With a few hours of down time and a real curiosity about how Windows 10 for mobile devices is coming along, I pushed my little Lumia 822 into the “fast track” of the Windows Insider program and got the newest build up and running.  I’m not sure why I did that on my everyday phone instead of my broken-screen backup, but doing so has left me with another hour or so of downtime as I downgrade back to Windows Phone 8.1 using Windows Phone Recovery on my PC.  I'm not downgrading because I didn't like Windows 10, but rather because I shouldn't have put a beta operating system on my primary device, and neither should you, in case you're curious.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved what I saw of Windows 10 Mobile.  It was buggy and patchy just like you’d expect for a fast-track beta program, but it was also beautiful.
You know that I’m not a big fan of complimenting aesthetics as I believe a good UI should naturally be sleek and intuitive and doesn’t require compliments such as “sexy” or “beautiful”, but there was something remarkably different in the feel of Windows 10 Mobile.  Of course, I liked this feel better than iOS or Android, but surprisingly I liked the new Windows 10 feel even more than Windows Phone despite the changes being extremely minor from a visual perspective.

The tiles stretch fully across the screen. Tile transparency is now user defined.    The virtual keyboard is beautiful and features a “pointing stick” button for exquisite control of cursor positioning… the best I’ve ever seen on mobile.  This operating system feels like the immediate future of mobile.

In the past, Microsoft has been said to fail at predicting mobile’s future, but the real problem was that they’ve always overshot the immediate future and landed ten or so years beyond where the market (and consumer intelligence) actually is.  Just like every passive aggressive smartass, Microsoft has found a way to keep that vision alive while still hitting the pulse of not just the immediate future, but also the inevitable future.  This bodes well for their bold attempt to reach over a billion devices within three years.

Sure, there were some quirks, but mainly due to the software still being in beta.  Some of the bugs were actually pretty cool, such as seeing a mouse pointer on a phone screen (while using the back button to get to the app switcher multitasking screen).  But, before I display all of the screenshots that I took of Windows 10 Mobile for you, let me say that I would have kept the preview on my phone—I truly would have—except one of the bugs made downloading and installing applications difficult or impossible in a few cases.  Not only is this one of the reasons that I didn’t get to try the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint previews, but also the reason why Windows 10 Mobile can’t be a full time resident on my primary everyday phone.  Pick on me all you will about still using a Lumia 822 everyday, but I'm on my second one and the technology is only just now starting to show its age.

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