Feb 12, 2009 03:41 PM
3351 Views
We should not forget the foundation on which its built, somebody has always told me. This device is meant for somebody who has worked in windows platform and is aware of its quirks and tricks.
Although being a feature rich UI it still underlies some idiosyncratic flaws which you come to know, as you get better acquainted with the product(I guess courtesy Windows), because it lacks many of the common features of its symbian brethren.
I was a Nokia follower for the past ten years although Nokia also has released a touch Phone but now I wanted something different, by the year start iPhone was already riding high in Indian market while Sony was out with Experia (42000 Rs), LG with Cookie and Samsung with Omnia.
At the finale my priority was not a full touch based phone but also with some hard keys so I can feel and interact with the product on a more edidermal level, only two choices remained Experia and HTC Touch Pro. With Experia priced almost 10K higher, the exclusive showrooms in Bangalore didnt even have a demo product, imagine sinking in half a lakh without even getting to know it and so the decision was unanimous. So heres the verdict:
Pros
Although the QWERTY keyboard is a bliss, still the touch keyboard has three configurations to choose.While dialing a number all subsequent matches are shown till not found, so if the number is already there then a match is shown, otherwise it will prompt to save.
If you have assigned categories to contacts then you can filter them while viewing them, also present is a handy feature to filter the contacts recently viewed, so even if you have 200+ contacts and you opened recently 20 or so only those are displayed, which is easy for searching.
You can add upto 15 favorites in contacts section, that way you have easy access plus you use the jazzy touchflo to toggle between them.You can use the touchflo to seemlesly toggle and vew music and photo/video albums shot, much like pages on a book.
Another handy feature is weather tab which has great graphics to view current weather of your selected cities, ofcourse GPRS (Internet connectivity) is needed. ActiveSync a handy feature allows you to easily sync your contacts from outlook or import and have them easily edited in your PC and then sync back.
Microsoft offfice programs and adobe comes pre installed so you can actively work with these files either downloaded from PC or mails.Web browsing is great, though using GPRS connection here is still slow forget You tube streaming in. The Wi-fi either in home or office lets you seamlessly connect to the net and browse.
*Cons
Although photo can be associated to contacts a very small preview is visible during outgoing call, personally I would like to have a bigger preview, thats why the feature is there! When viweing all contacts thumbnail mode is not viewable, kind a of something like windows thumbnail mode for pics was needed, to see all those naugty smiling faces you took so much time to click & associate.
The phone fails to pick some of the basic features available on all symbian phones like Nokia, Samsung etc. like. Option to snooze for an ongoing alarm (I wonder how many people wake up on one buzz). Many of us really love to organize our sms into folders, and here poof, nothing, just see all your smss like a cascade tower; although it does show it like a conversation while replying you see all exchange in one page.
No creation of new profiles for rings etc. Some touch areas do not respond and more are like blind spots, tried rotating the screen still dint work. The windows update does not work on wi-fi connectivity it has to be rooted via your data provider (GPRS) which is quite a snag considering the amount of data you would be downloading.
Parting note: The above features are mainly concentrated on the heavily used features. As time passes (that it will) and more enhancements are delivered to Windows Mobile and HTC software the product will surely make its true worth shine. On a last note I expect the tech support being more responsive and enlightened for the various issues (considering those heavy features) plus their site should also include a way to submit or get feedback on enhancements if any. Happy FLOing.
