I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a new FUZE. Before I do, I was hoping some current owners could answer a few questions for me. I'm not a newbie to smart phones or WinMo, so I do understand some of the limitations of the device. My last phone wasn't a smart phone and I sorely miss not having it.
I was at the local AT&T shop to play with the FUZE in person, and honestly I wasn't at all impressed with the speed or the interface.
The sensitivity of touch was pretty bad, and I really had to push on the screen for it to register my finger. I've read on these boards that the sensitivity can be changed, so my question is, Can it be changed enough to be usable? It was pretty bad in the showroom.
The lag of the device was totally unacceptable to me. I would often not know if a key-press or screen gesture actually worked, and found myself hitting the key multiple times, only to realize it had registered the first time, but was taking forever to respond. I've read here that flashing the ROM and other tweaks improve the lag time, but does it improve it enough? Is there any lag time after using a cooked ROM? I understand that things may lag on occasion, but if there is a lag for most functions, I don't think I could put up with it too long.
Web browsing was a test of patience to say the least. It took a very long time for any page to load, and when it did load, it seemed to render in chunks very slowly. I was often confused if the page was even fully loaded after a minute or two. Is this experience to be expected, or can it be it be fixed?
I may just be confused about the contacts section. Do you have to scroll through each individual contact to get to the one you want? I have a couple hundred contacts in my phone now, and if I need to get to someone who starts with "N", that would take quite a while. I'm sure there is a better way, and I would just need to find out how to do it, but I wanted to ask first, as this could be a huge deal breaker for me.
It took me a while to find the call history on the phone. It seems like it's buried pretty deep. Is there anyway to modify the Touchflo3d icons to point to items I frequently use? I mean really I don't need the AT&T icon there at all, since I'll never use any of those features. I'd much rather have my call history available from the menu. Is this even possible?
I've read a lot of comments about the D-pad. I'm a gamer when on the road, so I need to make sure this phone will be able to handle my gaming needs. I didn't have the opportunity to try any games on it. Is the D-pad really an issue, and if it is, has there been a workaround?
I love the idea of having a touch screen. I need a phone that offers easy to use messaging and email features. I want simple access to my contacts, and easy to use phone functions. I also want a good web browsing experience, access to my MP3 files, and video files, as well as a decent gaming platform. Oh and I do like to tweak my toys. Is this the phone for me, or should I be looking at something different?
I appreciate anyone taking the time to answer any of these questions.
i have a fuze and love it alot. the sensitivity on the touch screen was bad until you change the registry key that controls it and of course a good screen calibration. its set for such a heavy touch. i changed it to ultrasensitive and its like using an iphone now. there are alot of registry keys to increase the performance. its real easy with diamond tf3d config app. best choice is to flash to a new rom though. the oem rom is junked up with so much crap. diamond tf3d conifig will help you change touch flo 3d to your liking. as far as a gaming device the dpad is a difficult thing to use tbh. and with the graphics drivers still not working right its not a good gaming device. in every other context, it is a good phone. it just takes some work to get it there.
Thanks for the input TJOC.
How is the FUZE as a phone? I mean, how easy is it to access your contacts, voice mail, or just make a call?
Best phone I have had. Most of what you point out in your message can be adjusted automatically or via a tweak or registry change. You would like this flexibility on something you own.
its not bad. the call history, calendar, voicemail (only if you have some messages) and contacts are right on the home tab. you can actually change the softkeys on the home tab to do other actions for you too. theres also one tab to the right called people which is a neat flippy interface if you assign pictures. when i go to my people tab it actually crashes touch flo 3d. i have to figure out what i did to make it do that.
i do have to say that for an htc phone it is the best for being a phone. ive used quite a few htc phones and they always have issues like bad signal, and most notably the volume and call quality have been pretty awful. but on the fuze its loud and clear.
that said its still not a phone for everyone. if you use speakerphone alot, then this may not be the phone for you. and alot of people cant handle windows mobile (i always say wm is not for beginners hehe). i would say try out the phone. att will let you take it back if you dont like it. and i wont call you crazy if you say you dont.
The Jack of Clubs said:
that said its still not a phone for everyone. if you use speakerphone alot, then this may not be the phone for you. and alot of people cant handle windows mobile (i always say wm is not for beginners hehe). i would say try out the phone. att will let you take it back if you dont like it. and i wont call you crazy if you say you dont.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speaker phone not too much an issue for me. I'm familiar with WinMo, so that won't be a problem either, heck I still use my Dell Axim
I think I'm going to take your advice, and just grab one. If I'm not happy I'll exchange it for a Bold or something.
I didnt like the Fuze stock as well but after tweaking it i love it, i would hard reset and then reset it right before it install all the att stuff back, when you get the phone and reinstall touchflo from the software column for raphael. that alone would make your device alot faster and then you can tweak it some mroe to make it even faster...since its your first Winmo phone read up on flashing and other themes or today screen...you can use other UI instead of TF3D just find one that you like. Cheers report back when you get the Fuze.
mfarlo,
I just got my Fuze a few days ago, and am loving it. I had a Cingular 8525 that I modified with new ROMs from this site. I'm looking forward to upgrading my Fuze after I see how it does out of the box.
I got a great deal going through myself when purchasing it. If you're interested in checking out what I can do for you, please let me know.
Joe
i too was unhappy with the fuze when i tested it out in the store, but after reflashing RRE 4.4.5 custom rom this phone is amazing, the signal strength is awesome, call quality is crystal clear for me, and the phone is lightning quick. if you buy a fuze play with it for a few days while you are reading up on flashing a new rom as it is a must with this phone, its like night and day. the phone has been out for a while now and the roms on this site keep getting better and better, you will not be dissapointed if you buy it.
