Tag Archives: HTC Ozone

I’m still on the quest to replace my v1.0 iPhone with something that is not from AT&T. Finding a new mobile phone is really a pain.

So far, I’ve test driven several phones for Verizon:

• Blackberry Tour: Thumbs up. It’s a great phone, but missing wi-fi. Full review coming within the week.
• HTC Ozone: Thumbs up, but I had some minor issues. Full review coming early next week.
• LG EnV Touch: Thumbs down. This phone was unable to sync with the contacts and calendar on my Mac or even with my Google Contacts / Calendar. While it does offer a sync for PC / Outlook users, for me the phone was rendered useless.
• HTC Touch Diamond: Thumbs down. As a Windows Mobile device, it wouldn’t sync with my Mac, but it would sync with Google. However, I found this phone incredibly non-intuitive. I let my techie husband play with it for a few days. When even he found it non-intuitive, I gave up.
• Samsung Omnia: Thumbs down. Another Windows Mobile device, it synced easily with my Google information. Once I turned off what I found to be an annoying home screen overlay and returned to just a basic Windows Today screen, this was a fairly easy to use phone. However, the battery life was exceedingly poor, dying within 5 hours of light to normal use (including occasional email checking and 2 short phone calls).

As for T-Mobile, I’m unable to get their PR rep to respond to me. It does irritate me when I receive press releases about a product – in this case the MyTouch – yet am unable to get my hands on the device. Note to PR folks everywhere: if I can’t get my hands on the application or gadget you’re promoting to me, I can’t review it for the blog.

Like T-Mobile, Sprint hasn’t acknowledged my attempts at contact. That’s a shame, because the Pre is still my number 1 choice for a phone  – if I had to buy one right this minute. I visited a local Sprint store on Sunday and spoke with a sales rep who obviously loved his Pre. He had no problem, once he realized I had a clue, talking to me about various hacks and homebrew applications, as well as what features I could add/turn on/turn off on the phone. He didn’t once try to outright sell me – he just showed me how he used his Pre – and that was effective in itself.

However, I’m very aware that the Motorola Sholes / Android 2.0 phone will be coming to Verizon at the end of October (according to the Internets). It may be the phone that keeps me away from the Pre. In the meantime, I also hope to get my hands on test devices of the Samsung Rogue and Intensity (Verizon), to let you know how those phones stack up to other smartphones and enhanced multimedia devices on the market.

After all, why should I buy a phone right now when the holiday-release phones are just around the corner?

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Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

As many of you know, I’ve had nothing but grief with AT&T and my poor iPhone, which is soon to be a well-loved iPhone Touch. In fact, my AT&T contract is up on Thursday. I was all set to go dancing into the Sprint store and pick up a new Pre, hoping that it would work well within the first 30 days, with no hardware or carrier surprises.

But my experience with the excellent service of the Verizon Mi-Fi on my cruise gave me pause. So two weeks ago, I took a day and visited my local Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon carriers, looking for a phone that fit all my criteria. Now, I’m not easy to please. I may not like AT&T, but for the most part, I like my iPhone, so I want something that can compare. My requirements include

• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• Native Internet browser
• 3G+
• Touchscreen
• Physical keyboard (I just don’t cope with the virtual one very well)
• Ability to sync with my Mac or at least with Gmail/Google Calendar
• Nice to haves include Google Voice capability and/or visual voicemail and voice-activated dialing, tethering, Application download/App Store

The staff at the local Verizon store couldn’t even tell me which of their phones had WiFi, and when I found the HTC Touch Pro, they told me I didn’t need WiFi when I had their excellent 3G service. To take it further, my sales rep couldn’t understand why I’d need out of network texting, because she was convinced that Twitter was only accessible from the Web.

I left Verizon and T-Mobile disappointed. I have to admit, the only phone I thought would work would be the Pre.

Now comes the personal connection. A friend of mine works for a PR firm representing Verizon. When she found out about my Verizon experience, she set about to rectify it. Now Verizon is involved – they are convinced that one of their phones will meet enough of my requirements that I’ll switch to their service, and not Sprint. So much so that Verizon is sending me five phones over the next month – all fully activated and ready to go. I get to play with the Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Diamond, and EnV Touch, all of which will arrive this week. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll also get to play with the HTC Ozone and HTC Touch Pro. Apparently they think I’ll like the Samsung, as it is the closest to an iPhone. (Full disclosure: All phones will be returned to Verizon. I’m not keeping anything.)

So my props to Verizon, for letting me review these phones for bub.blicio.us and for trying to convince me I want their service. My challenge is now to Sprint: let me compare your Pre and maybe the latest Treo, going head to head with Verizon’s best smartphones.

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Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.