HTC HD7 Review: Passable and a Failure?

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21 October, 2010 Cell Phone Information, Cell Phones 4:01 am

For those of you who are planning to pick up the upcoming HTC HD7 smartphone, we have a review for you to read now, one which doesnt exactly cast the handset in a good light. Prepare to be somewhat disappointed after you’ve read this.

The HD7 goes on sale on October 21st in Europe and Asia, but consumers in the US will have to wait until November 8th to get their hands on one. However, after you’ve read Engadget’s review, you might think twice as they have only scored it a 6/10. The HD7 is considered to be the premium handset in many people’s eyes, especially to those who owned the impressive HTC HD2.

Where did it go wrong? Engadget has stated that the build quality is below par and picked out further issues with the viewing angles, color reproduction and contrast levels. Worryingly, they also mention about the small battery size (1230mAh), adding that the phone is going to need to be charged everyday if used extensively.

If you are looking for the solid reason why they have only scored the HD7 a 6, and other handsets like the T-Mobile G2 an 8, then perhaps this paragraph from their review sums it up nicely –

”For a device aspiring to woo us with its multimedia features, this, along with middling sound output from its stereo speakers, renders the HD7 a failure if measured purely by the boasts of its promotional materials.”

What are your thoughts on this? Are you surprised by the poor score? Read their full review here and give us your say on this.

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    • omg

      considering everyone at engadget sucks off steve jobs im not surprised they gave a negative review. every other one i've seen has been positive.

      • littleANZAC

        @omg:
        Funniest thing I've read all day….classic!!

        • dhrushil

          @littleANZAC – i agree with you. dude the guys agreeing with this CHEAP suckish review that calls the hd7 a failure do not even mention about the awesome fluid metro ui that roxx!!!!!!

    • minh nguyen

      so how about htc desire hd ?
      when will it be available in the US?

    • andy p

      I did read the engadget review. They obviously don't review phones properly. The iPhone 4 I have is the most uncomfortable device to hold probably ever. Did they mention that when they reviewed the device? No!
      The iPhone 4 has pretty poor viewing angles, did they score it down? Hell no!

      The iPhone 4 batterydies in a day with push mail and heavy use. Did engadget mention that? Hell no! Biased bunch of people they are!

    • omfg

      engadgets a bunch of idiots…Whoever wrote that review need to be slapped..in the face!!!
      They didn even mention zune support or xbox live

    • Joseph

      Agreed. I got rid of my I Phone for the HTC HD7 and just love it. And to think that there are upgrades coming from Microsoft on a regular basis. This device along with Windows Phone 7 are going to revolutionize the marketplace. Great going Microsoft and HTC: you guys are really on the ball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Kevyn

      So, does it have stereo speakers on the front or not? There are conflicting reports about this in the forums.

    • Andrew

      I just bought my HTC HD7 from Singtel Singapore yesterday. Some things missing are just UNFORGIVEABLE !!!! I mean, how can designers be making such mistakes by not including certain "must haves" if they want to taken seriously as smartphone?

      I can never understand why a new would include some new features, and yet take away, or not include in some BASIC must have features !!! I mean it's like taking 5 steps forward, and 2 steps back again !!! Ridiculous !

      1) while charging the phone, the phone CANNOT be turned off ! I turned it off, and it boots up again !!! What an idiot flaw ! This should NEVER happen !!!!

      2) office excel does not allow cut copy or paste ! Nor does it have function to format the width or height of the cell to my desired size! And this excel is supposed to be "Windows" !!!!!???? the same excel windows that came with our desktop PC !!!??? Give me a break !!!!

      3) in Internet explorer, on landscape mode, the search address bar disappears. Also the favorite icon disappears ! Therefore, to type in a web page, you need to tilt back to portrait mode, then the address bar comes back on !!! This is unforgiveable !!!!!!!!!!!! What an idiot designer, and what an idiot manager or VP of HTC can even approve this without checking !!!!!

      4) on the left bottom of the phone, there is the left arrow key which allows going back. BUT, there is no forward key to forward !!! For example, after browsing 6 pages in internet explorer, I then use the left arrow key to go back to the say, 3rd page, but after that, if I decide to go back to the 4th 5th or 6th page, I cannot bcoz there's is no forward icon !!!!! Is this stupid or what !!! You would expect designers, paid b the tens of thousands of dollars per month, to be smarter than this. These guys come with engineering degrees and what have you. And I am only an O level zircon technician. What a waste of company resources hiring such idiots !

