Released for use on the Vodafone network, the Trophy proved invaluable at times as a group of horse-racing enthusiasts toured Melbourne.
Some of the fancier features, such as Zune, Xbox Live and Office were not overly used but were given a trial and worked out well.
However, the functions that were used often met the requirements of this writer.
They included email, photos, videos, fast access to websites and texting.
The tab.co.nz and tab.com.au sites were used for racing fields and meetings, with the New Zealand TAB mobile phone website proving to be outstanding. It was fast, clear and enabled online betting through a TAB account.
Maps were well used, and only on the last day of a six-day trip did the map function fail. There appeared to be no reason for the failure but something happened and we were left with an aerial map of Victoria rather than a map of Melbourne.
Getting directions to eateries proved a breeze, and cost-saving as a taxi driver was about to take us the long way until I said turn left at the next corner.
On a tram ride to St Kilda, the mapping function showed street numbers as we passed them, such was the update speed. Unfortunately, we took the wrong tram and ended up in South beach and had to walk to St Kilda, but that was not the fault of the phone.
On the first night, one of the party decided spaghetti bolognaise was his dinner choice. When he was suitably covered in tomato sauce and lifting a glass of red wine to his lips, I took a photo on the phone and promptly emailed it to his wife. It really was the easiest photo taken by me on a mobile phone and attached to an email and sent. Just in case one email did not get through, I used a second address.
One of the best features for me was the live tiles on the large screen. A gentle tap of a tile produced a fast response.
Generally, the phone was easy to use but it did have a couple of things which did not suit.
This user could not work out how to make a call to check a bank balance because after the number dialled was answered, the keyboard disappeared. It was impossible to press 1 for account details. There could be a way to keep the keyboard in view but I could not find it.
Getting the hang of predictive texting with a touch screen took a while. In the end, it was better to use the predictive words, even if they were out in full as the phone sometimes refused to recognise shorthand messages.
Battery life was fair, some days better than others. Turning the phone on at 6am, it would last most days until it was turned off around 11pm. On the day the maps would not work, the battery life drained quickly as, belatedly, I realised the map function kept searching for a location. I imagine if the phone was used heavily for downloading data as well as being used for calls, a battery top-up during the day would be required.
The phone is priced by Vodafone at $799 on its most popular plan and $899 on prepay or On Account plan. At the time of writing, it was out of stock.
Microsoft was late into the market with a competitor to the iPhone. Google Android phones came out earlier in the year. The Windows 7 Trophy lacks the flair in applications of the iPhone but Microsoft is promising more apps.
