HTC Surround

“Well, what can we say? The HTC Surround does a fine job running Windows Phone 7, and if that's the only criteria by which you're going to measure it chances are you'll be quite happy. But Microsoft is launching 10 devices this month, and there are two other choices on AT&T alone which do an equally fine job of running the OS. The Surround needed to bring a lot to the table in order to justify being bigger and heavier than the Samsung Focus while lacking the QWERTY keyboard of the LG Quantum, and we just don't think a pair of average speakers and a kickstand provides that justification -- especially since Windows Phone 7 doesn't take full advantage of either. We'd love to be more positive about what is fundamentally a fine piece of hardware, but if you're looking for a Windows Phone 7 device on AT&T at launch, we think you should (cough) focus your attention elsewhere.”

“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.”

“The HTC Surround is a solid device, but more importantly, Windows Phone 7 is a solid new operating system. The Surround is large and heavy, but offers excellent music and video playback powers. The stereo speakers are a great compliment to the beautiful display, but don't translate to an awesome auditory experience for phone calls. The Surround had terrible call quality, and the signal performance left me with concerns. Battery life was really good, and the camera and video camcorder both perform well for this segment. Images and movies were share-worthy, no doubt, but sometimes fell short of what the best cameraphones can do. On the software side of the equation, the Surround is one of a number of new Windows Phone 7 devices hitting U.S. carriers this fall. Microsoft has done a commendable job of rebooting its smartphone platform in what is a clean and total break with its past OS. The user interface is far friendlier to newcomers than Windows Mobile 6.x, and its slimmed down architecture is easy to figure out. This comes at the expense of customization, though. The mix of apps and Hubs -- each their own sense of style -- is an interesting way to bundle services and content. The Hubs, in particular, are mostly well designed and assembled, and offer a visually pleasing way to interact with your contacts and content. Would I recommend the Surround? Well, I'll happily recommend Windows Phone 7 to anyone not interested in Android or iOS, or anyone bored with the status quo and looking for something entirely different. Will consumers fall for the Surround's stereo speaker gimmick? That's really up to each person, but many might want to skip the Surround for its large size and odd form factor in favor of something a little bit thinner or more practical.”

“The HTC Hub gives you a “sense” like interface where you have the date, time, location, and weather information displayed at the top of the screen and then shortcuts to other HTC apps below. The Photo Enhancer allows you to select an image and apply a lens filter to it. So you can easily apply Sepia, Overexposed, or any of the other filters to an image. It doesn’t allow you to do any zoom and cropping, which would have been a nice addition.”