As someone who is interested in technology, there are few things that make me happier than a shiny new toy to play with. Unfortunately this also means my bank balance is relatively bare most of the time, but what money I save from not driving, smoking, drinking or, uh, courting means more money to be spent on new shiny, and that’s a-ok by me. Isn’t disposable income great?

For the moment, smartphones are where it’s at. Perhaps I just haven’t caught up to the rest of the world when it comes to tablets, or perhaps I think they’re not quite there yet – either way, my interest (for the moment) likes solely with the likes of those smartphone manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, Samsung, yes, even Apple and HP/Palm.

My personal interest in technology means that I have an iPhone 4 as my daily carry. In the past, I’ve experimented with a HTC Desire running Android 2.1.

This time around, I’m currently playing with the Windows Phone 7 platform, and not one, but two phones — the Dell Venue Pro and the HTC Mozart 7.

The Venue Pro is kinda weird. It’s my first 4-inch smartphone, and while the extra screen space is kinda nice, the phone itself is pretty heavy and quite bulky (especially compared to the chic Mozart). It’s also a portrait slider, which makes it even more unique. The AMOLED screen is nice and vibrant, as expected, but there’s one thing I can’t quite put my finger on that I don’t like about it. I think the display is too far inset from the glass, maybe. The glass that it uses is the famed Gorilla Glass, but it’s not the same as the same Gorilla Glass-touting Mozart. Not sure if it’s an issue with my phone or what, but I find it has moisture issues — like it’s more slippery than it’s supposed to be on the surface. The sleep/wake button is difficult to press, but overall, it’s a okay-ish phone. Average, I would say.

The Mozart 7 is a different story. It’s slim, light, and is everything I would expect from HTC. It’s a shame the notification LED isn’t used for any Windows Phone notifications (I’m not sure that’s actually a feature that WP7 offers), but it’s very, very nice. The phone itself is very responsive, the included HTC ringtones are even nice (Harp Glitch is my current ringtone of choice — WP7 doesn’t offer custom ringtones), and perhaps the only complaint I have is about the capacitive buttons — they’re a little too easy to hit. Apart from that, no complaints.

I’ve been using the Mozart as my daily carry for close to a month now, and I’ll have some thoughts on Windows Phone 7 up shortly (week, perhaps two, perhaps three if I’m lazy), as well as a nice comparison between the two phones.

For now, I’ll just say that Windows Phone 7 is very nice (contrary to what you might have read). There’s consistency everywhere, things are nice and simplified, and it’s overall very polished. The apps aren’t quite there yet, but that’s a story for another time.