Review HTC took the lion’s share of the recent Windows Phone 7 launch with three out of seven handsets. Without the big screen of the HD7 or the 8Mp camera of the Mozart, the Trophy looks on paper like the runt of the litter. But its lower price and still impressive spec mean it could end up in more pockets than either of its brothers

Standard issue? HTC's 7 Trophy

Measuring 119 x 62 x 12mm and 140g it’s very close to iPhone proportions and has controls on the sides for volume rocker, camera shutter and USB power/sync slot with a 3.5mm headphone jack and power/sleep button on top.

On the back is the lens for the camera with single LED flash and a large speaker. The casing is made of sturdy plastic, with a rubberised feel to the back cover – the Mozart may have an aluminium cover but this feels warmer, in a good way.

The 3.8in multi-touch display offers 480 x 800 resolution and the standard three WinPho 7 buttons are lined up below it on a touch-sensitive strip: home, back and search. The latter relies on Microsoft’s Bing search engine from the home page, but also searches in whatever app you happen to be in, such as e-mail, Marketplace and the like.

The WinPho 7 minimum specs are still pretty high-end and they’re all here, with a fast 1GHz processor, 5Mp camera, multi-touch capacitive screen, GPS, accelerometer and more. The Trophy also has a the basic 8GB of on-board memory – others, such as LG’s Optimus 7 or HTC’s own HD7, have double that.

Just 8GB and no card expansion option on WinPho 7 handsets

There’s also the usual tile-based system that customises according to your content – pictures of your friends in the People tile, your favourite acts on the Zune media player tile. All in all, regardless of price, whichever WinPho 7 model you choose, will feel like an up-to-date smartphone.

This being an HTC handset, there’s the HTC Hub, which offers some additional, though not really essential, apps. And this being a Vodafone exclusive, as is the LG Optimus 7, there’s also a link to the 360 My Web portal. Otherwise, software options are pretty much the same as you’ll find on all the other WinPho 7 handsets.

Sample Shots

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Macro
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The camera is the bog standard for spec, but that doesn’t seem to be something to be scared of with HTC devices any more. Recent models have seen the Taiwanese company improve the standard of its snappers, although it still hasn’t really produced anything that excels.

The various scene modes, include macro, and a few colour effects, as well as metering mode, which determines the exposure. Aside from these though there’s little to play with. Picture quality is OK, but you’ll need a steady hand, and digital noise can be quick to creep in with less than perfect light conditions.

Does the job, but the battery life isn't great

There’s also the option to shoot 720p HD video and, however, the jump in supposed quality from VGA resolution to HD seems somewhat marginal on this camera compared to most others I’ve tried. A bit more work for HTC’s camera department there.

Like other WinPho 7 phones, you can set it up to send your pics directly to your cloud-based SkyDrive account with its 25GB of online storage. The battery life wasn’t outstanding and even a little worse than I was expecting – I barely got a full day’s use out of it before needing to recharge.

Verdict

Compared to its WinPho 7 brethren, the HTC Trophy doesn’t have a whole lot to help it stand out. However, it is a very fast and capable smartphone with good social networking facilities and its current Vodafone exclusive options are quite reasonable too. ®

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LG Optimus 7	BlackBerry Torch 9800	Samsung Omnia 7	Apple iPhone 4