7.5 awesome features of Windows Phone 7.5

Microsoft will launch Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango update) in India tomorrow, which will be the first major update in two years to be officially launched in the country. Windows Phone 7.5 has received raving reviews and with some aggressively priced hardware from HTC and Samsung (okay, Acer too), followed by Nokia next year, Microsoft can finally expect to make its mark in the smartphone space. We were already in love with the clean Metro UI first seen in Windows Phone 7 and now with the new update, we think things have only gotten better. Hit the break to know the 7.5 awesome features in Windows Phone Mango Update and why we think it has the potential to give Android and iOS a decent fight.

1. Multitasking: One of the major reasons (among others) for the failure of Windows Phone 7 was the absence of multitasking. Windows Phone 7.5 takes care of that and how! Pressing the back key for a slightly longer duration opens thumbnails (cards, if we may) of recently opened applications that are running in the background. Even third- party app developers can add suspend-mode to their apps, which ensures the app resumes instantly from the place it was last left.

2. Unified messaging and groups: This is one of the best features that neither iOS nor Android have by default. The messaging hub unifies all your communications with any person over SMS, Facebook chat or Live Messenger into one place as a conversation. However, it does not support third-party apps, so for instance, one cannot add Gtalk chats here.

3. Contacts Hub with social network integration: Windows Phone 7 already had a decent Facebook integrations within its contacts hub. Now, Microsoft has added Twitter and LinkedIn to the mix. One can even create groups of contacts and pin individual group tiles to the home page. Every group has a tile for individual members showing their latest updates and photos. One can send a common text message or email to everyone in the group.

4. Unified mailbox and threaded e-mails: It took Microsoft sometime to implement but a single universal e-mail is finally here along with threaded e-mails to make sense of conversations over mail.

5. MS Office with cloud integration: When Microsoft first dabbled in Windows Mobile, one of its biggest selling feature was Mobile Office. Somewhere in between, Windows Mobile lost its mojo and third-party apps like QuickOffice and Docs2Go took over. Microsoft is back with a bang with Mobile Office on Windows Phone 7.5. One can now insert comments in MS Word and MS Excel comes with some commonly used formulas. And of course, one can sync all their files with Skydrive for anytime, anywhere access.

6. Windows Marketplace: Windows Phone 7 users would know how difficult it was to get apps for their smartphones. There was a reason why Microsoft did not launch Windows Phone 7 in India and that was the non-availability of Marketplace here. Thankfully, with Windows Phone 7.5, Marketplace is now available in India to access apps. Yes, the number is not as big as Android or iOS but it certainly is a good start.

7. Photo tagging: Uploading pictures directly from the phone to Facebook is no rocket science but how about tagging friends in the picture before uploading them? Yes, Windows Phone 7,5 does that.

7.5. Minor but important features: And finally the minor but crucial features like mobile hotspot (Internet sharing), the ability to connect to hidden Wi-Fi networks, dynamic tiles on home page even for third party apps, video calling and much more.