Many thought that Microsoft goofed up its smartphone strategy by not rolling out a single CDMA Windows 7 phone at the launch event. However, we now have the HTC 7 Pro, the first CDMA WP7 device. It has nice hardware specs and comes with a stylish design.
HTC 7 Pro Review: First Look
Microsoft officially announced 9 new Windows Phone 7 devices on October 11th, at the Windows Phone 7 launch event. Well, actually the number was 10. The 10th phone was the HTC 7 Pro which didn’t get its fair share of the limelight, which is surprising, more so because it is the only CDMA phone powered by Windows Phone 7. It is also available in a GSM version with the same design and specs.
It has a nice design with a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a 3.6 inch touchscreen display. The hardware specs are just as impressive as the other Windows Phone 7 devices and it offers almost everything you would need in a smartphone.
Design
The HTC 7 Pro sports a very nice and stylish design. The front face sports a 3.6 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Below the display are three touch sensitive keys - Back, Windows and Search.
The keyboard slides out from behind the display. It is positioned at an angle to the display to give you a perfect typing pose. The display and the keyboard have a superb feel and a metallic look. Placing the phone with the keyboard out also allows you to watch movies while keeping the display tilted.
The phone itself is a bit bulky with dimensions of 117.5 x 59 x 15.5 mm and a weight of about 185 gms, but it is definitely pocketable.
User Interface
The HTC 7 Pro runs the Windows Phone 7 OS which comes with a new UI. The User Interface is segmented into hubs which are a very interesting concept. Check out this guide to the Windows Phone 7 for more details about the OS and the UI - Guide to Windows Phone 7 .
Like all the other HTC phones, the HTC 7 Pro will also sport the stock WP7 UI, and not the Sense based UI that was leaked some time back. This should help Microsoft to push out regular upgrades easily and provide a consistent user experience.
Coming to the hardware part, the HTC 7 pro is quite capable in this aspect. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor and comes with 448 MB RAM. It has a 512 MB internal ROM and 8 GB storage.
Multimedia
The HTC 7 Pro comes with a 5 MP camera with an image capture resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. It also sports autofocus and LED flash. It includes features like geo-tagging and face detection and can record video at 720p HD resolution. It can play all the basic audio and video formats. It also has a built in radio.
Connectivity
As I said earlier, the HTC 7 Pro comes in two versions - CDMA and GSM. The CDMA version offers 3G EVDO Rev. A connectivity while the GSM version has GPRS, EDGE and 3G HSDPA. Both versions come with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. The HTC 7 Pro also offers microUSB 2.0 connectivity and comes with a GPS transceiver with A-GPS and Bing Maps. It has a 1500 mAh Li-ion battery.
Conclusion
The HTC 7 Pro is a very good phone with a nice design and superb hardware specs. It sports a 5 MP camera, a 1 GHz processor and 448 MB RAM. It is available in both GSM and CDMA versions. The CDMA version will be available on Sprint by the end of 2010 for about $199 with contract.
