| Announced | March,2011 |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Camera Resolution | 5 MP, autofocus, dual-LED flash |
| Dimensions | Na |
| FM Radio | Yes |
| Form Factor | Bar |
| GPRS | Class 32 |
| Touch Screen | Yes |
| Weight | Na |
| View All Features | |
| Compare This Phone | |
HTC HD7S Review
Mobile carrier AT&T is no stranger to Windows 7 smartphones as the carrier offers several choices with Samsung Focus, HTC Surround and LG Quantum. HTC HD7S phone is another one join the list and this phone is an improved version of HD7 which was launched with T-Mobile. There are not many differences in both the phones except for the fact that this model available on AT&T comes with AT&T 3G bands. HTC HD7S boasts of a big display and several impressive features and it has several improvements over its HD7. Check out our HTC HD7S review to know more about the phone.
HTC HD7S Design And Case
Without an iota of doubt it can be said that HTC builds top quality smartphones and HD7S is no different. The size of the phone is closer to the first generation EVO 4G or Inspire 4G and is nicely finished with chrome accents along the edges. The black matte black makes it quite comfortable to grip the device and at dimensions standing at 122 x 68 x 11.2 mm, the phone is quite convenient for carrying out long conversations. It weighs 162 grams which is almost the same as that of HTC Inspire 4G which weighs approximately 164 grams. So the phone will surly give you a feel when you put it inside your pocket. The design of the phone is not exceptional, but most of the users will find it quite an elegant device.
HTC HD7S Screen
HD7S is equipped with a massive 4.3 inches S LCD screen. The large display comes in handy while watching videos, movies or web pages. The display of HD7S is one of the largest you will find among Windows Phone in the market and though it is no match for the Super AMOLED 4 inch screen of Samsung Focus, yet the display performance of HD7S is quite good. The colors are quite deep and vibrant and viewing angles are also quite good. Overall brightness was a bit subdued. However we still loved the retina display of iPhone and wished that HTC would have packed HD7S with AMOLED display at least.
HTC HD7S Features/User Interface
Windows Phone 7 uses “Metro” user interface which is fun and easy to use. Users can select the Live Tiles appearing on the home screen and there are supports for live updates. Windows Phone 7 require stringent hardware requirement and is powered by 1GHz Qualcomm snapdragon processor with 576MB of RAM. With Windows Phone 7 getting “Mango” update we hope that the phone will support multi-tasking. With the absence of multi-tasking third party apps are suspended as of now. The internal memory of the phone offers 16GB of storage. This is pretty large and you can store a large amount of data, contacts, videos and texts. We were highly disappointed to find that there is no way to expand the memory as the phone lacks an expandable card slot. There is excellent support for MS Exchange, Hotmail and MS Office suite. It syncs quite well with Google Calendar, email and contacts.
HTC HD7S Apps
Applications are an important aspect for a smartphone. HD7S has several inbuilt apps from AT&T as well as HTC. The AT&T apps included in the phone are
- AT&T Navigator
- AT&T Family Map
- AT&T Radio
- AT&T MY Wireless
From HTC Hub you can download several free HTC applications which are designed for Windows Phone 7 devices. Users can also download applications from Windows Phone Marketplace. Some of the other in-built applications which you will find in the phone are
- Document Viewer/Editor
HTC HD7S Keyboard
HD7S is equipped with a virtual QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is quite good to use both in portrait and landscape mode as it offers great space and response. The keys are quite big and come in handy while typing messages and emails.
HTC HD7S Camera Quality
HD7S is equipped with a 5MP camera which clicks pictures of resolution measuring 2592?1944 pixels. Though the camera is equipped with features such as auto-focus and dual LED flash, yet we found a couple of things retarding the camera performance – the terrible camera shutter button and the subpar image quality. Like so many Windows Phone 7 phone, pictures are rife and it lacked crucial details.
Even when it comes to snapping, the phone does not perform as per our expectations and the photos clicked are good enough for just posting onto FaceBook. We were also disappointed by the positioning of the shutter button which is located at that edge of the phone. We had to jam in down in order to capture a picture. The camera also lacked features such as wide dynamic range or anti-shake options which you will find in Samsung branded Windows Phone. However, the dual LED flash was able to restore some pride of the camera by helping us to click some sharp shots in dim light.
HTC HD7S Video
There is no front facing camera in HD7S. The rear camera is capable of 720p video recording. The videos captured were decent but we felt that it could have been made better. A phone which bears HD to its name need to come up with videos which offer nice details.
HTC HD7S Connectivity
Connectivity is quite good for HTC HD7S. The phone supports both 2G as well as 3G networks. Wireless connectivity in the device is taken care by Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. There is also support for GPRS and EDGE. There is also Wi-Fi hotspot facility for connecting various devices to the phone. The microUSB 2.0 cable and 3.5mm audio jack further consolidates the connectivity of the device. The phone offers a nice web browsing experience as the pages loaded were fast and smooth. The large display meant that we did not have to zoom into pages to read the texts.
HTC HD7S Multimedia
Our multimedia experience with HD7S was also quite good. The phone has Xbox Live store which allowed us to download and buy games. Though the store is way behind Android Market or Apple’s App Store, yet we played some nice entertaining games such as Doodle Jump. The Music+videos hub were linked to Zune store for songs, videos, radio etc. The Zune music player is quite good and the sound through Bluetooth stereo and wired headsets were quite good. HTC has also included a downloadable sound enhancer which boosts the bass of the system.
HTC HD7S Call Quality
Call quality is quite good with HTC HD7S. Over AT&T 3G connection we found the call quality to be quite good. During most of the calls we did not experience any drop in calls and our callers found our voice to be distinct and clear.
HTC HD7S Battery Life
Battery life is not shabby with HTC HD7S. When we charged it fully, then it lasted for about 3 days which is quite good.
HTC HD7S Accessories
During unboxing HD7S we found the phone to be stuffed with the following accessories:
- HTC HD7S
- Headphones
- MicroUSB cable
- Charging Adapter
- User Manual
HTC HD7S Price
On contract price of HD7S is approximately $ 200 while without contract the price of the phone $ 550.
Quite frankly, HD7S fell short of our expectations. The lack of non-expandable memory, poor camera, HDMI terminal etc works against a top notch smartphone. HTC HD7S looks pretty from outside but with so many phones in the AT&T stores such as Motorola Atrix 4G, iPhone 4, Samsung Infuse 4G it is very difficult to recommend HTC HD7S. If you are Windows phone 7 OS lover then you can surly take a look at HD7S.
