HTC 7 Trophy review

We’ve covered Windows Phone 7 itself in a couple of previous reviews, but we haven’t touched on its gaming or music capabilities much. The new HTC 7 Trophy is being touted as a gaming and music handset, and it’s definitely got the hardware to handle both: a 1GHz processor, 3.8in screen and both Dolby Mobile and SRS sound technology.

The hardware specification doesn’t just stop there, mind you. You also get 8GB of internal memory and a 5-megapixel camera with flash, although there’s no memory card slot so you’ll have to manage your photos and music carefully. Snaps were typical of a phone camera, with noise in dark areas and visible compression artefacts. Battery life was also a bit disappointing, lasting just under 20 and-a-half hours in our light usage test, so if you’re not careful with WiFi, 3G and GPS you’ll need to recharge every night.

The Trophy’s design has a retro hint, with a thin chrome strip that runs around the screen and the rounded corners. Elsewhere it’s modern and practical, especially in the rubberised finish on the rear that aids grip. A brushed-metal finish on the rest of the case feels sturdy, and the weight of the phone adds to the favourable impression of build quality. The screen itself is bright and colourful, with an oleophobic coating that makes touch gestures feel smooth and controlled, and also rules out unsightly smudges from oily fingertips.

For a phone that’s meant to showcase gaming and music, we were disappointed to find no free games or music installed. You can play trial versions of games or download free games, but if you want to play something else, or listen to music, you’ll have to buy it from the Xbox or Zune Marketplace.

To play your own music, you’ll have to install the Zune desktop software, much like how you need to install iTunes to transfer files to an iPhone. In this sense, Microsoft has opted for a walled garden approach like Apple, meaning that customers get a consistent, uniform interface no matter which WP7 device they use and benefit from secure software, music and games through the Marketplace.

The downside of this approach is that the user has little control, and less choice. All content has to be processed through Zune, and the Marketplace doesn’t yet offer a wide choice. The music selection is markedly mainstream, while the apps so far haven’t impressed us with their variety or usefulness. You can’t simply drag-and drop music and videos from your hard drive, as you can with Android.

Unlike some app markets, you can be pretty confident that Microsoft’s will grow quickly. However we still resent how the Zune app is designed as a giant advert for the latest hit artist or the big game: when you’ve spent so much on your phone, you don’t expect it to act as a pocket billboard. Meanwhile, simple tasks such as adding songs to a playlist can only be done on the desktop software.

We’re already wary of Windows Phone 7 because of its glaring omissions: the lack of copy and paste and multitasking. While these will be added in a future update, what won’t be changed is the walled garden philosophy, the reliance on Microsoft’s software and the fact that the marketplace is less of a catalogue and more a glossy magazine.

It’s good to see Microsoft learning from its mistakes and producing a mobile operating system worthy of the name, most consumers should hold off, at least until the second major update and until prices drop. The Trophy is a decent phone, but HTC also sells a range of Android phones with similar hardware and a more mature and open operating system.