A Brief history
As a person who is on the go quite a bit, I quickly came to realize that I needed some type of mobile phone that was able to keep up with my lifestyle. I've been through a few of the android phones and found them too complicated, too many sub menus needed to be bypassed to get to whatever area of the phone was needed. Responsiveness and call quality were more important to me than features, but of course I wanted my phone do be capable of at least some nifty tricks I can show off...seems like I found a winner in the HTC HD7
So, its a much older model yet still holds up to today. I am absolutely in love with the windows phone interface, the main menu dock is simple and elegant and I've never once fumbled around trying to locate anything as I've done countless times on my droid phones. The phone itself is rock solid and very heavy compared to some of the other models out there, it feels incredibly sturdy. It is one of the most responsive UI's I've ever used and only matched by the giga expensive Droid X models. The touch screen is smooth and fast, there is virtually no lag and it feels more tactile than most.
My problem with the new phones is that I simply do not want all that junk that comes with it. I don't often record HD video with my phone nor do i want to take pictures with it, I definitely do not want extreme multitasking ability, maybe 1 or two apps at once is just fine for me, and I really do not care at all for front and rear facing cameras. Thankfully all of the above is absent from the HTC HD7, it is a real bare bones touch phone. If you want a basic touch screen phone with excellent call quality and missing all that nonsense that jacks up the price of your phone...this is the phone for you. You can get one new for around $100 and I got mine for free as an upgrade for my disatifcation with the android based phones, but the actual upgrade cost would be $100
Docking all my email accounts to the home screen with live updates is pretty great. There is also a cool 3d ish browser called 3d Cube that i find nifty. No flash support of course, sorry guys ;) But social media sites and normal websites including head fi load quick on both wi fi as well as full net coverage. HTML5 will be included in the next update.
The HD2 comes with 12gb of storage and no expansion slots or HDMI out ports. Despite this, its still a good media player. Video looks excellent and crisp especially in HD 1080. A 5 megapixel camera is brandished on the rear with a nifty kickstand. Multi touch is quick and responsive as well, I expected far less and got something much nicer.
Windows App market
The Windows App store is just abysmal. Its a barren wasteland compared to the Droid market. There is virtually nothing in it, and what is there is pure crap or insanely expensive, at times is flooded by foreign apps in the NEW section. It's a waste of time to even try to find something decent, there are a few fun games but this is a joke compared to the Android experience, pretty much anything you want is there...its terribly broken in the sense that you simply cannot search for what ever the hell it is you are looking for. Want an application that has something to do with superman? Sorry, you cant. You will get search results barren and destitute beyond the music tracks, which are just incredibly expensive. I've seen tracks listed for $2.99 PER TRACK! Thats insane.
There is a massive update called Mango coming very soon, which boasts 500 new features. The phone does not support flac or anything lossless, you are pretty much stuck with the basics and its clear the Mango update will also not cater to anything decent related to the audio experience.
The music player
Lets talk a bit about the media player and music options. Its average at best, but has an odd flavor. Its incredibly dry and aired out, the bass experience is much deeper than it should be in comparison to my sansa fuze playing the same song. It has a very closed in sound when using headphones, and it cant drive anything beyond easily driven earbuds. Portable and full size cans shouldn't be used without amping. Its not friendly to those who want to use it as a music player.
( Again, its an excellent video player, pictures are decent, music isn't at all so good and reminds me of the first generation mp3 players that came out 10 years ago or so ) Thankfully there is a nice EQ app to fix this and some playlist support.
To sum this up, the HTC HD7 is an older model windows phone and still great if you plan to use it mostly as a phone or video player. Call quality is excellent, the touch screen is a bit hard to read in sunlight and the battery drains quickly on max settings just as any phone does. If you are looking for a phone that is JUST A PHONE, responsive and well priced, perhaps taking a look into the HTC HD7 would be wise. Its just as fast as the last generation of Android phones because this current dual core trend. Its a very good PHONE, and an average media player, definitely worth the price if you want to avoid clutter and just want a dang phone and little else :)
-Cheater
Edited by swbf2cheater - 7/17/11 at 9:35am
