TELUS HTC 7 Surround Hardware Review WP7

By Ray Nicolini
Via www.mobilesyrup.com
The upcoming TELUS HTC 7 Surround will be one of the devices that will be powered by Microsoft’s new Windows Phone OS. We got hold of one of the Surround and in the first review we’ll take a quick look at the hardware, then follow up with a full review of the software.

The overall design is not to much of a stretch than other HTC devices over the past year – but has a few unique attributes to it and is one of the best looking WP7 devices. The Surround weighs in at 165 grams and has overall dimension of 119.7 x 61.5mm x 12.97mm. Even though it’s a bit hefty it feels like a quality device and comes packed with power as it has a 1 GHz processor. This device, like other HTC devices, has a large display at 3.8-inches with a resolution of 480×800. Above the screen you’ll see a speaker grill and sensors. On the bottom are the standard and Microsoft mandated 3 capacitive buttons: back, start and search. Taking a look at the top of the device you’ll see a 3.5 mm headset jack and the power button. The right hand side it the volume rocker and the one-touch button to the 5 megapixel camera with flash, auto-focus and can record 720p HD videos. Finally on the bottom you’ll see the micro-USB port and a slit to open up the back cover where there’s a 1230 mAh battery. The Surround has 16 GB internal memory.

One of the main features of the Surround is that this phone comes with a slide-out speaker. We took a quick video of this and will go more into detail in our next review with music. For now I just played some ringtones to capture what the sound quality is like. In addition, you’ll notice on the back a kickstand has been included into the design so you can play your music/watch videos and have the Surround rest on a flat surface. Pretty cool feature. The only long term issue is that you’ll have to close the kickstand yourself as I’m sure it will break over time by simply closing the device.

So the overall guts of the Surround is solid and it feels good in your hand, like you’ll be getting value for your money. Now the real test is if this new Microsoft Windows Phone 7 OS is as good as the design. We’ll have our full review up shortly.