On Wednesday April 8th, Microsoft’s Gabriel Aul took it to the popular Windows Weekly podcast to reveal that a new Windows 10 for phones build was set to arrive on April 10th. The build was also set to be available on more than just a select few handsets — well, except for the Lumia Icon and Lumia 930.
According to Aul, there were over 5100 images that needed to be flashed in order for the Windows team get the build developed for Windows Phone, and all that flashing would be done by April 10th.
Microsoft kept to their promise and released build 10051 to Windows Insiders, but not without a slight hitch though. This second build of Windows 10 for phones runs on pretty much all Lumia smartphones, minus the 930 and ICON, which are absent due to a bug that displays the UX incorrectly. Microsoft says those two devices will be able to upgrade to the next build releases, however we don’t know when that will be.
New features in this build include new, universal apps for Messaging, Mail and more. A load of UI improvements and changes are also apparent, borrowing from what the Windows 10 for desktops preview looks like. Windows 10 is definitely sharing a universal UI across all form-factors, much like Windows 8 but on a larger scale. You can read the complete change log here.
Further reading: How To: Install Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones; How To: Recover your Windows Phone from a Technical Preview build using the Recovery Tool.
First impressions of the new Windows 10 for phones build? It’s rather slow and buggy on a Lumia 635. Take a look at the video below showcasing all the new apps including Spartan, Outlook Mail and Calendar, Messaging and People. We also show you some UI changes and new features which you can expect to use when you download and install this build.
We also glanced at Project Spartan on our Windows 10 mobile device and discovered that while some of the framework is there, most of the features are incomplete or broken. It is still too early to really test Spartan on phones.
Stay tuned for another exciting week of Windows 10 news!
Further reading: Microsoft, Project Spartan, Windows 10
