So I finally fully representing my license plate, I AM A PC. I am the proud owner of the HTC Surround, a Windows Phone 7 device.
Having spent the last two years on the iPhone 3G I got to know that device very well. It wasn’t all bad, but there were things about Apple and its phone that drove me nuts.
I was eagerly waiting for the WP7 launch, and today was the day.
I looked at the two current devices available at the AT&T store. The Surround and the Samsung Focus. The Focus felt cheap in my hand. Just seemed like it would break rather easily. So I went with the much sturdier phone, the Surround.
After a night of use my first impression is… “Why’d they mimic the iOS 3.0?” This phone has everything my iPhone had… last year. No ability to copy and paste, and no global inbox. Now the good thing is that both of those will be taken care of in updates, copy and paste has been confirmed… and I can only assume the other. My next impression is that the phone is a lot like any Windows PC you buy, a lot of crap loaded on it. Thankfully, it is very easy to remove all of the adware provided by AT&T. Just hold down on it and click ‘uninstall.’ My third impression is that the contact management needs work. The iPhone struggled here as well, but they gave me the ability to just use my Windows contacts and I was able to easily organize that.
Finally, my last reaction is that I will grow to like this phone a lot. It is a newer processor so it is certainly faster than my old iPhone. One feature that I really like is the wireless sync. No longer do I have to connect my phone to my PC to sync. I just have to plug it into a power source and let it sit on my home network and it will sync all of my new songs, pictures, and podcast. As the application choices grow this phone will be much better, it may even take care of the global inbox issue before an official fix is in place. The UI is certainly different than the iPhone. More sliding, less tapping.
I’ll check back in in due time with a follow up, but that is how I feel after a night of use.