HTC 7 Pro Sim Free Mobile Phone

I bought this HTC 7 Pro to replace my damaged Palm Pre and it has to be said it is head and shoulders above Palms Web oS.

Put simply, Web oS 'tiles' system is a stroke of genius, however compared to the WP7 oS as installed on the HTC 7 Pro it is slow and unreliable. WP7 is quite simply much faster and thus far, very reliable.

Moving onto the phone itself, HTC really do know how to build a quality product and this is phone is beautifully crafted. OK, it's a tiny bit bigger than other phones in this sector, but you do get a generously sized Qwerty keyboard.

Battery life so far has been unexpectedly good for a smart phone, with WiFi used up to 30 minutes a day, but switched off when not in use, the blue tooth permanently on, MS exchange connected and syncing in real time, and two other PoP3 email accounts syncing every 30 minutes, the battery is lasting between 2 and 3 days before it requires charging!

Verdict: Well crafted phone, for business use - worth every penny

I bought this phone after my i-phone 3G died after 18 months use. I thought I would hold off writing a knee-jerk review of this handset and thought I would use it for a while to give a balanced review. So, three months after purchase here we go:

The main reason for purchasing this handset was the keyboard. I couldn't get on with the on-screen keyboard of the i-phone (and other phones). The keyboard itself is sturdy and easy to use. It has a backlight, which is useful. I don't understand the need for a dedicated 'smiley' key, but it's there if that sort of thing floats your boat. The hinge on the keyboard feels a bit iffy at first, but 3 months of 'robust' use and no problems.

The handset looks chunky, but it's only 3mm thicker than my iPhone 3Gs. It is significantly heavier though. Suffice to say it's not a 'pocket phone'. One for a coat pocket or a bag really.

The display is crisp and bright, I haven't experienced any of the 'washed out' effect on the screen that other reviews report.

Battery life is one of the downsides of a generally good phone, you'll be lucky to see a day out of a full charge with a bit of browsing (say 1 hour) and a few calls. Playing some games seems to thrash the CPU, which reduces the battery life as well. For example, I played Pro Evo on the phone for an hour and kissed goodbye to about half a full charge.

I'm not going to write a review of Windows Phone 7, because this review is supposed to be about the handset. All I will say is that now that it's had a few updates, it's right up there with iOS now. Some of the Facebook/MSN integration with contacts is really nice. The Marketplace is nowhere near as good as the app store though (in terms of application quality). I'm sure this will come with time though.

Coming from a Nokia N900 I am amazed at the speed and level of polish in WP7, I'm convinced that WP7 has the best UI out there at this moment in time. I've had devices running on Symbian, IOS, Android and Maemo so when I say I enjoy using my HTC 7 pro more than any other phone it's coming from a broad comparison. WP7 is still in its infancy and I believe that with the regular updates promised by MS you will see this OS flourish and become great.

I chose the HTC 7 pro over other WP7 device because of the keyboard, after some extensive use I've found the keyboard to be one of the best I've used on a phone and much better than my previous phone (N900); I am actually typing this review from my 7 pro. Only having 8GB of storage is disappointing but the Zune software will compress your music before transfer if you would like to fit more songs on and don't mind sacrificing bitrate. The Zune software itself is surprisingly good considering all the bad reviews I had read, it is simple to use and very intuitive; I like the fact that I can just drag media onto my device and it will sync. I must admit though that I would still prefer to be able to use mass storage mode or access via SSH. The screen is bright, responsive and at 3.6 inches I find no issue viewing any sites.

There are features I miss from my old devices that slightly annoy me but many of these issues have been addressed by MS and marked for future updates so if you don't mind a small wait for these I would definitely recommend this device to you.