An Open Letter to HTC and Sprint: How About a Compromise?

lightyear420

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my decision is based on not only the looks of the back of the device, but the hard-wired battery. this is the only 100% deal-breaker in my book, and they went ahead and did it....guess I'll just get a sony next time since they actually listen to their customers.
 

Sapient

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I'm sorry, but I have to say that the OP's letter, while well-intentioned, is kind of silly. If HTC thinks this is a big enough issue to spend money to deal with it, they've already considered the idea of providing an alternative cover. The OP's solution is rather obvious. That said, I don't think that solution could possibly make financial sense. If they are going to produce alternative backs, why on earth would they provide them to everyone for free when they could sell them for some low price (like $5)?

Sure, there is some small group for whom the shiny black back will be the final straw that causes the loss of a sale. I doubt the revenue loss will be greater than the cost of producing and distributing free alternate backs. And, heck, I don't think that advertising the idea that their phone is ugly is smart. Would they really launch a flagship product with an apology for the way it looks?

There are soooo many things that are wrong with this plan.
 

HikariNoKitsune

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Ok this is just ridiculous -.-

Why is this addressed to HTC AND Sprint? I can understand HTC, but why Sprint? they have absolutely NO CONTROL over how a phone "looks" what so ever. "Oh you're gonna make the bezel white? Nope sorry, we think it looks better in black, so make it black." Does that make sense to anyone for a carrier to say this? Sure doesn't make sense to me.

The back covering is shiny, BIG DEAL. How is this shiny back any different than any other phone's backing? If I remember correctly some, if not all of the Nexus phones, have a shiny back. My old Palm Pre had a shiny back. My fathers old Palm Centro had a shiny back. The white HTC Evo 4G has a shiny back! (or at least my younger brother's does, its the only white one I've personally seen to be honest). There are so many phones in this world that have a shiny back, so why complain about one more? I can understand if people are worried about it being a "finger print magnet" but again, big deal people! You can simply just wipe those off.

People even had a similar issue with the HTC EVO 3D's backing; how its smooth on a very tiny portion of the side, yet has a cross hatch like texture on the rest. I don't know how many people I've seen complaining about that when they were seeing pictures of the device, but did that SERIOUSLY stop people from buying the phone? NO. People still lined up at the door waiting for its release. The same people who said "That is ugly, I'm not gonna buy it" or "Its a horrible design choice, I'm going to get another phone JUST because the back has a look I've never seen before".

Everyone is going to make such a hype about a shiny backing that Sprint has nothing to do with, and is something no one can change regardless of how hard they think complaining is going work. The design is what it is, so suck it up and move on with your life. You're still gonna end up getting the phone even if you dont like having a shiny backing, so why waste your energy complaining.

Besides if you're soooooooooo many people truly are bent out of shape because of something so stupid, you can bet that there is going to be a cell phone accessory company who is going to manufacture different colored/styled backings for the device anyway. So if you truly can't stand having such a shiny back, you can simply just wait for a few day or weeks, and buy yourself a different backing, just like you'll probably be the same guy who needs to buy a larger battery for it anyway. And if that's the case (with the battery), you'll end up getting an off color, matte finished backing anyway, cause i have yet to see any manufacture of extended batteries offer backings with their batteries that are the exact texture and color as the original.

Edit: although having posting this, I failed to recall if the phone actually has a removable battery or not XD I'm seeing some stuff about it being non removable, soo if that's the case, then the comment about the extended battery can be ignored i guess XD
 

BigDinCA

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Ok this is just ridiculous -.-

Why is this addressed to HTC AND Sprint? I can understand HTC, but why Sprint? they have absolutely NO CONTROL over how a phone "looks" what so ever. "Oh you're gonna make the bezel white? Nope sorry, we think it looks better in black, so make it black." Does that make sense to anyone for a carrier to say this? Sure doesn't make sense to me.......

