Size Comparison: HTC HD7 and HTC Incredible

[EnzoTen]

Here is a size comparison of the two phones. The HTC incredible was my every day carry for the last 4 months or so and have become comfortable with the size but was always wanted a bigger screen for easier text input. But now with the HD7, i find the keyboard to be a great size, but its too big. at 4.3" compared to the Incredible's 3.7" it makes a big difference- its much more difficult to hold and use with one hand and i have relatively big hands. I ended up getting a Speck case for the HT7 since i felt like it would slip out of my hands from being too big.

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[TechyguyDR]

How do you feel about the other aspects of the HD7 so far?

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by TechyguyDR

How do you feel about the other aspects of the HD7 so far?

The hardware is great, typical to most any HTC devices- solid build, very responsive touch screen, and the kick stand feels substantial and does not get in the way when not in use. I am a little disappointed in the speaker phone quality, it was much louder and more clear on the HTC Incredible.

As far as Windows Phone 7 vs Android, that is another story and ill get into that in an upcoming review. But some quick thoughts: Andorid is incredible powerful and will do anything that any other smartphone will do but IMO, its work to use. Lots of friction on the UI and navigation. By comparison to WP7, WP7 is version one and lacking flexibility and missing some things. One example that im having touble leaving behind is turn by turn directions, its there by T-Mobile but i refuse to pay a monthly fee for directions. But what attracts me most to the WP7 in addition to having awesome email and support for Office is the UI- its just damn good and im willing to make a few sacrifices for a great UI.

[Curiouss]

small question on WP7, what customizations are available for the UI, like changing the overall theme color, etc.?

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by Curiouss

small question on WP7, what customizations are available for the UI, like changing the overall theme color, etc.?

Basically just the colors of the tiles/theme. I think the OS would be ruined if customization of the UI was allowed- i appreciate the consistency of the visual cues. Its a very text rich UI with the content almost always representing the UI controls/buttons themselves.

[kasrhp]

Glad to hear there is a review coming on it! Do focus on the SQ as well, considering that is usually lacking on most phone reviews.

You like the tiles though? I love the rest of the UI. Very Zune like. I think the Zune has the best looking UI on the market though. How do you feel about losing widets and other little customizable features?

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by kasrhp

You like the tiles though? I love the rest of the UI. Very Zune like. I think the Zune has the best looking UI on the market though. How do you feel about losing widets and other little customizable features?

The widgets i found to be useful on the HTC Android were the widgets that allowed you to toggle wireless bluetooth or wifi or even screen brightness. Also the other stock, weather, and messaging widgets were nice too, but were only useful in full screen.

The first set up widgets should not exist, the OS should be smart enough to correctly manage the wireless settings as not to waste the battery life. So to fix the fundamental problem of battery life would be to make the OS handles the management of the services better- not to add widgets that would force the user to manage them their selfs. Does WP7 phone properly manage wireless and battery? no. slightly better than Android, but still a long way to go.

Then the other type of information displaying widgets, its more of less a toss up on ease of seeing the information. Even if you have a widget on an Android phone, you will still have to swipe to a different screen, on the HTC Incredilbe there are 5 home screens to flip though to get to the widget you want to display if its not currently on the screen you are looking at. If you are on WP7 its a click (on the home tile) away instead of a swipe. Here nor there, both easy.

What it comes down to for me is that Android takes more work to maintain your UI- awesome if you like to tweak every customization, but it certainly takes some time. With Android i felt like i spent more time maintaining my phone than using it.