[HD7 General] geoken:
Phone

Pros:

-The screen is big and looks good

-It looks good

-Camera flash is pretty bright

Cons (almost everything else :/ ):

-

I hate capacitive buttons

. This is my first phone with capacitive buttons so I didn’t know this until now. I frequently hit the windows button when I’m typing quickly since it’s so close to the Space key. I frequently hit the search button when I’m using the phone with one hand. I also hit the search button when I’m holding the phone in landscape as my index finger grazes that area of the phone. My last 4 phones (2 iPhones, 2 HTC Android phones) all had proper buttons and one handed operation felt natural rather than precarious (as it feels now).

-

Overly sensitive screen

. I can easily actuate a 'tap' without making physical contact with the screen. This causes a lot of typos as my finger hovers millimeters above the screen while it travels from one character to the next.

-

Build quality

. It seems a lot of people are evaluating build quality based on looks and initial feel. If you fall into this camp then yes, the phone has good build quality. If your idea of build quality refers to the fit and finish itself the phone’s build quality is sub-par. The volume rocker is horrible, the entire things slides up and down in it’s housing and if you shake the phone or type very fast you can hear it rattling (it sounds like there’s a loose piece of metal in the phone’s body somewhere). The back cover on one of my HD7’s (I have 2, mine and my wife’s) does not sit tight, it shifts up and down a tiny amount as you use the phone. It’s annoying enough to me that I ordered a case so I wouldn’t have to feel it. Also, the battery cover and the lower backing doesn’t fit flush on one of my phones but does sit flush on the other. The phone doesn’t look and feel ‘plasticky’ (which to some might represent good build quality) put it isn’t put together as well as an iPhone or Nexus One.

-

Battery

; no explanation needed.

-

Small bezel

. Yeah, I know, I’m crazy. How could I complain about the small bezel which allows the phone to pack a 4.3 in screen while maintaining the overall form factor of phones with much smaller screens. At first I also felt this way, but in day to day usage I’ve reversed my opinion. I can’t even scroll in the browser while using it with one. The bezel is so thin that a portion of my palm is always touching the screen and my scroll gets interpreted as a pinch gesture. This doesn’t happen when I’m standing and using the phone because in those instances the phone kind of rests on my fingers. But when I’m leaning back or lying down I need to hold the phone with a more substantial grip (since it’s partially upside down) and in those instances my palm is always touching the screen. The small bezel also contributes to my proximity sensor issues. The sensor needs to be placed so high on the phone that it’s very easy for me to hang up calls if the phone happens to move up an inch and the sensor is above my ear (causing it to re-enable the screen).

-

Default search replaced

. This issue is specific to the T-Mobile HD7’s. I don’t know what the default action is for pressing the search button in the browser. If it’s to navigate to the bing site then this is a WP7 specific issue. I don’t care that search was replaced by Google. I care that I need to wait 3-5 seconds (depending on reception) to navigate to a website when all I want to do is enter a search term. Every existing browser (including other mobile browsers) allow you to enter search terms without having to navigate to the search engine’s website. The worst part is that WP7 already has this functionality since it’s address bar is a Chrome like ‘omni-bar’. If the search button simply gave focus to a pre-emptied address bar that would be perfect. Again, I don’t know if the default action in WP7 is to navigate to Bing.com or to simply give focus to the search bar, if it’s the former than this complaint falls on WP7 itself and not the HD7.

OS

Pros:

-Love the OS, super fluid & looks great

-Love the Zune desktop software. One of the main factors in my decision to go WP7

Cons:

-

Hotmail syncing issues

(not sure if this is related to their server or WP7)

-

No scrubbing in audio player or video player

. Jumping within tracks is cool, but I think it only works with certain media types and it’s still not as easy as simply dragging the play-head to an arbitrary point.

-

Poor calendar syncing

. It will only sync the primary calendar in a given account. Almost unbelievable that my wife will need to go back to using an iPhone to properly manage the calendars we have on our hosted exchange service. She runs a fitness studio with 2 locations (thus the 2 separate calendars) and can only sync one of them.

-

Not enough control over contact syncing

. I would also settle for some kind of favorites list in the people hub. On my previous phones I was able to sync a specific group of contacts (I have a contact group called ‘Phone’ within my Gmail contacts). On top of that I could also create a favorites list (which contained about 15-20 entries). On WP7 my only options are to fill the home screen with contact tiles or rely on the recent list, but there are some people I don’t contact a lot but still like to have quick access to (ie. my doctor).

-

Would like options to eliminate the social stuff

. Having tiles on my people hub and pictures hub (the ‘what’s new’ area) dedicated to social networking is a huge waste to me and I’m sure to other people who have no interest in social networking.

-

Add customizability to Pivot controls

. This kind of compliments the above point about hubs having panes that may or may not be useless within a certain pivot control. Some of the core iOS apps (ie. the iPod app) allow you to customize the items in the tab bar control (which is the functional analogue to the Pivot control). For example, if you don’t listen to podcast you can remove that item from the control and add something else like Albums or iTunes U. I think this ability would be even more helpful on WP7 because the unneeded items are even more of a nuisance since we need to scroll through them all the time.

-

Content sensing is poor

. On a few occasions MS tried to push content sensing as a functional workaround for the lack of copy and paste. I agree that good content sensing can replace the vast majority of cases where copy and paste is needed. Unfortunately WP7’s content sensing seems to completely suck. I was trying to make restaurant reservations and I had a list of places to call after a google search. WP7 was unable to recognize phone numbers in the 555-555-5555 format. By contrast, iOS can recognize numbers written in almost any format, it will even give you the option to dial when a number is just written as a flat 7 or 10 digit string, ie. 5555555 or 5555555555.

-

Sending contact info

. Another area where the lack of copy and paste could have been helped by core OS functionality. My wife probably wouldn’t even be aware of the lack of copy and paste if the OS had the ability to send contact info to someone.

After a week or so with the phone I’ve decided I’m good with WP7 but not with the phone.

If there is an AWS 1700 phone that appeals to me on the horizon (within next 3-4 months) I’ll keep it because I don’t have a desire to switch providers. If not I’ll probably jump ship and pick up an LG Optimus 7.

My wife will be switching within days. The calendar issues are a show stopper for her. She cant function effectively without full access to her exchange calendars.