HTC HD7 Windows Phone (T-Mobile) Review
In this review I'll talk both about the HTC HD7 in general, with another section that focuses somewhat briefly on Windows Phone 7 - starting with the HD7.
Pros:
* Sleek design that has a nice heft to it.
* Huge, vibrant display.
* The HD7 is quite quick performance wise.
* 16GB's of storage
* The screen is extremely durable.
* Good call quality.
* Large screen makes the on-screen keyboard a dream to use.
Cons:
* Can't swap out Micro SD card without voiding the warranty.
* The display has some viewing angle issues, and the black levels aren't great.
* Accidental touches of the 3 main buttons (back, search and home) happen a little too often.
* Camera and video quality are pretty pedestrian.
* The battery cover feels ridiculously cheap, compared to the rest of the phones construction.
* Annoying `GSM buzzing' noise when using headphones.
Question:
* Touch sensitive buttons are love-or-hate?
* The kickstand on the back of the phone - why?
Design and Aesthetics
The HD7 has a very sleek look to it, there is nothing exceptionally exciting about the look of it but it is certainly quite good looking in general. The phone is big, very big but pretty reasonably thin and also pocket able. Dark chrome sides wrap around the entire side of the phone, with the bezel just around the screen being an un-obstructive black. The back of the phone is a gun metal grey with a few brushed metal accents that look very nice - with the entire back being smooth to the touch. A few more details about the front of the phone that stand out are the touch sensitive buttons, and the two gaps at the top and bottom of the phone that have a mesh grille over them - they sure look like speakers, but alas they are not. Just for looks. Speaking of just for looks, what is with the kickstand? It works fine, but while the display on the HD7 is quite large, it's not large enough to sit on a table with the kickstand up and watch as if it's a television. I just don't understand the need for it.
The buttons in general are love-hate with me. On the love side, we have the camera, power and volume rocker buttons that work perfectly fine and are designed in such a way as to not stand out in an odd way from the rest of the phone. On the hate (well, maybe more like `annoying') side are the three main touch sensitive buttons. They are just too easy to accidently brush against with some part of your hand - there have been more times than I can count that I was exited out of something I was doing because of it. But on the plus side the phone gives off a quick rumble as feedback when you do push one of the touch sensitive buttons.
Also of note are the Micro USB and standard 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom of the phone. I'm sure the USB connection being on the bottom will come in handy for whatever dock will inevitably be released.
Also, no stereo speakers to be found here - there is one speaker on the back of the phone. It's simply passable, it sounds fine and doesn't distort but it's also not exceptionally loud (or quiet.) It's just kind of `there.' You're never going to hear it and think to yourself `man, this sounds great' or vice versa.
Display
And then we have the display. As I'm sure many of you know, it's freaking huge - and quite honestly I think 4.3" displays are about as big as you can put on a phone without it just being ridiculous. The display in optimal conditions looks downright beautiful - it's vibrant, colors and text look extremely nice and bright on it -- but being a WVGA screen it has associated black level and screen angle problems. Colors get washed out and text gets slightly harder to read when the phone is held at an angle, and also any completely black screen that is displayed never actually looks black.
If you've used a phone or media player with an OLED screen, then these problems will immediately stand out to you, if not, then you probably won't notice.
The touch screen is also very responsive, never had a problem with it not registering swipes or touches, but as in keeping with mobile phone tradition - the screen will look pretty greasy after a little use (get your shirt sleeve ready.)
Bits and pieces
The sound quality when using headphones (for the record, I use Sennheiser HD555's and Klipsh Image S2's) is surprisingly good. The HD7 replaces my Zune HD for playing media and while I was expecting a slight step down, it really wasn't. It's not quite as loud as the Zune HD, but it compares really well with it. And if you're worried that you won't get any of the EQ presets (yes, presets - there is no custom EQ) HTC has you covered. HTC makes a free app which lets you tinker around with EQ presets to your heart's content along with some surround sound options which are...well, I'm sure someone will like them - I didn't. I find EQ presets to be complete garbage on any portable media but again, I've seen some people raving about the HTC EQ app so there are people out there who like it - so file this one under `to each their own.' : )
Also, ever hear that annoying buzzing noise when you have your phone on and near speakers? Yeah, you're going to hear that quite a bit with headphones on. Faint, but it is there.
And about the speed: the phone is quite snappy, you can fly in and out of different menus at will with no slowdown. The only slowdown I ever encountered was with third party apps, one in particular was almost un-useable because its slow speed. I'll chalk that up to no fault of HTC.