From my experience with 4 Fuze's...Touchscreen sensitivity to a finger is adequate, although the stylus takes considerable pressure, especially at the edges of the screen. 2 of the Fuze's were slightly more sensitive, and two were slightly less, but none have the sensitivity of the older devices with recessed screens.
Sensitivity aside, you have to rely on the responsiveness of everything else, and that sucks for the most part. Performance "tweaks" and screen sensitivity "tweaks", either done manually with a registry editor, or with a program like AdvancedConfig do absolutely nothing. I've spent many hours comparing back and forth and didn't notice a single discernable difference. The device is sluggish no matter what you do to it (aside from flashing ROM's which i'm not doing). Try operating the phone with a song playing in the TouchFlo music player and it will be an exercise of patience. Disabling TouchFlo does speed things up, but that's a poor fix if part of the reason you purchased a Fuze was for TouchFlo (which I did). I'm perplexed by the folks who claim such a speedy device.
The Dpad is absolute garbage. Up/down work fine, left/right works about 80% of the time if you press in a very specific spot to the outside of the touch sensitive ring by a few millimeters. Funny, it takes extreme accuracy to scroll right or left, but 50% of the time when I try to hang up a call by pressing in the extreme lower right corner, it jumps out to the main menu and starts scrolling right with the call still in progress. I've had quite a few "I want to throw the phone as hard as possible" moments with that issue. The quality of the Dpad has varied from device to device, but none of them were anywhere near good. I can't imagine using it for gaming.
Opera loads webpages pretty quick for me. Unfortunately anything that requires touchscreen input like zooming or selecting links doesn't work so well. Generally I double tap 2-3 times before it zooms in or out. I'm not sure if it's a system issue, or a touchscreen problem. Zooming with the touch ring works well, but unfortunately, for me, the page won't reformat and the text won't wrap using the ring. Trying to zoom with the ring to make a link bigger so that it's clickable, results in the page moving and intermittent reloading of the page, then the link moves out of view. The problem is more common on certain pages and less on others.
Reception has been good, but the earpiece speaker issue looks like one that isn't going to get fixed. Even after loading a few alternate audiopara files, the speaker isn't loud enough, and when you do get lucky and call someone who's voice comes in at a higher volume, the speaker distorts. Pressing the sharp edge of the top rim of the phone against your ear, which I find myself doing often, results in soreness after. Fun!
Long term durability seems questionable, and the battery covers on all 4 phones that i've had suffered creakyness along the edges where the cover doesn't sit against the frame of the phone tightly. One even slid side to side everytime the device was handled.
I'm keeping the one I have now, it seems to be the best out of the 4, but still suffers from all of the issues listed above. Of course the keyboard was installed totally crooked, but it's par for the course with HTC. I'll never understand people who say HTC = great build/materials quality. I find it hard to believe i'm the only one who's struck out so many times. Not only with the Fuze, but with a Tilt and an 8525 before it. It's unfortunate that HTC seems to have cornered the market on this particular form factor for Windows Mobile. I would go with Xperia, but now that the metal cases are cracking left and right, I suppose I should pass. Way to go HTC.
One upside, the VGA screen is really nice, big improvement over QVGA.
Good luck.
check out my post at:
http://www.mobilitysite.com/boards/htc-touch-pro-t-fuze/234449-random-thoughts-about-fuze.html
and
http://www.mobilitysite.com/boards/htc-touch-pro-t-fuze/234303-necessary-software-fuze.html
the fuze/touch pro is a love or hate phone. as far as a windows mobile phone i would say this is the best there is. htc will not be out done when it comes to windows mobile phones. and no windows mobile devices have capacitive screens so its not the most brilliant for touch screen but its not bad tbh. good luck with your purchase and hopefully it will be as pleasant of an experience for you as it is for me.
somethings to remember, find a newer build of opera. i had downloaded build 15202 from this site. pages will load faster and theres some tweaks you can do to get 0 mobile websites. theres also a registry entry that will give you a zoom slider which is a nice touch for web pages than relying on the scroll wheel. and if you dont have good volume in a phone call, make a call to the phone and up the volume with the rocker during the call. it sounds weird but you can only adjust the call volume while making a call.
Get The Fuze!!!
After being almost scared away from the Fuze when I handled it in an AT&T store, I quickly went home and checked on XDA to see what could be done about the TERRIBLE performance. I found TONS of options for tweaks, fixes, and ROMs. After a LOT of reading and deliberating, I decided that the RRE HTC Fuze ROMs were for me. I'm currently running RRE v4.4.5SE which is AMAZING!!! My Fuze feels like it runs 1000% faster! It's great!
Get the Fuze; if you don't already know how, read about flashing; flash the RRE Fuze ROM (linked in my signature below), and ENJOY! You WON'T regret it!!!
Best of luck,
NR
I have the Fuze and one of the bad things about it is the battery life, If you are really going to be on the phone alot I'd suggest buying an extra battery lik i did.
Thanks for all the comments, I am now a proud owner of an AT&T FUZE.
