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I was so anxious for this phone to be released for the Verizon network….now I regret buying it! The phone hesitates when coming out of sleep mode to where I literally have to wait 8-12 seconds for it to respond to keying a phone number! It also has a tendency to “face dial” while I’m on the phone and about twice a day it randomly makes a call to a different number while I’m talking to someone.

I’ve had Samsung PDAs for years and should have never switched to the HTC. Regrets, regrets…
Rating: 2 / 5

By C.C. Roby on Feb 16, 2010

IT is generally a nice phone. But be aware, it is very slow for web-browsing and lag sometimes. I only need the basic functions, so the phone is OK for me.
Rating: 3 / 5

By Hsan-yin Hsu on Feb 16, 2010

I had an iphone and returned it because I have particular needs in a phone that the iphone doesnt quite satisfy. That being said the iPhone is a great phone and my wife has one and my daughter has one. I traded in my iPhone and went back to a windows mobile based phone, the blackjack II, which was good for what it was.

This is my fourth windows mobile phone – I had the htc 3125, the motorola mpx 220 (loved this one except the build quality was low so in 3 years I had 4 of them), samsung blackjack 2 (was fine – would have preferred the 1 which had a tilt wheel) and now the htc tilt 2. Im not a windows fanboy, but there are a few features of windows mobile that I really like and are my highest priority.

Here is what I like about windows mobile:

1) The dialing is by far the best of any phone OS ive used. This is the primary reason I dont use an iphone, it takes about 5 button clicks (activate button, slide bar, phone button, contacts tab, first letter of their last name (Which lots of times I dont know), then scroll). Even when they are in your favorites list it is a pain. Plus it typically takes 2 hands to dial. With the windows phones, the key to the dialing is that when you type in numbers on the # pad it matches letter combinations AND numbers. So I can dial people by whatever part of their name/number I remember. It doesnt just match the start of the name but any letter combo in the first or last name. Compared to the blackjack, the htc has two extra button pushes (unfortunately). I have to push the top to activate the phone, then the call button. On the blackjack 2 I could just start hitting letters/numbers and get right into dialing. When the phone list comes up I can just select the # vs with the blackjack having to scroll to highlight.

2) seamless integration with exchange, exchange. It took about 1 minute to connect to exchange and have my whole calendar, contacts, tasks and mail downloaded when I upgraded.

3) microsoft has the best calendaring system and windows mobile has it as well. I miss meetings with any other phone operating system because the snooze, dismiss and the way reminders work arent quite right on other phones. For example, if I ignore the 15 minute reminder and it shuts off, then at appointment time it rings again. It doesnt just ring once it keeps repeating for a reasonable time then goes quiet. The appointment reminder starts out quiet then gets louder, giving me time to check my phone without disrupting a meeting.

4) Ring once. Windows mobile is the only phone with ring once. This means in meetings I dont have to mess around with silent mode. I also typically dont answer my phone and it is quite annoying to have to pick it up to turn the ringer off.

5) AT&T has some features that you prob dont know about, like you can set that people can only see your caller id if they are in your phone book. You can set the # of times your phone rings before it goes to voice mail etc

———————————-

Where the tilt 2 is better than prior versions of windows mobile phones

1) bigger screen for actual reasonable web browsing, reading email

2) faster so it is really usable to browse

3) several choices of browsers

4) full keyboard makes typing an order of magnitude easier

5) wifi

6) The zooming is actually pretty good, they have a dedicated zoom bar and you just slide up or down to zoom. I find because the touch screen is hard to use that zooming is very difficult without the stylus.

Where the tilt 2 is not as good as prior versions of windows mobile phones

1) I prefer a clamshell, but I guess Im the only one as no one makes them anymore

2) slippery – what is with this shiny crap? The iphone was also too slippery which was quite annoying.

3) no physical keypad on front means extra clicks to dial

4) getting to the home page with the time is quite difficult based on where you are at on the phone. Used to be the home button always got you there

5) push to talk button is quite annoying. Need to figure out how to reprogram it to go to the home screen or something

6) tilt 2 is confusing to navigate compared to my older windows mobile phones

Where the tilt 2 is not as good as the iphone

1) Iphone screen is an order of magnitude easier to use. The touch sensitivity of the tilt 2 is quite annoying. For some reason I cant use it with one hand.

2) iphone has a much simpler layout which makes getting around easier. Windows mobile on the tilt 2 is incredibly complex. There is the touch flow bar, the home button page and the programs button page. There are hidden setup and settings things all over the phone. For example, I found an option to make it so the notes icon appears in the calling window so you can hand write notes while you are on a call. It didnt seem to work and now I cant find the option at all. Touch flow bar has an icon called settings and so does the start page (system settings I think) and so does the programs page.

