Hands-on with the tilt (8925?)

By Joe • Oct 26th, 2007 • Category: All Articles

dumbtilt Until today, I thought my new phone was going to the the highly anticipated HTC Tilt, then I got a chance to play around with and configure the new at&t Tilt for one of my clients and I am sad to report  much-delayed device truly disappointed me. Sure, it has a built-in GPS receiver and the screen tilts, but I would much recommend sticking with the HTC 8525 (or any of the variants) or smartphone.

The phone is slow overall. I really didn’t think that the 3.5 second delay (as reported by me a couple of days ago in this article) when switching from portrait to landscape mode (or vice versa) was a big deal, but it is. I seemed a lot longer than 3.5 seconds to me.

The Internet was slow, both on 3G and on Wifi. Pages took forever to load. And, what is even weirder, HTC decided to make the phone slide in the opposite direction to what is it on the 8125 and the 8525. This wouldn’t be such a hassle if it wasn’t for the fact that for those of you who are used to using the nav-pad with your right hand, will have to start getting used to using your left hand. It is also kind of weird to have to flip the thing to take a picture.

GPS: Telenav works fine, but, seriously, I’m not paying an additional $10 to use it. I’ll stick to using my BlackJack with a wireless GPS transmitter and Windows Live for mapping (with live traffic updates every 5 min). I won’t get voice commands, but I’m always listening to the radio when I’m driving anyway.

Verdict: Try to buy a discounted 8525 instead, if you’re in the market for a new PDA-Phone.

Joe is a networking consultant and web developer, in Los Angeles, CA. Visit his personal blog, view his Myspace page or add him as a friend on Facebook. He also blogs for Gadgetell.
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This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 8:36 pm and is filed under . All Articles You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.



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    • 6 Responses »

    1. JJMELO.com » Blog Archive » My New Posts on Digital Wise Guy on October 26th, 2007 at 9:00 pm:

      […] Hands on with the Tilt. I’m sad to report that I was disappointed at the Tilt when I got to play with it while configuring it for a client. […]

    2. Daniel on October 28th, 2007 at 9:40 am:

      Just FYI, you can use the internal GPS with any GPS app as well. I used to have an 8125 with a bluetooth GPS and I now use my 8925 with the same Google Maps, Live Search, iGuidance, and TomTom apps that I used before. I just don’t have to deal with the external GPS (carrying, charging, etc). I still have it as it’s a data logger, but I haven’t used it since.. I agree that the Telenav model seems unappealing for my purposes and I haven’t touched it as well.

      I guess speed is relative. Coming from an 8125, I welcomed the upgrade. No complaints.

      I agree on the slide direction although it obviously wasn’t enough to prevent me from buying it. It does seem like a strange decision to change. I just assumed it might have been relating to the internal mechanics of the slide.

      Lastly, while I didn’t see it in time for myself, there are some pretty good subsidized prices through online retailers like newegg. For my purposes, I’d still go with the 8925 over the 8525 if I had it to do over. The 128/256M of memory is a nice upgrade as well.

      My $.02…

    3. at&t’s Dual Slider now available! | Digital Wise Guy on October 29th, 2007 at 6:50 pm:

      […] I’ve stated before, I am in the market for a new phone, and after the Tilt’s disappointment, its now between this Dual Slider and the not-available-yet Blackjack2. We shall wait and […]

    4. Samsung’s BlackJack2 | Digital Wise Guy on November 6th, 2007 at 7:52 am:

      […] Advertise on DigitalWiseGuy.com at&t’s Dual Slider now available! » « Hands-on with the tilt (8925?) […]

    5. Denise on November 15th, 2007 at 7:52 am:

      I guess people have different experience. I love my Tilt, my internet is fast on edge and extremely fast on 3g, using Windows Live is extremely fast also on Edge. I am in an Edge network right now so most of my surfing will be on edge and I have no complaints. It only gets so for me when I’m on the G network. Also my you tube videos load really fast on the Edge. At first the opposite sliding board was a hassel but I’ve got use to it. The only thing I don’t like about the phone is the Auto focus, it takes pictures great using the 3 mg but it takes 3 secs to even snap the picture, the battery life could also be better but other than that I wouldn’t trade my phone in for anything. My boyfriend has the blackjack and after playing with mines for a while he’s now buying the Tilt. So I’m sorry for you disappointment but I LOVE IT and I really don’t know what I would do without it.

    6. Rojas on December 6th, 2007 at 12:34 am:

      I have to disagree…

      My tilt is a much better machine than my 8525. The screen rotation taks the same amount of time on both my 8525 & 8925 (about 2 seconds). My Tilt is generally quicker, runs smoother, the screen is much brighter and it feel much more solid ans styleish.

      I love my Tilt!…

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