HTC Mozart - First Impressions

Windows Phone 7 - HTC Mozart vs Android's HTC Desire

First Impressions:

Windows Phone 7 was launched worldwide today with New Zealand having the first sales and then it was Australia's turn. Today I got my hands on a Windows Phone 7 powered HTC Mozart exclusive to the Telstra network.

Having used all sorts of Smartphones in the past from the WinMo powered Compaq/ HP Ipaq through to the O2 Atom, HTC touch, iPhone 3G and recently the fantastic HTC Desire, it was time to try out a Windows Phone 7 (WP7) handset to see if it really is a game changer.

With minimal choice out at the moment I received the HTC Mozart (Telstra's flagship WP7 at launch).

Boasting almost identical specs to the HTC Desire, save for no MicroSD card option, but an 8MP camera and for some reason they put the microUSB socket on the side (no docks for this phone), it has a lot going for it from the outset. But does WP7?

It is a very easy phone to set up and the user is prompted along the way to get the phone running. However to set-up email accounts etc you have to go into the settings to do that.

At first site the UI looks very bold and colourful and even better once you have set items such as contacts up and the people icon starts to flash images of your friends from any contact image you have associated with them.

The big home page icons are easy to press no matter whether you have match stick fingers or pork banger fingers. A swipe to the left brings up the apps page where all the standard apps are listed in alphabetical order and it is here you find the settings button.

It must be noted that the WP7 button requirement on hardware is 3: Back, Windows (home) and search button as opposed to Android which adds the additional Menu button.



The HTC hub button opens a very pretty animation of the current weather in your area and featured apps. However it seems that it is a little wasted on WP7 as it almost bloats the system for nothing more than a very pretty weather / clock.

The Marketplace icon takes you to Windows marketplace (their app store). You can buy either through the downloadable Zune software or through the phone itself. However there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of worthwhile apps out for the Australian market anyway. For example Twitter clients, there are 2 or three (but no tweetdeck, mahtweets etc.), there are very limited games even in the much heralded Xbox Live. However Flight Control does make an appearance for $4 although you can try before you buy.

It comes with Mobile Office 2010 which apparently works seamlessly with Office 2010. Android has Documents to go (an additional purchase cost) but does similar things.

There are a number of HTC apps that once downloaded wouldn't install due to "error with the licence", however all other apps I tried installed no problem. (Was HTC ready for this launch?). The other thing that has happend twice is it has actually rebooted itself... One minute clicking on an icon, the next black screen and then the HTC boot logo.. Is there an element of Windows Vista in WP7?

It's too early for battery testing, use, and a thorough test drive, but the phone itself is a good size and anyone using the HTC Desire would be very happy with this phone. The only thing is would they be happy having moved from Android? That is where we will start the next blog from.....