Review: HTC Fuze on AT&T

We've given you a video and photograph gallery of the Fuze, the fourth dimension has come for the full review!

The Fuze has the experience and specs of a 'side by side gen' WinMo device. So while it joins the latest and greatest generation of smartphones, the devil is, as always, in the details. While we at WMExperts had worked ourself up into a lather during the run-up to the release of the Fuze's predecessor, the AT&T Tilt, the actual feel of the Tilt ended upwards disappointing usa. Will information technology exist the same with the Fuze? Read on.

The New Generation of Windows Mobile

Along with the Sprint Touch Diamond and the Dart Touch Pro, the Fuze on AT&T represents the latest generation of Windows Mobile smartphones. With information technology, WinMo devices on AT&T graduate into a 'adjacent gen' world that truly feels similar late 2008. These devices (we could also add other upcoming devices like the Omnia, the Xperia X1, and a few others) truly feel competitive against other smartphones similar the BlackBerry Bold, the iPhone, and the G1. While I practice believe that was the instance before, of course, the higher resolution, smaller size, and full feature fix of these devices makes information technology an easier case to make.

What makes the Fuze 'next gen?' Information technology's a mix of a few things: A slick, modern UI in TouchFlo 3D, a screen that finally gets beyond QVGA with 640x480 resolution, a smaller, compact size, more than capacious retentiveness, a default browser that isn't apartment-out embarrassing, and a processor that able to keep up with it all. While all of these increases can fairly be called evolutionary instead of revolutionary, they practice add up to a qualitative change.

(In other words, for those of you lot that take been wondering, I've found the device that will exist Windows Mobile's aspirant in the Smartphone Round Robin.)

Specs

Although I've made the argument that Specs only tell half the story for any Windows Mobile device, it'south still important to listing them out and talk near whether or non they 'make the grade.' A 'necessary but not sufficient' description of a device. Let's go through them, then.

Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A, 528MHz. The MSM7201A has become the go-to processor for many of the latest Windows Mobile devices (specially those made past HTC). While there take been questions of "GPS Lag" with the chipset, overall it'southward a very powerful and very snappy proc. I find that it has a decent adept mix of power and battery life (especially on the Treo Pro), and the Fuze is no exception (more than on the bombardment life below).

Memory: ROM: 512MB, RAM 288MB (corrected!).

I am tempted to say that the real reason for the occasional slowdown is the large corporeality of resources taken up by TouchFlo 3D. Subsequently a soft reset, running just SEVEN Beta in the backround, I go the following complimentary retention:

• Without TouchFlo 3D: Full 200.99, In use: 60.52, Free: 140.47
• With TouchFlo 3D: Full 200.99, In use: 71.52, Gratis 129.45

In other words, although TouchFlo 3D takes upward quite a lot of RAM, the fact that the Fuze has a large amount of RAM prepare aside for Program Retentiveness really helps mitigate that.

The Fuze definitely performs a bit more snappily when I turn off TouchFlo 3D than information technology does with it on, simply I'd be hard pressed to say it'south more than than, say, ten% faster. Screen rotation time in both cases ranges from well almost instantaneous to upward to 2 seconds in extreme situations.

In truth, the Fuze meliorate than any other Windows Mobile slider device I've e'er used. I was hoping it would be stupendously fast, instead it's 'just' very fast with the occasional freeze that's difficult to assign exactly to a particular program. I would add together that TouchFlo 3D doesn't suffer from any of the pauses or slowdowns that I've seen on the original GSM Touch on Diamond. In other words: once I brought my expectations downwardly to earth, the Fuze met and surpassed them, performance-wise.

Display: 640x480 resolution, 2.8", flush touchscreen. The brandish on the Fuze is cracking. Information technology makes all other Windows Mobile devices with QVGA or fifty-fifty 320x320 resolution feel cramped and small by comparison. The screen is vivid, the colors bright, and the dpi is pretty much off the charts. Windows Mobile was meant to be viewed at this resolution (or higher!).

