Hardware
HTC is known for making phones with solid hardware design. They make devices that look and feel like they are high-end. While there are a few design choices that are questionable this phone it’s still a good. To start off I'm not a huge fan of the chrome trim around the screen and around the speaker, having a chrome trim is a little played out. But the biggest questionable additon to this device would have to be the addition of the speaker because it depending on your personality. It adds a thickness to the device but it does not make it unattractive. This device can definitely slide in and out of your jean pockets easily. This speaker is supposed to provide Dolby Digital Surround Sound (hence the surround in the title) and it’s noticeable, especially if you have headphones in. At first I was skeptical about the speaker but I ended up loving it. I listen to music a lot so I was able to get the most out of it by playing my music out loud. The inclusion of the kickstand really helps make the Surround a media device. It can be propped up and play music as well as movies. The kickstand does show off one of the flaws of the Windows Phone OS, there is no landscape mode when you have it up and listening to music. The speaker might seem like an unnecessary addition if music is not really your thing or you would rather listen through your headphones. If one of those two things are true then you might want to stay away from this phone.
The screen on the Surround has a shockingly good 3.8” screen which produces colors far better than what I expected. The size is not too small and yet it’s not as big as the screen on an EVO 4G or the HTC HD7. It allows for enough finger space when typing in portrait, and enough space while playing games like The Harvest or Twin Blades. On the bottom of the screen host three capacitive buttons which are Back, Windows Home, and Bing Search. I found myself hitting the Bing search button far more often than what I would have liked. That’s due to the fact that the buttons are capacitive and a finger just needs to slide over it to cause a response.
The Surround has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and it’s good. The iPhone4’s camera has an edge on it though. One thing I did notice is the fact that users don’t have to worry about turning on flash when in dark situations. I found this as a very cool feature; the phone detects when you’re trying to take a picture in low lighting and adjusts the flash for it. The LED flash can really light up a dark room.
Software
While only being the first version of the Windows Phone OS, I have been looking forward to using it since its initial announcement. The OS is fresh, simple, and fast. That's probably due to the fact that it doesn't multitask as of right now but I would take this speed over having multitasking. The tile format for the home screen works extremely well and looks appealing which is important since that’s what you’re going to be looking at most. Usually people don’t talk about the lock screen on a device but Microsoft has one of the best lock screens I’ve seen on any phone. It gives you all the information that you need in a simple glance. Time, Date, your next appointment in the calendar, signal status, battery status, Wi-Fi status, and if there are any notifications they show up on the bottom. This should be what every lock screen should give you. It allows you to just glance at the phone and move on.
People Hub
The People hub is an interesting tile, if you link your Facebook account to the phone it congregates all of your friends and includes them in the contact list. While it could be convenient considering that if your friends with somebody in real life then you’re probably friends on Facebook, it also means all the people who you’ve added as a friend out of courtesy (or pity) are now on your phone. What ever information that they have posted about themselves you now have at your disposal. Phone numbers, addresses, and even e-mail accounts. It might just be me but I think that kind of makes these phones stalker friendly. (Then again it’s not that smart to put that much information on the internet people)
Zune Marketplace
Two of the main things that makes the Windows Phone OS so attractive are the inclusions of the Zune and its Marketplace as well as Xbox Live. Overall the integration of Zune in the Windows Phone OS is great, which is to be expected with Microsoft. If you have experienced the Zune HD OS then you will feel right at home within the Zune app; everything you had available there is available here. As expected users have full access to the Zune Marketplace library and if you have the
Xbox Live
Xbox Live could be the initial determining factor for early adopters. When unlocking achievements on the go it provided me with a strange but welcome feeling. There is nothing like getting achievements while waiting for a class to start. As of right now the only multiplayer that is allowed is with turn-based games like UNO. It’s a good experience but once there is actually some live real-time gameplay going on, that’s when this is really going to shine. The one problem that I had with this app is if something draws you away from the game -like a phone call- while playing it gets cancelled out and you lose whatever progress you made. While the game does restart after your finished what caused you to back out, it does not pick up right where you left off. This is probably because of the lack of multitasking for something other than music. Besides that one flaw Xbox Live is going to grow and get stronger on the mobile platform as time goes on and developers continue to create games.
Keyboard
The keyboard in this OS is the best virtual keyboard that I have had the pleasure of using. Auto-correct works phenomenally, even with my fingers flying across the screen the OS somehow understands what I’m trying to say versus the iPhone keyboard which constantly fails at correctly correcting what users are trying to type. It’s not without its faults though, when in landscape mode I found myself constantly hitting the smiley face button while going for something else. But once I became adjusted to where everything was it became a rare problem. (Just a note, the first half of this review I wrote on the phone itself using the Microsoft Office app. So that just goes to show how amazing this keyboard is as well as the usability of the Microsoft Office on the phone.)
Overall this Windows Phone 7 OS is really good, especially for its first outing. But there are places where it can improve and become better. I’m talking allowing more things to run in the background besides music, losing some of the bugs, adding things like copy and paste, and overall performance tweaks. The days of the old convoluted Windows Mobile OS are done and the simple, Windows Phone 7 OS is in.
Wrap-up
The HTC Surround is a very good entry phone into world of Windows Phone OS. But I would only suggest it if you’re a music lover like I am, or else the slide out speaker might seem like an unneeded accessory which adds on extra weight and makes it thicker than it should be. The Windows Phone platform is only going to get better as time goes on, Microsoft seems like they really want to get back in the
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