Customer Reviews

HTC Surround Windows Phone (AT&T)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I really like this phone. I dabble with all smart phone OS's including Android, iPhone, Palm WebOS and Blackberry OS6. This phone holds its own against all of those, and holds its own against my most preferred phone, the iPhone 4.

The good:

OS is very snappy

Screen is very high quality

More apps there than WebOS

Photo quality is good

Very simple to use-- I'll argue that my parents would probably have an easier time with this phone than iPhone, the one I previously thought was "simplest" in smart phones.
The Microsoft integrations are really usable-- including Xbox.

A really fresh view on a smart phone OS-- it takes the social "right right right" across-scroll from Blackberry OS 6, the look of Android in settings, the best of Zune in media sync, and the polish/animation bests of iPhone.

Auto correct is light years better for me than either of Android or iPhone. It almost seems as though it contextually corrects because it is a generation better in turning a typo into the right word. As well, it provides auditory feedback when typing that also lets you know when a word is replaced, by making a different sound, thus you know you may need to look/check.

The bad:

No copy & paste or multitasking yet. For some, a deal breaker, for me, I rarely use either.

App store is still growing and lack lustre compared to the more mature iPhone and Android stores
The phone itself is a bit thicker than I'd like... for the speakers making it that way, it sounds good, but I don't know if the extra thickness is worth it.

Some apps, like Facebook, seem a little laggy to load. It's not a deal breaker and I'm sure this will be tweaked as updates occur.

By no means is this a "dumb phone" but I really do think it is simpler to operate than iPhone, and definitely simpler than Android. As an IT person, I still like Android for its complexity and iPhone for it's speed, but this is a really nice OS. Definitely give it a look if you haven't.

I rate this a 4 star instead of 5 for only two reasons: The thickness of the phone and still needing more time to more fully flesh out the app store options. I realize I could have purchased a thinner phone, but as a design choice I think it should be thinner even with the slider for speakers.

Very pleasantly surprised by Windows Phone 7 and this phone. Meets the normal high build quality expected/experienced from everything HTC.

This phone is amazing.. Had to get a Windows Phone(so easy and straight to the info I need)after I played with my friends HTC Focus...I sold my iphone 3g on ebay, fetched a good price to $145 8GB, and bought the Surround here on Amazon..First I went to the AT&T store and looked at all 3 phones first, I was interested in the Surround for the Dolby speakers, I have the xbox & At&T uverse TV at the house so I can play Xbox (games are good and simple now, I just like the fact I can play and get more Live points when not at home yeah!!) and see uverse programs for free, like with all WP cells so I wanted the speakers, which was a good decision I made and now I use the speaker phone for conference calls didn't even think of that at the time and it is plenty loud and clear with no speaker overload noise..I'm still finding new efficent ways to using this cell (Office etc)..... These are great reviews on this page you will not be dissapointed... I find this cell to be very solid, there is nothing, I mean nothing whimpy about the HTC Surround...So far the friends that have messed with this phone are hooked in a matter of minutes, cause the windows phone set up is not complicated at all and all cells are the same...I am also looking forward to the updates which I understand are over the air as well, yeah!!..

everything I wanted from a phone. It's a week or so old and still learning new tricks. xboxlive profile is cool, and tons of apps. still waiting for free solitare and other card game apps like with my old phone, but I'm sure it will come in time. only downside if ya wanna call it that. Is there is no custom ringtone feature. On my old phone I could put a song as my ringer, but it comes with tons of ringer options. It seems battery life is a little faster then my old phone, but I've never ran outta juice listening to zune while walking for 3 hours and watching netflix, just gets really low. Overall I'm very pleased on how fast the phone responds with the windows OS and would recommend it to annyone looking for an upgrade.

Just purchased this Windows Phone 7 phone to replace my Android phone. Very slick UI with impressive speed. I love the Zune integration and initially purchased mainly due to the Zune music service since I had the Zune pass.
Must say that this device blows away the performance when compared to my former Droid. Email client, calendar, UI and stable overall operation beats Android hands down. There are initial complaints that it lacks multi tasking and copy/paste function but it definately makes up for these shortfalls with the overall performance. Sure it does not have the 100,000 apps of Android or 300,000 for Iphone but so far I have managed to locate apps for all my needs.

The one area that Android still exceeds involves the integrated map navigation however I understand that turn by turn voice navigation will be coming in early 2011 along with the copy/paste function. I do not see the multi tasking as a shortfall, since your email, calendar and other essentials are always running to ensure that you are up to date. The live tiles are awesome and save you time from having to check the notification bar such as in Android and then drilling down into the application for the information. In WP7, just check under People and see all of your facebook updates and other information at a glance.

The speaker addition definately adds some weight and thickness, but is a novelty although I do not think that it serves as a fatal flaw as cited by some reviewers. Outside of the added weight and thickness, the speaker produces some nice sound and SRS WOW HD and Surround Sound produces the best music listening experience via your headphones. The sound quality and definition is awesome and blows away Android (Droid and Droid X) including the Iphone. Love my Windows Phone 7 and highly recommended!!! Review would have been a 5 if not for the extra thickness and weight added by the speaker.

