HTC 7 Pro: U.S. Cellular Windows Phone Video

HTC 7 Pro: U.S. Cellular Windows Phone Video Transcript

Hey everyone, I'm Jessica Dolcourt for CNET. Today, I've got a first look at the HTC 7 Pro. This is a new phone for US Cellular, but it is not brand new phone because in fact it first debuted as the HTC arrived and that was for Sprint. So, this phone has some of the HTCs typical accents. It's got a really thoughtful design and this metal accents that give it sort of premium feel. It's a little bit heavy. Part of that has to do with the metal and part of it has to with the with the QWERTY keyboard. It is a slide out, and the screen here as you can see tilts at 30 degree angle. I really like this keyboard for typing and I like the angle for viewing media. The typing is really comfortable and the keys are kind of rubberized. So, they've got a good feel underneath the fingertips. This hinge here, pretty sturdy itself. In terms of typing I also like the windows phone virtual keyboard, which is one of the most accurate that I've ever used. Onto the screen, it has a 3.6-inch WVGA screen. This is not the best and the brightest that I've ever seen, but if you don't hold it up next to another windows phone, for example the Samsung focus, then you're not gonna know that you're missing out. It's sounds terrible to say, but honestly it's just fine for everyday use. There's a 5-megapixel camera on the back with flash and then also has HD video recording. After shots were really nice; they were sharp, they were clear, and so is the video playback. Indoor shots, on the other hand, were a little bit of a disappointment, but mostly because they were much less focused. Volume also suffered just a little low and I have hard time hard time hearing the subject of the video that I was shooting. To be fair a lot of video recording as like this on smartphones. So, this is the first windows phone for US cellular because other smartphones are overwhelming android and little bit of Blackberry. So, I'm really happy to see some of the variety there. Despite some of the drawbacks with this one phone in particular, it is one of those devices that tends to grow on you and you grow on me. As for the operating system, I personally like it. The original OS is on here, which is quite first generation, but the Mango edition, which is Windows Phone 7.5 will add some additional features and that's coming out this fall. This phone is $199 after a mail in rebate with a new 2-year service agreement. I'm Jessica Dolcourth with CNET. You can check out my full review of the HTC 7 Pro for US Cellular on CNET.com.