Back in October, I switched to Windows Phone 7. My feelings now are the same as they were then: the software rocks, the hardware sucks. If I could buy an Apple iPhone or Google Nexus running WP7, I would.

Devices like that don’t exist, though. There is no flagship Windows Phone. The closest thing is the Nokia Lumia 800, but I don’t know when that will be released in the US or which carriers it will support.

Maybe my disdain for my current Windows Phone, a Dell Venue Pro, comes from the fact that I couldn’t try it out before I bought it. Microsoft stores are the only retail outlet that carries them. The only Microsoft store in Texas is in Houston, and I’m not driving 160 miles to test-drive a phone.

Or maybe my dislike stems from the lack of choice. When I was shopping for a phone, the only option besides the Venue Pro was the HTC HD7. T-Mobile had one in store to play with, which sold me on the operating system. But I hated the phone.

The choices aren’t any better now, either. Microsoft’s list of Windows Phones only shows two options for T-Mobile: the HTC Radar 4G and the Nokia Lumia 710. And the Lumia 710 isn’t even available yet.

I want Windows Phone 7 to succeed. It’s a lovely operating system that’s a joy to use. But the phones themselves aren’t anything to write home about. I hope Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia pays off.