This is the best phone I have ever had! I like it better than my old iPhone I had before purchasing this phone. The screen is high quality, the internet browsing is very fast. It is very user friendly and allows easy access to all my social networking sites\apps and email accounts. There's currently no Copy/Paste, but it will be coming in the 01/11 update. The only negative thing I could think to say about it yet is, there aren't as many apps to choose from compared to the iPhone but I'm sure there will be soon. The Netflix App is available which is one of the great things which sets this phone apart from the Android. Also the automatic wifi sync is amazing, it automatically syncs my music and podcasts from my computer to the phone. The Zune software is miles ahead of itunes, it is very easy to update the phone with the music, videos, pictures and apps I want. My first use of Zune software left me feeling "Why hasn't apple made their software like this, this works so much better!". With iTunes you always have the risk of accidentally erasing all of your songs and video's if you aren't familiar with the software. Also I like how Microsoft has done phone updates. The phone can automatically download updates, you don't have to go through a difficult update process with your computer. Overall I really love this phone and hope that others can see how great of a product this is!

I have had the Surround since Dec. 2010. It is a very good phone so far. I owned a HTC Tilt 2/Windows 6.5 previously and it sucked! No memory and Windows 6.5 was way too slow. I got a good deal to try the new Windows 7 phone. Reluctantly I did and I am glad I did. I have put this phone through the ringer every way I can, downloaded 150+ apps most with "push tiles", taken/saved 1000+ pics, 1000's of emails/texts (all saved to phone) and web searched with more than 5 sites open on the phone at once, basically tried everything to get it to crash. I have to say I kind of wanted it to. Due to the predjudice I had with Windows 6.5 I can now say " I love this phone". Web surfing is faster that Iphone and especially Droid (and with no malware. Sorry Droid. You lose this one) Photos and sound can't be beat. The only con to this phone is the Marketplace app. It freezes up too often when searching for apps. The new update is to fix this. I hope. Are you listening Windows! Windows phone 7 supassed the 10,000 app market much faster than Iphone or Droid, so this is a good omen for things to come. GET THIS PHONE!

I love my Surround. The pop-out speakers are great for use in the garage. The integration with other Microsoft products is what drove me to buy this in the first place, and has only improved my opinion of the device.

The battery life is a little flaky, which caused me to buy a couple extra charge cables (one for home, car, and the office), but that's not enough to detract from just how amazing this device is.

When it was time for a new phone, i did my research and i was looking for an Android phone by HTC. When i went to the store, there were no phones that met my criteria, so the employee suggested the Surround.

Out of the box, the phone felt very solid and has a bit of weight to it (which i liked). The screen was more than enough too look at, with brilliant colors and a beautiful home screen.

The interface was extraordinary, i expected nothing less from HTC. The 1 gigahertz processer does its job perfectly, no lag and everything runs smoothly. After having the phone for 2 months, i have never needed to shut down the phone due to freezing.

The battery life is just OK. Probably because of the processor, the battery life suffers. I always need to charge it each night, but thats fine with me.

As for the Windows OS 7, it has its pros and cons. First of all, it looks amazing. Whenever i have a friend who takes a look at it, they are always amazed at the look of it. The whole operating system is extremely organized and simple. You have your main screen with the tiles, and 1 flick to the left is all your programs and apps all lined up. Which brings me to the apps. Being that the Windows OS is pretty new, the app marketplace definitely suffers. It has your basics, but some of the super-popular apps on iphone and android are missing on Windows (ie: Angry Birds, Words With Friends) There are equivilants to those, but i have no friends who play "Spell it". I know these things will come with time, but it lacks at the time being.

The other complaint i have is that the phone is not as customizable as i would have expected from Windows. Mainly, you are stuck with the 20 (ish) standard ringtones. Even my old 4 year old slider phone allowed me to transfer ringtones from my computer to phone via bluetooth.

A cool thing Windows did with the contacts is they integrated Facebook and your contacts. This way, you can go to your "People" and see their latest Facebook updates as well as their Facebook picture and their contact info you input. Calling a person requires a little more effort than just scrolling down to their name and pressing call, but i guess that is expected from a smartphone.

Messaging is very nice with the conversation mode, i have no issues with that.

As for the media and entertainment, all i can say is i hate Zune. Maybe im just used to iTunes and my ipod, but it just seems a little complicated in syncing and taking off videos and pictures. Besides, the Zune program screwed up my Windows 7 laptop, so now i have to run it on my XP desktop. In any case, im getting used to it.

The camera and video camera are amazing. It takes beautiful 5mp pictures and decent 720p video. I the slide out speakers work perfectly and have amazing sound. The little stand has come in handy too for showing friends videos. \

Overall, a great phone, just a few improvements that i think Windows will take care of soon enough. The app market will grow with time.

Some suggested free apps: Youtube, Adobe Reader, Chicks and Vixens (Equivilant to angry birds), Bubble Birds, ebay, ScoreMobile (For sports fans), Shazam

I received my HTC Surround for free from BzzAgent.com, and I am really enjoying it so far. The phone's extra "surround sound" speaker sounds really good for a phone, and the volume can be turned up to a high level. The phone's kickstand is fun to use, and you can buy apps from Windows Marketplace.
The one major complaint I have about this phone is that when you turn it on its' side to use the kickstand, the image does not always flip to horizontal.

windows phone is amazing system but i don't recommend of HTC, because after few month u won't have the device or the money.
What happened to me, one day i surprise of black screen with msg Storage damaged , u need replace the storage and resat all your personal data, Thanks so much HTC for this device, i save money to buy this device and hardly i did it, and now i'm using Symbian phone because of your Surround device, i tried to call your support in King Saudi Arabia that's where i live now and they told me we don't have enough information we can't help call US support!!
I'm So upset this's a hardware fail and i think it's the HTC responsibility to repair my device without disrupt my work !!

and by the way i bought it because i was hoping the sound will be great but this advantage it's not really exist !!