First thing I did was remove all the bloatware as described in tyguy's excellent post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=459335
It looks like I'm going to be spending quite a bit of time tweaking this beast until I get it just the way I want it, but that's the draw for me. I could have grabbed an iPhone and had everything I needed, but where's the fun in that? When I'm done with my tweaks, I'll have a phone custom tailored to suite my needs.
thats what i was thinking. the iphone doesnt need customization partially because you cant customize it to make it your own. the fuze may need alot of work when you take it out of the box but once you got it how you like it, its more made for you then an iphone. thats a downside for some people but ive been having loads of fun tinkering. my brother and my dad bough iphones and i poke at them doing things they cant, divx, tethering, garmin, taking pictures with flash, sending mms. i know theyre jealous because they bought the wrong phone.
Moved to the FUZE from the Tilt and after missing my D-Pad for awhile until I figured out the Fuze's pad, I now miss nothing.
I've had a lot of excellent PDA/Phones over the years, and have been a WinMo guy since PocketPC2000, and the Fuze is just yet another small step closer to the perfect combination device. I just STILL want a bigger screen.
As far as battery life goes, I use it just as hard as my Tilt, and get a bit more life out of the battery. I'm not sure what the huge complaint is, a dead battery at the end of the night is a good day. A phone that goes DAYS on a charge I haven't had since my Motorola V60
i miss the "dpad" from my ppc6700 (htc apache). it had a joystickish thing which worked well. but if im going to say i miss any one thing from that phone it would have to be the keyboard. you will never find a better keyboard on any other phone ever. and thats a challenge.
Related
Hey guys,
Although I am not among you, I think it would be extremely helpful/eye-opening to conduct a poll of all current HTC Touch Pro owners who have had their device for enough time to make an initial assessment of the device's quality. That means probably at least a week--but use your own discretion. Just a few suggested guidelines:
Don't let the initial euphoria blur your judgment
Think for a few moments before submitting a vote
Compare, if possible, the quality of the device to, say, that of an iPhone, if you've ever owned one or used it extensively, to provide a point of reference.
I look forward to hearing everyone's input!
-Steve
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
It's the best i've used, and the best there is on the market at this moment. I've shut off TF3D though and replaced it with Mobile Shell. Now using it with great pleasure.
With the exception of the "sleeve" and somewhat slow GPS, I am very pleased with my TP.
Great device, and i bet there is more to come with some updates in the near future. That's the reason I voted Above Avarage.
As far as functionality goes, it has all I want: telephone, mail, internet and navigation. Next to that there is a lot of software out there.
A few quircks here and there ofcourse. Like almost instant fixes with Google Maps...and 15 to 20 minutes GPS fixing time with Tom Tom 7.
Battery life could be better as well
I would have liked to add some today plugins into TF3D, or be able to add new tabs
fhsieh said:
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
othersteve said:
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, maybe not with the poll, but at least for any comments. I mean everyone has different needs and expectations for the device so it'll be hard to judge the poll accurately without seeing some objective testimony.
But what am I babbling about, here's some of my thoughts:
- Not the most solid handheled device I've had (my old iPaq hx4700 was a tank), but it comes very close and is definitely not a cheap build. Better than the Blackjack and some Blackberries, but I haven't spent very much time with those and I certainly don't know how well the TPro's build will last over time.
- WM6.1 isn't perfect, but then XDA is very active. Plus there are apps for just about anything you need. I spent some time with a Nokia N800, and while it's nice that Maemo is (almost) completely open-source -- which makes for an equally active community -- you're plain out of luck if no one is developing something you need. Namely, the software probably exists on standard Linux distros, but very little of it has been ported to Maemo. This is the same reason I decided not to jump on the Android bandwagon right away.
- Finally, I now have one device that does everything I needed my old devices to do. US phone (Nokia 6300), Japan phone (SE W43S), electronic dictionary (hx4700), internet device (hx4700/N800), mp3 player.
- Same observations as others: GPS is laggy, though not really an issue since I only use it as a pedestrian; battery life isn't impressive. I will probably buy a USB battery pack later.
So far v.happy, just need to solve the backlight issue when in call, and the Sim contacts list.
I've had my TP for almost 3 weeks now - it was one of the first on the market. I have used HTC qwerty based devices for several years now and this is by far the best device. I dearly loved my Tytn II but the hardware in this device is much better.
I own a 3G iPhone also and while this device is definitely a joy to use it is far from ever replacing my TP as my preference business device.
I decided to continue to run the 3D flow against other utilities but it's far from perfect - however developed with the correct user feedback it will be a great tool.
While 6.1 runs quite smoothly on the device the interface obviously lets the device down. I also have had a few lockups but no more than other devices.
The battery is pretty shocking to be honest. I use a scheduler to shut down BT and even the radio stack at night to preserve battery but to be honest if I were going away for anymore that 24 hours I would have to take a charger.
GPS has has been quick to locate a signal but I've encountered issues with TT6 \ and or Googlemaps. I currently run IGO8 and it runs very well.
Finally this device has a half-decent web browser on it - Opera mobile is great. IE mobile is a shambles.
Micro SD is essential - currently running an 8GB card with all my music, apps and vids. No idea why they left it off the Diamond - crazy in my opinion.
If anyone has any quick questions I'd be happy to answer them.
I was hoping by going with a non-American device (which has three times the processor of its American counterparts), I would have a more stable device. Overall, best phone I've ever had. A little disappointed that I need to soft reset every couple of days.
Don't regret it...leaps and bounds over my previous device.
Wow guys, thanks a ton for the feedback so far. This is extremely informative stuff to all of us prospective buyers. Personally, I'll be getting the phone through our Sprint corporate account, but as with everything that's a significant investment I have been trying to read up as much as possible on it beforehand to accurately set my expectations and prepare myself for problems that will need to be solved.