Radios: GSM/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900. HSPA/UMTS/3G: 850, 1900, 2100. You lot'll get your 3G on in the U.s.a. just fine, and reception, I should add, is just fine -- no complaints hither. The Fuze also features Bluetooth two.0 + EDR, and WiFi 802.11b and one thousand.

GPS: The Fuze features full A-GPS, meaning it can go extra information from AT&T's cell towers for a faster gear up on satellite locations -- this in addition to the standard GPS location app found on many Windows Mobile devices. In my testing I was able to go a GPS gear up in under a minute several times in Google Maps. Annotation that I didn't have to mess around with any GPS settings in order to make that happen -- GPS is fully unlocked out of the box.

Some other specs: at that place's an accelerometer that works in Opera and Photos by default and that there'southward a light sensor to auto-accommodate effulgence. I wasn't able to exam the Goggle box-out functionality, unfortunately, but information technology is in that location. Not there: the FM Radio capability, though I've read elsewhere that it may be possible to enable it with a unproblematic cab download.

Hardware

Build Quality

The words that come to heed as I hold the Fuze: Solid, Compact, Dense, Tank, Small, Thick, and again Dense. The Fuze is very well built, with nary a creak or jerk to exist establish. The slider, every bit with previous HTC devices, is spring-assisted, though it doesn't pop out with quite the aforementioned spring as other devices. Nonetheless, it's solid and satisfying. The screen and front-facing buttons are all flush and overall the Fuze exudes a feel of professionalism and power.

Dimensions: 2" x 4" x .73" by my eyeballed ruler measurements. I want to spill some ink pixels here complaining about the thickness of the device, simply honestly I'm having a difficult fourth dimension working myself up to it. Yeah, the Fuze feels thicker than a 'next gen' Windows Mobile Smarpthone peradventure ought to, merely overall the device feels smaller than you lot might look. I've said it over and over on this blog, simply allow me say information technology again: the other dimensions more than make upward for the fact that they didn't manage to radically reduce the thickness compared to the Tilt.

The reduced height helps, equally does the fact that we have a affluent touchscreen, every bit also does the fact that the device angles in slightly in the rear. More anything else, however, the Fuze'south reduced width makes the device experience compact. Remember, we're looking at the verbal same height and width and the shockingly small GSM Touch Diamond and Sprint Bear on Diamond. So yeah, while the thickness isn't bang-up, I have no complaints almost the overall size.

Around the Device, Buttons

On the front of the device nosotros have, as I mentioned, the flush touchscreen that reaches simply far plenty to the edges to feel like it's non wasting space, simply not all the way to the border. We have an indicator light next to the speaker and at bottom, the at present-familiar Dwelling, Back/OK, Send and Stop Keys surrounding the five-twenty-four hour period/zoom-bicycle. I however find that I occasionally miss accept some difficulty striking the left/right buttons next to the other buttons. The 5-way also lights up in a very elegant way for notifications. There are no physical buttons associated with the soft buttons.

On the left side we take our volume buttons and as well the PTT button, which I quickly assigned to the Offset Card (An aside, for all my previous griping most the First Card, I observe it essential on a device that uses TouchFlo 3D). Update: Information technology looks like the power to assign the PTT push button to something other than PTT has be stripped from the final ROM. Nevertheless, y'all can assign a long-press of the Send key to the Beginning Carte du jour (information technology goes to Voice Control past default). One notable bit here is that these buttons are on the front of the slider, not on the main body. This makes these buttons peculiarly hard to hit when the slider is open.

On the lesser we have the microphone, a reset push, and HTC's ExtUSB port. There is no three.5mm headset jack and despite the fact that the Fuze ships with a muli-adapter that works with both 3.5 and two.5mm headset jacks, I can't forgive the lack of three.5mm jacks on smartphones anymore.

The rightside is empty of all buttons, though yous'll find the stylus on the lesser-right. Information technology's a solid metal stylus of a decent length and as with other Diamond-family unit devices, information technology's magnetic and turns on the smartphone when y'all pull it out. It also sticks conveniently to the side via the same magnet if you temporarily want to set it there as y'all interact with the device.

