To show data to the user you have to load data and bind data – but which one is the slow part? Answer: It depends on the nature of your data and the complexity of your UI. This post will show you that data can be loaded on the UI thread or the background thread, and data can be bound all at once or a few items at a time. These data handling techniques can be used together to create one of the most important concepts in Windows Phone 7 – perceived performance. Full source with demo app showing the scenarios can be found at the bottom.