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 is really something special, especially when you remember this is the first run of this new OS. A lot of things are amazingly well thought out, but like many things it's not perfect.
Also for full disclosure, aside from Xbox Live, I'll be skipping my thoughts on most of the social service integration (such as facebook), as I do not use them.
The UI
WP7's UI is beautiful in a minimalistic sort of way. It gets out of your way, and lets you get where you need to go with no real hassle - while also showing a huge amount of info via the live tiles on the home screen. The calendar tile shows upcoming events (as well as on the lock screen), the email and messaging tiles have information on unread messages - etc. Third party apps can also be coded to take advantage of this, although up to this point most do not. As of this writing less than 10 apps do, which is a shame.
Just about anything can be pinned to the home screen -- apps, specific albums, specific files from Microsoft Office - etc. Very handy if you need to get to that OneNote file really quick. You can even pin a location from Bing Maps on it.
On-screen Keyboard
I wanted to give WP7's keyboard its own little space in this review, to simply point out how nice it is. With the HD7 especially it's simply a dream to use. The large screen of the HD7 makes the keyboard, especially in landscape mode so easy and natural to use with two hands. And the little well thought out details on the keyboard make it a really enjoyable experience. Double tapping space for a period, the way you can quickly jump back and forth between different sets of punctuation marks and numbers - it's just great overall.
Zune
Another smart decision was to use Zune (Microsoft's line of portable media players, and the associated Zune PC software) as Windows Phone 7's music and video suite. It honestly is like having a Zune HD inside your phone - as a heavy user of the Zune HD for over a year I can tell you right now you compromise nothing when switching over to using the HD7 as your primary music player. In a lot of ways it's better, the most important way is you now have a constant data connection with your phone to browse, stream and download music from the Zune marketplace whenever you like - not just when you're using a Wi-Fi connection.
There are a few things you'll leave behind when switching from the Zune HD to WP7. One is the Smart DJ (takes a song or artist and finds similar music) feature is not in WP7, nor is the `social' where you could see what your friends have been listening to from your device.
Xbox Live
This surprised me with how well it works. First off, not every WP7 game gets the Xbox Live treatment. Only the games on the Zune marketplace with a big, bold `Xbox Live' banner get that. They have achievements and leaderboards which is all pretty well done.
But the revelation here is the way you can check your Xbox Live friends list and see what they're up to, look at every game you've played at see what achievements you've earned and what you're missing, check messages, edit your profile and edit your avatar. It's really great.
Internet Explorer
I've been using IE quite a bit on this phone. I was worried, because the browser included within the Zune HD is really quite honestly middling at best. However, Microsoft really seems to have taken the complaints of the Zune HD's browser, fixed (most) of them and packed in WP7 with great results. Still no flash support, but you probably already knew that.
Standing out to me the most is the sheer speed of the browser. It's quick to render pages and super snappy when pinching to zoom or swiping to scroll around pages. Also you get (a finite number of) tabs to work with, and a perfectly acceptable bookmark system.
Though one thing that bothers me is when in landscape mode within the browser, I can't seem to find a way to bring up the address bar and have to reorient the phone in my hand back to portrait mode. It's extremely annoying, and I hope that I'm just missing something here and there is a way to do it.
(WP7)Bits and pieces
Windows Phone 7 being the first run of a brand new mobile OS, it's got some issues. The most glaring to me personally, is that you can't use a custom file for a ringtone or any other alert. It's not a deal breaker, but it's...odd. Also missing is a copy and paste feature, which is slated to be included in a software update sometime in early 2011, which will make plenty of people very happy.
Also I've noticed a few awkward bugs with the software, such as Internet Explorer crashing, exiting you back to the home screen and simply refusing to open again until you reboot the phone.
Conclusion
The HD7 is a great phone, and I'd definitely recommend it for someone looking to get a large displayed phone on T-Mobile, and WP7 only sweetens the deal.
The few quirks with the phone such as display angles and such really only become a big deal to anyone who has used something significantly better, and even then it's still fine. WP7 is something really special, and I also don't hesitate to recommend giving it a whirl with the HD7 or otherwise - any odd mis-step with the OS will likely (or has been confirmed to) to fixed right up with upcoming updates, such as copy and paste or custom ringtones and alerts (I mean, they have to add that at some point, right? Right?)
