Yes, I know. I’ve been talking about it since December when my last phone died (Cingular 8125). You know it’s old when the phone carries the name of the service provider that’s been gone for over a year.
Well, I’m not getting an iPhone. Yes, the iPhone is pure awesomeness, but I’m not getting an iPhone. Mainly becasue I don’t want to pay a $30 data plan every month for the next 24 months. That’s $720. Heck no! I’m either home or at my work 90% of the time… maybe more. With a wi-fi enabled phone, I have full data services. So for the iPhone, I’d pay $720 for the convenience of having internet during that 10% of the time I’m not at home. No thank you, it’s not worth $720. If my work was paying for data, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but they’re not, so I’m not.
So, I’m getting the HTC Fuze. HTC makes great phones and the Fuze has w-fi functionality. Now my phone will connect to the web whenever I’m at home or at work. Perfect! It also has a slide out keyboard. I like the iPhones keypad, but I feel like I’m aster on a slide out QWERTY keyboard. ATT doesn’t restrict me from using data on the phone over wi-fi and I have the ability to sign up for data whenever I need it. That’s a great plan. So, I’ll sign up for data when at camp, at a conference or maybe taking a road trip. The HTC Fuze is powered by Windows Mobile. No, it’s not as smooth as the iPhone OS. However, it has a huge developer base and I’ll easily be able to twitter, twitpic or enjoy other apps doing the kinds of things I want to do. I’ll let you know how it goes after I get it!
Specs:
Operating System | Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional |
Keyboard | Sliding QWERTY Keyboard. |
Applications | Remote Desktop Mobile Domain Enroll Managed Programs WorldCard Mobile JetCet Print 5 Sprite BackUp AT&T Video Share Calling AT&T Cellular Video AT&T Push To Talk AT&T Navigator |
Processor | Qualcomm MSM 7201a, 528Mhz |
Memory | ROM: 512MB RAM: 288 MB |
Display | 2.8″ VGA TFT touchscreen, 65K colors Size 480 x 640 pixels, 2.8 inches Full QWERTY keyboard TouchFLO 3D finger swipe navigation Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate Touch-sensitive navigation controls |
SIM Interface | 1.8/ 3V SIM card slot |
Headset Jack | HTC ExtUSB TM (11-pin, mini-USB and audio jack in one) |
Frequency | UMTS (850/1900/ 2100 MHz ) and GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE (Quad-band, 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz)HSDPA |
Talk Time | Up to 8 Hours.**Depends on device configuration and use. |
Standby Time | Up to 406 Hours.**Depends on device configuration and use. |
AC Adaptor | 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz |
Wi-Fi | WiFi 802.11 b/g |
Bluetooth® | Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR |
Microsoft Exchange, POP, IMAP, and AT&T Xpress Mail supported at launch. Good Mobile Messaging to be supported 12/15/08. BBC to be supported on Q1 of 2009. |
|
Battery | Lithium-ion Polymer 1340 maH battery |
External Antenna Port | Built in. |
Speakerphone | Built In. |
Internet | Opera Mobile (default) and Internet Explorer. |
Built-in Camera | 3.2 MP Color CMOS camera with auto focus |
Caller ID | Supported. |
Audio/Video | Built-in microphone and speaker Ring tone formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV 40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI |
Expansion | Up to 32GB MicroSDHC Card |
TTY / TTD | Supported. |
GPS | Built In |
Other Features | TouchFlo 3D, G-Sensor |
It’s a cool phone, but have a charger ready if you turn on WiFi most of the time. (And be really careful about accidentally enabling data connections. ATT Rates add up really fast.)
If you haven’t checked it already, look at http://www.xda-developers.com in the Raphael forums for tips, tricks, etc. Also check out http://www.fuzemobility.com for a site dedicated to this phone.
Personally, I like it, but it can definitely eat up some batteries.