WP7 on a 1280×800 screen with third party apps

January 9, 2011 | By l3v5y

We’ve previously shown a video of what WP7 looks like on an emulator running at 1280×800; however this was handheld footage and didn’t show whether third party applications worked. This video shows a direct screen capture of WP7 running at 1280×800 pixels, with full functionality from third-party IMDB and TWiT apps.

It’s obvious from the slow performance and the CPU indicator in the bottom right that this emulator is chugging somewhat, though that might be partly due to the screen capture software. I have to say, the Metro UI looks surprisingly good on a larger screen, and this perspective makes WP7 seem all the more obviously suited to tablets.

It’s also interesting that while most pages benefit from having multiple tabs visible in the landscape perspective, the Home Screen tab still stands completely alone.

Thanks to Zubair and LizardPro for the tip.

About Olly Levett

Tagged emulator, tablets, windows phone 7

Mike

wow…. after seeing this, with some minor tweaks, WP7 can be the BEST TABLET OS EVER!!! Loved how the hubs looked at that res, some apps look like they were made for such screens. Hope this happens soon

pdg

It looks great, but the platform is too immature.
I can live with that immaturity on my phone, I even love my WP, but on a tablet? I don't think so.
Release more API, fix app switching, make apps talk to each other and than maybe we have a good competitor. But I've a feeling that would not be possible for at least another year (maybe even more, we still don't know which directions WP7 development is taking).

Brianna

What I want to know is how to did someone manage to make the emulator run at 1280×800 resolution.

http://www.facebook.com/zubair.lawrence Zubair Lawrence

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=…
You can get GUI for XDE on xda.com
http://twitter.com/lizardpro @lizardpro

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=…
you can download the skin for the emulator there.
All you need to do is change the skin and edit the xml file of Xda.exe

Keith

Wow! The Metro UI is a stunning Microsoft achievement and if Balmer cannot see that then WTF is he still doing there. That video has moved me from feeling WP7 would be great on a table to being absolutely sure of it. If someone with vision was in charge of Microsoft they would be in full court press mode to get WP7 out for tablets.

h3man

u think they don't know about what they can do with metro and so they put it from zune on to wp7???

http://twitter.com/AaronCT123 @AaronCT123

The thing is, if they were to do WP7 tablet, I'd still expect them to do more than just upscale it. Metro's about typography and when you get into tablet sizes, we're looking at the perfect opportunity to that typography and do something amazing with it- it's the size of books and, in the case of the iPad, slightly smaller than most magazines.
http://twitter.com/RSWalrond @RSWalrond

I love WP but I wouldn't want Microsoft to put a phone OS on a tablet. Microsoft is the biggest software company in the world. We should expect them to bring something new and fresh to the tablet that is specifically designed for the tablet space. We should to calling for them to do do the tablet space what they've done the the phone space.
I applaud Microsoft for having a bigger vision then these ARM chair CEO's calling for them to simple put their Phone OS on a tablet.

Windows on ARM was step 1. I hope we won't have to wait long for the other steps to be shared.

Keith

Ya because iOS is a complete failure at that. Did you watch the video?

hvakrg

I watched the video and I agree with RSWalrond. Blowing up WP7 isn't enough to compete in this market. They need to take the Metro design concept and create a new UI aimed at the slate market. What MS is doing now is the right thing to do.

The Ipad is not a great tablet. A tablet is so much more then just phone on a 7"+ screen, and even Apple did some changes from the Ipod to Ipad. The Playbook on the other hand looks like an amazing tablet OS, and even Honeycomb looks to be better. Apple needs to step it up if they want to compete in the future. If not they'll fall behind on the tablet just as they're currently doing on the phone.

danny

Sorry but your are living in a fantasy land. By this time next year there will be perhaps 60 million tablets from running iOS, Playbook, Gingerbread and perhaps 1 million, if they are lucky, running some version of windows. The reality is that right now they have absolutely nothing that competes in a market expected to reach 20 Bn in sales by the end of this year.

An ARM wintablet is, at best, a year away. By the time it launches they will starting another new platform, apps and all, when they are already miles behind in the space and all while Apple gets psychotically rich off iOS hardware. It is just crazy to think that this is the right idea. They already have their work cut out for them in the cell space, if the platform were larger than just the phone, ei tablets it would be even more attractive to both users and developers. Instead we have the opposite effect for your solution means that I will have to develop for windows x86, windows ARM and wp7. Or, optionally, I can develop for iOS and it will run on nearly everything apple offers or for android and have millions of possible customers in the cell and tablet markets.

The amazing thing about your point is that the Gingerbread and Playbook UIs you find so amazing are panoramic and wp7 was built that way from the beginning!! Arguably it is the perfectly suited foundation from which to build the very best tablet OS with the added benefit of it being consistent with the phone UI. Of course it would need work but it is a hell of a lot shorter road to success than the delusional one Ballmer is pushing now.

http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

Agree.. Gingerbread is no joke for its UI. It beats the crappy blown up iOS for Ipad. We shall see how the competitions go in the near future.
http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

I mean Honeycomb.

