Microsoft's Joe Belfiore certainly piqued our interest at MIX by demoing Windows Phone 7 on an unidentified Samsung handset, but our excitement soon faded when we found out it was just a hacked-up Omnia i8910 and not a real phone. Still, the Sammy remains only the third WP7 device we've seen other than the ASUS-built test mule and the prototype LG Panther that's been popping up recently after debuting on the Engadget Show, so these two videos of it running a recent WP7 build at reMIX in France is still quite notable -- the OS seems fast and responsive, and we're told everything on the device was functional, including the GPS and camera. What's more, there's a demo of an Xbox Live Arcade / iPhone game port called Twin Blades by Press Star Studio -- it was done in a week by one programmer using 90 percent of the Xbox Live code. That's impressive, to say the least.

Of course, this device may look like an Omnia, but it doesn't have the Omnia's OMAP3 processor -- as per WP7's requirements, the internals have been swapped for a Snapdragon-based board. We're still waiting for Microsoft and its partners to show us some more interesting hardware -- let's face it, the Panther and this Samsung are almost identically boring -- but there's no denying the software itself looks to be coming along quickly. Now let's just hope it launches with enough heat to save Microsoft from another executive shuffle. Video after the break.