HTC HD7 Initial Impresssions

We’ve managed to get our hands on one of HTC’s first Windows Phone 7 Phones, the HD7 and we thought we’d post a brief initial impressions post with some pictures and first thoughts on the device. Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s latest entry into the Mobile OS market and is confirmed to be their last; for a long period of time, Windows Mobile was the choice of a lot of businesses but that reduced drastically as Microsoft lost ground to other OS’.

With Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 performing badly and leading to large numbers of users switching OS, Microsoft have had to change Windows Phone 7 from the ground up; where 6.1 and 6.5 merely built and changed parts of the previous OS, Windows Phone 7 has been rewritten from the beginning. And it shows.

A quick recap of the specs:

• Weight: 162g, Dimensions: 122 x 68 x 11.2 mm
• Screen: S-LCD, 4.3″, 16M colours Resolution: 480 x 800 pixels
• Internal: 8 GB ROM: 512 MB RAM: 576 MB
• 3G: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth: v2.1 with A2DP
• Camera: 5 MP autofocus Resolution: 2592 x 1944 pixels
• Video: 720p Video Call Camera: None
• OS: Windows Phone 7 CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1GHz
• GPS: Integrated with A-GPS Support GPS Software: Bing Maps

From start up, you can see that WP7 is nothing like any previous Windows Mobile OS. The minimum specs requirement of WP7, along with the HD7′s design and screen size make for a totally different experience to previous Windows Mobile devices.

Design-wise, the HD7 is brilliantly designed and looks great to hold. The kickstand at the back solid and firm, (unlike the one on the Nokia N900), and there is very little device wobble when you apply pressure to the side away from the kick stand.

The camera quality is not brilliant but is atypically HTC. Sometime with HTC devices, we feel that the manufacturer puts a camera in for the sake of putting it in.

The lack of memory card slot instantly alienates people who have a large media collection and like portability. The app store seems to be ok, but do they have mass developer support and a ready flow of apps? Only time will tell.

The onscreen keyboard on the HD7 is easy to use and looks no different to other touchscreen QWERTY keyboards, but a poor oversight in the keyboard design means that the landscape qwerty keyboard is virtually the same size as the portrait one and there is an annoying gap either side of it.

Overall, this was meant to be a quick look at the HD7 and it’s a drastic improvement over previous Windows Mobile devices. However, that’s not enough to keep Microsoft or the shareholders happy; Windows Phone 7 needs to regain market share for Microsoft and we’re undecided over whether it lives up to that target or not. We’ll be posting our in-depth review of the HD7 in the near future so keep an eye out for it.

What do you think of the HD7 then? Will you be buying one, are you a Windows Mobile fan / current user or are you giving Windows Phone 7 a complete miss. Let us know in the comments and if you want anything checked in the main review, let us know below! We’ll leave you with some photos of the UI.

More pictures to follow!

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Category: Opinion