HTC 7 Mozart review

The HTC 7 Mozart may have a smaller screen than its launch compadres, the HTC HD7 and HTC 7 Trophy, but what it lacks in screen size it makes up for in style. It's a more Android-inspired handset than the two other HTCs, which are very much in the straight-laced Microsoft vein.

With its rounded sides and styled-out back it puts us much more in mind of the Google Nexus One and HTC Wildfire than the other Windows Phone 7 launchers.

The interface on the HTC 7 Mozart couldn't be more different to that of the open Google phones, including those with HTC Sense like the HTC Legend. Because of this, it feels much less of an HTC handset and more of a Windows Phone, which is what Microsoft was going for.

Unlike the Google Nexus One and its Android contemporaries, the architecture is very closed so you'll be getting the same experience on all the Windows handsets, regardless of your token customisations.

Although the contacts integrate brilliantly with Facebook on the HTC 7 Mozart, it's lacking in other social networking know-how – unlike the Samsung Wave, for example, which can integrate Twitter contacts as well and makes uploading images to Flickr part of the infrastructure.

In terms of media playback, the HTC 7 Mozart can certainly take on the likes of the Apple iPhone 4, however. Microsoft has re-thought the music player and come out with something less like the Cover Flow stylings on the iPhone, which has been much-copied – not least by RIM on the BlackBerry Torch 9800. In terms of playback quality, the HTC 7 Mozart is excellent and easily the Google Nexus One's superior.

The HTC 7 Mozart still lacks in some areas though; we'd like to be able to build playlists on the handset as we can on the Sony Ericsson Zylo, and the multi-tasking aspect of the media player on the HTC 7 Mozart struggles, where the iPhone 4's does not.