The tiptop has your power button and that'south about it. In what may be a thwarting to some, the microSD bill of fare is underneath the bombardment encompass -- though of grade you lot don't need to remove the battery to access information technology. The Fuze handles my 8gig microSDHC with no issues and I expect larger sizes won't exist a problem, either.

The rear is faceted, as with the Touch Diamond, and it is besides glossy (read: fingerprint magnet). There'south a small hole for the speaker to kick out sounds here -- the speaker is decent plenty but not at all loud compared to the gold standard for Windows Mobile speakers (the Q9h). You'll besides find the excellent 3.two megapixel photographic camera (more than on that below) and a LED light as well. Lastly, there's a tiny hole on the bottom through which you can thread a lanyard.

Overall, while I am sympathetic to people who prefer the aesthetics of a device that has fewer buttons, I'm not that sympathetic. Windows Mobile is a powerful OS that works better when there are plenty of buttons. The lack of a camera button especially grates. Given that you can't even remap the PTT button (thanks a lot, AT&T), long-time WinMo users volition discover themselves changing some their habits for this device.

Keyboard

The keyboard on the Fuze is pretty darn good -- the keys aren't mushy at all. HTC has decided to pack quite a lot into this space -- a 5 x 12 grid of 57 keys compared to the Tilt'due south 41 keys (including the soft buttons on the Tilt). This does hateful that the overall surface surface area of each key is quite a flake smaller than most slider-lovers will exist used to. However it's still quite a bit easier to blazon on (with two hands) than whatever front-facing QWERTY device. You'll find that y'all're using the tips of your thumbs rather than the flats of your thumbs, only it takes near no fourth dimension at all to go used to.

At that place are two controversial aspects to the keyboard that I suppose I should address. The start is that in that location are no soft-buttons, but honestly that elevation row abuts the front of the device so closely I'd find any attempt to fit them in at that place annoying. The 2nd and perhaps more troublesome trade-off is that the Fuze, unlike the Dart Bear on Pro or the European Affect Pro, does not have a defended number row. Instead you lot'll be using key-combos with the Fn key. The tradeoff here is that you get mutual punctuation marks across the top and also dedicated Caps, Start, and OK keys. Those final three make the tradeoff completely worth it, in my stance. I don't have whatsoever real complaints about the key layout.

At that place are as well dedicated shortcut keys for calendar, contacts, email, and spider web; also Fn+ shortcuts for SMS, IM, AT&T'south Music directory, AT&T's Video service, the Wireless manager, and switching between T9 and ABC modes. In all, these shortcuts more than make up for my before complaint about the lack of external buttons. I do wish that these shortcuts were re-mappable, but I suspect that it won't be long until the necessary registry edits for that are uncovered.

We become indicator lights for Caps and Fn, too.

Screen

I already enthused about the 640x480 touchscreen above, but I'll add together a few more notes. We have a plastic screen here, but it doesn't exhibit a lot of give similar other affluent-plastic screens I've used. The backlight defaults to automobile-adjust and I see no reason to mess with it -- the effulgence level seemed to be 'simply right' in all the situations I've used it in.

Information technology's not but flush, but the screen itself is closer to that flush surface than on other devices like the Treo Pro or the Samsung Epix, whose screens appear to be inset quite a fleck deeper inside the device. In exercise in that location'south no existent functional difference, but qualitatively it looks much amend. The screen is too nicely responsive to taps, though information technology's not perfect. HTC has done a remarkable task here, to be honest, every bit the screen 'gets' whether I'm trying to gyre, tap, or highlight text 95% of the time.

I cannot expect for Windows Mobile to graduate to capactive touch on screens, because I think HTC has brought resistive touch screens pretty much as far as they can go at this betoken.

Camera

I am very pleasantly surprised with the camera on the Fuze. Although the interface is fairly basic and responsiveness isn't lightning-quick, the pictures themselves are very good. The fact that yous can rest your finger on the heart of the 5-mode pad to autofocus and then printing in to take a shot is elegant and intuitive. I take had some lag here and there, but non plenty to drive me crazy.

