HD7 a few months in

[kasavien]

I've had my HTC HD7 since mid november, and I have to say i love it just as much now as when i first upgraded to it, if not more. The UI is fast and intuitive, I've found apps for most things that I would want, although they can are very expensive in some cases. I'm never going to pay £5 for a train app, although I can see that it would be very useful.

There are some very good games for it, which I have enjoyed a lot - Rocket Riot for one is lots of fun. I'm even making extensive use of zune, and a years zune pass. I've listened to and enjoyed more new music recently than I have in a while. It's great remembering a band and thinking i'd like to listen to it and then going to the market place and downloading it to my collection to listen to immediately.

It's even good for the staple phone tasks of typing messages and making phone calls. I think I more readily reply to my girlfirend because it's a pleasure typing out a message compared with any of my previous phones and much quicker too.

But you might have seen this coming and there is a big but, my experience of the WP7 platform on the hd7 hasn't been entirely smooth. On average I have to restart the phone every couple of days because an app stops loading, or in some situations the graphics go very glitchy. This isn't a massive issue because the phone restarts and is useable in 1-2 minutes, but should I have to put up with this, or should I get onto o2? I've put up with it so far because I half expected it being an early-ish adopter and there's supposed to be an update in the next month or so which I'm hoping will fix the software issues. So for now i'm putting up with these issues, because the rest of the time my HD7 has been awesome.

All in all i'd recommend it to anyone, a few people in the office have looked at it and liked it. I the company I work for is thinking of using WP7 devices as work phones. Which I can understand because of the office apps and the ease of setting up outlook.

How are other people who have taken the plunge finding WP7? Good, Bad or just indifferent?

[1stRaven]

I used a HD7 as a test phone for work and loved how it looked and worked. I have a HD2 as a personal phone so was use to the size but a few others found it a little big. We currently use desires/Iphones 4's as work phones so windows 7 was quite different and currently has no security software available for it which is we are not moving to them at the moment.

I think I'll be upgrading my hd2 to a hd7 soon, just wish tomtom would install on it.

[IBM]

Now that I have Android running on my HD2, I reckon I've got the best of both worlds. Huge screen and an incredible OS. I like the slightly more angular look of the HD2 over the HD7 too.

Either way, HTC = the best thing to happen to mobile phones in a long time

[Stringent]

I have thought about an HD7 instead of my Desire. But I can't bring myself to sell the Desire and get an HD7. Maybe once the update comes out for WP7 I might consider. Also something about HTC build quality, just makes it feel ... cheap.

[McPhee]

Similar story with the Trophy. Best handset I've ever had, though there are a few teething issues (plus the quality of build and materials sucks vs my old iPhone 3G and even my Nokia 6300). I've had the occasional app crashing too, usually the Zune or Marketplace hubs during a search. The device needs reset to get it working again. A minor annoyance really due to the infrequency, but stll one that I hope gets fixed in the new update.

BTW, how do you download music from the marketplace straight to the phone? I can stream, but if I try to download it then it looks like I get charged (not tried it, but price and payment method come up and it states no refunds, so I don't fancy taking the risk). If I get that working then I'll have practically no need for syncing with the PC.

[TheAnimus]

HD7 crashing?

I've never had to reset my (Launch Week) Omnia7, not once, ever.

It has heavy use but is still giving me at least 2 days on a charge, with push email turned on, it can last for ages on talk time which is good.

The problem for me is that the lack of Flash is a real kick in the teeth

[1stRaven]

or lack of sat nav otherwise I would be upgrading pretty quickly.

[TheAnimus]

BTW, how do you download music from the marketplace straight to the phone? I can stream, but if I try to download it then it looks like I get charged (not tried it, but price and payment method come up and it states no refunds, so I don't fancy taking the risk). If I get that working then I'll have practically no need for syncing with the PC.

Do you have a valid zune pass ascociated with the phone?

If so just pressing and holding on the album or track (very un-intuative) brings up a menu which you can pick download from and you will not be charged a peny or see a screen inviting you to pay.

[[DW]Cougho]

I have an LG Optimus 7, and I have a similarly pleasurable experience. It's an excellent phone / OS. I never have to reset my phone due to apps refusing to load and the battery is outstanding compared to my Milestone.

I do miss my hardware keyboard however, despite the on screen keyboard being the best I've used (including an iPhone).

[McPhee]

Do you have a valid zune pass ascociated with the phone?

If so just pressing and holding on the album or track (very un-intuative) brings up a menu which you can pick download from and you will not be charged a peny or see a screen inviting you to pay.

Thanks. I had a Google and found that out quite quick. It is very unintuitive, they should add some sort of visual indicator to let you know there's other options. I'd also like to see 'Download' be made the default selection for ZP subscribers, it's silly that it's currently 'Buy'.

or lack of sat nav otherwise I would be upgrading pretty quickly.

On the up shot, we'll be getting the best SatNav on any mobile platform once this Nokia deal goes ahead. Ovi Maps and Bing Maps will be merging, powered by Navtech's map data (which is the best out there).

[TheAnimus]

McPhee surely the Ovi Maps will only be available if you bought a Nokia...

[kasavien]

Quick update to my original post. I sent my HD7 away for repair and I'm actually quite surprised and glad to say that o2 seem to have fixed whatever was wrong. I haven't had to restart my phone since I got it back nearly a week ago. Here's to hoping it stays that way because I really really like this phone and I'd rather not have to be without it, whilst it is repaired again.