Htc Phones: Do They Really Work??? - General Topics

I've owned a couple of these HTC phones, formerly a Cingular/Siemens SX66, and also a small one by Audiovox...can't remember model but WM based, now got a Tmobile Dash.
All based on Windows Mobile, and my question is: HTC PHONES DO THEY REALLY WORK???
In the Forums I read nothing but problems, my experience's not good either. My first SX66 was defective, the replace froze way too often/needed reset (WM froze, CONNECTIVITY was POOR as it was on the Audiovox (I threw it against the wall and smashed to pieces) and STILL IS on the Dash..maybe not as BAD
I want to install a new language support on the Dash....doesn't seem to be possible
I "upgraded" to WM6 but I think I actually lost rather than gained in terms of versatility features and feel...
I'm thinkin of gettin a TyTn....but is it worth the aggravations and headaches, since I'm going to need to unlock and most likely extra language support for text messaging.....Is it possible to Add???
INPUT/OPINIONS WELCOME
THANKS

The two most common, recurring problems that I know of are screen alignment and battery maladies. Each seems to be somewhat device-specific for the most part. That to say that screen alignment issues appear frequently on the Wizard and TyTn and probably a few others, and battery issues occur on the Universal variants and a few others. While there's no arguing the fact that some phones do have problems we must remember that folks that have problems (or questions) are more likely to post something about it/them than are people who don't. So what we see on the internet might not be a fair representation between good and bad experiences.
I was told once while having a conversation about researching products that the internet can sometimes offer too much info, especially about opinions that are more subjective in nature than those concerning an issue that is either black or white, with little in between. Perhaps misery loves company and this prompts us to share our troubles more than our triumphs.
Just my $.02, and fwiw my Wizard is dying after only a year of gentle use. Screen alignment issues and flaky behavior concerning incoming calls are becoming more than a minor annoyance.

Just a note to say that I've had my TyTn for almost a year now and never had a screen alignment issue. I thought this was only an issue for early models?
HTC do have a variety of different official WM6 language ROMs out for it.
Another note to say that if you can hold out for a month or two and can afford it, you may want to wait for the Kaiser, it's like an upgraded TyTn with GPS and more memory/storage.

It may be an issue only with early models, and it may not. But on the TyTn site there is a poll that states that 56% report the issue. I seem to recall that some were talking about new devices, but then you don't know how long the device sat on a shelf somewhere before being purchased.
I came close to deciding to wait for the Kaiser, but in the end the 2.8" screen and the possibility that the alignment problem could carry over made me go another route. Plus my Wizard is becoming increasingly frustrating and that made waiting more than a simple exercise in patience ;o(

