Windows Phone 7 handsets are going to be hitting Europe on 21st October, a full two weeks ahead of the USA, who won’t get the new phones until 8th November. With a potential 10 phones on offer, it will be interesting to see which ones are offered at launch. So if you want to get one up on our US cousins, here’s a run down of which phones and which carriers will be selling Microsoft’s latest.
O2
O2 have announced that they’ll be launching the HTC HD7, allegedly the handset with the biggest screen at 4.3″ and the most memory at 16GB. 5MP camera with HD video recording, Wi-Fi and a 1GHz processor, which is all pretty standard. O2 will be offering the phone on contract and on Pay-and-Go for £379.
Orange
Orange will be selling the two phones, the HTC Mozart and the Samsung Omnia 7. So far they’re the only carrier to announce multiple handsets. The Samsung’s specs are given below under Three. The Mozart is exclusive to Orange at launch and has a 3.7” WVGA Super LCD Display, 8 MP camera, Dolby sound and a 1GHz processor.
The Mozart will be free on a £35 per month, 24 month contract, whereas the Omnia 7 will be free on £40 per month, 24 month contract.
T-Mobile
Nothing has been announced yet. Given their recent merger with Orange, it’s possible that the phones will only come through Orange.
Three
Three is going to be offering the Samsung Omnia 7 with pre-orders taken from Tuesday 12th October. The Omnia 7 comes with a 4″ Super AMOLED screen, 5 MP camera with 720P HD video recording, upto 8GB RAM, 11n WiFi and the obligatory 1GHz processor. Available free on contract from £35 per month.
Vodafone
Vodafone hasn’t announced anything yet formally but their press media centre is currently down. Informally, it’s believed to be the HTC Trophy 7 and the LG Optimus 7.
All the carriers appear to be putting extra software on the phones tailored to offers and promotions, e.g. Orange have their regular 2-for-1 cinema promotion and there’s going be a film application tied in with that.
It currently looks like five out of the ten announced phones will be coming to the UK for the launch in October. That’s not a bad selection to choose from and it will be interesting to see what the hands-on reviews reveal. Only a few weeks to go…