[HD7 General] mictho100:
Here's my opinion, for what it's worth... I've owned the HD7 since it was first released in the UK last year. I've stuck with it and I've gone through all the upgrades they released, including Mango. I've owned many different phones before, including Windows Mobile and Android devices, so I feel that I can actually provide some sort of personal comparisson between those.

Here's my background: I'm a geek. I like to have as many options as possible and I hate being locked into an operating system or an application that pretends that I am an idiot and cannot be trusted to modify any settings. Here's what I think is good and what I (personally) think doesn't work for me:

Bad Points:

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The Mango GUI is 'OK', but that's about it. It actually p!sses me off that Microsoft locks me into a single GUI and don't let me customize the icons. It's patronising. However, in Windows 8, the Mango GUI works a treat. So it's horses for corses I think... (remember, my personal opinion, not gospel!)

The GUI is drab and boring. SMS messaging is boring and uninspiring with the square, plain colour boxes... common! You can do better than this!

I understand why Microsoft decided to go with the USP (unique selling point) of the 'Hub' concept, where all contacts and messages are grouped together. Call me an old fart, but I actually prefer the 'old' way of keeping stuff separate as I am not very active on Facebook or Twitter. If I want to see what's going on, on Facebook, I'll go into the dedicated app. I understand that there are probably many more people who think differently to me, but I would at least like to have *THE CHOICE* to turn the feature off!

Did I mention lack of choice yet? Configuration on the device is very restricted, to the point that the phone treats me like a retarded child. Are you sure you want to disable predictive texting, so that you can use foreign words in your text messages? No, didn't think so, so I won't give you the option..... Common Microsoft! I could disable predictive texting in my Nokia phone 15 years ago, but all of the sudden, it is no longer considered 'necessary'.... muppets.

The Calendar is pretty crap for any real-world professional use. If I go into month overview everything is SOOOO small I can't see anything. Even in Landscape mode. The Agenda view is annoying and it's difficult to find anything without looking for a while (when you have lots of appointments in the diary). Why on earth did Microsoft not follow it's own implementation and adopted the Outlook Calendar features???!!!! To add to this, because the colours and layout of the OS are soooo drab, it makes it even harder to find anything in the calendar.

Outlook is crap. It really is. Once again, everything is almost monochrome and drab, where nothing stands out and it makes it harder to read messages. It's just all sooo boring. Life's not worth living when I open my outlook. Hohum...... It's OK for reading messages, but it's not great for forwarding or editing messages. It's actually a huge pain to forward something and then edit what you forward. Microsoft assumes that you do not want to edit the message you're forwarding.... patronising once again anyone?!

IE9 is OK, but I am still waiting for the feature from Android where pages are re-sized automatically when zooming in, so that all text fits to the page. If I zoom in in IE9 I have to scroll left/right to read a web page. Not good enough....

Painfully few system settings when compared to Android. Once again, Microsoft assumes we're all brain-dead idiots who only want to make phonecalls and drool onto the screen....

HTC specific issue: The camera is shockingly sh!t. It's slow, the macro function isn't great because I can't get as close a focus as on my G1 for example and the videos are pointless. The photos have very little dynamic range, they're under-saturated, over-contrasty, which kills the little dynamic range the camera has got. And the pixel level details are bad too. I only use this camera when I have nothing else to hand that can take photos. My G1 was *way* better. Not good enough HTC!

That damn search button on the right hand side of the phone. It's soooooo sensitive and it is soooo easy to accidentally hit it, it's almost unreal. Why did they do this? And why can I not change the default search provider to Google? Bing sucks!

Bing Maps were shockingly awful until the Mango update. So much so that I had to download Gmaps. Once again, just not good enough Microsoft, and something I consider to be pure lazyness, as they have a good Browser based Bing maps. Why could they not port that??!!

Custom ringtones anyone? Hello? Now possible in Mango via a hack, but why am I not allowed to load my own MP3's out of the box?? Patronising, once again?!

Marketplace used to be shocking at the beginning until the first update was released. Searching for an app would bring up a million 'songs' by random artists, that decided to name their song 'google maps' or 'wifi tool' or 'calendar' to get the top hits on the marketplace. Please. That is just shocking....

Good Points:

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The OS is fast and snappy. No hesitation, no delays (usually)

Browser is fast and snappy

Battery life has improved with Mango out of the box (without using battery saver)

Better browser on Mango

Two-tone colour scheme for messages in Mango, which now makes it easier to read conversations. Nothing to write home about though. Just goes to show how sh!te the original layout was that I am mentioning this!! =O

I like the way Mango now groups all pictures together into a hub. I know I complained about the hub above, but it actually makes sense for pictures (only).

Sorry about the rant. But this phone has been p!ssing me off since I bought it and I've still got a few months left on the contract, so I have to let off some steam here. My next phone will be an Android device again. Can't wait to go back! My partner has my old HTC Desire with Android 2.2 and it's *WAY* better in functionality than this phone....!

Mich