The HTC 7 Mozart is not the kind we are used to meeting - and no, before you ask, it's not a music-centric gadget as the name suggests. Something quite different in fact, it's all about the camera that goes beyond Microsoft's demanding specs.
Once again, HTC are trying to escape from Microsoft's cookie-cutter approach and the Mozart promises to let Windows Phone 7 show it can do more. There's much to be excited about here and there's bad news for some of the top cameraphones around.
The HTC 7 Mozart is the first WP7 phone to go 8MP and the first one to pack a Xenon flash. Seems like plenty of cameraphone buffs are hearing Christmas bells already. We'll pretend we don't for a while and put on our shooting socks instead. It's time to see what the HTC Mozart is really made of.
Key features:
3.7" 16M-color capacitive LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Dual-band 3G with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) and HSUPA (2Mbps)
Windows Phone 7 operating system
1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 576MB RAM, 512MB ROM
8 megapixel autofocus camera with Xenon flash, geotagging
720p video recording @ 25fps
8GB of built-in storage
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Standard microUSB port (charging)
Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement
Pretty good audio quality
Wi-Fi b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
Accelerometer for screen auto rotation
Office document editor
Facebook integration and cloud services
Built-in A-GPS receiver
Stereo FM Radio with RDS
Comes with HTC Hub and exclusive HTC apps
Voice-to-text functionality
Main disadvantages:
Disastrous camera performance
Weak xenon flash
Non-expandable storage
No lens protection
WP7-specific limitations
No system-wide file manager
No Bluetooth file transfers
No USB mass storage mode
Limited third-party apps availability
No Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browser
Too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing
No video calls
New ringtones available only through the Marketplace
Music player lacks equalizer presets
No multitasking
No copy/paste
No DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software)
No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far
No internet tethering support
No handwriting recognition support
So here we are again – reviewing another Windows Phone 7 device. Not that we mind though. And for a change, it's not another case of struggling to put a face to a name.
We've been there already: the OS limitations and the ensuing deal-breakers are no news to you. If you have your sights set on Windows Phone 7 you probably know everything there is to know about it. There's much to love about the Metro interface – and there's no denying some things about Windows Phone 7 just could've been better. But if your glass is half full rather than half empty – there's good news.
Microsoft are prepping the first Windows Phone 7 update, which will enable copy/paste and is supposed to bring some multitasking magic. It's going to hit all WP7-based devices at the very beginning of next year.
This post is sponsored by Abby Technology Limited, your Google Android repair and unlock professional.
http://go.to/abby, mobile: (021) 264-0000
