More Tango and ‘budget’ Windows Phone features, screen shots leaked

February 15, 2012 | By Surur

wp256mb Russian site WP7Forum.ru have posted some interesting information on Windows Phone Tango and on the restrictions that come with having a 256 MB Windows Phone.

First some basic changes. Tango will support many new countries, will be able to automatically download and update apps via Zune, and increase the number of pre-installed applications for 16 to 40.

It will also bring new features, such as being able to manage contacts directly on the SIM card and also to export contacts to the SIM. This is to allow users to more easily transition from a feature phone to a smartphone.

simcontact

Roaming will get new settings, allowing users to select no, domestic or international roaming.

It will also fix a long time bugabear. Users will be able to make multiple attachments to one MMS message, including pictures, sound and video.

WP7Forum.ru also address the 256 MB issue. Low end devices with 256 MB will be unable to install some applications, and will have other restrictions, such as 3rd party Live Tiles not updating automatically.

wp256mb_apps

In addition podcasts will not be manageable from the device, and video streams lower than 4 MBs and encoding of H.264 v2 will only be supported. Additionally OEMs will be allowed to ship devices with 3 megapixel or higher cameras. Further photos will now no longer be uploaded to SkyDrive automatically.

In summary, there are new features in Tango, such as the MMS improvements, which I want, and features such as the lack of active live tiles which not.

What do our readers think. Has Microsoft struck a reasonable balance? Let u know below.

Thanks Svetlojar for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged tango

Anonymous

I think the restrictions are reasonable as long as these handsets are pretty darn cheap. However, Microsoft better figure out how to market these in such a way that people know they are getting a light version of Windows Phone.

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

they would have to be $50 off contract cheap. The specs are 2008 era. if you can’t make a $50 phone with thsoe specs and watered down experience you need to GTFO.

Anonymous

No way cutting the RAM in half and shaving off a Gigabyte or two would bring phones down to $50 off contract. There are still screens, battery, case, ect… Maybe something like $150 would be more reasonable. You may think that is still a rip-off, given the specs, but then you have the option of getting a real Windows Phone anyways. I could actually see myself buying one of these in the event that I loose or break my contract phone. It would be a decent cheap substitute while I wait to get a new good phone when my contract comes up for renewal. But in any case, I believe these are meant for cheaper markets like India and China.

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

woah woah woah woah woah…..either that screen is totally fake, or it is saying that the Samsung Focus can’t run apps that it previously could? I’m raising the BS flag here.

Anonymous

Thats probably what it will say if your force Tango on your focus.

Anonymous

You are retarded, sorry.

Anonymous

I don’t think it’s BS, I think it’s an artificial limitation imposed on the device to demonstrate what happens with lower end devices. These new limitations are not going to be imposed on existing Mango devices.

It’s worth pointing out that ICS supports approx 55 languages, whereas Tango will support 120 languages (largely due to Nokia IIRC), opening a lot of opportunity.

Also, I doubt that the new markets Tango is shooting for will see similarly low cost ICS phones soon, given the minimum requirements for ICS. As it stands, ICS just would not work in a 256MB environment, and its performance on a 1GHz S1 Snapdragon equivalent leaves a lot to be desired.

Anonymous

ICS has trouble with 512mb, let alone 265. My home app reloads every 2-3 times I hit the home button.

Daniel Alford

I think that with these specs, they could maybe market these more as feature phones to the carriers since they are designed to use less data and the specs are more in line with feature phones. They could also sell them free on contract like many feature phones do currently. AT&T for instance has seperate plans for feature phones, if these Tango devices could utilize these plans, I see huge potential market share for windows phone.

Anonymous

Honestly, if you know how to shop the deal, you can easily get a real Windows Phone for free on contract. Got my Focus for free and got my wife’s Focus Flash for free. That is why I wait for Black Friday to renew contracts

What would be nice is if the carriers introduced 1 year contracts and provided these phones for free with them. Also, if they market these as feature phones like you said, then the carriers ought to allow activation without requiring a data plan. I could see a lot of people who would want something similar to a smart phone, but not want to pay for the $$$ data plan and instead just use wifi.

