Category: Tech Stuffs

So… Why is HTC HD7 so different from other phone? I’m not a smart phone user nor did I handle one before this. This post is posted based on what I heard from other smart phone users and also some research online. It might not be accurate but then again, I’m just sharing my virgin experience with you ;p

Dark to Light / Light to Dark
You can change your phone screen colour from the dark side(black background) to the light side(white background) and vice versa.

You can customize your Start screen and change the tiles’ colour. This is one feature you don’t get in most smart phones(or all? I don’t know…). It will be great if we can make our own background or have themes for it. It will be even more personalized.

Kickstand, Huge “Keypad”, Sensitive Screen
Taken from HTC official website: Just flip out the kickstand, kick back and catch all the magic of your favorite movies and videos.

The huge “keypad”, no more straining your eyes.

The screen is sensitive, no pressure required. Navigating around is so easy too. Sometimes, it’s too sensitive which annoyed me a bit but that’s just sometimes.

Microsoft Office and Weather App
You can view and edit the latest Office docs on your phone! Don’t have to print some of the documents that don’t have to be printed out. Save paper, save ink, save the environment. Very handy.

Weather app with rich 3D animation and great sound. Frankly, I found it very entertaining ;p

Voice Search and Picture Hub
Where can you find voice search? Even though sometimes it’s not accurate, still it’s fun to use it when your hands are occupied with other things.

Picture Hub does not only store your photos you had taken, you can even synced your photos in computer with the phone or view your friends’ latest photos in Facebook. You can also post a comment on the pictures your friends have posted on Facebook or Windows Live.

The background can be changed to your own preferred photo/picture.

Big Screen and XBox Live
The big 4.3″ high resolution screen is what makes it so different from other phone. I’m in love with screen!

Where can you find Xbox Live? Most of the games have great sound and graphics. At the same time, you can also collect award when playing and customize your avatar. Played Need for Speed with it, it was awesome!

Am I tempting you to get one? I heard the market price is RM2k+. WOW! I can buy a laptop with it!!! However, you can always get it with cheaper price with Maxis. Sign up for a 24-month contract, it will only cost you RM1399 while with the 12-month contract, the phone costs RM1699.

I showed you the overview of HTC Hub briefly in the video. Now, I’m going to share with you some of my favourite Hub. No video post for this part since I’ve covered the overview already. Besides, it will take me ages to do the production, not easy. Silly assignments come during the time we should be doing exam revision *smack head*, semester almost over then we get our assignments. How great is that?!?!

In fact, I did not understand what the HTC Hub is all about even after reading the getting started manual. From my exploration, well… To me… It’s just a place for you to download applications from HTC. The choices are limited. Then again, you can always go to Marketplace to download more applications.

The Weather App in Hub

This is the best animation of all! Even the sound effect was amazing!

Who says weather is boring? Man… I really love it, I would go in there just to see the rich 3D animation and the weather of other countries all over the world. I’m entertained by the animations.

You will need the Internet for this. This is where I got charged in the first place when I switched on the phone and entered the HTC Hub.

It’s great for planning your travel. Even though we can always find this weather forecast thing online easily but this one makes it really fun.

The Office Hub

This is what made me blurted, “I don’t want to return this phone!!!”.

I was surprised to find this! First thing that came into my mind, “I’ll have notes for class! YAY!”

I tried to transfer my files into the phone using Zune but it was a BUMMER! I couldn’t! The only way is to e-mail the documents to yourself and download to the phone. So troublesome. They should just let us sync it using Zune. This is one improvement that I hope we can see in the future. Lucky me, our lecturers sent our notes to our e-mails.

Temporarily, I’ll be using this when I attend classes. After the review period is over, this phone will be returned to Maxis. I will be going to class without any notes as usual *LOL* I hate printing notes!

The Game Hub

It’s cool! I could customize my Avatar. I could rotate it around. I could earn rewards playing XBox Live games.

The first thing that came to my mind when I got this phone was “I must download The Sims!”. Found the app, it’s not free. I haven’t download it to try *LOL* So far, I’m just playing the free games, nothing extreme. I’m kind of addicted to Flowerz. Simple game like this makes me happy enough.

I downloaded Bejeweled Live to try and the sound and graphic are awesome!

The Entertainment Hub

I guess the music+videos tile leads to entertainment hub. Sound was good! I’ve been listening to music with it. You need Zune to transfer music and videos to and fro your phone. You can watch YouTube here too but you have to download the application first.

The Search Hub

Shared this with you in the video too. It was funny. “Twitter” became “Pizza”, no matter how many times I tried. It’s quite fun to play with the voice search feature too. It’s pretty handy with the search button on the phone. Just pressed it and you will go to the search page.

Everyday, the search page will have different picture and you can learn interesting facts related to the picture of the day. I quite like it.

