Mozart’s Requiem: A HTC Mozart Review #telstrawp7

Initially, I really loved a few of the features, but found it quite clunky. Honestly, I think my perception hasn’t changed too much from this, but I am definitely more experienced in using the Windows Phone 7 interface now so a few of the actions (such as the combination of using hardware and software buttons to navigate and using the buttons) but I guess that’s really something you learn with all technology.

As a part of the review, Team Telstra asked the Social Reviewers to look at three parts of Windows Phone 7:

The Hardware: HTC Mozart

Over the last few years, HTC has become quite a player in the phone market – especially with the Android fanboys. I had quite a few people coming up to me and asking if I had an Android phone after noticing the HTC case. When I explained it was a Windows Phone 7, they were like “Oh so like it runs Android?” – so I think one of the big problems HTC has at the moment is changing that perception that they *just* manufacture phones for Androids.

Apart from that perception stuff – I really do love the hardware. Compared to my iPhone I wasn’t concerned about chucking the phone in my bag and cracking the screen and although I didn’t drop the phone (and wasn’t planning on doing so!!) I really felt secure that the phone wouldn’t break just by looking at it.

The screen is fractionally larger than the iPhone (3.7in vs 3.5in) but for some reason that extra screen size does make a bit of difference when using the phone – especially in those features you need to scroll in, like email. However, I’ve found the screen to not be as responsive, and sometimes it’s taken me a couple of times scrolling or tapping for it to register on the phone. Not sure if it’s a #firstworldproblem but it really hurts your fingers continually trying to drag down on the screen.

I think one of the flaws in the phone is the hardware buttons – primarily the search button. I get more frustrated when I accidentally select it and it sends me to Bing – it would be so much better if this was a forward/enter button to compliment the back button on the other side.

Additionally the battery life is TERRIBLE.  I don’t think I got the phone to last for more than a day-  and as a heavy email/app user I found it draining even faster. Telstra did send out an update yesterday to their credit – but I really haven’t noticed any changes to my phone yet in terms of improved battery life. Supposedly you can change the APN (still have no clue what it is and why it’s important) and it improves the battery life but either way, compared to my old phones it’s been a massive fail on HTC’s part.

One of the other things I found annoying was the notification light – it continually (and I mean continually) flashes when your phone battery is low, and even when you put it on the charger it flashes red until it’s completely charged – this is fine if you have it sitting on your desk at work, but because I charge my phones next to my bed – it became really annoying when I had the lights off and was trying to charge the battery overnight because all you could see was this annoying little light in the corner of your eye.

The Software: Windows Phone 7

Windows. Is. Not. In. The. Game. With. This. Phone.

Honestly, the Windows Phone 7 is so so so different in terms of usability compared to any other phone I’ve used, and it really does take a bit of a mind shift to get used to it. Yes – it is a lot sleeker, ‘sexier’ and minimalistic compared to other Mobile OS I’ve used, but at the end of the day everything has to balance between design and functionality.

In the past Microsoft has really been at the functionality end of things (Think about the heap of menu items available on Word or Excel that you know that you *never* really use) and I think they’ve been really aware of that, but this phone has really tipped too far in the ‘design’ direction. As a first attempt, it’s good they’re thinking in the right direction, but they need to bring back some of the functionality features that are common on all phones – like menu quick links, not tiles.

Speaking of tiles, I actually don’t mind them and having them continually update is pretty cool and brings that whole ‘interactive’ feel to the phone compared to the other phone I’ve used but there really needs to be a limit to one screen of them. The whole point of the ‘glance and go’ thing they’re been promoting in the ads is really pointless if you need to scroll down to get the live updating tiles.

In saying that though, the ‘glance and go’ thing really does work – especially when you have the phone locked. As I used my phone for both personal (Gmail) and work (Outlook) emails – it was great to be able to click a button and it has a small icon down the bottom with the number of new emails – even without locking the phone! The emails also update pretty frequently, so you don’t really need to be concerned that the data isn’t up to date.

One gripe I have with the main menus is that they literally have a list of ALL of the apps – this is really annoying when you download a heap of apps and have to continually scroll down to find apps – unless you use the hardware search button, which does let you search through applications – but this contextual search button is so sporadic with the software that you never really know where the button will take you.

