How to give your Android phone the Windows Phone 7 look

Are you getting slightly bored of the interface of your Android Phone? Do you want to give your Android phone a complete overhaul?(well, not completely) Then you have come to the right place.


Here are a few apps that can turn your Android phone into a WP7 looking device. None of these apps require superuser permission so there is no necessity that your phone has to be rooted. Just install these apps and your phone is transformed.

Note : This article is updated. I've added better comparisons and more apps

P.S. If you are busy to read the entire post, you can just click on the following links to download the apps and install them onto your phone.

1. WP7 Lock Lite
2. Launcher 7
3. Uber Player
4. WP7 Style Keyboard (with autocorrection and prediction)
5. Photosafari Picture viewer
6. Windows Phone iconpack
7. Segoe WP font (requires root and installed via recovery) - not recommended if you do not know what you are doing :)
8. Other WP7 stuff (donate versions)

1) Let's start with the basic Lockscreen. If you ever had a chance to grace the lockscreen of a real Windows 7 Phone, then you will realize how minimalistic it looks. Fortunately, the guys over at WP7Android have done a great job replicating the WP7 lockscreen onto the Android device. Here is a screenshot of the actual WP7 lockscreen along with the Android app screenshot.

The app is called the WP7Lock Lite. You can download it here or via the QR code which is given below. Just use a barcode scanner app and scan the QR code. It automatically directs you the market link.

Pros and Cons of this app:
1) It gives the minimalistic look and the sliding is pretty cool. It gives a bouncy effect too.
2) I've had a couple of Force crashes since I installed it but nothing serious though.

Here is the QR code:

2) The next step would be to install a new launcher. There are many Windows 7 lookalike launchers in the Android Market place but the only one that stands above the rest is the Launcher 7. I've been using it for nearly a month and I've never encountered any force crashes or lags. Launcher 7 is by far, the best windows lookalike launcher for Android(in my opinion). You can download it here or just scan the QR code shown below.

 

Pros and Cons of this app:
1) Probably the most stable version of the WP7 launcher.
2) Widgets can also be added as tiles and the animations are pretty cool (there are a couple of options for animations too)
3) The App drawer can be customized to add/remove/uninstall apps very easily.
4) So far, I haven't encountered any cons :)

Here is the QR code:

3) Do you remember Launcher Pro? The super cool launcher that was quite a phenomenal hit a few months ago, and is probably famous even now. The guy who developed it has now developed an awesome music player. It completely resembles the Zune music player in Windows devices. Not only does it look good but also offers a host of other features such as album art capability, playlists, etc... Please note that this app is still in its alpha build but still it is pretty good.

Since this app ('Uber Player' as is it called) is still in its alpha build, you cannot find it in the Android Market. However, the developer has given a link where you can download the apk file and try it out : Uber Player 

Pros and Cons:
1) True to its name. It is indeed a uber cool player.
2) Since this is an alpha version, we should be expecting more features such as Lockscreen player, visualizations and enhancements, volume control and others. No force crashes or lags encountered; easily the most elegant looking music player for Android.

4) And finally we have the keyboard. This is the closest approximation to the WP7 keyboard, and I must admit I'm pretty much impressed by it. You can download it here.

Pros and Cons:
1) It has a dictionary and autocorrection capability along with speech recognition interface too.
2) No cons encountered until now.

[update : I've found another keyboard app. You can download it from this xda thread. The modified version (with sounds) by trongable can be found here.

That's about it. I'm sure you are not overwhelmed by this new look but it is still impressive nonetheless. I personally like the WP7 interface due to it's minimalism, so this post is for those of you who think alike. Anyway, please let me know if there are any other customizations that you are aware of and I shall add them and credit them in this article.