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blog star

Following on from last week’s birthday celebrations, this week’s featured blog is supported by one of the most vocal online mobile communities out there. Please slap your social media mits together for Windows Phone Central.

What is it?

It’s a high traffic, glossy looking mobile technology blog, forum and store. It features news, reviews, leaks, tips and more – and that vocal community I mentioned likes to make itself heard loud and clear in its forums.

Blog star of the week

Who runs it?

The website makes up one very glossy quarter of the Mobile Nations quartet of websites, which between them form four communities and attract 15m+ readers monthly and 12k+ comments every day. Appropriately they describe themselves as the United Nations of mobile. Windows Phone Central is run as community of experts and enthusiasts in its own right and is edited by Daniel Rubino.

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What we love about it

The best place to get a feel for the thinking and opinion of the people behind Windows Phone Central is in its editorials. They know their sector inside and out – and they do an incredible job of translating it for their audience. They’ve even been known to review the tech reviews on other websites.

Looks aren’t everything, but there’s something quite gorgeous about Windows Phone Central. Its mix of big feature images, easy navigation and vibrant colours gives it a feel every bit as slick as the technology features. In short, it’s a pleasure to browse. That goes for its mobile website too. It’s surprising how many technology related websites you have to crawl through (I’m talking big name ones here, not just smaller ones) that simply don’t look good on anything smaller than a desktop PC. The guys behind Windows Phone Central have cracked it though.

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We love the help and how to features, with great attention to detail paid to topics that range from memory management and In-App Purchase hints to looking after your Nokia hardware and of course tips for getting the perfect photo.

What’s its stand out feature?

The thing that wows us most about Windows Phone Central is its awesome dedicated community of Windows Phone users, enthusiasts, experts and newbies. There are two great places to meet them. Firstly, in the comment threads. The comments in any well followed blog can be every bit as enlightening as the article itself – and many of the threads on Windows Phone Central are definitely worth joining. Take a look at the 400+ responses to this article, which invites comparison of the Nokia Lumia 1020 with the iPhone 5S. The comments range from one liners to 600 word essays on one feature or another.

And of course there are the forums. This is where the really in depth discussions happen. It’s about user opinion, people supporting each other and sharing knowledge. Its home screen is laid out better than any other forum I know – divided into themes, topics, hardware, software, etc.

Here are a couple of ongoing threads to whet your appetite: share your Nokia Lumia 1020 pictures and videos here; and how about joining this ten thousand post challenge? Can you help them reach their target? With more than 7,500 replies in a single thread already, they’re already well on their way.

Like all the very best online communities, the one behind Windows Phone Central is magnificently supportive, knowledgeable, and passionate – in this case about pushing Windows phones to the limit – and of course its fabulously opinionated and not about to let us start taking their support for granted. Most recent posts from the community are always streamed right here on the homepage.

Hooking up beyond the blog

You’ll find Windows Phone Central in all the usual social media places – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ – and of course the best place of all to talk to them is in their own forum.

A website with a community as strong as Windows Phone Central is so much more than articles and editorials. It’s the community that really brings it to life. Now you’ve had a chance to explore their forum and comment threads, share your favourites in the thread below…