Last Friday, October 22nd, 2010, HTC Hellas hosted the first presentation of its recent lineup of Windows Phone 7 and Android moblies in Greece, in the form of the 9th Techblog Workshop. We were welcomed warmly in a very hospitable environment. No less than four of HTC Hellas’ staff and management team were there to answer all our questions. They offerred us enough room and time to fiddle with the Desire HD, Desire Z, HD7, Trophy and Mozart in an informal and quire friendly atmosphere.
In a room full of cheerfull people, unique, desirable mobile phones and plenty of snacks and drinks to go around, my task was to answer all the questions raised by the relevant literature I read after the introduction of WP7 to get an informed opinion about both the latest Androids and WP7. More than that, I am to be the first consumer of my own verdict!
All the phones are impressive, but HTC does that all the time. So much so that I regularly wonder why they don’t make a device with a choice of Android or Windows or both so everybody would be happy and able to switch platform at will…
My dilemma between the two platforms has been the major issue since the announcement of WP7. So, having the opportunity for a hands-on experience with a top-of-the-line WP7 device (thanks to Costas Vlachakis and techblog.gr, I had tried many Android devices including Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab) is all it took to resolve it.
WP7 is great as it should be, but some of its limitations are just unacceptable to me: controlled multitasking, fixed browser, search engine & media player, no flash support, no copy/paste, windows live account requirement (plus my old hotmail account probably won’t do) and no greek keyboard out of the box.
Based on the above, my preference goes to Android. While it has limitations of its own, it is more open and developers get more freedom to deliver on the platform. Which Android, then? An intentional Android limitation quite serious to me is lack of direct Outlook synchronization. So, since HTC has the only real solution to this problem that I know of and its devices are top notch anyway, I am having an easy choice there: If Android then HTC.
Yes, Super AMOLED is probably better than SLCD. Interestingy, Desire HD, with its 4.3′ screen, did not feel as bulky as the HD2 originally felt although their actual size is about the same; I guess the idea hs grown into me. And 4.3″ is better than Samsung Galaxy S’s 4″. The other contender, Galaxy Tab, is still at the back of my head as a single, middle ground solution, compared to a phone and a netbook or notebook. However, I think I am not ready to carry my phone in a bag just yet.
I am now waiting for HTC Desire HD’s availability to go on and get it. But I’m not talking about it much, because last year I was saying that about HD2 and then WP7 was announced… 😉
Thank you, techblog.gr for a great workshop. Thank you HTC Hellas for your hospitality. Thank you both for a very productive evening!
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