Dim fluorescent lighting (yes, that'due south a charity check in the corner that SPE recently gave away :D )

Almost full darkness with Wink

About total darkness without Wink

The images themselves are much improve than most other smartphone cameras I've used on Windows Mobile devices -- both in good and low lite. The add-on of a LED lamp for flash seems cheesy, sure, only darned if that LED doesn't do a great chore providing relatively diffuse light for shots that apartment out wouldn't piece of work with other WinMo phones. Here are a couple shots with the camera in low-light and in full darkness with the wink -- they're not great, of course, merely both shots on the Treo Pro would have results in completely black 'pictures.'

I'll put it some other fashion: best camera since the Q9h.

Battery Life

I've only had the Fuze for a few days at present so I can't say this with 100% confidence, just hither goes: the Fuze's 1340mAh battery but barely powerful plenty to last through a day of medium to heavy usage. While the device certainly seems to final on standby without pregnant issues, I've found that every bit I utilise the device information technology drains rather quickly and overall I don't have much conviction that I could get ii full days of light to medium usage.

If you lot're a power user who intends on using the Fuze for a lot of media, GPS, or a very pregnant amount of web browsing, I recommend y'all await into a spare bombardment right away.

On the bright side, the battery does appear to charge up very chop-chop -- from near expressionless to near total in well under an hour (and maybe faster -- I wasn't watching closely enough each time I charged it. ;) ).

Software

TouchFlo 3D

TouchFlo 3D on the Fuze performs admirably -- very quick and snappy. The tabs that are included are pretty standard ones: Dwelling house, Contacts, Electronic mail, Messaging, AT&T, Internet, Music, Weather, Programs, Photographic camera/Photos, and Settings. The tabs are not editable, but as I mentioned in my initial video review it is nice that AT&T's proprietary applications are nestled within their ain TouchFlo 3D tab instead of taking over the unabridged interface.

In any case, every bit I said, the animations are quick, dragging your finger beyond the 'dock' is quick and information technology'due south very easy to hit the TouchFlo tab you're aiming for.

When the keyboard is open up, y'all're met with a simple gear up of large shortcuts to commonly used applications. Although I appreciate the list and find it relatively useful, it is a piddling jarring to lose TouchFlo 3D's full functionality when opened. It'southward a habit of mine with sliders to only pop them open when I want to use them -- a addiction I needed to break a fiddling bit with the Fuze.

While we're on the bailiwick of the home screen, I'll notation that of course we have HTC'due south memory manager in full effect.

Music Histrion

The TouchFlo 3D / Music Player app on the Fuze is a big step upward from the default Windows Media Role player. Earlier that sounds similar damning with faint praise, though, I'll say that the Music player is good in its own correct. ;) You tin scan through your artists, albums, and playlists quickly and easily.

The Music actor is also fully A2DP and AVRCP compatible -- pregnant it will not just play via Bluetooth but you can besides control the player via the controls on your Stereo Bluetooth Headset.

On Screen Keyboard

If yous're looking for one-handed employ, the Fuze does offer the full compliment of HTC soft-keyboard, including total QWERTY and their "Compact QWERTY" sure-type-esque keyboard. In my use I found that the Compact QWERTY was the best -- information technology'southward much easier to target those keys with your pollex than the full version. I peculiarly found it was hard to hit the keys on the very border of the Full QWERTY keyboard, I often striking 's' when I wanted to hitting 'a.'

