T-Mobile zipped us over a brand new HTC HD7 loaded with Redmond’s brand new operating system and we have some first impressions to report back. For starters, we’re really like the design of the phone. It’s not over the top — the front of the device is more subtle than anything else. We love how HTC has used both the top and bottom parts of the phone in a unique way design-wise. There’s the same metal mesh inlayed for the ear speaker on top as there is on the bottom to complete the design vision. From a practical point of view, this unfortunately doesn’t work for me personally. I take issue with the way HTC has created these sunken-in ear speakers on their latest devices (HTC EVO, G2), and it makes the phones uncomfortable to talk on. There is a very minimalistic feeling for the front of the phone with just the three Microsoft-required hardware (in this case touch-sensitive) keys, and that’s it.
The phone feels solid, good to hold and use, though our volume rocker seems to be loose and it rattles whenever you transport the phone or pick it up. It’s a little irritating. The display on the device is top-notch as expected, and touch sensitivity is mostly on par with other competing devices.The internals of this device mostly mirror the HTC HD2 to a tee: 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 CPU, 576 MB of RAM and a 5-megapixel autofocus camera. It’s a tad bit disappointing, but the end result is a very speedy handset that delivers a great experience (if you’re the Windows Phone 7 type), and you can’t really complain too much about that. We have our hands on gallery all ready to go for you below!