Related

Avoid iMate in the UK - Their customer service is crap

Hi,
I posted the following message (which is all true btw!) to iMAtes offical forum yesterday, and they censored it (by removing the thread). Since then, the promised callback from sbe (their UK repair center) failed to materalize.
I think the WM community deserves to know what level of service they can expect if they are silly enough to purchase a iMate device.
george
Hi,
I bought a 9502 on release day from Clove, for around £500. It lasted all of 2 and a half months, before the buttons stopped working. Clove recommended sending it to sbe limited for repair, which I did, 3 weeks ago.
Firstly, they tried to quote me £150 for the repair. I emailed them, and got no response after a week.
So I phoned them, and was told that it would be repaired for free, and be back within a week.
Ive now waited 3 weeks, during which I sent sbe 3 more emails, all of which have been completely ignored.
I phoned them up today, and after being on hold for 25 minutes, they finally answered, and said they are awaiting parts, and will call be back with more info... I will post here if they do, but I doubt they will!
They told me they have a massive backlog of emails to get through - thats a shame for them, but its not good enough for iMate to be successfull in this market.
Ive since bought a HTC Touch Pro, and, guess what? it works...
I will never buy another iMate device again, and i suggest noone else does either.
The device itself doesnt work very well at all (keeps hanging, slow, reminds me of the failed toshiba g900, but not QUITE as bad as the tosh). The Touch Pro, despite being practically the same chipset, works very very well in comparasion.
On the iMate ultiamte, the old Windows Mobile problem that it cannot keep up with my typing occurs. I have to literally tap one key, wait for it to respond, and then tap the next key and so on. The Touch Pro has the innovation of a keyboard buffer - if it cant keep up, it remembers what I typed, and processes the keys when it can.
We were also promised an official WM61 update in august... suprise suprise, that hasnt happened either.
The battery life is also crap compared to the Touch Pro (even though the iMate has a higher capacity battery). I put this down to lack of graphics accelleration on the iMate - you can literally see it struggle to redraw the home screen, whereas on the touch pro, it just happens instantly.
If you want any support at all on your phone DO NOT BUY IMATE. They are obviously too small a company to offer proper support (disclaimer - ive never had to use HTC's support, because their devices work, so I cannot comment on it, but I doubt the networks would let them get away with this poor level of support).
I will post an update tommorow (or before if SBE actually bother to ring back).
Does anyone have an email address for iMate themselves, so I can complain about sbe - surely iMate will want to know their reputation is being trashed be SBE??? their web page doesnt seem to offer any email address (a good way to keep pesky customers off their backs i guess), and their live support is only available for a couple of hours in the morning - i will try it tommorow).
A mobile phone is only valuable for 12 months IMHO (as I replace mine every year), so I have lost at least 1/12 of the value of the iMate, just by not having it for this time.
Even if the repair is slow, a good start would be to use a repair company that actually has the staff / resources to answer emails / phones. I dont feel like a valued customer.
ps. IMate - if you delete this forum message, I will make it my business to post it on as many mobile phone related forums as possible (modaco, xda developers etc).
/disappointed
george
that sounds a bit rubbish mate and i'm feeling your pain with you. Posting stuff like that here is definetley a good start as its read by a lot of people.
HTC stuff in my experience is just as poor build quality - so much so I avoided them for a while with my Tosh G900. My experience of my G900 has not been like your and mine was excellent... fast, responsive and built like a castle wall! My HTC devices have all failed at one point or another and i've yet to get 12months out of ANY HTC device I have ever owned. For example, my Touch Diamond feels like its made of paper, the paint is wearing off the back cover, the screen bezel/front cover has scratched, the screen is scratched and the buttons are scratched. This phone, like all my phones, is treated like a baby wrapped in cotton wool and has NEVER been dropped or banged, never put in a pocket with money or keys and always been treated like royalty. I have used HTC repairs and they are not actually that bad though.
Good luck with your Touch Pro and hope you get your Imate sorted
I agree with you 100% they provide the worst customer support I have ever seen
Our complains in thier forum and emails are always not answered
really I regret having one of thier ultimate 9502
and we don't kow how can we punish this company but at least new customers have to think twice before dealing with imate
I think everyone knows I agree. It's coming up to 5 weeks (+2 weeks the first time) and I still have no phone back thanks to a combination of I-Mate and Clove's incompetance. Been told to sit in today and wait for a replacement direct from iMate.
I bet:
a) It won't come today.
b) When it does arrive it'll have the same problems the old one was sent away for.
Terrible product, terrible support and terrible reseller.
I am really glad i found this fourm i was about to do the same thing. buy the 9502 from clove. haha. i dont know now though.
I guess i am still on the qwest to find the perfect phone for me.
it has to have atlest 128ram gps wifi and atleast vga
i am looking at the toshiba g910 but no the touch pro because there is no softkeys in landscape mode
Dont buy toshiba either
... i had a g900, and it sucked donkeys balls... for many reasons...
the touch pro is great - the lack of hardware soft buttons doesnt bother me at all..
g
Lack of scroll wheel / camera buttons etc does concern me about the Touch Pro.
Perhaps wait it out for the Sony Ericsson X1?
I thought that too, until I got it... the touch screen scrolls on finger movement (it seems to be able to tell the difference between a tap and a drag). It doesnt work on all programs, but it seems to work on mail, opera etc, which is where it matters IMHO
The camera button missing could be a PITA for some, but I rarely use the camera.
In fact, the hardware buttons are one of the most annoying features of previous phones ive owned, beacuse I was always pressing them by accident. I usually mapped them all to 'none'
g
Yeah. I think I'd probably end up mapping camera to the long press of 'end' key. Problem solved. My 9502 did that finger scrolling thing. SPB Pocket Plus enabled it. It's ok, but I preferred the wheel for being able to use the phone without having to poke the screen all the time.
I have heard though that it is possible to remap the volume buttons to scroll, and I think people are working on getting the zoom function to scroll instead like older HTC devices (which would be much more practical for me).
Oh, and my 9502 didn't arrive today. I'm not surprised.

