Windows Phones HTC 7 Surround vs HTC HD 7
HTC has introduced five new Smartphones in to its Windows Phone 7 portfolio; HTC 7 Surround, HTC 7 Mozart, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC 7 Pro and HTC HD7. Each one has certain features unique. Here we will be comparing HTC 7 Surround and HTC HD7.
All these Smartphones from HTC 7 family are run on the Microsoft’s latest Mobile Operating System Windows Phone 7 (WP 7) platform.
MS Windows Phone 7 with a unique Hub and Tile interface has been designed for operational ease. Microsoft has changed its standard icons with live tiles, which function as both icon and widget. It offers quick and easy access to applications and content. Windows Phone 7 also integrates with many popular Microsoft consumer services such as Xbox LIVE, Windows Live, Bing (search engine) and Zune (digital multi media player).
Both Surround and HD7 have LCD screens and nice silver rim around them. They have more similarities than differences. The main attractions of both phones are their multimedia features.
HTC 7 Surround
HTC market this device as ‘Pop up cinema,’ a phone with a richer listening and viewing experience.
This phone is integrated with Dolby Mobile and SRS Wow “virtual surround,” for dynamic sound quality.
The unique feature of Surround is its slide-out stereo speaker and integrated kickstand, delivering high-fidelity audio and virtual surround sound. The sound is in fact loud and not much distortion is noticed.
When you slide open the phone you get a quarter-inch slide with silver speaker bar and a button that turns on a virtual surround sound mode. For added dimension and volume, you have to just hit the surround sound button. This is what differentiates Surround from other WP 7 phones.
Some users opine that though the speakers are amazingly loud without distortion, they say the drawback in the design is that, these are the only speakers on the device, so in the closed position the sound quality may drop.
The phone also has a kickstand on the flip side to prop the smartphone up for watching videos more relaxed in hands free mode.
HTC HD7
Designed as “Monster entertainment,” this phone comes with an impressive 4.3″ screen and kick stand. The speaker bars are at the top and bottom edges. There is a speaker on the back side also. But the sound quality is definitely better on Surround than HD7.
This model also comes with a kickstand. When putt on kickstand with landscape orientation, the big 4.3″ high resolution screen with speaker bar on both sides gives a movie watching experience.
Though the screen is bigger than Surround, when both phones on same setting HD 7 screen looks slightly dimmer compared to Surround’s screen.
But all other internal designs and the software are pretty the same for both phones.
Design
Both phones do not vary much from the classic design of the HTC Smartphone family.
Surround is having a landscape slider that houses stereo speaker and kickstand. May be because of that the phone is slightly thicker (0.07”) than HD7. Weight is almost same. But HD7’s screen is bigger.
Surround:
Size: Height 119.7 mm (4.71”) width 61.5 mm (2.42”) thickness 12.97mm (0.51”)
Weight: 165 gm (5.82 ounces) with battery
HD7:
Size: Height 122 mm (4.8”) width 68 mm (2.68”) thickness 11.2 mm (0.44”)
Weight: 165 gm (5.7 ounces) with battery
In both phones, the kickstands are designed for landscape orientation, but most of the navigation buttons are aligned to portrait. Navigation while watching movie in a landscape position may be bit lousy. It’s an improvement required in WP 7.
Display
Both have Touch screen with pinch-to-zoom capability with a resolution of 480 x 800 WVGA
The screen of HD7 is bigger than Surround; Surround – 3.8” and HD7 – 4.3”
Both displays are vibrant and more colour accurate, but Surround’s display is more brighter than HD7.
CPU Processing Speed
Both phones have 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 processor
Storage
Surround:
Internal storage: 16 GB
ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 448 MB
HD7:
Internal storage: 8 GB (Europe); 16 FB (Asia)
ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 576 MB
Camera
Both have 5 megapixel cameras with auto focus.
Surround has single LED flash, whereas HD 7 has dual LED flash
Both got 720p HD video recording.
But some opine say that though HD 7’s flash is better, it has a problem with while balance.
Sensors
Same for both
Come with G-Sensor, Digital compass, Proximity sensor and Ambient light sensor
Battery
Both have 1230 mAh Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer or Lithium-ion battery
Surround:
Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 250 mins; GSM: Up to 240 mins
Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 255 hours; GSM: Up to 275 hours
HD7
Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 330 mins; GSM: Up to 405 mins
Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 435 hours; GSM: Up to 360 hours
Applications are same for both
HTC Hub
The HTC Hub incorporates the weather in rich 3D and offers a selection of applications, such as: Stocks, Converter, Photo Enhancer, Sound Enhancer, and more. And there are plenty of downloadable apps and games.
