To begin with,HTC HD 7 is the only piece of metal on the phone – tipping the scales at 162g already, we don’t think any more is needed. The kickstand is another example of good use of space no the HTC HD7. It folds nicely around the camera deck at the rear. The whole thing has ornamental value too. The chrome kickstand is a nice accent matched by a thin strip further down the rear.
The camera deck itself (housing the lens, dual LEDs and loudspeaker) is flashy yellow – the same color we’ve seen on the internals of some recent HTC phones. With the kickstand folded into place, very little of it is visible – only enough to be a discreet accent. The matt plastic at the rear is reasonably fingerprint-proof.
It’s nearly all-screen up front and it looks good. That’s in terms of sheer size though it isn’t great to look at – for image quality. It’s a regular LCD but that’s not what we’re complaining about.
HTC HD7
It’s the subpar contrast, subdued saturation and surprisingly weak brightness that we’re not happy with. The screen falls obviously short of Super AMOLEDs and the iPhone’s LCD – no doubt about that. But it’s also certain that the image quality is inferior to that of phones like the LG Optimus 7 and even the very own HTC Trophy.
And as if this is not enough – the HTC HD 7’s screen has another problem. Its response time is really poor and that’s most prominent when scrolling listed menus. You’ll notice it in the launcher where some kind of ghosting causes the text labels of the menu items to fade away while you scroll. The same happens elsewhere in the interface where you need to deal with lists. Quite surprisingly, this is less noticeable in the browser (as you’re scrolling or zooming in on text) or the image gallery. That’s what counts after all, but the unpleasant effect in the main menu (and video player, too) is nevertheless hard to ignore.
The HTC HD7 screen is generally unimpressive
Above the display you will only find the earpiece and a status LED, as well as ambient light and proximity sensors, all embedded beneath the grill. .
Underneath the screen we find the typical Windows Phone 7 controls – Back, Start and Search. They’re all capacitive keys with excellent sensitivity and haptic feedback. Pressing and holding the middle Start key will activate Voice Commands.
The two useless grills at the top and the bottom plus some of the typical controls
The dedicated camera key is also small and thin, but its feedback is much better. It has a different problem though. Because of the peculiar design of the rear panel, the shutter key is closer to the middle than it should be. Being away from the natural position of the index finger – in landscape hold – it’s hard to reach and press comfortably.
There is nothing of note on the left side.
The volume rocker and the camera key are on the right • the left side is empty
Power/Lock key on top
The 3.5mm standard audio jack, the microUSB port and the microphone pinhole are all at the bottom
The camera lens is centrally placed and it’s still the natural place for your index finger to rest when holding the phone during calls. There’s no lens protection – except for a slight embedding – even carrying it in your pocket you risk getting it scratched.
The camera lens between the loudspeaker grill and the dual LED flash
There are only two positions for the kickstand and you can’t fix it between fully-open and folded. It’s spring-assisted and generally provides solid enough support for the phone. The thing is, the lack of front-facing loudspeakers is felt when you use the kickstand.
The kickstand is a nice accent, and does the job too
Removing the battery cover reveals the SIM bed and the 1230 mAh battery. It is quoted at 320 hours of stand-by and five hours and twenty minutes of talks in a 3G network.
The 1230 mAh Li-Ion battery
The HTC HD 7 is a solid and generally well-built phone. Most of the HTC HD 7 is high quality matt black plastic, but there is some metal too – on the kickstand, which doubles as a camera plating. Good use of space make the otherwise big set comfortable enough to handle.
The screen size is an obvious advantage – though it’s not necessarily how you might feel about it. We think HTC did a great job of building the phone around the 4.3” screen but failed miserably in picking a decent screen in the first place. If you’re uncertain, the best thing would be to give the phone a try before buying it. And make sure you like what you see – the image quality issues are so easily noticeable that it made us even wonder if it’s not our unit to blame though we snatched it off the retail network.
The HTC HD7 is a handful