I give the HTC HD7 a "great, but not perfect" 4 stars.
 |
| HTC HD7 Windows Phone (T-Mobile) Review |
In this review I'll talk both about the HTC HD7 in general, with another section that focuses somewhat briefly on Windows Phone 7 - starting with the HD7.
Pros:
* Sleek design that has a nice heft to it.
* Huge, vibrant display.
* The HD7 is quite quick performance wise.
* 16GB's of storage
* The screen is extremely durable.
* Good call quality.
* Large screen makes the on-screen keyboard a dream to use.
Cons:
* Can't swap out Micro SD card without voiding the warranty.
* The display has some viewing angle issues, and the black levels aren't great.
* Accidental touches of the 3 main buttons (back, search and home) happen a little too often.
* Camera and video quality are pretty pedestrian.
* The battery cover feels ridiculously cheap, compared to the rest of the phones construction.
* Annoying `GSM buzzing' noise when using headphones.
Question:
* Touch sensitive buttons are love-or-hate?
* The kickstand on the back of the phone - why?
The HD7 has a very sleek look to it, there is nothing exceptionally exciting about the look of it but it is certainly quite good looking in general. The phone is big, very big but pretty reasonably thin and also pocket able. Dark chrome sides wrap around the entire side of the phone, with the bezel just around the screen being an un-obstructive black. The back of the phone is a gun metal grey with a few brushed metal accents that look very nice - with the entire back being smooth to the touch. A few more details about the front of the phone that stand out are the touch sensitive buttons, and the two gaps at the top and bottom of the phone that have a mesh grille over them - they sure look like speakers, but alas they are not. Just for looks. Speaking of just for looks, what is with the kickstand? It works fine, but while the display on the HD7 is quite large, it's not large enough to sit on a table with the kickstand up and watch as if it's a television. I just don't understand the need for it.
The buttons in general are love-hate with me. On the love side, we have the camera, power and volume rocker buttons that work perfectly fine and are designed in such a way as to not stand out in an odd way from the rest of the phone. On the hate (well, maybe more like `annoying') side are the three main touch sensitive buttons. They are just too easy to accidently brush against with some part of your hand - there have been more times than I can count that I was exited out of something I was doing because of it. But on the plus side the phone gives off a quick rumble as feedback when you do push one of the touch sensitive buttons.
Also of note are the Micro USB and standard 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom of the phone. I'm sure the USB connection being on the bottom will come in handy for whatever dock will inevitably be released. Also, no stereo speakers to be found here - there is one speaker on the back of the phone. It's simply passable, it sounds fine and doesn't distort but it's also not exceptionally loud (or quiet.) It's just kind of `there.' You're never going to hear it and think to yourself `man, this sounds great' or vice versa.
Display
And then we have the display. As I'm sure many of you know, it's freaking huge - and quite honestly I think 4.3" displays are about as big as you can put on a phone without it just being ridiculous. The display in optimal conditions looks downright beautiful - it's vibrant, colors and text look extremely nice and bright on it -- but being a WVGA screen it has associated black level and screen angle problems. Colors get washed out and text gets slightly harder to read when the phone is held at an angle, and also any completely black screen that is displayed never actually looks black.
If you've used a phone or media player with an OLED screen, then these problems will immediately stand out to you, if not, then you probably won't notice.
The touch screen is also very responsive, never had a problem with it not registering swipes or touches, but as in keeping with mobile phone tradition - the screen will look pretty greasy after a little use (get your shirt sleeve ready.)
Bits and pieces
The sound quality when using headphones (for the record, I use Sennheiser HD555's and Klipsh Image S2's) is surprisingly good. The HD7 replaces my Zune HD for playing media and while I was expecting a slight step down, it really wasn't. It's not quite as loud as the Zune HD, but it compares really well with it. And if you're worried that you won't get any of the EQ presets (yes, presets - there is no custom EQ) HTC has you covered. HTC makes a free app which lets you tinker around with EQ presets to your heart's content along with some surround sound options which are...well, I'm sure someone will like them - I didn't. I find EQ presets to be complete garbage on any portable media but again, I've seen some people raving about the HTC EQ app so there are people out there who like it - so file this one under `to each their own.' : )
Also, ever hear that annoying buzzing noise when you have your phone on and near speakers? Yeah, you're going to hear that quite a bit with headphones on. Faint, but it is there.
And about the speed: the phone is quite snappy, you can fly in and out of different menus at will with no slowdown. The only slowdown I ever encountered was with third party apps, one in particular was almost un-useable because its slow speed. I'll chalk that up to no fault of HTC.
