HTC HD7 (T-Mobile)

Pros: + Clean, uncluttered interface
+ Very responsive
+ Extremely stable
+ 16gb of onboard memory
+ Multiple MS Exchange server accounts allowed
+ Call quality (clarity) is decent
+ Screen colors are natural though a bit washed out

Cons: - Non-removable memory
- Battery life is bad (OK, I am pushing 3 email accounts)
- Picture quality is less than expected

Summary: I've had the HD7 for about 10 days, now, and am extremely pleased. My previous smartphone was a Blackberry Curve, which was a great phone when I bought it, but it had gotten pretty out-of-date. But my university has a contract with ATT, and my RIM was with T-Mobile, and we never got the Blackberry to sync with the Exchange server. So I decided that my next phone would be a Windows phone, but held out for WP7.

I'm thrilled with the easy integration with the Exchange server. All I had to do was enter my network ID and password, and the Exchange server name, and it immediately synchronized. You do this by choosing manual configuration. The phone also keeps track of my Hotmail and Gmail accounts, but allows me to keep them separate, which is good. My Outlook calendar has its own hub on the start page, and when I come out of stand-by the phone automatically displays my next appointment on Outlook. You don't have to sync with Exchange on you desktop or laptop, the phone syncs automatically over the phone network.

I really like the People Hub. It synchronizes my contacts across Facebook, Twitter and my Outlook address book. I've pinned my wife's icon to the start page, and with one click I can choose between calls to her cell, to home, text to the cell, email, or checking her last Facebook posting. Same for my kids.

There are great Facebook and Twitter apps available that do everything I want very easily. Also very satisfied with the weather, news, and tech news apps I've downloded. I've also added a really cool flashlight app that has my friends with iPhones jealous.

I was surprised to find an Office hub. It has mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I can open all the attachments I receive by email, and can even edit them and email them. There is an Adobe reader, as well, for PDF. The PowerPoint slides are very clear, and you can zoom them, as well. Haven't tried to connect to an external display, but the output port is micro USB, so it should be easy.

The Pictures hub is really interesting. Not only can I use the Zune software interface on my PC to move pictures from my PC to the phone, but the hub also consolidates pictures from Facebook and I can browse my friends Facebook pictures from it, as well.

The phone comes with IE as the browser, but I have no complaints. It's quite fast, though it doesn't support flash, yet. Click on the hardware search button and if I'm on the start screen I go to Bing, but if I'm on the web it goes to Google. I've also added a Google search app that I've pinned to the start page.

The maps are beautiful and well integrated with the GPS, so it's easy to locate yourself on a map of where ever your are, with good search options for local search. Much superior to the map/search integration on my old Blackberry Curve.

I'm not a gamer, but had no trouble finding Tetris, Solitare and Blockbreaker apps.

Overall, I give the phone 5 stars. It was worth the wait. It does everything I had hoped and has even exceeded by highest expectations. I'm looking forward to the first upgrades, as I do miss the cut-and-paste and Flash. But I'm quite happy with the phone and will gladly wait.

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