HTC HD7

Following the HD2, and more recently, the Desire HD, HTC is back with a new 4.3'' smartphone, and this time it's running Windows Phone 7.

Apart from the extra-large screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, the HD7 follows Microsoft's spec to the letter, and includes a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 8 GB of memory and a 5 Megapixel camera with 720p video. There's also a dual-LED flash and three touch-sensitive buttons on the front.


What's going on with HTC?

Handling the fun is a pleasure, and neither the shape nor the weight prevent you from using it with just one hand. It's worth pointing out that HTC is getting used to making phones in this large 4.3'' form factor—but that doesn't necessarily mean it's mastered the art.



Far from it in fact: the finish quality could hardly be worse. The buttons feel very cheap and start wobbling within no time at all, the panels above and below the screen get dirty very quickly and the back is so flexible it comes off far too easily. It's really this last problem that's the most annoying. The clip that allows you to slide the back off, at the top of the phone, is far too large (and a haven for snow and rain), but that's not even the part that you need to remove to access the battery.

Worse still, the soft half of the case fits so snugly that the SIM card sticks out. Here are two photos so you can see what we mean:


It isn't often that we say this about HTC, but in this instance, the manufacturer has made a real mess of the outside of its phone, despite aiming to produce a high-end handset. Amongst the strengths, we'd point out the kickstand that allows you to watch a film on the widescreen display without having to hold it.


All over display

The display itself is big, but the resolution is low. Although the 4.3'' screen doesn't sound great on paper, it actually does pretty well. It's responsive, and the HD7 doesn't skip a beat when you tap it. It's actually too sensitive on some occasions and sometimes records unintended taps, but you soon learn how to avoid these.

HTC hasn't produced the best mobile display we've seen, but has nevertheless produced a perfectly workable screen. It's nothing like the brand's Desire Z, but the HD7 does an honest day's work with a contrast ratio of 680:1 (much better than the LG Optimus 7 for instance), blacks that look less grey than some of its other WP7 competitors and primary colours that are reproduced relatively accurately despite a deltaE of 7.4 and a strong blue tinge. The contrast and physical size mean that the HD7 is very suitable for watching video.

It's worth nothing that the viewing angles are fairly narrow, which sometimes means the red icons end up looking orange for instance.

Using Windows Phone 7

With such a large screen, the HD7 offers an excellent showcase for Microsoft's new mobile operating system. Our review of this new handset is another chance for us to applaud the software developer's hard work on Windows Phone 7. The dynamic squares that make up the interface look great on the 4.3'' display, and the Snapdragon processor, which is clearly up to job, means that there's never the slightest pause as you navigate through the interface. It's just a shame that WP7 doesn't offer multitasking or copy and paste (thought that's promised for January 2011).

One of Microsoft's bright ideas was to use a fixed size virtual keyboard, meaning the HD7 ends up like other WP7 phones when it comes to typing and doesn't make the most of the extra space on screen. That said, the keyboard is one of the best on the market and entering text is incredibly effective.


Big on multimedia

With so much going on in the OS, it's only reasonable to expect some multimedia goodies. We'll not say much about the MarketPlace, other than to mention that Microsoft already has over three thousand apps available for download, some of which, like the Facebook app, are a real hit.

Users browse the web with Internet Explorer and search using Bing. We found surfing the web worked well and it's pretty fast, despite rather patchy network coverage. On the hand, the screen misses some details so it's impossible to read a page in portrait mode without zooming in.


The iPhone needs iTunes for music and videos, and WP7 devices need Microsoft Zune. There's no way round it and no direct support for Macs; you have to use the Windows Phone Connector app which goes via iTunes. WP7 phones can't be connected as storage devices, either, meaning everything has to go through Zune which handles audio, video and photo sharing. Video looks great on the large screen, even if the 800 x 480 pixel resolution limits the potential of the 4.3'' screen somewhat. For music, you can forget about the speaker, which is at the back, next to the camera and hardly audible, and instead use the headphone jack, which produces a powerful signal, like the Desire HD's ...

HTC has included a reasonably powerful noise reduction feature, with just a few quiet crackles, but it's the thought that counts. The Dolby Mobile and SRS Surround modes are useful, and although the latter isn't worth bothering with, the former adds a bit of depth to videos.


The photo and video camera doesn't make up for the other problems. We've still not seen any WP7 phone that impresses much in that area, but the HD7 adds insult to injury as the absolute worst 5 Megapixel camera we've seen on a handset running Microsoft's new OS.