HTC HD7

The HTC HD7, Windows Phone 7.

HTC HD7

HTC HD7 Kickstand

HTC HD7 Internals

The HTC HD7 with the rear cover and battery removed.

Windows Phone 7 Boot Screen

The Windows Phone 7 boot screen. You also get greeted by a HTC logo and operator logo (in my case O2). The entire boot process takes approximately the same time as the iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.

Windows Phone 7 Home Screen

The famous Windows Phone 7 tiles. Each tile automatically displays update information for that particular hub or application. You can add or remove as well as re-arranged the tiles to meet your own needs.

Windows Phone 7 Applications

By tapping the arrow (top right) of the home screen you will get a list of all the installed applications on the phone. Any of these applications can be pinned to the home screen or un-installed by "tap-holding". Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) has said on a number of occasions that Windows Phone 7 does not just display a "sea of icons" like the iPhone or Android. Personally I am not sure I 100% agree with this statement, as the majority of your installed applications are accessed via this list (which will quickly get very long).

Windows Phone 7 Zune Hub

The Zune Hub is where you access your media. This includes offline content that you have synced to the phone, as well as radio and your Zune Pass (if you have one).

Windows Phone 7 Zune Hub

Anyone that has used a Zune in the past will be very familiar with this set-up. Personally I still prefer the iPod application on the iPhone, but Zune does a great job as well.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

The Marketplace is the equivalent of the Apple AppStore. It's where you come to download and update applications. As you can see from the image, application updates appear at the bottom of the screen.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

Just like with the Apple AppStore, Windows Phone 7 will automatically handle your updates. These can be completed over Wi-Fi or 3G.

Windows Phone 7 Mail

The mail application is where you handle your e-mail. I configured Google Mail, although you have all the usual options (Exchange, Hotmail, etc). I have found the experience to be very good and certainly comparable to the iPhone.

Windows Phone 7 Settings

The settings are split into two parts - phone settings and application settings. Unfortunately the phone settings are still a little weak and don't offer the granular control that Windows users have come to expect.

Windows Phone 7 Theme Settings

Microsoft have kept to their promise and only allow minimal customisation of the Windows Phone 7 default theme. Personally I believe this is a good thing as it means that HTC and Samsung can't butcher the operating system with Sense or TouchWiz.

Windows Phone 7 Theme Settings

The only real user customisation available is to select the home screens tile colours.

Windows Phone 7 Wi-Fi Settings

The most frustrating thing about Windows Phone 7 is that it currently does not allow you to join Wi-Fi networks with a hidden SSID. Also, it does not offer an easy way to discover your wireless MAC address, meaning it can't be easily added to a networks access list. I am sure this oversight will be corrected soon with a software update.

Windows Phone 7 Account Settings

Probably the most important settings option. This is where you add all of your accounts to Windows Phone 7 so that it can automatically access your data. This is certainly the highlight of Windows Phone 7 and it handles Windows Live, Google Mail and Facebook perfectly. It also respects your data on the individual servers, never attempting to automatically merge services (which would have been very annoying). You can add or remove accounts at anytime, with the exception of your master Windows Live account, which is used for billing, etc.