With the unrivaled success of the iPhone and Android’s quick rise in the smartphone market, Microsoft has decided to go silent for a while. Abandoning their Windows Mobile platform and developing an entirely new software called Windows Phone 7, with the first few handsets hitting the market just recently; the Mozart and the Surround are two of them. One of the differences between these two is the form factor as the Mozart is a candybar while the Surround is a slider. But rather than a QWERTY keyboard, the Surround has speakers and a kickstand beneath the screen. The speakers are claimed to produce virtual surround sound quality with Dolby and SRS. Although there are question whether a device this small can deliver any sort of surround sound. A consequence of the speakers of the Surround is the added thickness and weight; it is thicker compared to the Mozart by 2mm and heavier by 30grams.

Although memory has not been much of a factor in other smartphones due to the presence of a memory card slot, both phones don’t have it. They are both reliant on the amount of internal memory already on the phone. The Surround is a bit better in this aspect as it has 16GB of internal memory compared to only 8GB of the Mozart. Bigger memory complements the Surround’s big speakers for storing and viewing movies.

The camera of the Mozart is a bit better than that of the Surround as it features an 8 mega-pixel sensor compared to the 5 mega-pixel sensor of the Surround for bigger images and finer quality. Both are able to record 720p video though so they are more or less on par when it comes to video recording.

Battery life is one aspect where the Mozart is better, although it only has a slightly bigger battery capacity. On a single full charge, the Mozart can last up to a maximum of 435 hours on standby or up to 6.6 hours of calls while the Surround can only provide up to 275 hours on standby or up to 4 hours of call time. There are no figures for other activities like movie viewing or online browsing; but chances are, the Mozart would still probably fair better than the Surround.

Summary:

1. The Surround is a slider while the Mozart is a candybar
2. The Surround has better speakers than the Mozart
3. The Surround is thicker and heavier than the Mozart
4. The Surround has more memory than the Mozart
5. The Mozart camera is better than the Surround’s
6. The Mozart has a longer battery life than the Surround