Applications

The phone is nothing if you don’t download any application. These are the applications that I usually use. Just go to the Marketplace.

If you are based in Malaysia, make sure you choose “Singapore” as your country when you set up your account, you need to have Windows Live ID to download applications into your phone.

I downloaded quite a number of applications and deleted quite a lot too because they were either just useless or not what I think they are.

That’s all about my favourite HTC Hub. I’m still thinking what to post for the next post. Hmmm… I have 2 more posts to do before returning this phone. I want to keep it, can??????????????

Yes! I’m a tech noob, I’m reviewing this phone from a tech noob perspective. I never claim that I’m a tech expert. *LOL* If a tech noob like me can use a sophisticated phone like HTC HD7, what’s more to say about the rest? Sure no problem.

Anyway, today, the approach is a bit different. The video review is only for the video functions.

This video is not edited. It’s right out from the phone. The format is MP4. This video was taken using the VGA format. I’m sure you can find other video formats(720P or QVGA) from other reviewers.

From this video, it seems like the video function is quite good. Even I could record my narration clearly compared to my Canon IXUS 80IS. I’m quite impress by it.

Sorry about some parts where I don’t think you could listen what I was talking about or sounded like I’m mumbling because my throat suddenly acted up. As some of you know that I’ve been suffering from cough for quite sometimes. It’s hard to get rid of the cough in a short period of time and it made me sound funny. Sigh…

Zune, you need it for photos or videos or music transfer. Cannot use bluetooth to transfer to your computer.

Now… Let’s go to the photo quality. I’m sure you’ve been hearing complains about the pink tint and the camera not doing well under low light condition. I hate that! It makes my food PINK!!! AIKS! The button is not easy to press, have to press it hard but once you get the hang of it, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Still it requires a steady and strong hand. It does auto focus but once I pressed the button, the focus would be gone because my hand would shake! -.-”

Photos from the phone. All photos are straight out from the camera, no adjustment to the colour, only resized them.

Read More “Maxis10: HTC HD7: Camera & Video Functions” »

Phew… I thought I could get this video up faster than the first one but I was so wrong. Took me more than 12 hour for the production. My voice was too soft so I decided to use texts instead. The music is not meant to be as background music, it’s meant to cover my voice and so that the video is not all quiet for 5 minutes at least ;p. Don’t have the time to do the recording again. Heavy post production.

If I’m not mistaken there’re some mistakes in the texts. Kind of lazy to change them because it will take another 30 minutes to finalized everything every time I found out mistakes after publishing -.-” My computer hangs like crazy. I hope I still manage to get the message across ;p

Some extras that I did not share in the video:

Left: Start screen.

Right: The wallpaper.

Viewing my blog with it.

Left: The screen that greeted me when I’m in HTC Hub.

Right: My very first SMSes that I got, almost gave me heart attack, for no reason, my RM5 gone. Make sure you change your setting to your home/office WiFi as soon as possible before you explore the phone further. I accidentally pressed on some applications that required Internet connection because I did not know.

Left: Making a call, big numbers, great for those having some eyesight problem.

Right: The calculator, big enough too.

Next episode, I think I might talk about the camera. It will be in both post and video format. I think…

For those of you who have no idea what is going on, you’re going to see me doing review marathon of HTC HD7 these 2 weeks. I’m lucky to be selected as one of the reviewers of Maxis10 Reviewer Programme. That’s why you’ve been seeing me talking about it a lot in my Twitter.

I’m sure you are looking forward to this post. I’m going to share the video with you first. More details will come later because there are still some features that I forgot to include in the video 😉 Need to edit the pictures and compose the post. Stay tune! (scroll down for updated details!!)

My very first attempt to do a video blog. Hope it won’t torture you ;p.

Here you go…


The specifications, in case you want to know.

In case you can’t see the phone clearly in the video.

The shorter button is for the camera and the longer one is the volume control. It’s hard to use, need to press it hard. Will talk about it more when I come to the camera part.

Left: I forgot about this feature. That way you don’t have to risk having your camera lens scratched since it’s protruding. Also, spare your hand from holding it and you don’t have to strain your eyes looking down in case you put in on a surface.

Right: The charger which was in the plastic bag in the video.

Size wise, the phone is a bit big for me ;p One thing for sure, I cannot slip it into my jeans back pocket like I usually do with my phone because I don’t like to carry a bag out. If I’m using this, I will have to carry a bag when I’m out and about. Slightly impractical for me.

On the other hand, it looks cool! I brought it out last night for dinner. I tried to use the camera function, I got quite a number of people staring at the phone when I tried to take photo of my food hehehe… One of the latest phones yo!

That’s all for the overview of the phone. Next up, we will be looking at the software interface and some functions.