Weather app presents the weather in a rich 3D animation, forecasts for your location or other cities, and lets you know exactly what to expect.
The Stocks app lets you view stock prices and check indices. Define up to 30 stocks and track their progress. Rotate to view charts in full-screen detail.
With the Notes app you can post and arrange your notes on a bulletin board, then see them wrinkle and age over time. To view them in a list, just swipe and turn the board over.
Attentive phone
You need get embarrassed at meetings any more with the phone ringing loud. The phone has a good feature; as soon as you lift your phone up the ringer volume gets lower. To silence it completely, you have to just flip it over.
Flashlight
The Flashlight app turns your phone into an LED flashlight with 3 brightness levels. It even flashes an SOS signal in case of emergency.
People Hub
With the People Hub, live feeds and photos are pulled together from Facebook and Windows Live. This viewed by some as a disadvantage.
Me Card
You can view and update your status in Facebook and Windows Live to broadcast your news.
Picture Hub
You could enter a gallery where you and your friends can share your photos and post comment on the pictures your friends have posted on Facebook or Windows Live.
Other features
Windows Phone 7’s camera app is amazingly fast and responsive for quick shots, you can take pictures in seconds, even if the phone is locked. You can post them instantly to Facebook or share them with your friends via email or SMS.
But some negative critics say when you pull the images to a computer that and view on full resolution they are not as vibrant as it appeared in the phone.
You can browse and download your favourite music, movies and TV shows from Zune. You can also preview songs and whole albums before you buy them using your Zune Pass.
With Zune PC companion your phone syncs with your music catalogue on your PC wirelessly and automatically, whenever you charge your phone while on your home network.
With the Photo enhancer you have a add variety of effects to create your photo and adjust colour and brightness for the perfect picture.
With the Sound Enhancer app delivers virtual surround sound and equalizer sound effects for a richer listening and viewing experience. Equalizer presets automatically mix bass, treble and vocal levels for maximum effect, whatever your type of music.
For corporate/business users
Windows Mobile is better-oriented towards business users as it offers out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange, Office documents, VPN access and syncing with Microsoft Outlook on a desktop PC.
Office Hub offers many new features for business users. You can view and edit the latest Office docs on your phone. You can collaborate with colleagues on your projects using SharePoint.
You can use OneNote for organizing ideas, voice notes, pictures, and text and then synchronizing them to the cloud through Windows Live or SharePoint.
Outline offers a quick view of any Microsoft Office document, so you can quickly see what’s in the document and go direct to the location you want.
Bing Search
With Bing, there won’t be any search overload. Bing tries to understand the search you’re doing and organizes the results putting the most relevant (not popular) at the top. It also features voice search, pulls out buried information and displays related searches.
Bing Maps
Locate where you are and find the best route to where you want to be. Satellite images, street maps, 3D landmarks – Bing Maps can flow from a bird’s eye view high above, to a street level view for a more human perspective.
Quick launch
Bring the stuff that matters to you to the surface. You can pin your favorite apps, contacts, even shortcuts to your favourite songs and more to the Start screen for one tap access.
Games
The WP 7 Games Hub delivers a new and exciting kind of gaming experience with hundreds of titles from Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Game Studios and other leading game publishers.
Xbox LIVE
With the popular Xbox LIVE in mobile, you can play with friends, share scores, and earn recognition for your achievements. You can access your Xbox LIVE profile and take your 3D Avatar and props with you on your phone. You can message requesting friends to join and they can see you playing.
With the application drop list in WP 7, you have to move vertically to locate the app, grid format and search not available.
Checking email is a very cool experience with WP 7 and the on screen key board to reply mails is amazing.
The main attraction with the Surround is the speaker bar and the promised “virtual surround” audio. HD7 has a bigger screen to give great movie watching experience.
The other WP7 mobiles from HTC:
HTC 7 Trophy – “clock up more game time”; game lovers phone
HTC Mozart- “surround yourself with dynamic sound”
HTC Pro – “whiz through your day”; take care of business while entertainment on the backdrop