miffed
27th July 2011, 07:07 PM
As these are now being given away for �229 (maybe even lower if you shop around ? ) couldn't resist hitting the "buy" button on one of these, it arrived this morning , and I have just spent a couple of hours playing.
First things first , this is a lovely piece of hardware ! it really does have an amazing feel of quality about it , to hear the battey cover "clang" as I put it on the table was a very re-assuring moment , after two of my recent handsets (HTC HD7 & Samsung Nexus S) had peel off, thin plastic type covers , it was nice to see something made out good old metal again.
The whole thing had a "nostalgic" feel for me before I even powered the beast up ! The last QWERTY slider I got from HTC was the Tytn II , which was a very plasticy experience , and for me it was the first "flimsy" HTC I had used , up until that point (for me at least) my experience of HTC had been PDA's made out of Aluminium or tough grade plastic - for some reason HTC decided to abandon their "XDA" build quality and make Xmas cracker phones with similar build to low end Nokias - and although this quality has improved over recent years , it was still mediocre in comparison to the Original XDA Devices.
So , here I have a HEAVY , THICK device (thick , like back in the days when ALL phones were thick ), which feels like a lump of metal in the hand like the E90 did !
I really cannot tell you how pleased I am with the hardware - I'd previously had a few plays with a Desire Z , which was horrible plasticy and flimsy , I had assumed that the 7 PRO would simply be a Desire Z with WP7 installed , this is VERILY not the case , and the slide tilt mechanism on the 7 PRO feels far better.
And then there is the software !
.... Nothing new to report there , within minutes of powering up I was reminded of some of the quirkiness , pleasant enough to use - web browsing is a joy , but silly little things annoy me like the facebook app - on both iOS and Android (eventually !) they put together an app which does "what you'd want" .... so why the hell did they think something different would be better on WP7 - or can WP7 not handle such an app ? I hate the way all apps are in the style of WP7 , rather than their own style. I want my facebook app to look like facebook , and ebay's app to look like ebay !
I sincerely hope that WP7 does move forward , it is pretty obvious from looking at various user forums that this generation of WP7's achieved very little uptake , and when I hold this 7 Pro in my hand I feel thats a great shame , because as far as usability as a phone / text / email/ internet device goes WP7 is a stirling effort. it falls down only because the ante has been set so high now WRT Apps & Appstores IMO.
First things first , this is a lovely piece of hardware ! it really does have an amazing feel of quality about it , to hear the battey cover "clang" as I put it on the table was a very re-assuring moment , after two of my recent handsets (HTC HD7 & Samsung Nexus S) had peel off, thin plastic type covers , it was nice to see something made out good old metal again.
The whole thing had a "nostalgic" feel for me before I even powered the beast up ! The last QWERTY slider I got from HTC was the Tytn II , which was a very plasticy experience , and for me it was the first "flimsy" HTC I had used , up until that point (for me at least) my experience of HTC had been PDA's made out of Aluminium or tough grade plastic - for some reason HTC decided to abandon their "XDA" build quality and make Xmas cracker phones with similar build to low end Nokias - and although this quality has improved over recent years , it was still mediocre in comparison to the Original XDA Devices.
So , here I have a HEAVY , THICK device (thick , like back in the days when ALL phones were thick ), which feels like a lump of metal in the hand like the E90 did !
I really cannot tell you how pleased I am with the hardware - I'd previously had a few plays with a Desire Z , which was horrible plasticy and flimsy , I had assumed that the 7 PRO would simply be a Desire Z with WP7 installed , this is VERILY not the case , and the slide tilt mechanism on the 7 PRO feels far better.
And then there is the software !
.... Nothing new to report there , within minutes of powering up I was reminded of some of the quirkiness , pleasant enough to use - web browsing is a joy , but silly little things annoy me like the facebook app - on both iOS and Android (eventually !) they put together an app which does "what you'd want" .... so why the hell did they think something different would be better on WP7 - or can WP7 not handle such an app ? I hate the way all apps are in the style of WP7 , rather than their own style. I want my facebook app to look like facebook , and ebay's app to look like ebay !
I sincerely hope that WP7 does move forward , it is pretty obvious from looking at various user forums that this generation of WP7's achieved very little uptake , and when I hold this 7 Pro in my hand I feel thats a great shame , because as far as usability as a phone / text / email/ internet device goes WP7 is a stirling effort. it falls down only because the ante has been set so high now WRT Apps & Appstores IMO.