Windows Phone 7 review: email, calendar and Microsoft Office first look

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The Start screen on Windows Phone 7

The Office Hub on Windows Phone 7

An email inbox on Windows Phone 7

An opened email on Windows Phone 7

A calendar on Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 is about to hit retail and there has been a lot of talk about its potential as a consumer-focussed operating system with relatively little mention of its viability for business users. The whole look and feel of Windows Phone 7 is very different both from earlier Microsoft smartphone operating systems and from any other smartphone operating system.

There will be plenty of business users wondering how well Windows Phone 7 will work for them. Here, we take an overview of Microsoft's new operating system from a business point of view, pending a more detailed examination once we've got our hands on some hardware and given it a thorough testing.

We'll start by making one important point about Windows Phone 7. It is not backwards compatible with earlier versions. If your company currently use phones that run Window Mobile 6.5 or earlier, and you have a number of third party applications that you use regularly, upgrading to Windows Phone 7 models will prove tricky.