Review: HTC 7 Trophy

HTC 7 Trophy. Photo / Supplied

Right now, it's a lonely life being a Windows Phone 7 mobile. More than five months have passed since New Zealand kicked off Microsoft's global follow-the-sun launch of its new and vastly improved mobile WP7 operating system.

Yet, sadly, we still only have one device flying the WP7 OS flag in the local consumer market: the HTC 7 Trophy from Vodafone.

But even if the Trophy is friendless right now, it's a handset with an OS worth getting to know because solitary status is about to change.

Tech research firm IDC is predicting Windows Phone will be the world's second most popular mobile operating system (behind Android) by 2015, thanks to a mutual bacon-saving deal forged between Microsoft and Nokia back in February.

The new alliance - between the world's largest handset manufacturer and a company better known for its PC software - will see Windows Phone start popping up on new Nokia smartphones later this year.

First impressions

Is this pending flood of Microsoft-powered mobiles a good thing? If the Trophy is any indication, WP7, and future iterations, will provide Android (and the iPhone OS) with some compelling competition over the next few years.

Hardware

Weighing up the Trophy's hardware specs - including a 3.8-inch touchscreen, 1GHz processor, 8GB of memory, a 5-megapixel camera, along with all the other expected bells and whistles - and assessing it against the handset-only price of $899, the device comes out pretty favourably on a value-for-money score.

The Trophy has a stylish, solid feel about it, as you would expect with a phone that, price-wise, is heading up towards the top end of the market.

Software

So to the Trophy's big point of difference, for now at least: the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Microsoft's previous mobile OSs have failed to spark much enthusiasm amongst the masses. With WP7, however, the company has re-engineered from scratch, producing a user interface that is distinct from Android and iOS, but this time in a good way.

There are large image-rich tiles to touch and a strong emphasis on social connectivity. It's somehow a little disconcerting when your own social networking avatar pops up so prominently on screen but at least this reduces the chance of grabbing the wrong phone when you leave the table at the café.

Given Microsoft's experience developing web browsers and productivity software, you'd expect some good cut-down mobile versions of these tools on one of their phones, and in this case they don't disappoint.

WP7's mobile Internet Explorer works well, as does the Office suite that's installed on the phone. I needed to rummage around to find some obscure settings before I could sync my email Exchange account with the device, but once I had it set up it worked flawlessly.

Microsoft's dominance in the productivity software sector is a powerful weapon as it assaults the smartphone market. The company knows if it can make syncing between users' PCs and their handsets simple and painless, it can grab a decent slice of the mobile market almost by default. The mystery is why it hasn't managed to achieve this already.

Verdict

The Trophy is a good value and powerful smartphone for those users who feel happy to plunge into the Windows Phone 7 operating system experience ahead of the crowd. Less adventurous types interested in enjoying the power of WP7 may wish to wait for a few months to see what Nokia brings to the party.

HTC 7 Trophy
$899 (Vodafone, handset-only)

SPECS
Screen:3.8-inch, 800x480 touchscreen
Operating system: Windows Phone 7
Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus, LED flash, 720p HD video
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microUSB
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8250 1 GHz
Memory: 512MB ROM/576MB RAM, Internal storage: 8GB
Other features: GPS, accelerometer, FM radio