Keith

Obviously they just can't blow up WP7 and that is why I mentioned needing a full court press to get tab ready. But it could be done and done well and the alternative is to wait about 3 years to see if Windows 8 on ARM amounts to anything–in which case forget it because by then iPADs, Anroids and maybe even Playbooks will be light years ahead.

http://twitter.com/RSWalrond @RSWalrond

I watched the video. In fact I'm developing an Application on my EXOPC that looks and works the same as the app I created for my Windows phone. I don't know what this has to do with iOS, my App on that platform is selling quite well so I have no beef with that platform.
However simply blowing up the Phone OS will not be enough for Microsoft to dominate the slate/tablet market. They need to think bigger and they are thinking bigger. Perhaps you might want to open your mind to possibility that we might want these companies to continue to leap frog each other instead of doing the me too thing.

danny

Who said anything about having a having a beef with a platform? It is about how much more successful that platform is and the fact that the longer MS waits the more irrelevant their efforts will be in the face of it. That would be great if MS is thinking bigger but they are taking far too long to do it. The idea that they will dominate anything after years of entrenchment, app dev and billions in sales by a moneyed competitors like google and apple is silly. Those days are over and they have to be nimble. I'm a big believe in wp7 but the reality is that it is not going to be the dominate phone OS. It is so good that it could have been if MS had done reboot before android and iOS got their wheels spinning but instead ms was again "thinking windows" and insisting to cram that experience onto a phone.

The tablet market is expected to do between 20-35 Bn in sales this year and apple's blown-up-phone-OS device will collect the lion's share of that while MS sits on its hands, supposedly "thinking bigger" (actually they are only "thinking windows"). To my mind there is nothing "me too" about putting wp7 on a tablet because frankly it is a better UX on a tablet than iOS ever will be. If they were smart they have claimed that that was the idea all along. If they were really smart that actually would have been the plan.

http://twitter.com/RSWalrond @RSWalrond

Is WP7 really the future of Windows tablets? Do you realize that if Tablets/Slates ever reach netbook type level of sales, Microsoft would have completely shot themselves in the foot if the OS that takes hold completely isolates 100's of millions of their existing customers? WP7 won't utilize my existing investment in hardware and software. Developers will have to start over instead of tweaking and recompiling. WP7 would not be a good long term strategy for Microsoft on a tablet. Now I agree that Microsoft for sure needs to come with an innovative UI for the tablet, but Windows is the most widely used OS and that's not going to change because 20-35 million other tablets sell this year or next. For every tablet/slate that goes out the door 10+ Windows machines will go out the door. Microsoft is betting that not only they can take a bite out of the 20-35 million number but that they can also convert a chunk of the 300-400 million PC's that will ship in the same time period.

Windows is the only logical step for Microsoft in the long run. Is it taking them too long to respond? Yes, I like everyone else wishes they would have done this a year ago, however it's easy for us to sit back and judge Microsoft, we don't have billions of people to keep happy.

Microsoft needs to think beyond this year and next and not rush into releasing something that could help cannibalize their existing cash cow we all know as Windows.

We can agree to disagree, but this isn' the smartphone business, where Microsoft and to be honest most other companies didn't take seriously until Apple came along and blew them out of the water. Tablets are crossing over into the PC realm where Microsoft is king by a long shot, they will leverage the Windows name to keep their dominance on larger screen computing devices.
danny

They will be isolating their existing customers anyway. All applications will have to go through the work of running on ARM just as windows itself had to which means the timeline for a usable, app supported platform is even further out than just winARM existing and there is zero indication that developers are leaping at the chance to take on ANOTHER new platform from MS right now especially given the fact that iOS apps (which will run on desktops, tablets and phone) and Gingerbread are growing. How is it possible that MS will have a worse dev story? ARM for tablets, x86 for desktops and then a separate phone OS?

I saw in thurrott's take on CES (wake up MS! http://bit.ly/gPWKDs) that Sinosky said the timeline is still 2-3 years away. INSANE. By that time iOS alone will have an installed base of perhaps 200 Million. Not windows but still a formidable number and iOS growth continues to explode while PC growth is moderate at best and by Microsoft's OWN estimation the netbooks side already has been affected by the iPad's growth.
http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-admits-that-th…

This has many ramifications, for instance, if word is not on the ipad as it makes it way into corporate environments that money machine could start to get dinged a bit. Of course, it has not happened yet, 2010 is a massive seller but I have seen one company I consult with all but lose Word altogether because their people have now all have iPads (great battery life and the ability to view autocad files on a job site made it a no brainer) and they also want access to their docs while on site so they have switched to google docs. (How long can the office team ignore the platform before having to protect itself despite what the windows team wants?)
btw- Now that autocad itself is available on os x it will not be long before this once exclusively windows shop will be all apple. A 2 year transition inspired TOTALLY by the iPad. Before that device the head guy was virtually anti apple.

My concern is not MS shooting themselves in the foot – it is that by not having a MS platform in such a fast growing market that they are putting the bullet right between their eyes.

Damarco

Metro is a beautiful and fast interface but it still needs to be refined. The important thing is hopefully Silverlight and XNA are part of Windows 8. Remember you still have to make these apps fit the screen.

http://twitter.com/RSWalrond @RSWalrond

Silverlight and XNA are part of Windows 7 today, so I don't see that changing. What will change is Microsoft will take more control of the user experience in Windows 8 just like they did in Windows Phone. I don't know about you but as a developer the possibility of Microsoft opening up it's marketplace for tablet/PC applications is super exciting and scary at the same time.

http://twitter.com/lizardpro @lizardpro

The frame rate is bad because of the capture software. I am going to look for another one. The emulator runs really smoothly

http://www.facebook.com/imperialdynamics Imperial Dynamics

Enter text right here!

http://www.facebook.com/imperialdynamics Imperial Dynamics

Oops! Admin please remove it Sorry

http://www.facebook.com/imperialdynamics Imperial Dynamics

The unlocked emulator has access to the Marketplace and third-party apps?!
http://twitter.com/bartwilleman @bartwilleman

Mr. Ballmer, get me a tablet with this OS!!!! And why not? Windows 7 doesnt work and most of all is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too expensive. Saying that WP7 isnt suited for tablet doesnt hold after this video.____WP7 on a tablet rocks!!! Just do it. Please!?!!!!!!!
http://iron7.com Stuart Lodge

Looks like someone's hacked the emulator

Does look nice though!