Hardware
I generally approve of HTC handset design. The combination of metal, textured plastic and rounded edges give the Trophy, and many other HTC handsets I've played with, a solid but accommodating feel.
The face of the phone is pretty plain. There's a shiny bare-metal frame to the screen and nothing outside the frame bar the speaker holes. Inside it are the three ‘hard' buttons and an LED indicator that is imperceptible when unlit.
That gets me onto a moan I've had more than one with contemporary smartphones. So far I've only encountered one circumstance in which the LED deigns to light up, and that's when I'm charging the phone. Why do so few phones now give you an LED indication when you've received something like an email, or text? I did get a flashing green light from a missed call, but then the phone didn't tell me who had called, and nothing for texts or emails.
The screen itself is 3.8 inches and has a resolution of 480 x 800. To be honest I find it hard to tell the quality of screens apart at this size and resolution. So the screen is a fifth of an inch smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S and WVGA rather than Super AMOLED, but it's the same resolution and, to my philistinic eye, looks pretty much the same.
On the back you have the 5MP camera, LED flash and something else we haven't been able to establish the point of, but which we assume to be some kind of sensor associated with the camera.
The sides are relatively uncluttered. The top has the on/off button, which also wakes the screen, and a standard headphone jack. The left-hand side has the volume control and micro-USB port, the right just the camera button and the bottom just the microphone hole.
All in all, this relative minimalism contributes to an elegant-looking phone and a low-stress user experience. I've found I tend to press the buttons around the edge of the phone by accident all the time, so the fewer of them there are the less chance of me doing so.
Specs
Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD 8250
OS: Windows Phone OS 7
Memory: ROM: 512 MB, RAM: 576 MB, Internal storage: 8 GB
Dimensions: 118.5 x 61.5 x 11.96 mm (4.67 x 2.42 x 0.47 inches)
Weight: 140 grams (4.94 ounces) with battery
Display: 3.8 inch touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution
Network: HSPA/WCDMA (900/2100 MHz), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, standard micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)
Camera: 5.0 megapixel colour camera with auto focus and flash, 720p HD video recording
Power: Removable and Rechargeable Lithium ion or Lithium-polymer battery, 1300 mAh
Sensors: Motion G-sensor, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor
Additional features: Dolby Mobile and SRS surround sound