HTC HD7 review

The core specification is also a little different. While the HD7 has the same CPU and camera, HTC has added 16GB of internal storage, 720p video recording and a second speaker at the front below the screen. As for software extras, the HTC hub is all you get, with a familiar flippy clock, weather app and list of featured apps. Either way, the hardware is good enough for a BBC homepage download time of 21 seconds and a Sunspider time of 45 seconds – in line with the Samsung Omnia 7 and HTC 7 Mozart.

As with the HD2, the camera offers decent quality, capturing sharp, colourful snaps in good light, with the dual-LED flash proving surprisingly even-handed. But it isn’t a patch on the iPhone 4’s camera, and lags behind the Omnia 7’s too. Video footage at 720p was poor, suffering from over-aggressive compression, which gave muddy, smeary results. Again, the Omnia 7 is superior.

Alas, it gets worse, and just as the battery let the HD2 down, the same is the case here. At 1,230mAh it’s just too small for a phone of this power and screen size, and it performed as expected. After our 24-hour test, in which we make a 30-minute phone call, download a 50MB podcast, play music for an hour, force the screen on for another 60 minutes, then leave the phone in standby checking a Gmail account for incoming mail, it had 40% capacity remaining. That’s still enough for a day of moderate use, but once more it lags significantly behind the Samsung Omnia 7. A larger 1,500mAh battery helped that phone to a 60% result.

In conclusion, the HD7 is a bit of a mixed bag. The screen is great, the physical design rather lovely and, with Windows Phone 7 on board, it’s as much of a joy to use as the other Microsoft devices we’ve reviewed recently. But with a middling camera, poor video, below par battery life and a price that’s just too high, it falls behind its rivals.