Additionally with the design, the whole circular scrolling really does throw you. What I mean by that in most apps there’s usually three or so key pages that you continually scroll through – there is no end. This is good for user error if you accidentally skip through something because you’re only a swipe or two away – but it means you can never really tell where you are in an application. Personally this doesn’t make too much of a difference, but I know there would be a lot of regular users out there who wouldn’t get this concept straight away.

One other annoying thing is that you HAVE to get a Windows Live ID – I rarely use mine (more of a Google convert) so it was a bit annoying that all of my MSN messenger friends automatically went onto my phone, even though I don’t think I’ve actually properly signed into my account in about a year. It’d be really nice to choose from Windows Live, Google or any other major messenger players in the market.

The Network: Telstra Next G

Seriously, I know Telstra usually costs an arm and a leg more than other networks, but there is seriously no way of describing the joy I had when I was able to check my email from my bed in the morning within a minute or so, instead of waiting a few minutes waiting for my Vodafone Edge (yes – Edge!) connection to sync.I have had seriously no complaints about the Telstra network in the two weeks I’ve been able to trial it out – and although I’ve just started a new Vodafone plan so I’m not going to go anywhere for the next year but I actually might consider transferring to Telstra after this plan finishes.

I thought it would also be important to talk about what I did use the phone for as a part of my life:

Using it for my social life

• Email – Seriously it’s awesome. Like I said before, the glance and go stuff really does work well for this, and it’s really streamlined in it’s design. If there was one thing I could take away from this phone and just implant onto my iPhone it would be this.
• Facebook – Facebook pretty much exists within the People Hub and it is probably one of the best features on the phone – it’s awesome that there’s so much integration between Facebook and WP7 and you can tell the Microsoft /Facebook relationship has really paid off with this phone. The actual Facebook app which is completely separate is more of a fail – after being so used to the integration on other parts of the phone the app is super redundant.
• Twitter - As per my previous blog post – a lot of people  have been having problems with this (resetting automatically, freezing) but honestly I haven’t had too many issues with this. I think this app’s major flaw is the bottom icons – they really don’t provide any valuable meaning, and they’re also quite small – even I feel like I have fat fingers when I use this because I have to be so precise pressing the buttons!
• Foursquare – I really didn’t like this app on the phone – it was super laggy, would take a really long time to find your location and nearby areas and this is probably one of the best examples of the information architecture being just way too simplistic and not suitable for the phone. Comparing the WP7 app to iPhone AND Mobile Web, there really was a lack of functionality you would usually get.
• Phone/SMS – Although I really didn’t use this too much (honestly I rarely use my phone as an actual phone and it was too much of a pain to get people to message me on a completely different number) I found that the phone heated quite quickly when I was on a call and because the hang up button is in such a weird place on the screen, I did accidentally drop a call and it took me a good minute to realise I was talking to myself. However the text messaging is pretty good and the spell check is a lot nicer than iPhone (it doesn’t automatically change it and provides continual multiple options as you type) but the font is too small – which may be a bit of a problem for old people or people with bad eyesight.

Using it for work (as requested by @alistercullum and @reebz)

• Work Email – In terms of email triage, the only thing you can really do with it is just delete it or move it to folders and it does sync back up which is super handy when you want to delete all those spammy newsletters off your email via your phone. The email design is pretty consistent but it’s good that there’s different icons for the different types – so when you do glance and go you can quickly see if those emails are work related or not.
• Calendar – I really liked how it would display you next meeting/event on the home page as part of the ‘glance and go’ functionality – but I didn’t actually use this feature properly for a good week – but when I did, it made my life so much easier. I didn’t create any meetings off it, but using it as a general calendar check during the day was fantastic.
• Microsoft Office – using it to create documents was really really annoying – it’s hard to be able to utilise the functionality on such a tiny screen with such a limited keyboard and no clear identifiers to some of the functionality (i.e. highlighting and commenting look the exact same!) – I can see the benefit if you needed to use it on the go with the plan to move it to your computer once you got into the office. HOWEVER, viewing was amazing. As a consultant, I receive weekly emails telling me about the projects I’m going to be working on, and viewing this on my e71 and iPhone was always bad because you could never clearly see the cells – but a native Excel application made viewing and searching through cells so much easier.

