Windows Phone 7 On HTC HD7: Review

Software and Services

It took me about five minutes to set up the phone with my Gmail, Outlook, Twitter (which requires an individual application download), Windows Live and Facebook accounts.

Windows Phone 7 also ported over my calendar appointments without a hiccup. The “Metro” theme, familiar to those who’ve used the Zune HD, offers intuitive navigation and a handsome interface.

Microsoft’s applications marketplace now features some 5,000 applications for Windows Phone 7, according to reports, and this presents a fine collection for those wanting to download a few games and productivity applications.

It doesn’t even come close to the size of Apple’s and Google’s respective application bazaars, of course, but those platforms also boast their share of substandard programs. Although my delving into Microsoft’s applications wasn’t extensive, it seemed after a few days that the bulk of the applications on offer were of suitably high quality.

Screen

Once downloaded, applications install onto a secondary Windows Phone 7 screen, one swipe away from the “main” Start screen. From there, you can press down on a particular application to pin it to the Start screen.

This is fine if you’re only interested in having, say, Facebook and a few games a tap or two away.

Power application users, though, may soon find themselves wishing for some sort of organising principle – along the lines of Apple’s iOS applications folders – for ordering the applications they’ll doubtlessly want to place on the Start screen.

Bing

Microsoft’s massive investment in initiatives such as Bing pays off in Windows Phone 7. The phone’s Maps application looks spectacular, shifting to a satellite view as you zoom closer to the ground.

However, this element also comes with some kinks: it sometimes directs me to the wrong destination. Eventually, I had to activate Internet Explorer and use Google Maps. Other addresses proved less of a problem.

In a development that will shock exactly nobody, Bing is also Windows Phone 7’s default search engine. One of the smartphone’s better features is voice search, which seems responsive and relatively accurate.

For example, when I told the device, “Chinese restaurant” while standing on a busy street on New Year’s Eve, it heard me accurately; a few seconds later, I had a list of nearby eateries serving highly questionable egg rolls.

Specific place names take a little work, requiring you to enunciate clearly and loudly into the device, but ultimately work as intended.