Ranting and raving about anything I feel like complaining about.

Review of my Windows Phone 7 (HTC HD7)

by

HTC HD7

I am pretty invested in the Windows Phone 7 and in that light I went ahead and got a phone at launch. I had a LG developer device that Microsoft got me to help me work on the book. While having an early device is really helpful, I was ready for an up-to-spec device. To get a device early, I left Verizon and moved to T-Mobile (for what its worth, AT&T is just more evil than the rest so I my hand was forced to T-Mobile). I went with the HTC HD7.  I took a leap of faith and actually pre-ordered the phone without getting my hands on it. But because this phone hardware was used for the Sprint Android Phone and the HD2 WinMo phone, I'd had a chance to see the other devices and liked the overall size and heft of the device.

The Phone

The phone is a 1GHz processor with 16GB of memory. Its big, but not too big for me.  Here are some pictures:

Start Screen

Start Screen

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Movie Viewing

Viewing a Movie

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Kick Stand

The Kick Stand

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Top

Top of Device

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Bottom

Bottom of Device

(click for full size image)

Side

Side of Device

(click for full size image)

What I Love

Its a big screen (4.3") which I had to get used to.  I had a Motorola Droid as my main phone for a couple of years now and the on-screen keyboard on the Droid works but the screen is much smaller.  I had to get used to the fact that the keyboard on the HD7 was big enough for my "Shrek-sized" hands.  Its a joy to type on. The screen response is exceptional (in contrast to the Droid and the LG dev device). It follows my fingers with a lot of precision and gives me the instant tracking of what I am doing. It just works the way it should.

I love the Music hub and syncing my playlists onto the device make it really easy to have my music with me.  I still haven't given up my Zune but its close.

HTC has some tricks up its sleeve that I like.  They allow you to make it so when a phone call comes in that the ringer lowers when the device is moved and my favorite feature is that when you turn the phone over when a call comes in, it goes into speaker phone mode (yes, these can be disabled).

Lastly, the way it handles Wi-Fi is pretty sweet.  It does not just leave it on.  As applications need it when its not in constant use, it will reconnect.  I assume this is to help with battery life but it seems to work without much interruption.

What Needs Work

I miss real Turn-by-turn directions.  The device came with an app that promised turn-by-turn but wanted $9.99/month for it and that's pretty silly. The directions app on the device is good enough for now but I would guess that Bing team is actively working on bringing better turn-by-turn.

Voice commanding works (hold start button if you didn't discover it yet) as expected but is pretty limited.  It seems to do web search really well, but does not do search on the phone. I can't seem to say "Call Chris Sells" and have it call Chris. I'd also like to see voice recognition in the email and SMS apps so I can voice reply when I need to.  (Not that I'd ever do that while driving ;).

The virtual buttons on the device (instead of hardware buttons) work well enough but they are a little too sensitive.  I've found myself at the search screen way too often while in the middle of an app (which causes tombstoning).

Zune Client

In this first iteration of the integration with the phone, the Zune client works admirably.  I've used it as my music player for a while so I am used to the app but some people might be a bit irritated by it.  My big complaint about it currently is that searching on the App Marketplace page does a search through the entire Marketplace and your local music and could be a lot better.  Even better would be a web-based app search tool.  I know they've got App searching in Bing working, but we need something better.  But its early so I am going to give them some slack.

Apps

The overall quality of apps out there are a bit mixed.  Some apps are pretty polished but others are just dreadful. The Facebook app (not the People integration but the App) is incredibly slow. The website is faster in fact and they don't seem to do any caching of data so they are pulling down data on every launch.  But there are some real gems:

Games

  • Bejeweled: Does what I wanted...plus achievements.
  • The Harvest: Great top-down RPG-like game.  Slow load times do make it a little painful (don't touch the search button please.)
  • Unite: Fun take on the marble maze games.
  • Text Text Revolution: Fun way to get comfortable with the soft keyboard.
  • Yahpips: Yahtzee clone.

Productivity

  • Calorie Counter: Great to track your food intake.  Syncs with their badly named site.
  • GoVoice: Google Voice calls/sms.  Good integration.
  • IMDB: For those bar bets.
  • Pictures Lab: Nice Photo manipulation app. Integrates with Photo hub.
  • Seesmic: Good twitter client (though should be faster and use caching).
  • AP Mobile: Get your news on.

Location Apps

  • Open Table: Making reservations for mid to high-end restaurants. Trustworthy reviews too.
  • Flixster: My favorite movie finder app.  Shows User and Rotten Tomatoes reviews which help a lot.
  • Yelp: For finding that local place with decent (though not always accurate) reviews.