I use SPB Mobile Shell on my Mogul right now, and while I like it, I love the flair of TouchFlo3D... I just hope it is equally useful and quick (so far to that end it seems to be not quite as useful). I think I will try replacing the default contact manager on my Pro with Finger-Friendly Friends provided that will work all right. I also hope that the US release a month or so from now will see additional improvements in terms of software stability and speed (though probably not battery life).
Apart from that, I'm quite excited about everything I have read about the device. And I've always been a sucker for statistics, so having a poll on such an educated and active forum is of remarkable interest.
-Steve
The best device that I ever owned.
Like others I´m having some troubles with the GPS (reception time) and other issues like the screen going of of on a call.
So far I kinda like it.
Nevertheless I'll vote in the pole and give a complete feedback as soon as HTC repairs it (I have a sound problem...)
Hows the sound quality of the internal speaker?
Greetings
LordK
The only problem of the internal speaker is that the volume is a little bit low (compared to my colleagues' blackberrys)
Rated it Above Average!
I am using the TP for 2 weeks now. I've experienced the 'broken glass' screen and the grey-screen once.
The device is pretty quick and TF3D works nice although there are some moment when it does something completely different than what i wanted it to do.
Issues i like to see solved:
- Album cover view in TF3D music tab
- Fix for lag with TomTom
- Battery usage
Things I love:
- Memory
- Speed
- Screen
- Keyboard
I've had mine 3 weeks so far, upgrading from my beloved HTC Universal. It's a great machine but I'm not blind to it's faults, I Like Touch Flo a lot but it's just a thin layer over old ugly windows mobile.
As powerful as it is it just isn't as responsive as an iPhone, way too sluggish, expect the usual windows mobile pauses and spinning wait cursor.
The screen is too small, I liked my big screened Universal but the screen is such high quality it goes some way to making up for being small (it really is crisp).
The keyboard is ok but it's a thumbboard, I won't be knocking out the emails I used to on it. The slide action is distinctly wobbly to me, not bad, but not the decisive slide movement I expected. The onscreen keyboard is surprisingly usable much more so than the bigger IPhone one.
Memory is fantastic, loads of it, I never bother shutting things down which I was always doing on the universal.
Lockups, yup a disappointing number but a definate improvement on the universal.
GPS, not really a problem, it seems fast, but as far as I can see tomtom5 doesn't initialise the built in gps reciever so I start googlemaps, get a fast lock then switch to tomtom I notice tomtom6 has an option for built in GPS.
Lack of headphone socket is a crazy omission, it's driving me crazy and was almost a factor in not buying it, it's only 10 quid for an adaptor but just something else to carry.
The opera browser is pretty good and responsive but the icons it uses are way too chunky considering the screen is so small, talking of chunky, the menus are all pretty huge, I found how to make the start menu smaller but most menus now eg messaging, need arrows at the top and bottom to scroll the duplo vision menus into place. Also needed a hack to get googlemail working and is so small that almost every site needs a zoom to read it whereas I found I could read a lot of sites on the iPhone without zooming.
I also hate the mini sd card being hidden inside the case, it makes changing cards a pain, I'd also rather have an sd card, for the sake of a little bit bigger unit.
I never considered the IPhone because it has no physical keyboard and it was unable to run GotoMyPC but the difference between the IPhone and the Touch Pro is responsiveness, given it's a more powerful machine it's a damning indictment of windows mobile that it's so sluggish.
I just hope that there's an Android rom released for the Raphael. I'll be getting the ATT Touch Pro (or is it still considered the 'Fuze'?) when it's available as I've been drooling over the TP for a long time now. I'll deal with WM6.1 as long as I have to, but I really like Android, and would switch to it in a heartbeat.
veljko.m said:
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vote 1 from me
Touch flow is nothing to write home about either.
using people favorites and Active Sync hates the photos you asign to them so that becomes a waste of time.
K. I had it for about 7 days now.
I was one of those people who couldn't wait to get the Touch Pro. I just couldn't bring myself to order it. I use T-Mobile. I desided to try ATT again. Last year I got drops. This time around with the Fuze, I get average. Some places I drop to Edge. And some places I go tend to be 1-2 bars.
I ran some speed tests and it hits 600+KB/sec. One Edge its about 100+KB/sec. But I swear I don't see much difference on loading websites between the two..
I love the hires screen! I missed it so much since I used Windows PDA with the hi-res screens for years. Only drawback is the phones screen is much smaller than the PDAs I used that had 3-4inch screens. And yes, some things come out too small because it's not optimised for VGA. I would still ALWAYS recomend VGA versus a low res screen.
I didn't flash the rom/radio. The unit seems to work just fine for the most part. I see sometimes for no reason, if I open folder, it doesn't "pop" open. But its liveable.
GPS. Same issue as most people. I get GPS lag. When trying it with igo or TomTom, I seem to be about 3cars to a 1/2 block back of where I really am. The Tilt didn't have this issue.
It comes with Microsoft voice. Too bad its not 100% working when you get it. But I got a hack to work so it'll say the incoming caller. This program makes the WM OS better than the IPhone and G1 if you ask me. I love being able to leave the phone in my pocket, hit my BT headset and ask my phone what's my battery life, what's my signal strength, what's my appointments, whats the date or time. Nice feature. And how many phones you know that you can say "Dial 123-4567" and it'll get it right more times then wrong? Or say, "Call sam smith" and it'll ask you if you want to call his Mobile, Home, or Work? Then dial it when you say "home".
