Much to my joy the demo version of the HTC Inspire landed in my lap yesterday, and provided me a day to drop in my sim and see how I like it. This phone is fast, scary fast, awesome fast, and the screen is huge, scary huge, awesome huge. After a fast boot up I couldn’t believe how responsive the phone was, with the new version of sense, and Android 2.2 the phone was everything I could have hoped for when announced at CES. The stock apps installed on the phone are a nice plus as well, Angry Birds, Friend Stream, Twitter, Facebook, the stock apps seemed as if HTC knew exactly what the first things I would like to grab on the phone would be, and instead decided to have them waiting there. Initial set up on the phone was quick and painless, if you’ve set up an HTC phone running Android before you’re familiar with the process. Create sense account….done, sign into Gmail….done, sign into Facebook….done, aaaand we’re off!
The phone itself feels solid, most HTC devices have a sturdy feel to them and the inspire falls right in line. It has a 4.3″ display that takes up almost the entire front panel, Android 2.2 with the updated version of HTC Sense, and of course on the back an 8 mega pixel camera complete with 720p video and L.E.D. flash. What’s missing in the design… a front facing camera, where is it? The front facing camera on cell phones is slowly making it’s way to be a standard feature, but for whatever reason, the Inspire is missing that piece. 2 design choices that I’m seeing on the Inspire as opposed to the other HTC devices I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing is the separation of the battery compartment and sim/micro SD storage. The battery compartment sits on the left side of the phone just below the volume keys and requires some solid force to open. The bottom of the phone then pulls off to reveal the sim and SD slots. This makes switching your sim a much quicker process as you no longer have to wait for the phone to power back on after replacing the battery.
Considering the overall display size and solid internals that the Inspire is packed with, I found it to be surprisingly thin. It fit in my pocket, and slid in and out easily without feeling bulky or encumbering. I did at first have a little bit of “this thing is huge” shock when I would pull it out to read an email or send a text. But that slowly passed as my realization that the bigger the screen the better phone calmly set in.
Let’s talk interface changes if we may. The device itself has my favorite device interface, HTC Sense, there are a few standard pieces and a couple new tweaks to the interface. The bottom left key on the docking bar will of course bring up all applications installed on the device, the center will allow you to make calls from your address book, dialer, or favorites, and the palette button on the right will allow you to customize the phone however you see fit. I want to spend a moment talking about the palette key and the enhancements that have come to it with the new sense layout. HTC has taken their idea of “scenes” for the phone and made it universal in customizing the phone. You can now have audio themes, themes for the actual colors and texture of the phones interface, scenes to move your application placement and more. The neat thing about the different groupings is that each one has a large amount released by HTC, and then has the free reign for user created skins and audio themes which can be uploaded, discussed and commented on through the HTC Hub. For those of us that spend hours tweaking every sound effect and image on our phone it’s a good chance to share our ideas with the Sense World, and for those of us who simply want a respectable theme and don’t want to work for it, it’s a great place to quickly personalize your phone, with little to no hassle.
The phone also supports a mobile hotspot feature, which is the first ATT phone to do so without rooting or jail-breaking. Although easy to use and convenient, the cost associated with it is a little high in my opinion. The device will allow quick hot spot access for an additional $20 dollars a month to your $25 2 gig data plan. Dear At&t use the Verizon iPhone as an excuse and give us unlimited tethering… K??? Thanks.
Aside from missing a front facing camera, and requiring an additional data plan for tethering this is a killer device and the price tag associated with it isn’t bad either. The Inspire Releases today for a no-contract price of 399.99, or a 2 year commitment price of $99.99. Specs below:
