HTC Surround Cell Phone Review

Introduction

It’s always exciting to see a new operating system like the one we found in the HTC Surround, offered in the US by AT&T. This is a Windows Phone running Microsoft’s newly developed Windows Phone 7 operating system. Microsoft has positioned its Windows Phone 7 operating system to go head-to-head against Apple’s iOS operating system and Google’s Android system. The Surround also has some unique hardware features including 16 GB of internal memory and a unique slide out speaker bar that offers "virtual surround" audio processing. We took a look at the HTC Surround hardware as well as the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Check it out.

As shown in Figure 1, the HTC Surround comes in a simple box.

Inside the box, is the phone, a small User’s Manual, a USB charging cable with wall outlet, a set of hard ear buds, a pair of soft covers for the ear buds, and a small clip, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: What’s in the box

With a 3.8-inch LCD touch screen, black screen bezel and silver surround, the HTC Surround looks similar to many other phones of this type, as shown in Figure 3. However the stainless steel bezel and soft-touch matte black back make it feel extremely solid. The Surround is 0.51 inches (13 mm) thick and weights 5.82 ounces (165 g), making it slightly thicker and heavier than similar models. While the added weight might be a detriment to some, it does add to the solid feel of the device.

Figure 3: The HTC Surround