User Manual
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Chapter 1 Pre-Flight Checklist:What to Do Before YouGet Your Windows Phone
carriers to sell Windows Phones—diversity is good in some cases—it has also eshed out
a rigid set of hardware specications for this platform. So if a device maker or wireless
carrier wishes to sell Windows Phone devices, they must conform to the specs.
What’s Included on Every Windows Phone
For now at least, these specs are liberating rather than conning, and at the time of
Windows Phone’s initial launch in late 2010, they together represent the makings of a
very high-end smart phone indeed. According to Microsoft, every Windows Phone must
include at least the following hardware:
Processor (CPU): 3 All Windows Phones must provide at least a 1 GHz ARMv7
Cortex/Scorpion or better processor. What this means to you is that all Win-
dows Phone devices will be able performers: In the mobile device world, 1 GHz
is still fairly uncommon beyond the very highest-end devices. And this posi-
tioning is important: Windows Phone is a premium smart phone platform.
Graphics: 3 Windows Phones will ship with a DirectX 9–capable graphics process-
ing unit, or GPU. This provides your phone with exactly the same graphical
capabilities—from a visual perspective—as is possible with Microsoft’s Xbox 360
video game console. The result is stunning visuals and the possibility of seeing
games ported from the console to the phone in full delity.
NOTE All Windows Phones use ClearType “sub-pixel rendering” technologies
for super-clear text displays. But Microsoft is only specifying a 16-bit color
screen as the minimum, so some higher color (24-bit) images might have visual
banding. If it’s advertised this way, consider a Windows Phone with a 24-bit
color screen for superior visuals.
RAM and storage:3 Each Windows Phone must include at least 256MB of RAM
(memory allotted for the operating system and running applications) and 8GB
or more of Flash memory (storage for content, including applications, digital
media, documents, and the like).
Hardware buttons:3 Every Windows Phone comes with a dedicated set of hard-
ware buttons positioned in a consistent way around the device. These include
front-mounted Back, Home, and Search buttons (for navigating “back” as per
a web browser, returning to the Home screen, and launching the Bing search
experience, respectively); a dedicated camera button (with full and half press
support for launching the camera application, auto-focusing, and taking
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