Coming from Hermes, looking for new device. TP? questions

Hi all
I have been using a HTC Hermes (t-mobile vario II) for the last 2 years now and the phone is starting to show its age, still working but cracks have started to appear in the housing, the paint has all but worn off and i think its time for me to get a new handset.
the KEY thing for me is a DEDICATED keyboard like on the hermes/TP hence my decision on provisionnaly settling on a HTC Touch Pro device!
now, i do not know how many of the current touch pro adopters came from the hermes side or have used a hermes so this question is to them:
1) Does the TP feel QUICK compared to the Hermes?
the rest of the questions are for the normal users:
2) does the slider on the touch pro feel solid? i.e. no side-to-side rocking?
3) what is the battery life like under normal use?
4) I am reading about problems with the device as per it not waking up after going to sleep and a soft-reset being required, has this been proven to be the flakey touchflo3d software??
i will be using the handset primarily as a document viewer/IM/email/phone device and as such i will quite probably be stripping the first rom i could find to cook it my own way, so....
5) is it possible to get true vga on this device? i.e. changing the DPI of the screen from 96 --> 128?
6) are there are any other known issues with the Raphael device?
this is all part of my 'pre purchasing research' and i will be getting this handset as i have got all my other handsets sim free but instead of getting them second hand like i have been, this one will be brand spanking new and i will most likely be paying sticker price unless someone can find a nice e-tailer selling it cheap!
many many thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this and to everyone who takes the time to reply
upside .
My previous phone was a Hermes:
1. Yes, big difference. A lot snappier, and overall more stable and powerfull.
2. Yes, better then my Hermes (disassembled my Hermes a few times, maybe that's why, but i defenately like the spring slider mechanism of the TP, al lot smoother then the Hermes.)
3. Define normal. For me it's about 30% better then the Hermes. About 24 hours under heavy use.
4. Yes, if you don't run TF3D on a stock ROM, it has no problems at all. But if you want ot run TF3D : I've flashed the stock ROM that proved to be buggy to DCS 1.5 and no crashes since then even with TF3D running.
5. Don't know, never tried that.
6. Nothing serious that i know of.
Overall i'm very satisfied with my device, i think it's the perfect upgrade for the Hermes. Hope this helps.

Would you recommend the Fuze?

