Review: HTC Surround with Windows Phone 7
Camera
Microsoft has done something really smart with the WP7 camera. Is your toddler taking his or her first steps? Is your significant other about to score a goal in a soccer game? Quick! Whip out your Surround...and press the camera key.
The Surround — and all WP7 devices — will launch the camera automatically even when the phone is locked and asleep. That's genius.
The camera software itself copies the behavior of a lot of other touch phone cameras. There is a box that appears in the center of the screen to help with centering the shot. Basic controls to access zoom and the video camera are stacked on the right side of the display, including a software button for the full settings menu. The full menu allows you to adjust the metering capability, how it focuses, the flash, and so on.
The Surround isn't the fastest camera to focus and take pictures, but it is hardly sluggish.
Once images are captured, they are whisked into the gallery app. The right edge of the previous photo serves as the frame on the left side of the viewfinder. It's kind of jarring at first, but you get used to it. It can serve as a quick reminder of what it is that you've most recently shot. Want to see it? Swipe it to the right.
Gallery
Microsoft thinks pictures are so important, it gave them their own Hub. The Pictures hub is a great way to treat photo galleries, but there are definitely some shortfalls.
The Pictures Hub uses the Zune-like architecture, meaning you scroll sideways to access different sections of the Hub. Your own photos are stored in one place, but it also syncs the photos shared by your Facebook friends. That's a neat idea. It lets you get a visual snapshot of what your friends are up to and sharing. Selecting one of the Facebook photos lets you see any tags or comments attached to the photo, and, if you want, you can leap to that person's Facebook wall. It also automatically syncs your own Facebook photo galleries with the device.
One bummer? You can't edit or manipulate photos at all. The Pictures Hub is all about sharing. It lets you easily upload images to Facebook, SkyDrive (Microsoft's photo upload service) or send them along via MMS or email. It doesn't even offer basic rotate and crop. Worse, the Surround sometimes goofs on the picture orientation. That means you might take a portrait-style image of your friend, but the picture gets stuck sideways and you can't fix it. That's frustrating.
Still, the Pictures Hub sure looks nice, and is fun to use. Pictures can also be loaded to a favorites list, set as wallpaper, and so on.
Windows Phone 7: Hands-On
HTC Surround
