We are working on few applications and it was important for us to test the applications on REAL Windows Phone 7 Device. However, as you all are aware, Windows Phone 7 hasn’t launched yet in INDIA.

After looking at a lot of places, we found that our best bet was to get HTC HD7 device which is termed as “GLOBAL” from amazon. Although the price was a bit exorbitant, we had luxury of labeling this shiny new gadget expense as business expense .

We checked custom duty implications of the same in INDIA and couldn’t find any definitive answer. But we decide to dive in. We ordered the phone from Amazon on November 29th and selected Priority Shipping (as one of our application was getting bad review because it was not tested on the device, we wanted it ASAP).

Come December 2 (just 3rd Business day), we received the shiny new HTC HD7 Global phone. Custom duty charged was just Rs.680 (out of which FedEx took like Rs.300 Handling). So as it turns out, Custom Duty on Cellphone is a mere 1% in INDIA. This can be useful for people searching for Custom duty to buy Iphones and other phones (Note this does not include Ipad as it is another form of gadget).

Ok, So once I got my HD7, all I did was to insert my AirTel sim and just punched in my LIVE ID and Facebook credentials and it aggregated all my Contacts within few minutes . HTC HD7 is pure joy. There are few niggling issues in OS like Wifi doesn’t always work in all the public routers, few extra steps for easy things like turning Wifi on/off etc. But I suppose they will be fixed up in the time to come.

How about Apps ? Well that’s a different story because being in INDIA I can’t use my credit cards to buy applications. I can install the free ones without any issues though.