I've really been considering to buy the Fuze, but I'm getting mixed reviews. For all the Fuze owners, please answer the poll so that us potential buyers will know what to do.
Thanks!
anyone else wanna vote?
theomni said:
anyone else wanna vote?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm stuck in between the Fuze and the Touch Pro now... I really don't know which one is better? They are the same price nowadays.
I recommend it. I had the Tilt before and I love the Touch, its probably the best WM phone I've had (I've used the Sprint 700wx, Sprint Q, Sprint Touch, AT&T Tilt and now the AT&T Fuze).
I'm sure the few issues that exist with the Fuze will be fixed within a month or two because of the wonderful people we have here making custom ROMs, porting radios, etc.
I am very happy with my Fuze. It's not perfect and definitely needs some tweaks, but I think it is the best Windows Mobile phone ever put out. The screen is fantastic and makes it worth it by itself.
Pros:
VGA screen
Excellent multimedia
Youtube works both in it's own app and the mobile website
Slingbox looks fantastic
Expanded keyboard
Sleek design
Touch Flo 3D really works good
Finally, good bluetooth reception
Cons:
So-so d-pad
More remappable buttons needed
No headphone out jack
I do miss the tilting screen of the Tilt
No forward facing camera (why AT&T?)
Overall, I love the phone. I don't even need to use my laptop much anymore. Plus, it should only get better. I can't wait to see the Fennec web browser released for WinMo.
The Fuze can run on AT&T's 3G bands, which is the biggest difference. Physically, the Fuze has a PTT button (remappable using a trick in this forum) and the Pro has a front-faceing camera, but they are otherwise the same. You can install whatever Touch Pro ROM you want on the Fuze once you flash Hard SPL on it, so the software difference should not be an issue. If you're on AT&T and in a 3G area, it's a no-brainer decision between the two.
Tempest790 said:
No forward facing camera (why AT&T?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
US carriers don't support that functionality so it's cheaper for HTC to leave it out all together.
I've swithed from iPhone after droolling over Fuze release date for 2 months. First couple of days had slight regret (my first WM phone), but once I got the hang of it I fell in love with it. My girl tried it out and dropped her iPhone for Fuze aswell. IMHO, Fuze is on a much higher level and you just can't customize the iPhone the way you can Fuze, no matter what Apple commercials say. Oh and by the way, I realized how crappy Apple products are, but that's another story.
I said no because its not for everyone. I read a lot of people wanting something other than the iphone because of the data plan, this is not an iphone. Then they go and complaint that they cant do this, that its slow, that this, that that. I confess, I am/was one of those whining byotches. I know its not an iphone, I'm just afraid to customizing with roms and then f-it up and be stuck with a nice $300 paper weight. So maybe after my month is up, I'll have the balls to customize it.
Do you have to buy a data plan with the Fuze like you have to with the iPhone, for AT&T?
Only if you want the rebate.
If you want the best browser/entertainment device thats easy to use get an iphone. If you need a business phone outside of entertainment, get the fuze. Both are aimed at different type of consumer.
I know this is exactly what everyone hates to hear, and they just want a plain yes or no, but it really does depend on the person.
If your the kind of person thats really into the stuff they buy, and wants a device that has tons of opportunities and possibilities, then you will probably like the fuze. The beautiful thing about winmo devices is how much you can mess around with them. You can download tons of apps, customize, flash new ROMs, experiment, all kinds of stuff.
If you want something that is ALWAYS going to be friendly and never ever give you any quirks or problems and you just want something that is very cut and dry, the fuze may not be for you.
I would line up your priorities and see what is most important to you and more importantly, what would make you want to throw your phone out the window, cause those are the things that are ultimately going to make you happy when your using your device.
Fuze thoughts:
I have had this phone for 3 days now. My prior phone was an 8125. I unlocked and customized that phone after 30 days. I will most likely do the same thing with this one. Gotta read read read.
Initial review: Absolutely the awesomest phone I have had to date, only the 3rd PDA, though.
I miss the programmable buttons. I haven't figured everything out, but I am getting the hang of it. It has advanced customization, though I haven't even touched the surface. The keyboard is a little different from my 8125, and as I have used it extensively for 2 years, I am accustomed to the numbers being along the top row. I think the 'Full 5 Row QWERTY keyboard on the phone should more closely resemble a normal keyboard, however, I am certain I will get used to it with a little practice.
I have one problem that AT&T doesn't know how to fix: the error message "Smart Chip Not Provisioned MM #2" comes up and shuts off phone signal. I initially thought it was the smart chip. I placed it in my 8125, and no problems. Then I exchanged the phone. Still no fix. It isn't a hard error I can readily duplicate, it just happens intermittently, but only in a specific location, so now I suspect the towers serving the area in which it happens. I suppose it could be the sim card in conjunction with the 3G network which the 8125 doesn't support, but further troubleshooting will eventually solve this one.
Addtionally I was hoping that AT&T wouldn't cripple the forward facing camera, but it isn't there, and I'm not willing to pay $550 more for a Touch Pro off Ebay just for that. As there isn't a lot of network support for live video conferencing, it really isn't that much of a problem for me anyway.
Reception seems to be about the same as my 8125, but again, further testing will support or disprove my initial experience. I am currently having trouble with the GPS function, but it is probably just a configuration/setup issue that I have not played with enough. The phone will tether without the laptop connect package, but you have to make a small edit in the registry. This is a relatively painless process.
This is not meant to criticize the Fuze. These are the only real problems (and minor to me) that I have encountered, and would give this phone a HIGH recommendation.
MrRuss

Fuze/TP Alternatives?

