Well, I suppose I had better get started.
Here is my latest toy.
This is HTC’s latest big bad boy. It has a 4.3” screen and runs Windows Phone 7, which you will know about if you are a regular reader of this site.
One difference from the picture is that under the kickstand, mine is silver and not gold.
The HD7 is quite thin, but it makes up for it in breath and length. The back is a sort of satin grey, with a dark grey metal ring around the whole thing, or at least it looks like metal. The front is a big slab of glass, with a very tiny, recessed mesh at top and bottom that I think is the speaker grill. Also, the charge light shines out of the top mesh. The buttons on the front are capacitive (more on that later) so they are actually under that slab of glass. At the top, you have the power button, on the bottom the MicroUSB port and the headphone jack (3.5mm). On the right side you have the volume rocker and the camera button. Without being overly heavy, it has a nice heft to it that helps create the impression that this is a very solid device.
Now, about those buttons…
I have problems with both sorts of buttons. The buttons on the outer edge of the phone are very low profile and the edge slopes slightly into the front. If that doesn’t make sense, then it’s wider towards the back than it is at the front, or screen edge. I don’t know if that is the reason why, but the buttons do not provide a really positive feel. I find myself having to press them twice. Pictures don’t snap when I want them to, and it sometimes takes a couple of presses to get the phone to turn on. So, I wish that it had better physical buttons.
Unfortunately, the front capacitive buttons have the exact opposite problem. I keep finding myself on Bing because I have inadvertently pressed the search button. Now, to follow up on the capacitive search buttons, let’s move on to the capacitive screen, which I generally find very responsive, but when it comes to the keyboard…well, I have a problem. Even when used in landscape mode, getting the right keys pressed is a problem. Fortunately, the text prediction is excellent. One little problem that I run across is that if you hit space twice while you are typing, it inserts a period after the last word. Now, I actually think that is a cool feature, but I find myself with a lot of periods in the wrong places because I am not prefect at making a single tap on the spacebar. I feel sure that I will get used to that.
But, the HD7 is all about the screen. Now I have read some reviews that say the screen is not as bright and beautiful as the AMOLED screen on the Samsung Focus, but the Focus wasn’t an option for me, so who cares? Plus, this is a review of the HD7. The screen is enormous, and videos look great. I cannot compare it to anything except the Samsung Taylor that I had for a week, and this is much better.
The sound out of the little tiny speakers on the HD7 are just as bad as you would expect, but the sound from the headphone jack is as good as I expected from my headphones (they aren’t the most expensive pieces). Zune works great on the phone and I couldn’t be happier.
Now, one oddity is that at this moment I don’t have a carrier, so I cannot discuss how well it works…as a phone. That will come, but until T-Mobile drastic reduces their prices (or someone else does) I will have a T-Mobile phone with no coverage at all. I’ll try to report back later.
Now, a couple of additional things.
The HD7 from T-Mobile comes preloaded with the Netflix app. If you already have a Netflix account, then get ready for a treat, because you will be able to stream everything from Netflix straight to your phone. Combine that with a Zune Pass, and for $30 a month you’ll be getting all the Music and Video that you can eat, right on your phone.
Final word? I like it.
Here is my latest toy.
This is HTC’s latest big bad boy. It has a 4.3” screen and runs Windows Phone 7, which you will know about if you are a regular reader of this site.
One difference from the picture is that under the kickstand, mine is silver and not gold.
The HD7 is quite thin, but it makes up for it in breath and length. The back is a sort of satin grey, with a dark grey metal ring around the whole thing, or at least it looks like metal. The front is a big slab of glass, with a very tiny, recessed mesh at top and bottom that I think is the speaker grill. Also, the charge light shines out of the top mesh. The buttons on the front are capacitive (more on that later) so they are actually under that slab of glass. At the top, you have the power button, on the bottom the MicroUSB port and the headphone jack (3.5mm). On the right side you have the volume rocker and the camera button. Without being overly heavy, it has a nice heft to it that helps create the impression that this is a very solid device.
Now, about those buttons…
I have problems with both sorts of buttons. The buttons on the outer edge of the phone are very low profile and the edge slopes slightly into the front. If that doesn’t make sense, then it’s wider towards the back than it is at the front, or screen edge. I don’t know if that is the reason why, but the buttons do not provide a really positive feel. I find myself having to press them twice. Pictures don’t snap when I want them to, and it sometimes takes a couple of presses to get the phone to turn on. So, I wish that it had better physical buttons.
Unfortunately, the front capacitive buttons have the exact opposite problem. I keep finding myself on Bing because I have inadvertently pressed the search button. Now, to follow up on the capacitive search buttons, let’s move on to the capacitive screen, which I generally find very responsive, but when it comes to the keyboard…well, I have a problem. Even when used in landscape mode, getting the right keys pressed is a problem. Fortunately, the text prediction is excellent. One little problem that I run across is that if you hit space twice while you are typing, it inserts a period after the last word. Now, I actually think that is a cool feature, but I find myself with a lot of periods in the wrong places because I am not prefect at making a single tap on the spacebar. I feel sure that I will get used to that.
But, the HD7 is all about the screen. Now I have read some reviews that say the screen is not as bright and beautiful as the AMOLED screen on the Samsung Focus, but the Focus wasn’t an option for me, so who cares? Plus, this is a review of the HD7. The screen is enormous, and videos look great. I cannot compare it to anything except the Samsung Taylor that I had for a week, and this is much better.
The sound out of the little tiny speakers on the HD7 are just as bad as you would expect, but the sound from the headphone jack is as good as I expected from my headphones (they aren’t the most expensive pieces). Zune works great on the phone and I couldn’t be happier.
Now, one oddity is that at this moment I don’t have a carrier, so I cannot discuss how well it works…as a phone. That will come, but until T-Mobile drastic reduces their prices (or someone else does) I will have a T-Mobile phone with no coverage at all. I’ll try to report back later.
Now, a couple of additional things.
The HD7 from T-Mobile comes preloaded with the Netflix app. If you already have a Netflix account, then get ready for a treat, because you will be able to stream everything from Netflix straight to your phone. Combine that with a Zune Pass, and for $30 a month you’ll be getting all the Music and Video that you can eat, right on your phone.
Final word? I like it.
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