Entertainment

  • Netflix: Need I say more? Streaming over 3G or Wi-Fi.  Awesome.
  • Last.fm: Good Internet radio though I use Music Hub more often.
  • YouTube: Makes any YouTube content viewable on the phone.  Still wish sites like FunnyOrDie would work on the phone though...its not a YouTube-only world any longer.

Miscellaneous

  • Alarm Clock Pro: Best $2 I spent. Shows an alarm clock.  Great travel clock replacement.  (Alarm Clock Pro + Kick Stand + Music Hub == Shawn sleeps well ;)
  • HTC's Flashlight: Uses the Camera Flash for a flash light.  Exceptionally bright but HTC only.

Accessories

As the device was just released there aren't a lot of accessories.  Since its the same hardware as the HD2 and the Sprint EVO 4G I had hoped it would work but after a trip to the store to try them out the ports are different so cases and car docks don't work.  I picked up a cheap universal car dock to get me through until the real accessories ship.  Chargers aren't necessary since it uses Micro-USB like 1/2 the devices I own so I have a drawer full of chargers that work with the phone.

Overall

Its a new phone so I am expectedly in love.  We will see over time as the platform matures. 

 

 
 

Comments

Gravatar Did you buy it with a 2-year contract, or outright + month-to-month?
Vic Klien (Posted Sunday, November 14, 2010)
Gravatar $199 with 2 Yr.
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Sunday, November 14, 2010)
Gravatar My HD7 has only 8GB. I don't know why they sell models with different memory sizes. Big minus point. 16GB isn't much either.
Eric Schoenholzer (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar I like also the wireless sync with zune
Eric (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar Eric,

From T-Mobile? Or are you in Europe? All teh ones from TMobile in the US are supposed to be 16GB. I'd return it if that's what happened.
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar How is the battery life on the phone? I am pretty much all set to buy HD7, do you still think you are missing the AMOLED of Focus,thoughts on the screen?
Anjan (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar I like the screen a lot but the AMOLED is probably better from what I've heard...but AT&T is remarkably evil so its not a possibility for me. I am getting a full day on battery and not doing much special, but I very commonly plug in when I am working or driving so I don't notice.
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar No mention of Ilo Milo? I show that game to anyone with a new Android phone or iPhone 4 and they are really impressed. Most mobile games look like mini flash ports. Ilo Milo looks really like that bridge between a flash game and an Xbox game.
bart czernicki (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar Ah, its AT&T exclusive (which sucks) so I don't have it.
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar Wow I am just like you :) I left Verizon and went to T-Mobile with the 2 year $199 HD7. I am very happy.
Michael Washington (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar Your HTC flashlight can use the LED flash? DOH! Us Silverlight WP7 devs don't have access to that! DOH! (I did miFlashlight and I can't access the LED). They must be using some C++ code?
PHenry (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar Also I got this: LG HBM-210 Bluetooth Headset by LG http://t.co/vH4dxrV and I am able to say "Call Valerie" and it works.
Michael Washington (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar Hi Shawn,
you said you had a LG dev device (I have one too). You did not mention the enormous loading speed difference between HTC devices and devices from other manufacturers. The LG dev device loads games and apps like 10 times faster. Is this not the case with the HD7? I have the Mozart and my g/f has the Trophy. Both are horrible lame at loading speeds. Away from that, great phones. But HTC did a very bad job with the built in memory (SD cards).
Didn't you recognize that or is it just me who is pissed about that experience?
Away from that, great read! Thank you :)
Dirk
Dirk Nordhusen (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar @PHenry: Some devs are more equal than others. The LG prototype features an LG section in marketplace that includes among other things an AR type application, which would also be impossible for normal Silverlight/XNA developers as apart from the "snap photo" task/chooser there is no Camera access API.
peSHIr (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar I have a Samsung Focus (AT&T) and love it, however my biggest complaint at the moment touches on what you mentioned about Harvest, it never fails that I am hitting the search button during a gaming session. I have to believe that there is a way to lock it somehow (hardware or programatically).
cyanbane (Posted Monday, November 15, 2010)
Gravatar the tmobile plan is $20 cheaper a month if you don't sign the 2 year contract. You save money on that phone if you buy it for $499
Dan (Posted Tuesday, November 16, 2010)
Gravatar good review. love my new hd7. easy to use, practical it's great for web browsing and the touch screen is really responsive. and i love the little vibrate you ge when you push the buttons on the bottom. email wifi and gps is great for my business and all the games are fun. great unlocked cell phones. the facebook on the phone is great and the screen is big enough to navigate around. much better than our old unlocked blackberry phones. the camera is really great and the recorder is easy to use, great for catching family moments!! also got our blackberry unlock codes and cell phone unlocking for free!! got our last 2 at unlockthatphone.com 2 thumbs way up
logan (Posted Wednesday, November 17, 2010)
Gravatar So love the "It's not a YouTube-only world any longer"...outstanding...watch the market for a 'newbie' App that allows video stuff :-)
Charles Turton (Posted Friday, November 19, 2010)
Gravatar Why do you say you have been using the Motorola Droid for a couple of years, it has been out much less than that.
john (Posted Tuesday, November 23, 2010)
Gravatar John,

Ok, you got me. It feels like i've been using it a couple of years...
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Tuesday, November 23, 2010)
Gravatar gr8 article. definitely buying one this holiday season
Suman (Posted Thursday, December 09, 2010)
Gravatar I have the HTC HD7 for daily use and HTC trophy as dev device with smaller screen.

