A Weekend with Windows Phone 7 on the HTC 7 Mozart

Even though I’ve come across plenty of Windows Mobile users in my time, happy to flash their touchscreen devices toting styluses and scribbling on the screen, the OS was in need of a rework. Windows 6.5 didn’t do it. It tried, but failed. I guess Microsoft simply realized it’s just not working and took it all back to the drawing board, started from scratch, changed the name and Windows Phone 7 was born. It’s got to compete with the heavy hitters now – iOS 4 and the very popular in the Indian space, Android operating systems. WP7 has hit us on the HTC 7 Mozart that’s the first handset to carry the OS to the country and here’s a closer look at both.



Form Factor
The Mozart is a slick looking handset that’s both comfortable to hold as it is well designed. HTC’s gone with an almost button-less form incorporating nothing more then sleek volume keys that blend with the side, a power/screen lock on top near the 3.5mm handsfree socket and a camera activation/Shutter release button on another side. A standard micro USB port is located on the same side as the volume keys. Microsoft’s customary logo that doubles up as a touch sensitive Home key, is very visible being placed dead center under the Super-LCD 3.7-inch touchscreen (480 x 800 pixels). It’s in between the Bing Search button and return touch key. Very Android-ish. The display features a sensitive proximity sensor for shutting of the display when not required and multi-touch. It’s scratch resistant to quite an extent but not averse to smudging.

Like the HTC Legend , the Mozart’s battery compartment can be accessed by sliding down a portion of the rear panel. The reason is because this too is made from a single piece of brushed aluminium. The SIM card and battery slide in and are locked in with a little clasp. There’s no provision for additional memory since there’s no MicroSD card slot. You’ll have to be content with the 8GB of internal storage. The 8MP camera’s lens comes sans a cover and tends to stick out just a tad. It comes coupled with a Xenon flash. A Green/Red LED indicator LED is located just near the earpiece. At 130g and 11.9mm in depth, the HTC 7 Mozart is a neat looking device that’s easy on the eyes and the slim enough to tote around without any ‘bulges’, if you know what I mean.

Features and Performance
Interface
And now for what I’m sure you’re all more concerned about, the WP7 UI. To tell you the truth, I initially had mixed feelings about it. While the UI is, dare I say it, iPhone-like smooth thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 GHz processor it had its buggy moments too. No longer are we going to be restrained by tiny ugly icons and a dull looking Windows Mobile UI, WP7 is colorful, vibrant and extremely easy to navigate. The HTC Hub is sort of like an alternative interface similar to HTC Sense. It has a digital clock like what you’d see on Sense UI and a similar weather app. It also allows you to have quick access shortcuts but I’d suggest sticking to the tiles, it’s a lot easier. There also didn't seem to be a screen or option to see what apps are running in the background leaving me to wonder just how much multitasking this device is capable of other than Push services being on in the background. Well, multitasking is a bust other than playing music in the background.  

The desktop/home screen is essentially a ‘Tile System’ that you can customize, to an extent. Tiles can be moved around and pretty much all apps, websites, contacts, etc. can be ‘pinned’ to the home page. The tile’s color theme can be changed via the settings. The problem is that some of the tiles aren’t quite like shortcuts but more like Widgets which are constantly animated. It’s a bit unnecessary as some don’t really flash anything really useful. In the WP7 world, these are called Hubs.

You’ll notice that there’s no signal or battery indicator at the top. To view this you’ll need to tap the top portion of the screen. Messages and other notifications will also show up here and can be accessed with a simple tap as well. They can also be accessed from their individual tiles. The phonebook is quite a loaded space with Windows Live and Facebook integration. I noticed none of my contacts auto synced with my FB contacts making it a manual chore but, whether it’s HTC or the WP7 UI, this was simplified as suggestions for linking were provided in almost all instances, much like HTC’s Sense UI on their Android devices. Calendars can also sync with your Google, Windows Live ID and FB.

The layout of the UI is fairly simple and more or less well laid out although I did find a couple of ‘bugs’ and oddities with the system. For instance, on more than one occasion, in fact several, I was unable to answer an incoming call as the ‘Slide up’ feature refused to work forcing me to get a little more physical with the handset than required. Unlike almost all other smartphone UIs, you’re not required to unlock the display and then answer a call, you can simply slide or tap to answer. The SMS ‘chat’ screen looks like similar to Sony Ericsson’s but a little more blah. There was no option to select multiple messages or delete the whole lot, it needed to be done one at a time.