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 is really something special, especially when you remember this is the first run of this new OS. A lot of things are amazingly well thought out, but like many things it's not perfect.
Also for full disclosure, aside from Xbox Live, I'll be skipping my thoughts on most of the social service integration (such as facebook), as I do not use them.
The UI
WP7's UI is beautiful in a minimalistic sort of way. It gets out of your way, and lets you get where you need to go with no real hassle - while also showing a huge amount of info via the live tiles on the home screen. The calendar tile shows upcoming events (as well as on the lock screen), the email and messaging tiles have information on unread messages - etc. Third party apps can also be coded to take advantage of this, although up to this point most do not. As of this writing less than 10 apps do, which is a shame.
Just about anything can be pinned to the home screen -- apps, specific albums, specific files from Microsoft Office - etc. Very handy if you need to get to that OneNote file really quick. You can even pin a location from Bing Maps on it.
On-screen Keyboard
I wanted to give WP7's keyboard its own little space in this review, to simply point out how nice it is. With the HD7 especially it's simply a dream to use. The large screen of the HD7 makes the keyboard, especially in landscape mode so easy and natural to use with two hands. And the little well thought out details on the keyboard make it a really enjoyable experience. Double tapping space for a period, the way you can quickly jump back and forth between different sets of punctuation marks and numbers - it's just great overall. Zune
Another smart decision was to use Zune (Microsoft's line of portable media players, and the associated Zune PC software) as Windows Phone 7's music and video suite. It honestly is like having a Zune HD inside your phone - as a heavy user of the Zune HD for over a year I can tell you right now you compromise nothing when switching over to using the HD7 as your primary music player. In a lot of ways it's better, the most important way is you now have a constant data connection with your phone to browse, stream and download music from the Zune marketplace whenever you like - not just when you're using a Wi-Fi connection.
There are a few things you'll leave behind when switching from the Zune HD to WP7. One is the Smart DJ (takes a song or artist and finds similar music) feature is not in WP7, nor is the `social' where you could see what your friends have been listening to from your device.
Xbox Live
This surprised me with how well it works. First off, not every WP7 game gets the Xbox Live treatment. Only the games on the Zune marketplace with a big, bold `Xbox Live' banner get that. They have achievements and leaderboards which is all pretty well done.
But the revelation here is the way you can check your Xbox Live friends list and see what they're up to, look at every game you've played at see what achievements you've earned and what you're missing, check messages, edit your profile and edit your avatar. It's really great.
Internet Explorer
I've been using IE quite a bit on this phone. I was worried, because the browser included within the Zune HD is really quite honestly middling at best. However, Microsoft really seems to have taken the complaints of the Zune HD's browser, fixed (most) of them and packed in WP7 with great results. Still no flash support, but you probably already knew that.
Standing out to me the most is the sheer speed of the browser. It's quick to render pages and super snappy when pinching to zoom or swiping to scroll around pages. Also you get (a finite number of) tabs to work with, and a perfectly acceptable bookmark system.
Though one thing that bothers me is when in landscape mode within the browser, I can't seem to find a way to bring up the address bar and have to reorient the phone in my hand back to portrait mode. It's extremely annoying, and I hope that I'm just missing something here and there is a way to do it.
(WP7)Bits and pieces Windows Phone 7 being the first run of a brand new mobile OS, it's got some issues. The most glaring to me personally, is that you can't use a custom file for a ringtone or any other alert. It's not a deal breaker, but it's...odd. Also missing is a copy and paste feature, which is slated to be included in a software update sometime in early 2011, which will make plenty of people very happy.
Also I've noticed a few awkward bugs with the software, such as Internet Explorer crashing, exiting you back to the home screen and simply refusing to open again until you reboot the phone.
Conclusion
The HD7 is a great phone, and I'd definitely recommend it for someone looking to get a large displayed phone on T-Mobile, and WP7 only sweetens the deal.
The few quirks with the phone such as display angles and such really only become a big deal to anyone who has used something significantly better, and even then it's still fine. WP7 is something really special, and I also don't hesitate to recommend giving it a whirl with the HD7 or otherwise - any odd mis-step with the OS will likely (or has been confirmed to) to fixed right up with upcoming updates, such as copy and paste or custom ringtones and alerts (I mean, they have to add that at some point, right? Right?)
I give the HTC HD7 a "great, but not perfect" 4 stars.
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