I'm shopping for my next cell phone and after looking over the selection on letstalk.com I decided on the Fuze. Initially my only hard requirement was a real slider style QWERTY keyboard, not those sorta-qwertys that the blackberries have and not the fully exposed ones that don't tuck away. I want something I can text comfortably on and not be pecking around in menus trying to find special characters. I was very impressed by both the robust keyboard and the PC-like features of the Fuze, particularly the high-res screen, wifi, and its ability to do remote desktop (awesome for someone like me who uses RDP constantly.)
So the Fuze was starting to sound like slam-dunk until I decided to research it further here and found the cpu/driver/qualcomm thread, battery life and other assorted complaints about this phone. They're certainly not deal-breakers given all the good things about the phone, but before I buy it anyway I wanted to ask for suggestions for an alternative. What would you get if you wanted a great slider qwerty and remote desktop, but didn't want to settle for the Fuze?
The Raphael(Fuze) is the best WinMo PPC hardware qwerty slider around. I still bought mine despite knowing the problems. It's possible that HTC/Qualcomm releases better drivers or an SDK in the future if we pester them enough, so there's even hope for future performance improvements. Plus the xda-dev community is very active with cooked ROMs, there at least 3 or 4 excellent ROMs you can choose from, and they are updated frequently.
nodnod...
That was pretty much exactly what I expected to hear. At least now I can buy this awful piece of junk guilt-free.
Update
Have had my Fuze for about a week now, so far not all that impressed. I already need to return it because the lcd has screen color problems (color ghosting, intermittent monochrome r/g/b) so I haven't tried flashing any roms or radios, tho I have gone thru the basic stock-rom, no-bloat noob setup a few times and tried out just about every interesting freeware app i could find.
I asked a friend to try out the browser on his iPhone. It started so fast, and browsed so smoothly. Mine lags at every single little action - scrolling the screen, zooming, clicking a link... painfully slow. However I found that entering text on his iphone was even more painful.
The main feature I liked from the start about the TP is the ability to do real remote desktop - a lifesaver for someone who's got remote servers to manage, AND a life outside of work. I haven't done anything too complicated thru RDP yet, just kinda played with the start menu - which I noticed has weird text issues at this resolution. However I was still very impressed by this functionality and this is where the vga resolution of this phone really shines.
I've been thinking about asking for a different handset when I send this one back, but still not found one that meets my needs and has a hardware keyboard. Seems like we are still a few iterations away from having a truly well-made, useful pocket pc phone so I may just get it replaced by the same model.
Other minor things I didn't like about it: Entire thing is extremely heavy and fragile, weird diamond-cut back causes certain spots to lose their paint immediately, battery life DOES suck despite what some say, phone back has to be removed to switch out microsd cards, no 1/8" audio out and you NEVER have that dongle adapter when you want it.
rcll said:
The Raphael(Fuze) is the best WinMo PPC hardware qwerty slider around. I still bought mine despite knowing the problems. It's possible that HTC/Qualcomm releases better drivers or an SDK in the future if we pester them enough, so there's even hope for future performance improvements. Plus the xda-dev community is very active with cooked ROMs, there at least 3 or 4 excellent ROMs you can choose from, and they are updated frequently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This does not sound like the HTC I know.
The only real next step up is the Xperia. However, the X1 has a lot of differences that would be a big turn off for me. X1 seems to be a much better build quality though.
Largest problems being WVGA (always a pain even with the WVGA <-> VGA work around) and the price.
behrouz said:
This does not sound like the HTC I know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, there are few companies that would be willing to deploy a major software update like this once the unit is already selling. The only hope for this model is if the proprietary driver code could be leaked from qualcomm and incorporated into a rom.
I called the LetsTalk.com customer service line and asked if they could cross-ship me a new fuze so I wouldn't be without a phone for several days. They said yes but for some reason the deposit amount is equal to the retail value of the fuze PLUS a bunch more money for reasons which I did not quite understand due to the phone rep's "dialect" of english. So I now have an $850 (!) hold on my credit card (which happens to be my personal checking account) until the phone swap is completed.