Using it for other apps 

I already wrote about this and really can’t be bothered rewriting/rewording it, so check it out – but at the end of the day the application variety and capabilities feel more like an Ovi Store than an iTunes app store.

So.. overall

Top 5 favorite things

1. Unbreakable - if I wasn’t under contract to keep the phone it tact, I would have tried to blend it on day one.
2. Email - so much easier, nicer and simplistic to use compared to other apps I have used. Glance and Go is so perfect for this.
3. Simplistic design – It’s nice to have a phone that’s sexy, even though it can be a bit annoying to use
4. Network speed - Have a couple of regrets that I’m locked onto Vodafone for another year especially with the current network being complete fail at the moment.
5. People Hub - keeping up to date with my Facebook friends is really good through this, honestly they need to just scrap the actual Facebook app and make everyone use this!

Top 5 biggest problems

1. Battery Life – It’s not really a fashion statement to take your charger into work everyday.
2. Windows Marketplace - If Microsoft really wants to be competitive, make an iTunes, not an Ovi
3. Confusing Interface – I know I said that it’s super simplistic design is great, but in some areas there are really meaningless icons or methods of moving around the phone.
4. Overly simplistic Information Architecture – three options is not enough for summarising all application features on the phone
5. Crashing – It’s cute to get a ‘goodbye’ message, but I thought I’d left the random resetting back with my Nokia e71 (that woudn’t even turn off!!)

How did it compare with my iPhone usage? 

If I’m being completely honest with myself:

• Day 1: WP7 50% vs iPhone 50%
• Day 3:WP7 40% vs iPhone 60%
• Day 7:WP7 20% vs iPhone 80%
• Day 10:WP7 15% vs iPhone 85%
• Day 14:WP7 10% vs iPhone 90%

Here’s a graph:

Now this isn’t to say that the phone is completely terrible – I did have more of my life stored on the iPhone than the WP7 – but even with the awesome email (which would have been what I used the phone for the most) I really wasn’t able to get used to just using the Windows Phone 7. I really got sick of having to mentally switch between the usability and functionality of my iPhone and the Windows Phone. Also, if Windows Phone 7 had Lady Gaga Tap Tap Revenge 1 and 2; plus Words with Friends, I probably would have used it more.

The big question – Would I have purchased it as a regular consumer?

Probably not. Because I am such a heavy application and internet user on my phone, I really need a phone that is able to provide me the biggest range of applications and the best customer experience. Nothing can beat the iPhone in that respect. The iPhone really does find a balance between functionality and design, something that Windows Phone 7 really hasn’t found yet.

Microsoft really has been swinging back between pure functionality and pure design (especially with this phone) and I think the whole concept is a really good step towards becoming a more user friendly brand but I really think they are so immature in this area, that they are really going to have to persevere in this area and not be completely disheartened if their first few releases aren’t well received by the public.

So although at the end of the day, although I haven’t been completely won over by the phone, I am really thankful I’ve been able to have this experience – being able to test out two smartphones over the last two weeks has been really fun and I think it’s given me more of a neutral perspective that there is other mobiles out there in the market apart from Apple and Android. It’s also really cool to actually be on the forefront of technology for once instead of the back foot haha.

The end.

Seriously a special shout out to Kristen and Mike for running this concept – I haven’t had any problems during this process and that’s been because of the Telstra Social Media guys running this so well.

Thanks to the other Telstra, Microsoft and HTC guys for the training and giving me free stuff. The Xbox is awesome and I’m currently playing Red Dead Redemption but am still open to game donations to assist in improving my Xbox experience

And thanks to the other 24 awesomesauce Social Reviewers – it’s been good knowing you all on Twitter and can’t wait to meet up for drinks to discuss how we’re all Telstra Spamtards.

Finally a MASSIVE THANKYOU for actually reading my blogs and tweets! I have really enjoyed being able to be a part of this program and I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on the Telstra Windows Phone 7. If you seriously have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me  - however the sim card on my phone dies tonight, so this may limit the stuff I will be able to test or try out for you.

PS. A final legal note –

I have been given a HTC Mozart with Windows 7 Phone by Telstra free of charge to review. The comments expressed by me reflect my own user experience and personal opinion and are not made on behalf of Telstra.

PPS.

They TOTALLY did post the video from the introduction day. Glad to know Mike thinks I’m the most awesome person in the room.