The unit back cover squeaks. Can't be perfect. The size is right. I'm the type that always wants a larger battery. Even at the cost of making the unit a bit larger. Battery life seems ok. I can't judge it yet as I keep playing with the unit so I know the battery is draining faster.
I can't stand the PPT button, but then the Tilt had it too. I don't think XDA site found a simple fix to use the button for something else. To bad, I have my Tilt PPT setup to opening my Calc and long hold for Voice Command.
I don't have any issues with the touch button or pushing up/down/left or right. I miss the thumbwheel my Tilt has.
Auto screen rotation is neat, but since so much stuff doesn't use it, it's more gimmick than something useful.
Opera is neat. Works well.
I miss my indicator lights for BT or if my phone was on. Some didn't like those lights as it was bright on the Tilt.
I'll update this more as more things cross my mind.
For the price, I think its worth it. Am I gonna keep it? I have it unlocked, but T-Mobile is BAD on this phone compaired to my Tilt. At work, I get 1 to drop connections if I use T-Mobile on the Fuze. So I'm not sure if I'll keep it.
Pricing is a big part on if I keep the phone. T-Mobile is $59.99+$19.99 data. And ATT is $59.99+$30 for data. Because I'm still in an area where I hit Edge, I'm not sure if being stuck on a 2-year contract is worth the phone...
I wonder if I want to spend $$ on the X1. Aww no voice command on that one.
Nice mini review. So do you like the Fuze better than the Tilt? I have the Tilt rite now and thinking about making the change....
FYI, a hack has been found and the PTT button can be set to whatever you want (press as well as press and hold).
-Mc
Video to remap your PTT
For PTT, Fuzemobility put up a video (http://www.fuzemobility.com/?p=598) and gives credit to the two xda threads that have the information (Black93300ZX and Proto732)
My battery also doesn't last more than a day if I do a good amount of surfing or GPS. I'd like to test how long my battery lasts on standby without touching the phone, but I haven't been able to keep my hands off of the phone these last few days.
I'm loving Microsoft Voice Commander as well. That was a nice little hidden feature that I didn't expect. I find myself launching apps all the time without looking at the phone (e.g. When I'm at a stoplight in my car, I don't need to look at my phone to "Open QuickGPS", "Open Google Maps").
Although I'm sure a lot of the board regulars are already jaded with it, haha
starstreak said:
Auto screen rotation is neat, but since so much stuff doesn't use it, it's more gimmick than something useful.
Opera is neat. Works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, I am very jealous
I can't afford my new Fuze until next month.
But, I have been doing ALOT of reading up on it, so I will be well prepared when I am able to get it.
As far as the screen rotation, a program called Gyrator will enable the accelerometer to work in many/all programs (except I think it won't work in Manilla).
Anyway, hope this helps.
PS: My birthday is Friday, so if you hate your Fuze too much, you can send it my way
cincy1020 said:
First of all, I am very jealous
I can't afford my new Fuze until next month.
But, I have been doing ALOT of reading up on it, so I will be well prepared when I am able to get it.
As far as the screen rotation, a program called Gyrator will enable the accelerometer to work in many/all programs (except I think it won't work in Manilla).
Anyway, hope this helps.
PS: My birthday is Friday, so if you hate your Fuze too much, you can send it my way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gyrator needs lots of messing with. Yes it does rotate Manilla, you need to disable that lol. It took me a while to mess with Gyrator's sensitivity to get it just right. Btw, my bday is tomorrow <3
hipertec- I think it would be a good upgrade if you're not paying 400+ for it.
And for the rest, thanks for the PTT info, I'll check it out once I figure out why my BT headset quit hearing incoming calls when I answer via the headset.
starstreak said:
K. I had it for about 7 days now.
I was one of those people who couldn't wait to get the Touch Pro. I just couldn't bring myself to order it. I use T-Mobile. I desided to try ATT again. Last year I got drops. This time around with the Fuze, I get average. Some places I drop to Edge. And some places I go tend to be 1-2 bars.
I ran some speed tests and it hits 600+KB/sec. One Edge its about 100+KB/sec. But I swear I don't see much difference on loading websites between the two..
I love the hires screen! I missed it so much since I used Windows PDA with the hi-res screens for years. Only drawback is the phones screen is much smaller than the PDAs I used that had 3-4inch screens. And yes, some things come out too small because it's not optimised for VGA. I would still ALWAYS recomend VGA versus a low res screen.
I didn't flash the rom/radio. The unit seems to work just fine for the most part. I see sometimes for no reason, if I open folder, it doesn't "pop" open. But its liveable.
GPS. Same issue as most people. I get GPS lag. When trying it with igo or TomTom, I seem to be about 3cars to a 1/2 block back of where I really am. The Tilt didn't have this issue.
It comes with Microsoft voice. Too bad its not 100% working when you get it. But I got a hack to work so it'll say the incoming caller. This program makes the WM OS better than the IPhone and G1 if you ask me. I love being able to leave the phone in my pocket, hit my BT headset and ask my phone what's my battery life, what's my signal strength, what's my appointments, whats the date or time. Nice feature. And how many phones you know that you can say "Dial 123-4567" and it'll get it right more times then wrong? Or say, "Call sam smith" and it'll ask you if you want to call his Mobile, Home, or Work? Then dial it when you say "home".
The unit back cover squeaks. Can't be perfect. The size is right. I'm the type that always wants a larger battery. Even at the cost of making the unit a bit larger. Battery life seems ok. I can't judge it yet as I keep playing with the unit so I know the battery is draining faster.