TG01

Hi Guys (and girls),
I've been a long time lurker in this forum and finally joined up partly to thank you all for the help I have gleaned from these pages over the years, absolutlely invaluable and it's saved my life more than once so many thanks to all of you, and partly to post my thoughts on the new TG01 which Orange just gave me.
I've had smartphones for years but have never really got on with fully touchscreen devices, to me a phone is primarily that, a phone, and I like having physical buttons for such things as dialling numbers, to me that just seems like a minimum requirement for a phone, being able to dial a number. I also don't like having to find some shade just so I can make a call and have never had a problem seeing some buttons even in bright sunshine. Over the years I've had a lot of HTC devices and the one I liked the most was the Orange E650 branded 'candy bar phone', I had four of them in total and to me it was just a great mix of form and function but then my last one broke so here I am with the TG01 becasue Orange no longer supply the Touch HD.
So the TG01, hmmm, what a missed opportunity. Why Toshiba didn't wait for WM 6.5 I don't know, maybe they know more than we do, but the interface they've come up with is just rubbish, it may have beem acceptable a couple of years ago with those low rez icons but since the iphone, nah. I have downloaded the Spb interface and frankly without it the phone would have gone straight back to Orange so why Toshiba didn't just lisence it from Spb in the first place is beyond me, would have cost them what maybe a buck a phone? Or less? Instead of which they slipped some guy in their software department 50 bucks to work through his lunch break and come up with their interface, and this from a company that makes laptops, what were they thinking? Maybe what they were thinking was, 'this will get us by until WM 6.5 comes out at which point we'll ditch this and so will all our users'. Also, why no sensor so the phone knows when it's by your face or in your pocket? Jeez guys!! The reason I canned my first touch screen phone three years ago, it was an Orange M600, was because I kept doing things with my ear when I was speaking on the phone and that was THREE years ago, come on Toshiba it's not rocket science, it's a phone for goodness sake, people want to talk into it!
So, there's my 5c, as I need a new phone and there's nothing else grabbing me I may keep this one although just this morning it has started playing me up when I make and receive calls, callers can hear me but I can't hear them, the speaker is just dead and swithing to speakerphone doesn't help so I think it's a software bug rather than a hardware fault. I had put S2U2 on to prevent the 'answer a call with your pocket' phenomenon but I've taken it off again in case it was that which was causing the problem, we shall see.
Once again thanks for all the advice and I may keep you posted on my thoughts on the TG01, if I keep it.
Welcome to forums
Next time do a search before you create a new thread!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478679
Read, search, respect and enjoy!
Next time do a search before you create a new thread!
Wow, what a warm welcome, thanks Orb I really am lost for words.
lol...gentle and ever so lovingly bit your head off.lol.
Anyway, I got to play with the TG01 recently and I think it a huge foward step in terms of hardware and an even bigger step backwards in terms of software. Its almost like the phone isn't even being challenged by they system that it runs. Compared to my Touch HD, lag is dramatically reduced and the feeling of moving from one thing to another is silky smooth. Bad news was it my old HTC Touch (no HD) was ten times better than this phone when it came to the UI. Blew my mind when i figured out they didn't even attempt to skin windows, just create the ugly striped shell. Huge screen and I was sitting there doing the corner of the fingernail tap just to hit those small icons and little spots on the WINMO interface. This phone plus HTC loving= best phone available. I mean i really took a step back and got to understand how far HTC and samsung have come in making winmo usable.
I didn't get to put any programs on to the phone but as you did I figure SPB3 is probably the best way to go. And no comment about the terrible call quality, I just text my friend now cause it sounds like he's in a hollow room with bad reception ALL THE TIME. Good luck my friend. Probably should have waited for the Omnia2 or picked yourself up a TD2, this is the price you pay.
Thanks
Hey Style 1. thanks for the feedback and best wishes. As I said I may not keep this phone but I can trade it for around £300.00 without blinking and I also have two brand new Treo Pros that Palm gave me so I'm not too concerned, if puch comes to shove I'll pick up a Touch HD somewhere and I shouldn't be out of pocket on the deal. I needed to renew my contract anyway to get access to the unlimited data package Orange are doing now so all in all I'm good.
As to the phone I agree with your take on the GUI but you really should see it with the one from Spb, it's like a different device and we both know it needed to be, it would have been back in the box and back to Orange the same day if the Toshiba interface was my only option. Now all I need to find is a good 'slide to unlock' programme that works for this phone and I'm away, tried both S2U2 and TouchLockPro to no avail so maybe I'll give Pocketsheild a whirl, got any advice on that my friend?

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