HTC Radar

Android has been the OS of choice for so many smartphones out there that it’s so easy to forget that there are other Operating Systems that are still being used on smartphones like the Windows 7 for instance. With the new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango out to woo the crowd, HTC Radar 4G is going to take the honors of being the first phone to sport this new OS. However, will it be enough to sway smartphone buyers towards the HTC Radar 4G? Let’s find out. 

Design
Further on in this review, it might hit you that the HTC Radar 4G does seem very similar in terms of specs to the HTC Trophy, nevertheless, when it comes to design this phone is another class apart. Pick up the phone and what you get is a perfectly weighted piece of technology. Its unibody construction also catches the eye. On the front is a 3.8 inch Super LCD Screen which sports a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The glossy black fascia on the screen adds some style to the HTC Radar 4G. Unlike Android phones where you have four capacitive buttons under the screen, this phone in aiming to be different only has three capacitive buttons. The HTC Radar 4G also comes with a font facing VGA camera for video calls. On the left side of the phone sits the microUSB port and on the top you will find the standard audio jack and power button.  Meanwhile on the right side is the volume rocker and a two stage dedicated camera button that really was nice to use and on the bottom you find the in-call mic. Turn the phone around and there are a few things to be found on like the 5MP camera with LED flash as well as the loud-speaker and removable back cover. One of our favorites on the back of the phone is the soft-touch material both at the top and the bottom. The addition of these material makes the HTC Radar 4G sit more comfortably in your hands as these soft touch material are located exactly where your fingers usually rest on the phone. The only thing that can be swapped out on this phone is the SIM card as the battery and memory card are fixed in their respective places.

Features
The HTC Radar 4G might sound like an ancient artifact when we say it runs on a single core 1GHz Snapdragon processor given the CPUs we have powering smartphones these days. However, once we tested the phone, this processor together with the 512MB RAM when coupled with the refreshing new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS we find the processor to be adequate to carry out its tasks.

Windows 7 Phone OS never made it big in the smartphone scene but with the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS we might just have in our hands something that was made to last as it keeps the great visual of the previous version and adds some new features. Some of these features are multi-tasking capabilities, copy/paste and better integration with your social networking sites. Just as the previous version, this OS still has the two primary screens, namely homescreen and applications. The homescreen is where you find one of the features we like, the live tiles. They serve two purposes, and they are either to act as a shortcut to your app or provide app specific notifications. You can either pin your favorite apps to the start menu with a long press or just stick to the traditional way of opening them from the list which you can access by sliding to the right when you are at the homescreen. Hold down the ‘back’ capacitive button and the OS brings up a multi-tasking pane which shows all the apps that are currently open in the form of cards that you can flip through. The HTC Radar 4G runs on the HTC Hub which has been improved from the previous versions. The HTC Hub also offers the standard flip-clock weather widget similar to what you find on HTC Sense. There are also some pre-installed apps like the Photo Enhancer, HTC Connected Media, HTC Location, Notes and Flashlight.  The HTC Radar 4G also as we had mentioned previously has a deeper integration with Facebook which is evident in the phone book. You can just swipe to the right from the contacts list and you come to your friend’s latest Facebook updates.

This smartphone offers a 3.8 inch Super LCD screen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. When you compare this phone to the HTC Titan which shares the same resolution, the HTC Radar 4G produces a much sharper output as the screen is smaller. The viewing angles on this screen are also good plus it is also very responsive. It is also one of those phones with a screen that’s usable under sunlight.

A 5MP autofocus camera with a single LED flash is what you get on the HTC Radar 4G. The fact that it comes with an f2.2 aperture lens and touch to focus capability we got us excited to test the camera right away. The photos taken on this phone were better than the ones we saw on the HTC Trophy or the HTC HD7 as the autofocus problem has been resolved. Although contrast levels were not to our liking, the photos had a good level of detail. Even without flash on, the photos only had low noise levels and as we turned on the flash the pictures turned out even better. Macro shots were also great with the new touch to focus feature. On the video side of things, they are recorded at 720p HD and also play back quite smoothly.

The HTC Radar 4G is a GSM phone while the other connectivity options you find are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The Windows 7.5 Mango proves that it has been improved on all fronts as the Internet Explorer that comes with this phone loads pages quickly. Navigational tools like the double tap and pinch to zoom both works with no lag issues. However the Internet Explorer still does not provide Flash support.

In terms of performance, this phone performs exceptional well as we can hear our friend’s voice reproduced clearly on our side and at the same time our friends had no complains about how our voice heard on their end either. We also loved the loudspeaker as it produced some loud sound. Battery life is also good as you can get up to a day or even more with average use of the HTC Radar 4G.

Pros and Cons
The HTC Radar 4G offers smooth performance and it is also well built. Video recording on this camera was good.

We find that the OS still lacks app supports since it’s still in its infancy. The HTC Radar 4G isn’t very different from the HTC Trophy with its specs.

Conclusion
The HTC Radar 4G is a great addition to HTC’s long list of smartphones and for those Windows Phone OS fans, the new Mango OS will definitely hit the spot.

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