I can't stand the PPT button, but then the Tilt had it too. I don't think XDA site found a simple fix to use the button for something else. To bad, I have my Tilt PPT setup to opening my Calc and long hold for Voice Command.
I don't have any issues with the touch button or pushing up/down/left or right. I miss the thumbwheel my Tilt has.
Auto screen rotation is neat, but since so much stuff doesn't use it, it's more gimmick than something useful.
Opera is neat. Works well.
I miss my indicator lights for BT or if my phone was on. Some didn't like those lights as it was bright on the Tilt.
I'll update this more as more things cross my mind.
For the price, I think its worth it. Am I gonna keep it? I have it unlocked, but T-Mobile is BAD on this phone compaired to my Tilt. At work, I get 1 to drop connections if I use T-Mobile on the Fuze. So I'm not sure if I'll keep it.
Pricing is a big part on if I keep the phone. T-Mobile is $59.99+$19.99 data. And ATT is $59.99+$30 for data. Because I'm still in an area where I hit Edge, I'm not sure if being stuck on a 2-year contract is worth the phone...
I wonder if I want to spend $$ on the X1. Aww no voice command on that one.
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go to www.fuzemobility.com and they have redirect the PTT button articale on there.
I have been pretty satisfied with my Hermes (had it just about 2 years now!)
I am wondering for those that also came from that device or from a Kaiser, how do you like the Touch Pro in comparison? I'm eligible for an upgrade but don't know if this is the phone to get or not....i thought it was, but have been reading some less than great threads so i just wanted some comments from people who went through a comparable situation. Thanks!
it was the best move i ever made, only thing is the bat life could be better.
After the tweaks, pretty happy.
Only issue(s) I have remaining are:
Voice Command/Bluetooth...If incoming announcements are on, the phone
sort of rings once, sort of announces, but when you answer, the other party
can hear you, but you cannot hear them, you have to switch the call to the
phone, power off the headset, and power it back on.
GPS slow. GPS is a little quirky at times. Once in a while it fails to lock, but
if you run the HTC test tool for the GPS, it fires right up.
Battery isn't an issue for me, I'm one of those if it is below 2 bars, it goes
on the charger, and, sometimes I use a remote control program because I have
a friend that would rather text than talk on the phone, so it is easier than using the keyboard or stylus to send SMS.
Touchflo3D could use a little tweaking, which has been done, and looks like it is getting better and better.
I don't "play games/videos/MP3s" on my phone, so I can't help you on that
part, but the screen is improved, keyboard is improved, camera is MUCH
faster.
About the only thing I miss is the tilt for the screen.
I would say the main thing to keep in mind is the TouchPro isn't really an upgrade to the Hermes or Kaiser. Its a whole new style of phone that takes some getting used to. The main similarity is of course the keyboard. The biggest change is the lack of hardware buttons. Gone are the softkeys, you now have to touch the screen. Gone is the messaging & IE buttons. The worst part is the messaging button, you now cannot just keep clicking this button to scroll through all your email/sms/mms accounts. There is no longer a dedicated start menu button, you have to touch the screen to launch the start menu. Its been replaced with a "home" button, which to me is useless. As on the old phones I could hit start 2x and go home. Gone is the scroll wheel on the side. Its been replaced with 2 volume buttons, which I never use because I keep my phone on maximum volume. There is no dedicated camera button. There is no dedicated Comm Manager button.
So personally I hate to see the iPhone trend influencing HTC phone designs. I like buttons and need buttons. This phone takes some getting used to. It is a good phone still, but could be so much better with more buttons.
copex said:
it was the best move i ever made, only thing is the bat life could be better.
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I agree. I think the VGA screen brings a real revolution to mobile devices. It's just superior in so many ways to the old displays that I definitely never ever want a device without VGA again.
The biggest minus for me is the faulty GPS implementation. But I still hope that it's not a hardware issue and that it can an will be fixed by some xda-dev sooner or later.
TriAxisFL said:
So personally I hate to see the iPhone trend influencing HTC phone designs. I like buttons and need buttons. This phone takes some getting used to. It is a good phone still, but could be so much better with more buttons.
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That's true! The home button is extremely useless and I also miss the extra buttons very much. In the first days/weeks it felt like a step backwards to me because where in the past I just had to push an hardware button I now had to push a software butten in best case or even had to navigate somewhere before I could push some softbutton.
But I got used to it and managed to reconfigure the device so that all important functions are now just one (soft)-click away.
i love the device, but i miss the tilt screen... :
and i wish there were more buttons to assign to my own preferences (yes i know there are tools, but it's not as good as with the 'real' buttons...)
i love that the flat screen - you can touch things in the edges very easy now
all in all - i don't regret the upgrade
DeepThought said:
I agree. I think the VGA screen brings a real revolution to mobile devices. It's just superior in so many ways to the old displays that I definitely never ever want a device without VGA again.
The biggest minus for me is the faulty GPS implementation. But I still hope that it's not a hardware issue and that it can an will be fixed by some xda-dev sooner or later.
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Da_G is working on such a fix right now. He's using ported GPS drivers from the Blackstone, and it appears to make quite a difference.
NotATreoFan said:
Da_G is working on such a fix right now. He's using ported GPS drivers from the Blackstone, and it appears to make quite a difference.
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Great news, thanks for letting me know!
Is there already some thread about his attempts? Or is it currently in the "private beta testing" stage?
I upgraded from the Tilt.
