Windows Phone 7 isn't fully baked yet, but at least there's a very pleasing aroma coming from the oven. Microsoft has the resources to keep on cooking, and I expect and hope they will ... In an ever-changing environment, Microsoft may still provide some appetizing possibilities in mobile.