Out
in 2010, HTC HD7 aka HTC HD3 and HTC Schubert is a large screen
smartphone of Taiwanese tech-giant. The key attraction of this
handset is Windows Phone 7, a thoroughly refurbished mobile operating
system of Microsoft. The device has inherited plenty of hardware
specs from its big brother HTC HD2.
Design and display
HTC HD7 measures 122 x 68 x 11.2mm in size and is sure to
feel significantly larger in contrast to HTC Mozart. But, it's also
more comfy to hold in comparison to chunky Dell Venue Pro. With 162g,
it’s also pretty weighty.
Its nice keyboard lets you
accurately and quickly type in both portrait and landscape modes. The
handset outshines its WP7 brethren when it comes to screen. Similar
to Desire
HD and HD2, it flaunts a 4.3 inches screen which can be termed as its
most attention-grabbing feature. But disappointingly, it supports the
low resolution of 480 x 800 pixels as in HTC Mozart.
Moreover,
we found plenty of blurs and tears on pics and text during horizontal
and vertical scrolling, which also miffed us earlier in Windows Phone
7 menus. Apart from this, the colours are also a bit washed out in
comparison to displays of other HTC devices.
User
Interface
We found the Microsoft's Windows Phone 7
interface on this handset pretty excellent. Large screen and
responsiveness make it even more accessible and handy to use. The
Home screen of the handset can be activated by just tapping a main
Windows button, which leads you to a range of tiles that display
continuously updated info related to pics, music, unread email etc.
HD7 is powered by Snapdragon 1GHz processor and packs 576 MB
RAM and 512 MB ROM similar to other Windows Phones designed by HTC.
Even though, same hardware specs were also incorporated in its old
sib HD2, but we found them speedier because of menu and apps of
revamped OS. But, when we used this OS in dark mode, we found it a
tad washed out in contrast to Samsung Omnia 7.
Internet
Browsing
The handset uses the Internet Explorer, Windows
Phone 7 browser, which brings the twofold blessings of IE 7 and IE 8
as touted by Microsoft. It lets you enjoy multi-tabbed browsing,
bookmarking, screen zooming on pinch and tap. But, here are also some
flip sides of this browser. It lacks Flash, Silverlight and text
wrapping for closer zoom.
All in all, the browser will enable
you in experiencing fast processing without any lag and jitter, which
is noticed in WebKit run iPhone 4, HTC Desire
HD and Samsung Galaxy S.
Network and Connectivity
HD7
supports host of connectivity options, but unfortunately all don't
perform well as we expected. It provides Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G,
HSDPA, EDGE connectivity, but speed was sadly enough slow. Even the
handset also struggles with Wi-Fi particularly while coming out to
re-connect from sleep mode.
The device misses out internet
tethering thus ensures safe data, but the compulsion to convert some
videos annoyed us. In addition, the Syncing of more than four films
takes 6X time in comparison to Samsung Galaxy S. In our opinion, it
would be much nice to incorporate better connectivity in the
HD7.
Applications
HD7 is replete with an
extensive treasure-trove of applications developed by Microsoft as
well as HTC. The company has incorporated the device with a
Sense-like hub, which renders notes, weather, flashlight and other
apps. Albeit, out of the box Bing Maps are better mobile mapping
apps, but these can't match with Google Maps and Nokia's Ovi Maps
because of lacking free sat nav and extra info. Photo Enhancer,
Stocks, Calendar, One Note are other popular apps in this device.
Camera
HTC HD7 flaunts a 5MP camera with
dual-LED flash, which is indeed impressive but not on so much level
as 8MP camera with Xenon flash of HTC Mozart. But, blissfully, this
camera packs autofocus and several other specs which were unavailable
in its other brethren.
The pics taken by this camera look
crisp and detailed, but we were not much impressed with its colour
reproduction. Further, we also noticed burnt highlights while taking
pics in bright sunlight.
The camera can record HD videos at
720p, but it's also pretty average, as we found a lot of blocking
when frames included a host of movement.
Multimedia
HD7
is incorporated with Zune interface with the view to bring multimedia
capabilities. Its Zune Pass, which falls between the Nokia's Ovi
Music and Spotify for Mobile and renders free streaming of plenty of
music tracks from an album in sequence. But, what let us down was
that we can't create playlists through it.
Sound of
headphones is pretty good, but it intolerably increases while using
the sound enhancer. SRS Surround Sound for music, podcast list and FM
radio are also nice. You can also buy the songs from Zune
Marketplace. Video is also easy to use courtesy to its large display
screen. But, it a bit washed out sometime and Zune PC software needs
video conversion while syncing with phone.
HD7 is integrated
with Xbox Live, which is targeted at outsmarting the gaming platform
of iPhone and Apple's Game Centre. Powered by HD7's internal GPU,
Xbox Live provides sleek play with just a little slow-down.
Calling
and messaging
The contacts navigation on the HTC HD7 is a
breeze and you can find contacts via two options. Notwithstanding, we
liked the volume of speaker, but the quality of calling didn't
impress us too much. We faced hassle in guiding the ear to the
loudest spot of this device. Moreover, sharp edges made it
troublesome for us to press it near the head.
HD7 renders
plenty of email options as Windows Phone 7 incorporates Microsoft's
Windows Mobile eco-system. You can easily set up large number of
email accounts including Yahoo, Google, Hotmail etc. The messaging
interface in email section is also pretty great and lets you easily
read the messages with the options of viewing just the urgent or
unread emails.
Battery life
Due to 1GHz
processor, dedicated GPU and lack of third party multi-tasking, the
battery life seems well, but it doesn't match with the capability of
the model. Hence, you can find its 1230mAh battery depleting each day
even on the light usage.
Specifications
Dimension
68 x 11.2 x 122 mm
Weight 162 grams
4.3 inches LCD capacitive
touchscreen with 480 x 800 pixels resolution
Accelerometer sensor
for UI auto-rotate
Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
Camera 5
MP, 2592Ñ, 1944 pixels with autofocus, dual-LED flash,
geo-tagging
Video 720p
Internal memory 8GB (Europe) / 16GB
(Asia), with 512 MB ROM and 576 MB RAM
Network Bands GSM
850/900/1800/1900 HSDPA 900/2100
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
3G
HSDPA up to 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA up to 2 Mbps
GPRS Class 32
EDGE
Class 32
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
USB microUSB version
2.0
Battery Li-Ion 1230 mAh
Standby Up to 310 hours (2G) Up to
320 hours (3G)
Talk-time Up to 6 hours 20 minutes (2G) Up to 5
hours 20 minutes (3G)
Speakerphone Yes
Audio Playback
MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player
Video Playback MP4/WMV/H.264/H.263
player
Radio FM radio with RDS
CPU 1 GHz Scorpion processor,
Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset
GPS Yes, with
A-GPS support, Bing Maps
OS Microsoft Windows Phone 7
Social
Facebook and Twitter integration
Pros :
Attractive
design
Large and responsive 4.3-inch touchscreen
Simple to use
user interface
Integrated kickstand
Easy sync with Zune
software
Excellent music store
Nice keyboard
Cons:
Poor battery life
No option to expand memory
Poor
Yahoo search in browser
Lacks good social-networking
The
bottom line
Albeit, the touchscreen of HD7 is large, it
doesn't show good video like other Windows Phone devices. Battery
life is also disappointing. But, HTC HD7 left us fascinated with the
specs of new Windows Phone 7. Zune also renders excellent music. All
in all, the device is a perfect buy for those looking to switch from
a more basic phone.
