The competition in the high-end smartphone category has heated up again with the launch of Window-based phones. Phones like HD7 are being launched to ensure that Nokia doesn’t clinch the market which they overtook from the Finnish giant in last few quarters.
HD7 is a high-end multimedia phone from HTC that would give you some rare entertainment opportunities on your device, whether it is playing games on XBox Live or recording high-definition videos.
What is it?
HD7 is one of those bigger phones with a 4.3-inch screen. The screen is massive, but the phone is sleek, which effectively distinguishes it from the netbooks and makes it comfortable to carry it in your pocket. It meets all the Microsoft specified hardware requirements and 800 x 480 resolution screen, 512 MB ROM and a 1 GHz processor. The camera is 5 megapixels along with an 8 GB internal storage and a 3G modem that offers download speed up to 7.2 Mbps. The Hub app has been updated with the Mango update for the Windows phone.
Key features
The big screen offers a number of advantages while browsing the internet or using other standard applications such as Microsoft Office. It is easier to type and send messages as well as read web pages or e-books on HD7. It comes with a humble 5-megapixel camera comes with auto focus and is also equipped with a dual LED flash. It offers you a number of photo-editing and enhancing tools to make your pictures sharper and vibrant. It shares the advantage of having a number of Microsoft applications like other WP7-based phones such as Bing maps, SharePoint, OneNote and others. It is powered by lithium-ion battery that has capacity of 1230 mAh and promises a standby time up to 320 hours.
What’s innovative
The Windows7 interface has been reported to be much more responsive and the large screen makes it easier to bank upon the advantages offered by it. Availability of Xbox Live on the phone is an intelligent move that may attract gaming fans. A unique feature is to shake your phone and watch the elegant fall of the selected image.
Price and availability
It is currently priced at about $550 and is available at most of the HTC stores.
Accessories
Additional accessories available for the phone include a Bluetooth mono headset, a case, leather pouch, a USB car charger and a battery cover.
The up side
The biggest plus point with the HD7 is its large screen, which makes web browsing as well as typing more comfortable. The design is impressive and the phone has superior build quality. Most people have appreciated the work done on the new OS from Microsoft for the mobile devices. HD7 too has the advantage of this and many people might choose HD7 to know the experience of this new platform. The double flash offers additional advantage to capture better images in the dark. You can watch HD movies as well as play games on the XBox Live.
The down side
The speaker volume is low and you need to download Sound Enhancer app from HTC Hub and change the settings to Dolby. There is no SoftKey to take pictures and the image quality too is not top notch. The touchscreen is not as vibrant as compared to other high-end smartphones available in the market. Also compared to Android the Window-based phones offer much less application to tinker with.
Our experience
Considering it as one of the few phones offering Windows experience, HD7 may attract a wide audience, but HTC Desire HD might overshadow HD7 as it seems to have similar specs at lower price with an equally impressive interface. HD7 leaves a lot more to be desired, although it is just a beginning we can expect more superior efforts in the coming time from the manufacturers to dominate the Window-based mobile market.
The bottomline
There are issues with the brightness as well as viewing angles of the screen. The camera doesn’t delivers quality images consistently and the battery is not impressive. Unfortunately, we are not impressed with the new HTC phone and wouldn’t be recommending it to you as well.