      So far, in just 2 hours of use, the above is what I have discovered. I am totally shattered ! I forked out SGD999 without contract and I feel seriously cheated. If not for the tremendous amount of drop calls on my iPhone 3GS, I wouldnt have looked around for an alternative. HTC seriously needs to look at how iPhone functions if they want to be taken seriously. Just terrible this piece of garbage.

      …. Disappointed !

      • Dam6

        Did you read any early reviews with regards to WM7? You may have been prepeared if you had. Then again, you purchased an iPhone 3GS not knowing that it had naff signal strength and then bought a WM7 phone without knowing that the softwares a brand new release with features missing. Heck, don't buy an Android device or your head wil Explode.

        • brenden

          i Agree, with a new OS you have problem, tweeks need to be made, and it missing features of the line are to be expected, not only from it being a complete re-hall of the old "Windows Mobile", but also because its written around the web, almost all the flaws u wrote about are well know and should be fixed in the near future …………P.S……….why would you want to turn your phone off while charging? you can just put it on silent like most of the world

      • Haha

        R u an idiot or just an iPhone fan boy?

    • Gussie

      I couldn't understand why t-mobile allows this sort of failures to happen.

      As a wireless provider you must ensure that customers that are up to pay for those phones is worth to.

      HTC has all the rights to build whatever phones they want,but the provider must ensure that whichever phone they will offer to customers are the best of the best because your reputation goes along with whatever product you are offering.

      I've been a t-mobile custmer for the past years and all i can say is that t-mobile needs to do better if they want to compete with the top-ranked providers such as verizon or AT&T.

    • VCite

      Engaget sucks more than my old ipoo phone
      because it changed nothing again!

    • MrColobus

      Their review refers to the poor stereo speakers. It doesn't have stereo speakers, there's a single speaker near the camera on the back. They (and many other reviewers it seems) seem to have assumed it has stereo speakers because of it's appearance. I noticed this within minutes of using mine. Very, very poor reviewing standards.

    • Anna

      after reading all the comments that was written, there is no way i can deny that we cannot have both worlds for the iphone & htc hd 7, it's all depend on the individual needs to the phone users. I believe strongly that as for htc hd 7 have their own good use & iphone has their own too. By the end of the day, its the user (ourself) decide what we want.

    • Mark

      any idea how do i add my comments to htc or microsoft that they might notice that the hd7/wm7 is a big let down in that i can't copy and paste text or scroll. Unlike previous HTC smart phone and WM5 and 6. MASSIVE Let down there. (multitasking would also be nice) Afraid that's an expensive mistake and back to blackberry if not fixed soon.

    • twonuttypuppies

      The touch screen is awesome. I have no problem with its response time. Still lightning fast. I have learned along the way, that you DO have to turn off your phone & restart it, so I just did that tonight for the first time in many days. I didn't feel like I needed to, but I just did it because its good to do.

      It's uuber easy to put your friends photo & all their information on a tile on your home page. Instead of seeing their name, it will rotate and you can see an assigned photo!
      You can charge your phone on the computer OR with the plug. The cool thing about recharging this phone is that the USB cord unplugs from the plug & you just insert it into your computer to sync & charge. I did read somewhere that you can wirelessly sync this phone to your computer but I haven't tried it yet. I spent a LOT of time a couple days ago, looking for the charger to plug the phone into the computer. Oh yeah, there's only one cord. Wonderful for me – one less thing to keep track of.The alarm will function if the phone is powered off.
      It cannot IM (Instant Message). I don't do this anyways so it doesn't bother me!
      You can do all this: Multimedia supported: Audio Clips; Graphics; Photos; Video Clips with picture messenging!
      Email Clients Supported: SMTP; IMAP; POP3; Gmail™; Exchange Email; AOL® Instant Messenger™ Service (AIM®); Yahoo!®; Windows Live® Mail; Windows Mobile.
      The photo's are can have up to 6x magnification.
      It has Picture caller ID – haven' run across how to do this yet. Hmm….
      Talk time: Up to 6.3 hour.

    • twonuttypuppies

      Forgot to mention I'm a bzzagent & got this phone to test out from HTC & give my honest reviews!

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