Paul Thurrott took some time out of writing his book, “Windows 7 Phone Secrets,” to comment on what he thought Android brought to the table.  His experience is telling because he’s one of a handful of people outside of Redmond who have been using the Windows 7 Phone prototypes daily.

His first experiences with Android were when his wife went out of her way to get a Droid from Verizon almost a year ago.

… she’s been quite happy with her choice. She’s a Gmail and Google Calendar user, so the Android OS makes sense for her.

Ironically, Thurrott’s Windows 7 prototype phones didn’t meet his employer’s corporate standards so he got a Droid X. He’s smitten.

So I’ve got this DROID X. And I have to say, suddenly, I get it. I understand why this thing is surpassing the iPhone as we speak. Aside from one killer mistake, something that would be oh so easy to fix, this phone is hands-down superior to anything designed in Cupertino.

He’s certainly a fan of Motorola’s hardware.  Notables include the 4.3-inch screen and speedy CPU/GPU.

I’ve never noticed any pauses or waiting times. It plays games and movies full-screen, full-speed, and can handle virtually anything you throw at it.  The camera is a whopping 8 megapixels and is quite decent, the first smart phone camera I’ve seen that could possibly replace a point and click, and it takes 1280 x 720 (720p) video at up to 24 FPS. We’re in a different world, people.

He even has some nice things to say about Android’s software.

The Android OS hits all the high points. It supports customizable home screens, has a wealth of high quality applications, and the important apps–Gmail, Calendar, and so on–all work exactly right. This is an e-mail triaging machine.

It isn’t all glory for Android, however.  Thurrott notes two weaknesses in the Android experience.  The Android Market is too disorganized and has a lot of copyright-questionable apps that shouldn’t be there.  Additionally, media management lacks Apple’s iTunes experience which borrows heavily on years of iPod experience.  He (like me) uses DoubleTwist to manage media on Android.

But, he concludes:

It’s scary to think how one-sided this would be if Google just put a handful of UI experts on the marketplace. Game over, Apple. Game over.

That’s an interesting statement because Google’s Android 3 OS (Gingerbread) will have the benefit of having been worked over by recent Google hire Matthias Duarte, the UI genius behind the Danger Sidekick in the early 2000’s and more recently the webOS.

Gingerbread should be hitting Android hardware about the same time Thurrott’s book and Windows 7 Series hit the streets.

If Android can win over Paul Thurrott, it has done a pretty good job.