Windows Phone 7 on HTC 7 Trophy

I'm going to open this article with 2 quotes;

"Windows Phone 7 is an entirely fresh mobile experience, on which HTC is excited to be going big.  We see tremendous customer opportunities with Microsoft's most popular services like Xbox LIVE and Zune integrated.  The value Microsoft is bringing to mobile customers around the world sets a new benchmark for the industry.  HTC will be introducing five new HTC Windows Phone 7 Smartphones at launch to support our customers with a broad variety of choice."

Peter Chou, CEO, HTC Corp.

"We're delighted to be partnering with Microsoft to bring the HTC 7 Trophy to our customers as a Vodafone exclusive.  Not only does the phone have all the 'quietly brilliant' innovations that HTC is famous for, but it comes with the new Windows Phone 7 services and user experience.  Along with the LG E900 Optimus 7, the Windows Phone 7 additions to our Smartphone range will further enhance the choice we give our customers."

Patrick Chomet, Group Director of Terminals, Vodafone Group plc

I've had the HTC 7 Trophy for about 10 days, and as it didn't spark me within the first couple of hours, I've needed to force myself to drop the iPhone 4 and BlackBerry 9800 for 48 hours so I can comprehensively test it.

Will all the marketing spend that Windows Phone 7 has received I had high hopes for the OS and the handset.  I was even primed by a colleague at Microsoft that it was a great alternative to Apple's iPhone.

I'm going to get the tech specs out of the way first.  The model I tested was the T8686 with a 1GHz CPU.  It has 8Gb of internal storage, 512Mb of ROM, and 576Mb of RAM, has a 3.8" touch screen, 5 megapixel camera that also records 720p HD video, and weighs in at 140 grams.  On the network front it supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA and WCDMA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, and 802.11 b/g/n wifi.  It has a standard micro-USB for charging and computer connection, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

In the hand it feels robust yet has a silky feel to the plastic case on the back.  The screen is clear, and the buttons have positive click response.  Photos and videos look great, music sounds great.  The camera takes good pictures, and the video record quality is good.  The handset itself is a really nice piece of hardware, although the 8Gb internal storage seems a little light compared to the 32Gb on the iPhone 4.

The Windows Phone 7 OS is a different beast altogether.  The Home screen is customisable in that you can move the tiles around meaning what's important to you is the first thing you see.  The arrow pointing right leads to the rest of the applications and the phone settings.

The most important thing to me on a smartphone is email integration.  I have multiple email accounts including Exchange, Google Apps and a couple of other generic IMAP accounts.  One of the things that Apple Mail does brilliantly on the iPhone is the consolidated inbox.  Unfortunately Windows Phone 7 doesn't replicate this; each email account is displayed as a separate tile on the Home screen, meaning the additional functionality that I'd like to put there is displaced.  Yes you can scroll down and see the other tiles, but it negates the idea of the Home screen.

In terms of getting my own content onto the handset, Windows computers were the easy option.  When I first connected the HTC Trophy to an iMac, it started charging, but nothing else.  I had to download the Windows Phone Connector for Mac, which is an interface between iTunes, iPhoto and the handset.  Once installed, it did a good job of getting content on there, however it failed with the DRM movies and TV shows that I'd bought from the iTunes Store.  The other point I wanted to mention was sync time - it took nearly 90minutes to move 8Gb of content from the iMac to the handset.  And I can categorically confirm it isn't the iMac that is the problem here, I regularly move content between the iPhone 4 and the BlackBerry 9800 via the same USB ports.

While we're on the topic of content, I thought I'd check out the Zune store for album pricing.  I wanted to buy the Magnetic Man album - Zune price: £10.99, iTunes price: £8.99 - I bought it on iTunes.

I took the handset to the gym this morning instead of the iPhone.  All the music sounded good, apart from the 3 second delay between tracks.  I've searched the phone for the setting to disable this, but didn't find it.  Many of the albums I listen to are continuous, and it's extremely irritating to have a gap in there.  Again, Apple resolved this with the early iPods, so Windows Phone need to add this to their update list.

As a hardware reviewer, probably the most desirable feature of any handset is screen capture.  Apple delivered this in the first generation iPhone; BlackBerry didn't deliver it on the 9800 (but 3rd party developers did), and Microsoft have failed to deliver it here.  What this essentially means is that I'm forced to use standard marketing materials form Microsoft and HTC, try and use an emulator and capture those images, or take photos using another device.  It's a little thing, but it makes such a big difference.

Considering this phone is free depending on the Vodafone price plan you adopt it's not a bad phone.  As with all things, it's diminishing returns the more you pay, and a free HTC Trophy at £35 per month vs. a £279 iPhone 4 handset at £35 per month might seem a no-brainer.  Let's just be clear that in my opinion, the OS that Microsoft has released is probably much like one that Steve Jobs canned in 2004.  When businesses are playing catch-up, they often cut corners, and Windows Phone 7 clearly feels mo where near as polished as iOS4.  We've also yet to learn how Microsoft will update the software, and how frequently.

In summary, Windows Phone 7 is a great start, but the Windows 7 computer OS has been through multiple iterations to become the solid platform it is today.  My feeling is that the Windos Phone OS will have to go through the same hoops before it's a real contender as a handset OS.

I'd love to see iOS4 on the HTC Trophy though...

Comments

[Raywilliom]

nice to see your post very nice phone very large display
top voip services