HTC 7 Mozart review

Windows Phone 7 has a long way to go to prove itself a contender, but on the HTC 7 Mozart you can colour us impressed. We like the new attitude to a home screen with live tiles and our own content making an appearance, and the design of the whole OS is very attractive.

We liked

The HTC 7 Mozart really holds its own in terms of media playback, thanks in part to the enhancements like SRS virtual surround sound which was very effective when watching video.

With a lightweight feel and rubberised sections on the reverse, the HTC 7 Mozart feels like a handset that will weather the course of a long contract without meeting an early demise.

The camera offers good picture quality but can be slow to load and slow to take photos, particularly when using the flash.

We disliked

To say we took issue with some areas of the social networking integration is not to belittle how well Microsoft has melded Facebook with its OS. However, we want to see more networks available for this level of integration and to be missing out on notifications and messaging in Facebook is a real loss.

The messy back panel really takes something away from the HTC 7 Mozart's design, and we found the strange placement of the volume button increasingly annoying.

Verdict

The HTC 7 Mozart is a good start for Windows Phone 7. It's got its heart in the right place and with HTC behind it, you'd be churlish not to expect a high quality handset.

For straightforward music playback and a comprehensive contacts book, the HTC 7 Mozart won't go far wrong, but don't expect too much from it. Even with that 1GHz processor and 576MB of RAM to play with, it sometimes struggles with seemingly simple tasks.