AT&T Programs

AT&T has included several of their custom apps, including:

• AT&T GPS (aka TeleNav)
• AT&T Mobile Backup (New to me!), but I didn't try this out due to the monthly charge
• Links to AT&T Services like their Cellular Video Service, Music store, Music ID app, online store for ringtones and such, etc.
• Push To Talk
• IM, based on OZ Messenger
• Proxy Manager

Other Included Apps (and What'due south Missing)

Of form, Office Mobile is here, as are some other popular Windows Mobile applications like:

• Internet Sharing (Hooray!)
• Adobe Reader LE
• Bluetooth Explorer
• a Java Virtual Machine (Esmertec Jbed)
• Jetcet Print, QuickGPS
• Remote Desktop (Hooray x2!)
• Sprite Backup (Hooray x3!)
• Streaming Media for Video
• Nix for unzipping
• the Teeter game
• A whole gamut of trial-ware like MobiTV, Ms. Pac Man, etc.
• WikiMobile
• Worldcard Mobile Business Card Scanner
• Download links for Xpress Mail and BlackBerry Messenger

What'due south missing? Well, Windows Alive for one, although you can download that separately. That download, still, won't include MSN Messenger -- y'all'll take to use the congenital-in IM client for that. The biggest thing that's missing, sadly, is HTC'southward excellent YouTube awarding. My guess is AT&T wasn't keen on having their Cellular Video offer shown upwards by it. Major Bummer. Update: In the comments, NotATreoFan notes that the YouTube app is sitting happily in the \Windows\ Directory. Certain plenty, there is it and works perfectly! Just throw a shortcut into your Offset Menu and you lot're expert to go!

Other than the missing YouTube app, still, there's actually not a lot to mutter nigh. Although there is a lot of AT&T trialware/crapware to wade through, there are also a ton of slap-up gems and otherwise really useful stuff that they could accept just equally easily excised.

Opera Browser

The default browser on the Fuze is Opera Mobile 9.v. Internet Explorer is also included and actually isn't half-bad with the extra pixels on the Fuze. Yet, most will prefer to use Opera because information technology performs quite admirably on the Fuze. It's conspicuously been optimized for the device -- pages seem to render much faster on the Fuze than they do with the Opera Mobile 9.v Beta on my Treo Pro.

You tin can use the zoom wheel to zoom in or just double-tap on a department. When y'all zoom in, the text automatically wraps to fit the width of the zoom area. The just knock I have against the browser is that they've set the limit for the number of tabs you can accept open at any time to 3 (there is a registry edit to change this).

Ok, one other knock -- the default to launch Opera from TouchFlo 3D is actually a shortcut to the standard AT&T homepage instead of simply launching the browser.

Telephone call Quality and Bluetooth

Both reception and call quality on the Fuze are excellent -- I've had nary a dropped call and no complaints on either end. If you tin't tell by the fact that it took me this long to go to call quality, I'1000 not a heavy phone user. I will note that the speaker could be a little louder when used equally a speakerphone, just information technology's not a dealbreaker for me.

Bluetooth also seems to be very skillful -- I am especially glad to see that HTC didn't mess around with the standard Windows Mobile 6.one characteristic that automatically guesses common pairing codes. I paired up my ready of Jabra BT3030s in mere seconds.

Bluetooth range is zippo short of spectacular. I left my Fuze sitting on my desk-bound and walked abroad to see how far I could become earlier I heard a stutter in my music. I'm half-dozen'ii" and I got a full thirty steps away and on the other side of a fire door before I started hearing some blips in sound. I'yard admittedly non a heavy bluetooth user, but the Fuze has the best range I've even experienced.

Decision

The Fuze is a powerful and polished Windows Mobile smartphone. If you don't heed needing two easily to blazon and yous're on AT&T, the only reason I run across not to upgrade is if you're holding out for the Xperia X1. Fifty-fifty compared confronting the X1, all the same, the Fuze more than than holds its ain. The high resolution screen, decent performance, small form cistron, and included software hateful that it really does deserve the 'next gen' moniker I gave it at the beginning of the review.

My quibbles: Battery life is simply barely adequate, I wish at that place was a 3.5mm headset jack, I did experience occasional lag, and I do retrieve that at that place's all the same too much UI dissonance between Windows Mobile and TouchFlo 3D. Experienced Windows Mobile users know how to go around all of those issues, though, and if that's yous, then the Fuze just may be in your hereafter.

Now, if only I weren't such a stickler for 1-handed utilise!

(Cheers to Tom for the RAM correction!)

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/review-htc-fuze-att

Posted by: mcclungbrinings.blogspot.com

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