3) visual voicemail on the iphone works great

4) threaded text messaging on the iphone is great. No threaded text messaging on windows mobile

5) safari browser is still MUCH better than opera, skyfire or i.e.

6) windows mobile applications all work slightly differently. quite annoying.
Rating: 4 / 5

By A. Chen on Feb 16, 2010

Updated 1/2010:

This phone sucks. I gave it another chance, however, as I predicted, it’s not good in an emergency. It just locks up for no apparent reason – the soft keys lock up. The design also is prone to human error. Plus, there’s no easy way to turn off bluetooth to use the speaker phone. You’re stuck on the bluetooth earpeice, even if you want to use the speak phone or the handset. So many things wrong with this phone, that I’m not going to take the time.

My original review:

I have a Nokia e71x, Blackberry Bold, and HTC Tilt 2. The HTC has the “coolest” features and reception is exceptional, but the Blackberry is *by far* the most usable.

Many other users have waxed on about the features of the HTC. However, here are a few deal killers for me:

1. My phone had a tendancy to “lock up”. I had to wait for up to 1 – 2 minutes for the phone to respond at times. If I needed to make an emergency call during these times, I would have been in trouble.

2. Sometimes the screen saver won’t turn off or the screen won’t turn back on when someone calls. There was no way to turn it back on, other than powering down.

3. The keys are extremely touchy. I’ve had the phone dial out repeatedly, even when I did not touch the screen. Additionally, the UI isn’t the greatest (eg, while scrolling through screens), so there are a lot of unintentionally dialed numbers, etc.

If my phone didn’t have these problems, I’d have liked it much more. I say “would have” because I got rid of it. Hence only 3 stars.
Rating: 1 / 5

By . on Feb 16, 2010

Please disregard Jeff Edward’s review of this phone unless you read the whole thing with the comments at the end.

This phone is RIDICULOUS!!!

There is no phone out there that packs this much power. Being a long time user of various Windows Mobile incarnations and devices, I had no ideal how close to perfect Microsoft would come.

When Microsoft was peddling Windows CE on PDAs over 10 years ago the only other thing out there was the Palm Pilot. But since then, as a Windows Mobile loyalist, I’ve seen the dawn of the Blackberry, Iphone and Android. Now with the recent introduction of the HTC Tilt2/Touch Pro2, I have no doubt that Windows Mobile is here to stay.

This phone is a vast improvement over the previous Tilt/Tytn 2. The screen is large and easy to see in all kinds of lighting conditions. HTC’s TouchFlo helps this phone to be finger friendly. I could go on and on about this phone but chances are, if your reading this you probably already read the specs online and are reading the reviews to see if it’s as good as it looks on paper. So I won’t bore you with that.

Know this, this phone is NOT for everyone. If you want something simple, trendy, tiny and cute, then get an Iphone. If you want something that’s a bit more versatile, but still somewhat easy to use; get a Palm, Blackberry or Android device. But if POWER and VERSATILITY is what you need then read on.

Unlike its competitors, this phone and all other Windows Mobile phones is best used as a companion to your computer and not a stand alone device. Although you can use it as a stand alone, you’re not really getting the full benefits of this phone if you do that. This is because you can keep your contacts and appointments synced and you can move various kinds of files seamlessly from your desktop to your pocket. By periodically syncing your phone you are also backing up your information in the event that you lose your phone or the information on it.

Really this phone does so much that it can easily do the jobs of a personal media player, portable game system, portable hard drive, GPS, notebook computer and phone. If you are the type of person who is always on the go, you can leave the notebook at home because this is a do it all device. The inclusion of Microsoft Office really makes this a powerful tool for productivity. Often I go to the coffee shop with my bluetooth headphones and bluetooth portable keyboard and type away while listening to music. Unlike the notebook users in the coffee shop, I’m not huddled around a power outlet. When I’m driving I use Bing (a free program) for GPS. I SPEAK to it to tell it where I want to go and it creates a route and tracks my progress. While the Tilt2 is doing that, I am listening to music from it and if a call comes in it pauses the music to allow me to take the call and starts it again when the call ends.

This phone does have a bigger learning curve than it’s competitors but so does a college degree and like a college degree it’s worth it. The fact that this phone can do anything that you throw at it makes it easy to forgive the fact that it may not be as quick, simple and easy to use as its competition. When you get the Tilt2 it is already loaded with lots of programs/apps. Microsoft has been at this for over 10 years and there are tons of free programs/apps available online. There are no residual cost involved with having to go to an Istore type of site and paying for restricted use music and apps. This phone is so versatile that I’ve seen people run emulators on them to work like the competing phones.

If you need a phone for productivity on the go a Blackberry is a good choice. But for productivity and anything else you could ever think of doing with a phone the HTC Tilt2/ Touch Pro2 is the device for you..

Rating: 5 / 5

By Truth Turner on Feb 16, 2010