Anonymous

Let’s just call it WP7 cheap phones instead of the return of Kin.. =/
José Villaró

Somehow that logic doesn’t apply to a rural little town in India or China per say.
We can’t measure these phones as if you were buying them in the US or Western Europe

Anonymous

Technically speaking, these builds are not intended for any of us. Tango seems to align much more with the Nokia mass market devices. I think that’s a reasonable trade off.

Even then, Games are still able to be played. It is my believe that Games are limited to 90MB of RAM for 256MB phones and more if it has 512MB.

The Dell Venue Pro has 256MB and seems to play almost everything. Granted maybe not as fast, but these are cellphones for other countries, not the good ol’ USA.

Anonymous

Actually, the Dell Venue Pro has 512MB RAM, but there was a bug that limit it to just 256MB of usable RAM.
This was fixed with a firmware update.

Anonymous

Ah thanks! I stand corrected sir!

Anonymous

the extra cost to add the extra 256mb is $0.01?

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

EXACTLY. Which is why this dilution of experience is completely unwarranted.
Anonymous

Indeed, Microsoft could charge a few bucks less for its OS and effectively subsidize the market share growth instead of causing a bunch of compatibility problems.
Anonymous

And you know how much mobile phone ram costs how exactly?
Andre Fonseca

No, the memory is not so cheap, its more like $0.05. That will make a huge diference in the final price. People will buy slower and limited products because that difference.

By this roadmap Microsoft will release in 2015 a version of windows phone that runs on 512KB of RAM and will compete with Nokia 3310.

http://www.facebook.com/thomas.bundgaard Thomas Bundgaard

Hmm, I hope the SIM-card changes find it’s way to Mango as well. The ones I have “converted” to Windows Phone are pretty pissed off about that.
noël villagrana

thank god for the MMS upgrade i have been sorely missing these features for almost 2 years!
Anonymous

You have to remember that these are MINIMUM requirements. The OEMs can choose to go rock-bottom with the specs if they want, but they’re not going to be required to. The lower minimum requirements simply mean that OEMs can have more offerings running the full gamut of specifications.
Anonymous

Why drop the memory requirement to 256mb and cause app fragmentation when it only saves the OEM’s about $3 per device.

Anonymous

What’s wrong with having the OS efficient enough to run on 256MB of RAM?
Anonymous

I completely agree. fragmentation will only create a huge headache for developers especially due to fact that MS is trying to entice developers to develop apps with easy to run on WP7/8 phones and the upcoming Win8 tablets.

I hope we do not return to the old WinMobile days where you had to try and figure out if you were runnning Xscale/ARM processor in order for the apps to work.
http://www.favbrowser.com FavBrowser.com

Because majority people in developing and other countries don’t buy shitty iPhones for $800 just to do same thing as with their $100 phone.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Haikal-Sykes/100001531666758 Haikal Sykes

I like the fact the u can control the SIM contacts seperately
argenys

This all makes sense and I’m ok with the new baseline with their restrictions. As long as they give an option to turn on 3rd Party Live Tiles. We will get all the details along the launch announcement at MWC.
Anonymous

I want to clarify what these Tango devices are competing against.

Tango phones are competing against Chinese knockoff with 416MHz processor and 256MB RAM running Android 2.2.

User experience shouldn’t be a problem.
Anonymous

I truly believe that current specs should remain the same but make entry level phone come with say 4GB instead of 8GB storage (e.g. Acer Allegro). The components for smartphones have really gotten much cheaper due to economies of scale.

Especially the LCD screens; If Nokia was to order millions of the cheaper 3.7″ LCD screens (not the ones with the clear black) for their mass market WP7 devices, I’m sure they’d still make huge ROI if their target is the current customer base of feature phones.

I just can’t imagine MS trying to go backwards from their current entry level WP7 device specs..
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6G3ZZJCHOLYP3S5CRCIHQ7WDSE MVIM

What is this about photos not automatically uploading to SkyDrive? I hope that’s only for these low-end devices and not all devices going forward.
Anonymous

I have the ability to Import SIM contacts in 8107.

Anonymous

That has been there since the original 7004 release.

http://nanapho.jp/ tezawaly

Samsung Now screen shows both “snap” and “capture” buttons.
It looks like buttons to take a screenshot and capture a video.

Is this some kind of homebrew tool?
If not, I hope this is one of new features of Tango.
http://phonecompanies.blogspot.com/ Phone Companies

phew.. it has only 256MB RAM? I doubt that this is right