Day1 = I wanted my Tilt back
Missed Tilt Scree
GPS SLOW
Really missed all the bottuns
After a couple of weeks (and of course a cooked ROM) I have to admit I am really happy I upgraded. As others stated the screen resolution is great. Performance seems to be better as well. I still have some gripes ( fingerprint magnet, small keyboard) but I think overall the improvements outweigh the issues. My advise would be to go for it but also make sure you give it time before you judge. If I had to make a return decision in 24 hours I most likely would have returned it for the Tilt. A week or two later and you would have to pry my Fuze out of my cold dead hands!
I want the raphael hardware in a kaiser body.
I think that pretty much sums up my feelings
DeepThought: currently testing out the ported blackstone drivers in my ROM. I'd make cabs but unfortunately windows mobile is paranoid so wont load them They have to be cooked into a ROM for the moment. I'm in the process of uploading the OEM/SYS/ROM from my latest build so chefs can see the changes I made and yoink it if it works.. 40 minutes left on that upload!
I consider it the best phone I've owned if you require a keyboard.
It feels better in the hand than the Kaiser did. I love the flush screen so you can touch edges easily (I missed that after having the Vogue on Sprint). The VGA screen is great.
I don't really miss the hardware buttons. I used a Vogue and it had less buttons than the TP has. On the Kaiser, I didn't really use them anyway. I just use the programs tab in TF3D. I replaced the shortcuts or the PTT button (on the ATT Fuze), so now a short press launches the Comm Manager (to turn on WiFi) and a long press launches the camera.
I haven't really had any GPS issues. It doesn't get a fix indoors usually, where my Kaiser did. It takes a little longer to get a fix outside, and depending on the app I'm using I might have to use the HTC GPS Tool first. I don't have much lag.
I don't really need a hardware keyboard...its nice to have, but I don't do much typing on it and I find myself using the soft keyboard more rather than pulling out the other one. Since the Touch HD (Blackstone) looks thinner, if ATT ever got that phone, I think that might be the ultimate for me since I would rather have a thin device rather than a hardware keyboard.
Not that these things haven't been brought up already but this is my opinion. First off I am happy to have upgraded to the Raphael from the Kaiser. Things that lived up to or exceeded my expectations are the screen, capacitive touch lower region, and TF3D to name a few. The things that need to be worked out are battery life and gps. To a great extent, Lumos and Touchlock Pro have extended my battery life tremendously, but it is still not on par with my Tilt. My major gripe is GPS. I drove around for over an hour with the phone on my lap in clear skies and never locked onto satellites. That is horrible. I am very eager to see what Da_G is cooking up on this front. MY MAJOR GRIPE is fit and finish related. The battery cover for my Fuze is loose and I do not care for the shiny multi-angled design. I am going to buy the regular Touch Pro cover as soon as someone puts up a picture that matches the description. I had the Tilt for over a year and it had excellent design and build. I think they should have carried that over to the Fuze.
DeepThought said:
Great news, thanks for letting me know!
Is there already some thread about his attempts? Or is it currently in the "private beta testing" stage?
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The thread is actually about fixing MSVC, but he mentions the GPS drivers also.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=445204
I also posted a cab in this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=426433&page=17
But it doesnt work due to the same driver signing issues with the MSVC fix..
Loving my Fuze, I upgraded from the Tilt. Only concern is the repeatedly mentioned GPS issue which I'm glad to hear that Da_G is working on.
Seems like most everyone is happier with the TP, even if there are still a few things to be desired...i know i too will miss some of the buttons, but that screen does sound delicious
I would bet that all the kinks will get knocked out entirely by early next year and it'll be running like a whole new phone
AT&T Tilt -> HTC Fuze
Best switch ever!! I love everything about the fuze except that its' enter button is too big and it's del button is a bit small =/ I got used to it though.
After proudly using most of the AT&T/Cingular/AT&T HTC devices (Wallaby->Blue Angel->Wizard->Hermes->Kaiser->Raphael), this has been the most exciting upgrade.
The VGA screen is an amazing change. I miss some of the hardware buttons, but the flat touch screen is helping the TouchFlo interface wean me off of the buttons. I also do not miss the tilting screen as much as I thought I would. I do miss not having the scroll wheel on the side, but I am getting used to touch ring.
Performance on the stock ROM was disappointing. I was planning on running the stock ROM for a while before loading a cooked ROM, but after one day, I could not take it anymore. I am now running NATF's 2.2 ROM, and I could not be happier.
So far, I have inspired three upgrades from the Tilt to the Fuze among co-workers.
from a beetle to a Porshe
Raphael is way better than hermes. dome many changes to registry, antena, touchflo 3d, and performance ugrades, to have it running great.
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.
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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.
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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.
WOW! I cant't beleive what I read here. Touch pro is slow? People not happy? I mean I was gonna upgrade my Kaiser to Touch Pro, but after reading this I'm asking myself should I go for something else? Is there such a device out there that people would be generally happy with? Or maybe most of the issues can be fixed by upgrading to a custom ROM? Your advice will be appreciated guys
I'm extremely happy with my Fuze; so much so that I just bought another one. I didn't keep the stock ROM for more than an hour though, so I don't know what it's like out of the box.
btstarcher said:
I'm extremely happy with my Fuze; so much so that I just bought another one. I didn't keep the stock ROM for more than an hour though, so I don't know what it's like out of the box.
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Glad to hear that. Although not sure if I can afford two of them - will be happy with just one. They're quite expencive here in the UK...
I have a Tilt that I just keep as a backup phone (or if I'm going fishing or something and don't want to risk damaging my Fuze).
