Samsung SGH-I707

Year: 2010
Prototype level: Platform
Codename: Taylor

Overview

The Samsung Taylor SGH-i707 was a reference smartphone developed for Microsoft during the creation of the first generation of Windows Phone 7. Built by Samsung, it was distributed to selected developers, journalists and Microsoft partners in 2010 as development hardware for testing early Windows Phone software before the commercial launch of the operating system. Rather than being intended as a Samsung retail product, Taylor was essentially a development platform for the new Windows Phone ecosystem.

What makes Taylor particularly interesting from a hardware perspective is that it was based very closely on Samsung’s commercially released Omnia HD GT-I8910. The two phones are almost identical physically, with the most obvious differences being the three buttons below the display and the markings around the rear camera. Underneath the Windows Phone development software, Taylor therefore retains much of the hardware and physical design of an existing Samsung retail handset, making it an unusual example of a commercial phone being adapted into a Microsoft reference device.

The hardware included a 480 × 800 display, 5-megapixel rear camera and dedicated camera shutter button. It also incorporated a front-facing camera, although this was reportedly disabled in software, together with microphones and speakers positioned at both ends of the handset for development and testing purposes.

For the collection, Taylor is particularly interesting because it represents the hardware Microsoft used to establish its first Windows Phone ecosystem before the platform reached consumers. Despite its close relationship to the retail Omnia HD, the SGH-i707 itself was never commercially released, making it a genuine piece of early Windows Phone development hardware.