HTC 7 Mozart review: first look

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft's brand new smartphone operating system and we've already taken a look at its most significant business features , as well as how it compares against other smartphone operating systems. It will be appearing on five handsets in the UK initially, with more to come in the near future. The HTC 7 Mozart is one of the first five and is available exclusively on Orange on a 24 month contract at 35 a month inc VAT.

We spent some time with a preview version of the HTC 7 Mozart. The firmware on our phone was not quite final, and so we weren't able to giving it a thorough testing. However we were able to get a good idea of how the handset feels and how Windows Phone 7 stacks up.

The HTC 7 Mozart is a good looking smartphone. Like many Apple products, its aluminium chassis is crafted out of a single piece of metal, so it looks sleek and feels robust. A small cover on the back slides away so that you can get to the battery and SIM card.

Like the rest of the UK launch range of Windows Phone 7 models, the Mozart doesn't have a microSD memory card slot. You'll therefore have to be content with the 8GB of built-in storage for apps and media content.

Although some American Windows Phone 7 models do have microSD slots, Microsoft has placed some interesting limitations on its usage. Windows Phone 7 basically merges onboard storage and memory card storage into a single virtual pool of storage. Adding a new memory card would erase this pool and create a new one, so you'd have to ensure you have a backup of your data before adding a new card.