The Basic Navigation of Windows Phone

As we’ve said, Windows Phone 7 is optimized for touch navigation. However, we realized that a few “power” hardware buttons would make your phone even easier and more intuitive to use. Of course, we also included speech recognition—just in case you’d prefer to tell your phone what you want to do.

Your Windows Phone has several hardware buttons. You’ll find these in the same place on every phone running Windows Phone 7.

Start button (1). When you tap the Start button, it takes you to the Start screen from anywhere on the device—including when you’re in the middle of an application.

Search button (2). If you need to find something quickly, just tap the search button. Search works wherever you are on the phone or on the web. Want to find a contact? Press search from People or call history. Looking for an email message? Press search in email. Or press it in Maps to find an address, coffee shop, zoo, or other place. You can even press and hold the Start button after pressing search for speech-driven search.

Back button (3). You can use the back button to go back within an application or between applications. The back button also lets you navigate to a previous screen or webpage, exit a search operation, or close an on-screen keyboard, menu, or dialog box.

Camera button (4). All Windows Phones have a camera button within easy reach. The Windows Phone 7 camera button is dual-action, supporting both full-press and half-press modes. A full press launches the camera application, after which a half-press activates the autofocus feature and a full press takes the picture.

Volume buttons (5). The volume buttons adjust the volume of an active audio stream, such as a phone call, music audio, radio audio, or an in-progress movie. Pressing one of the volume buttons when you receive an incoming call will silence the ringtone.

Power button (6). If your Windows Phone is off, a brief press on the power button turns it on. When the phone is on, a brief press of the power button will turn off the display and lock the phone.