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Review: HTC Surround with Windows Phone 7

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Menus Calls/Contacts Messaging Social Networking  

The HTC Surround offers a handful of the communications tools that people have come to rely on in the modern era. It supports Microsoft Exchange natively (duh!), as well as POP3/IMAP4 email, SMS/MMS, though sadly a native IM client is nowhere to be found, at least initially.

The email program is very, very good. As with many email systems, all a user needs do is enter their log-in credentials and Windows Phone 7 takes care of the rest. Users can adjust the sync settings, and after the initial download, email flows in. The inbox is broken into several side-by-side panes, including All, Unread, and Urgent. HTML emails are rendered, though users have to adjust how attached images are handled for the best experience. The settings are available, as usual, at the bottom of the screen. There are a number of icons there, which allow users to start new emails, perform batch delete/file actions, sort things into folders, and refresh their inbox. It all makes sense and works well. It supports multiple email accounts.

The SMS/MMS application, which is one of the core tiles on the device, offers threaded conversations. Text appears in colored bubbles in a way that will be familiar to most people. Images appear in-line with the conversation. I experience a couple of delays with text messages passing from the Surround to other AT&T devices. This could be chalked up to the signal issue mentioned above. It is a cinch to sort through entire conversations, delete whole threads, and keep your conversations organized.

I am puzzled as to the lack of an instant messaging client at launch. Not even Windows Live is supported. What's up, Microsoft?

After the Marketplace went fully live, I was able to find and download a third-party Windows Live Messenger client. I didn't see clients for Yahoo, AIM, or GTalk. The WLM client that I found was passable, but I think a native app developed by Microsoft would do a better job.

 

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