MSN Messenger 7.5 Reviewed

Microsoft has just started offering beta testing of its newest version of MSN Messenger to a select few from its Connect service .. But as happens with all beta software, this version was also leaked .. So to follow the tradition, I got my hands on one too … And here is the review of the brand new Messenger…

Whats New in Messenger 7.5 :

• First thing that you will notice after installing it is the redesigned Login interface ..
  
  Enabling the Remember Me will show the user’s Display Picture … The remember password option is seperated from remembering username (Remember Me) … There is a combo box that let the user login as “Appear Offline” though you will have to change your status to Online if you want to start conversation with someone ..

• And after Yahoo Messenger introduced PC to PC calls in its newest version, MSN has introduced a new feature called Voice Clips .. Now you can record a voice clip and send in conversations .. The feature is nicely integrated …
  
  You have to press F2 or press the Voice Clip button to record your messege ..
  
  I wish they can include Offline Voice Clip support to it .. That will be a great addition ..
• Another new addition is Dynamic Backgrounds .. The backgrounds now contain animations. .. The beta version has two dynamic backgrounds …
  
  Although the animations are nice but it sux resources .. Imagine having more than 4 conversations open with dynamic backgrounds, the system will start to crawl …
  Apart from these major additions, there were some cosmetic changes too :
• The Webcam and Audio buttons are now renamed to Video and Voice respectively ..
  
• The My Space Button in the Main screen is renamed to My Msn Space ..
• The options have accomodated the changes .. You can Disable Voice Clips as well as Hyperlinks in the conversations …
  
• Another thing I found is the redesigned Connection Setting .. The Advanced setting panel is also made robust now …
  

Now what about the bugs ..?
      As this is a Beta version, bugs are there .. But one thing I noticed is that its pretty stable .. This version dont crash that often as beta version are expected to crash .. Only glitch I noted was when I changed the Dynamic Background for testing, it started using more resource .. I dunno if its a memory cache problem but this thing I will look to be cleared ..
      Another bug is Unlimited Nudge .. It was expected to be removed in this version but its still present .. I hope they will remove it from the final version ..
      And yeah .. If you really call it a bug .. This version will not work on versions prior to Win XP .. So if you are using Win98 or Me, you cant try it … I dunno if this can be “removed” or fixed in the final version ..

      Anyways .. I really liked this version and though I dont much use MSN Messenger, the new features are cool and will attract new users .. As with YIM, I expect to see RSS support in MSN Messenger too .. And options to remove one or more tabs …and Offline Messages .. !!

You can download the MSN Messenger 7.5 from here .. . (As it is a leaked version, I am not sure how long before those files are deleted )
There are some more screenshots that I didnt added to this review to make it fast to load ..