Analysis - Hands on with Windows Phone 7

[HEXUS]

HEXUS gets its hands on the new WP7 handsets.

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[Hicks12]

great, so far so good for Microsoft then! Although im not liking this network special products nonsense! I want the HD7 or what ever else is similar but out july next year, left vodafone cause they were overpriced and ended up with a HD2 at virgin mobile as it was much cheaper than competition (about £10+ less p/m) so if this stays it means I will end up paying a huge amount more for the HD7 .

I have to admit though, the specs on that HD7 albeit not a big jump is many areas the screen is amongs the most important. IIRC the HD2 only has a TFT/LCD screen, this is AMOLED which is lovely and I cant wait to try!.

Now to pray WP7 isnt to cripled like the iphone....

[TheAnimus]

You sure the HD7 is AMOLED? I've heard its just a TFT?
(This is important as I'm due a new phone and quite torn between the sammy and the hd7)

[Hicks12]

I hope hexus is correct because thats all it really offers over the HD2... bar the kickstand which you can get if you purchase the extended battery haha.

[kingpotnoodle]

Has anyone else noticed the recent trend towards silly names for phones, it's like they just opened the "Dictionary of Stupid Motivational Bollocks" and stabbed it with a pencil to pick the name...

[Sarah Griffiths]

Sorry for the confusion - I had AMOLED in my notes but I've double-checked and the HTC HD7 does infact have an LCD screen with resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

For comparison purposes, the Samsung Omnia sports a super AMOLED screen of the same resolution as the HD7 but it's slightly smaller- it's 4 inches instead of the HD7's 4.3 inch screen.

Thanks for pointing it out, Sarah

[Hicks12]

Well then i guess the HD7 is a pretty poor upgrade from HD2, new OS that will no doubt appear on XDA forums hacked for HD2 (as shown last week already!) shortly and the kick stand which adds very little .

Maybe the Omnia might be a good contender or i will end up on sim only with this HD2 for ever haha.

[TheAnimus]

Sorry for the confusion - I had AMOLED in my notes but I've double-checked and the HTC HD7 does infact have an LCD screen with resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

For comparison purposes, the Samsung Omnia sports a super AMOLED screen of the same resolution as the HD7 but it's slightly smaller- it's 4 inches instead of the HD7's 4.3 inch screen.

Thanks for pointing it out, Sarah

Cheers for clearing that up (not been lucky enough to look at anything but a acer prototype a while back!)

I'm edging towards the Omnia, but for extra merrit marks, don't suppose you know if its a pentile layout? And as such what the actual 'true' resolution is (not that anything is technically true in this context!)

If anyone doesn't know WTF I'm on about, see this great detailed article from ars:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...and-hacks.ars/

[Sarah Griffiths]

Think I'll have to fail the extra assignment for now as there doesn't seem to be any extra news on it as yet- but if I find out I'll let you know! .

[Scott B]

I've published a handy summary table of all the different phones and tariffs here: http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=26896

[[GSV]Trig]

As far as I can see the HD7 is an HD2 with less buttons, a kick stand and WinMo7.
The CPU and all the bits that matter are the same as the HD2, now maybe WinMo7 is tweaked more than WinMo6.5.5 and they have gotten more out of the hardware so that the HD7 is a faster smoother beast but I went from the Touch HD in September last year to the HD2 in December last year and was expecting the same sort of spec jump between the HD2 and the HD7 but its not, it is litterally a recycled HD2. It would of been nicer if they would of at least given us the 8mp camera that the Desire HD and the Mozart have but they havent even done that. I feel cheated

As it stands at the minute I wont be getting a new phone this year and will be sticking with the HD2 I have, no doubt in a few months someone will release WinMo7 for the HD2 and that'll do what I want.
I dont fancy the Desire HD as I've used Android on the HD2 and while its good and better in places than WinMo6.5.5 that I use daily it doesnt feel right to me.

Out of the new HTC units I'd go for the Mozart, same spec as the HD2 more or less but a slightly smaller screen and an 8mp camera, Orange exclusive though so I wont be able to get one

[cheesemp]

Personally I don't feel any real reason to move from the android platform but its good to see competition as it forces inovation from both handset manifactures and OS developers. Be interesting to see if MS can get market share turnaround using a big budget advertisting campain or whether people will be put off by the 'Windows' effect.

[TaintedShirt]

I'm edging towards the Omnia, but for extra merrit marks, don't suppose you know if its a pentile layout?

That caused me to take a double take, so glad you included the T.

Speaking about the omnia, lovely phone but no usable sd card that and the micro usb is on the top. Wonder what a stand will look like.

I am looking at getting a smart phone early next year, maybe sooner. There is now such a range, it's getting so difficult to choose between them. For me, synchronisation between pc and phone for calendar, contacts and notes is the most important thing. I currently use thunderbird across my vista, win7 and ubuntu OS's. Anyone got any suggestions about which OS phone I should try?