I really dislike the ghosting on my HD7 screen. white text on a black background is horribly vague as soon as you start scrolling a bit (e.g. the list of apps on the second part of the home screen, or scrolling through the facebook posts on people hub.
The trophy screen is better.

I also have problems with the Wifi on both HTC devices. it takes up to a minute sometimes until I can do any http request, while the wifi icon is completely lit up, and even IsNetworkAvailable in the sdk already returns true ...

Any one else with these problems ?
Bert Lagaisse (Posted Thursday, December 30, 2010)
Gravatar @Bert;
you hit the nail on the head! I have noticed the ghosting effect the first time I turned the HD7 on! and I despise HTC for it!! For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, the text gets blurry and icons leave a trail when you scroll up or down.

I had played with an LG Optimus 7 before getting the HD7. The difference between the performance of the LCDs on those 2 is tremendous. And that's very disappointing.

Not only the Optimus 7 is much much sharper, but it's also more contrasty and can go much brighter (highest brightness setting on the HD7 is comparable to the medium setting on the Optimus!); and most importantly, the Optimus doesn't have the ghosting effect.

I contacted HTC about the ghosting, at first it seemed like they didn't have a clue what I was talking about (which was surprising because I thought the unwanted effect was very obvious); so I sent them a video demonstration.. and after a couple of messages back and forth, they acknoledged that it was indeed an "issue" with the LCD refresh time.

Now here's the odd part, the ghosting effect is unnoticeable when you switch to the WP7 Light theme (white bg). I asked HTC if they were going to try and fix it (or tweak something) with a firmware update, they told me that I should check the support section on the HTC website -which is another of way of saying: don't hold your breath.
Milo (Posted Saturday, February 05, 2011)
Gravatar ..There are other negative things I can think of:
- the flimsy snap-on battery cover! why snap on! that's the worse thing ever. It gives the phone a somewhat cheap feel.
(whereas the LG Otimus 7 has a solid stainless stell cover and feels more like a premium phone!);
and btw there's a noticeable gap between the removable cover and the non-removable back of the phone. Unforgiveable HTC!

- the volume rocker is loose. It moves up and down (and that's not just my phone, it's a design flaw)

- the speaker is on the back! I was hoping that there would be speakers behind those "speaker grills", but no..

- the focus on the camera is a bit laggy. It takes a short while until it locks on a subject, and for some reason the camera button doesn't work when the phone is locked (on the Optimus 7 it opens up the camera app).


Discouraged yet? Here's what I like about the phone:
- it looks great (even though the construction is meh!)

- the LCD size, no space is wasted at all, it takes almost the full size of the phone. The HD7 is slightly bigger than the iPhone 3G but it's much thinner, and therefore very pocketable!
IMO the HD7 is a great size for someone who doesn't want to buy a stupid tablet, but still wants to check his email or the web on the go.
And you can actually watch videos on it.

- Wi-Fi sometimes just refuses to connect. Mostly on public networks (i.e. coffee shops..) As if the reception is too weak or.. I don't know

The HD7 could have been the best smartphone on the market now, but HTC messed up with poor design choices and execution!
I still think it's the best looking WP7 phone, from afar :)

I feel slightly better now.
Milo (Posted Saturday, February 05, 2011)
Gravatar What is the application format supported on this handset and if I wish to test my application, which is not uploaded to the market, how can I transfer it to this handset from my PC?
Supriya Tenany (Posted Tuesday, March 22, 2011)
Gravatar Supriya,

The format is a .xap file (that the tools create) and you can deploy to a phone if you sign up for the AppHub (http://create.msdn.com). That does mean you can't test it on a phone until you join ($99 in the US).
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Tuesday, March 22, 2011)
Gravatar How can i copy videos to HTC HD7 Phone? what format is supported?
pankaj (Posted Wednesday, July 06, 2011)
Gravatar You can use Zune to sync videos. If it's a format that the phone doesn't understand, it can convert them. Sticking with VC-1 (aka WMV) or H.264 work best.
Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Wednesday, July 06, 2011)

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