gdgt

Let there be no doubt -- Windows Phone 8 is a definite improvement over its predecessor, and it's long overdue. In general, we like what we see, and users and developers have been eagerly awaiting this update ever since the Windows Phone platform first launched.

It’s stacked with new features, as well as enhancements to all the things that made previous versions enjoyable to use. This is still Windows Phone, but more grown up, and now truly ready to challenge the big kids on the playground.

Microsoft’s phone software is fast, simple and beautiful. But it still lacks universal dictation for quick text entry. Its new Maps app doesn’t offer spoken directions. And the audience won’t come until there are more great apps.

Someone who glanced over my shoulder and looked at the user interface of Windows Phone 8 said, “That’s a really pretty phone.” He was right. Its combined good looks, functional features and sexy new hardware make it a winning smartphone [combination].

If you love all the niceties of a fully mature ecosystem—the Instagrams and Reeders and all the other startups that will not be building a WP app first, or any time soon—and a platform that's hammered out most of its kinks, Windows Phone probably still isn't there. Someday, maybe.

Windows Phone 8 is a good-looking, well-designed, easy-to-use mobile operating system, but with a very different set of apps compared with other platforms, it's still for mavericks.

If it works, and if Windows Phone 8 takes off, those application gaps are going to get filled, and Windows Phone will gain the kind of visibility that iOS and Android have achieved. But until then, for all its merits, Windows Phone 8 remains a gamble.

In the end Windows Phone 8 is a much improved beast from what we’re used to using from Microsoft. Everything is brighter, bigger, faster, and of course available in HD. The platform as a whole has been improved in ways that current Windows Phone fans, and new smartphone buyers can all enjoy.

As a standalone mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8 offers some cracking features and some great usability, and is only hampered by the hardware that is available to run it on.

In short, anyone thinking of moving from iOS or Android to Windows Phone 8 will perhaps have to be prepared to make many adjustments - but there's no denying this is a real step up in quality from Microsoft and gives us hope for variety in the smartphone wars.

Windows Phone 8 is faster, smoother and more powerful than its predecessor. ... Windows Phone 8 is only now able to start matching up against iOS, and it's still got a lot of ground to cover to reach Android levels of functionality and customization options.

Microsoft needed to deliver with Windows Phone 8 and largely we think it has succeeded. It looks and feels slick and largely matches the competition for core abilities. There are a few shortcomings but these are generally balanced by other unique features.

Combine the many new and improved features with the forthcoming wider array of appealing handsets, and Windows Phone 8 is primed to bring Microsoft back into the smartphone game from the fringes, as a real contender.

Windows Phone is still the most recent entirely new phone OS to launch (though BlackBerry has its software just around the corner). Two years on, it’s still fresh and different, but now has so many improvements and additions it feels even more innovative.

It's a vast improvement over the previous version of Microsoft's mobile operating system, and its newly customisable user interface puts IOS and Android to shame. However, the software ecosystem is still suffering from a severe lack of big-name apps.

Windows Phone 8 by all accounts would appear to have a very solid basis.

Windows Phone 8 is Microsoft’s third attempt at re-launching its smartphone operating system. Whether or not it will be successful remains to be seen, but it certainly is gaining some significant propulsion power.