With a custom ROM and radio the Fuze is great for me. The stock radio sucks (atleast for me), and the stock ROM sucked. If you don't want to flash different custom ROMs, atleast flash the leaked AT&T ROM Update. Even with the bloat, that ROM is great. It has one of the best radios out there, it fixes aGPS, it is really fast compared to the stock ROM.
The main complaints I see are GPS lag (which I have, but its not unusable), the lack of hardware keys (which I can live with), and no tilt (which is a hardware limitation).
The fixed aGPS makes getting a fix extremely fast. I've used the GPS on multiple 5 hour + trips and its worked just fine.
I like the DPad on the Tilt better. With this one the up/down works but the left/right sometimes doesn't. Like pressing left will take me home instead.
mindfrost82 said:
I have a Tilt that I just keep as a backup phone (or if I'm going fishing or something and don't want to risk damaging my Fuze).
With a custom ROM and radio the Fuze is great for me. The stock radio sucks (atleast for me), and the stock ROM sucked. If you don't want to flash different custom ROMs, atleast flash the leaked AT&T ROM Update. Even with the bloat, that ROM is great. It has one of the best radios out there, it fixes aGPS, it is really fast compared to the stock ROM.
The main complaints I see are GPS lag (which I have, but its not unusable), the lack of hardware keys (which I can live with), and no tilt (which is a hardware limitation).
The fixed aGPS makes getting a fix extremely fast. I've used the GPS on multiple 5 hour + trips and its worked just fine.
I like the DPad on the Tilt better. With this one the up/down works but the left/right sometimes doesn't. Like pressing left will take me home instead.
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You know what - I fully agree with you. I like Kaiser's D-pad better + more buttons. I just wish it had the VGA screen and TF3D - it would be perfect then...
If you get this phone you have to flash a new ROM. In fact, 6.5 is working extremely well.
The GPS just sucks. I have not tried it recently with AGPS however.
The DPad might be one of the worst in existence. There are not many Dpads where you try to hit left and it does something else.
Other than that, I love this phone. It is leagues above my old Excalibur.
i'm very happy with my phone. girlfriend doesnt like it cuz im always on it . anyways, i have the leaked att roma nd radio and it's amazingly fast, so much fun to use and just works. gps is fixed, it's quick. i have spb mobile shell 3 trial on it right now. seeing how that works but the UI on it is amaizng minus a problem switching from portrait to landscape but thats not just on teh tp. i lvoe the phone though i'd definitely upgrade. screen is amazing, phone is sexy (go to zagg.com and buy an invisible shield if u do get it though) and it's just so much fun to use.
I recently had to revert back to my tilt from my fuze after breaking it (it's fixed now) and I have mixed feelings. They're both great phones in certain ways. The form factor of the tilt is the best ever for me. It is a pleasure to use for internet browsing with the keyboard slid out, screen tilted up, right fore finger on the scroll wheel and left thumb on the d-pad when needed. The fuze is more compact, faster/snappier, and the touchscreen is way better when dialing phone numbers (could be fixed with software...). I think the deciding factor for me is the vga screen. If the tilt had it, I'd prefer that phone, as I often view web pages zoomed out and just hold the phone closer to my face to read the small text. Not possible on the tilt's qvga screen. Really, I want to take them both apart and put together a phone with the best of both. I'm sad HTC seems to always dance around making the perfect phone.
maxh said:
I recently had to revert back to my tilt from my fuze after breaking it (it's fixed now) and I have mixed feelings. They're both great phones in certain ways. The form factor of the tilt is the best ever for me. It is a pleasure to use for internet browsing with the keyboard slid out, screen tilted up, right fore finger on the scroll wheel and left thumb on the d-pad when needed. The fuze is more compact, faster/snappier, and the touchscreen is way better when dialing phone numbers (could be fixed with software...). I think the deciding factor for me is the vga screen. If the tilt had it, I'd prefer that phone, as I often view web pages zoomed out and just hold the phone closer to my face to read the small text. Not possible on the tilt's qvga screen. Really, I want to take them both apart and put together a phone with the best of both. I'm sad HTC seems to always dance around making the perfect phone.
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Well, the touch pro 2 is pretty much combining them together, maybe with some iphoneish features thrown in as well.
My Kaiser is on it's way out, keys aren't working, I have to reset all the time, rom changes make no difference, so I don't have time to wait for the Touch Pro 2. I am going to upgrade to a Fuze and hope it will work well for me.
let's wait and see...you know they always say that no one will ever release the perfect phone because then there will be nothing to build off of...maybe i'm wrong.
hope i'm wrong.
The touch pro 2 with a trackball at the bottom like blackberries have would be close to the perfect phone. But only with a snappier OS, faster processor, GPS that works right, and better battery life. Not saying it won't have these things (except the trackball and faster processor which it won't) but I'm not gonna hold my breath.
Out of the box the fuze is pretty sluggish. The GPS did work but, took forever to get a lock. I used mine for a day on the stock rom and I couldnt take it anymore. So I switched to Natfs rom and it was like night and day. Its so much smoother and much faster. GPS works as it should. I believe that was due to the upgraded radio. Give it a try. Youll see. BTW this is my first post. Hi to everyone...
Used Stock ROM for like 6 hours just to see it and say that I ddi and was pissed by how sluggis it was. I got 3 error messages and report this that and the other to MS. I wint to RE WM 6.1 and Radio happened 2 days after; using 1.12.25.19. It lives up to all my expectations and more of being my dream phone.
even though touch pro always hang and got a bit lag but i still love it.
button less then kaiser but the touch sensor got a lot function can play with.