Wrong. Sorry, but this is inaccurate. A phone designed for a specific carrier is absolutely signed off on by the carrier and if there was something they didn't like, especially something so easily corrected as this back cover, it could be changed. The EVO series is a very good example! There are other posts in this forum where this has been discussed, but more specifically there are youtube videos and HTC videos discussing the design of the OG EVO and how Sprint was intimately involved from the get-go.
 

crzycrkr

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Ok this is just ridiculous -.-

Why is this addressed to HTC AND Sprint? I can understand HTC, but why Sprint? they have absolutely NO CONTROL over how a phone "looks" what so ever. "Oh you're gonna make the bezel white? Nope sorry, we think it looks better in black, so make it black." Does that make sense to anyone for a carrier to say this? Sure doesn't make sense to me.

The back covering is shiny, BIG DEAL. How is this shiny back any different than any other phone's backing? If I remember correctly some, if not all of the Nexus phones, have a shiny back. My old Palm Pre had a shiny back. My fathers old Palm Centro had a shiny back. The white HTC Evo 4G has a shiny back! (or at least my younger brother's does, its the only white one I've personally seen to be honest). There are so many phones in this world that have a shiny back, so why complain about one more? I can understand if people are worried about it being a "finger print magnet" but again, big deal people! You can simply just wipe those off.

People even had a similar issue with the HTC EVO 3D's backing; how its smooth on a very tiny portion of the side, yet has a cross hatch like texture on the rest. I don't know how many people I've seen complaining about that when they were seeing pictures of the device, but did that SERIOUSLY stop people from buying the phone? NO. People still lined up at the door waiting for its release. The same people who said "That is ugly, I'm not gonna buy it" or "Its a horrible design choice, I'm going to get another phone JUST because the back has a look I've never seen before".

Everyone is going to make such a hype about a shiny backing that Sprint has nothing to do with, and is something no one can change regardless of how hard they think complaining is going work. The design is what it is, so suck it up and move on with your life. You're still gonna end up getting the phone even if you dont like having a shiny backing, so why waste your energy complaining.

Besides if you're soooooooooo many people truly are bent out of shape because of something so stupid, you can bet that there is going to be a cell phone accessory company who is going to manufacture different colored/styled backings for the device anyway. So if you truly can't stand having such a shiny back, you can simply just wait for a few day or weeks, and buy yourself a different backing, just like you'll probably be the same guy who needs to buy a larger battery for it anyway. And if that's the case (with the battery), you'll end up getting an off color, matte finished backing anyway, cause i have yet to see any manufacture of extended batteries offer backings with their batteries that are the exact texture and color as the original.

Edit: although having posting this, I failed to recall if the phone actually has a removable battery or not XD I'm seeing some stuff about it being non removable, soo if that's the case, then the comment about the extended battery can be ignored i guess XD

Because Sprint absolutely has some control. CDMA phones are collaborations between carrier and manufacturer.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
 

bnice

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I see nothing wrong with the letter, he is not too found of the glossy back and a lot of people feel that way including me. Will I still get the phone, maybe but it would be nice to have a back cover option that closely match the bottom half. HTC and Sprint could have offered a better match like the HTC sensation.
 
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Crispy

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Lets be honest, we are a bunch of geeks (by definition, since we are on this forum) and I very much doubt HTC or Sprint are taking a look or even aware of this thread.

It would be a different matter if this petition was on AndroidCentral's frontpage and also on all the other Android and tech sites/blogs, then at least it would have some visibility. Or at least if it was emailed to all the top execs at both companies.

Arguing here on the merits doesn't really do anything. Get it out in the open, it's too late to make any changes to the device at this stage, but at least we will make them aware and possibly get an official accessory.
 
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balthuszar

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really? this is an issue? "i don't like the back cover of the phone, and even though it's going to be one of the best phones available when it comes out, i wont buy it because i don't like it's aesthetic" read that to yourself, this is exactly what you're saying...put a cover on the dang thing(like most of you are going to do anyways) and be happy with a phone that is going to be one of the best phones available upon release
 

Crispy

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Also I'm pretty sure both companies did some research (or paid some consultant millions, which is what it usually means) and concluded that a shiny 2-tone back cover is more attractive/attention-grabbing.

Or do you think they didn't consider a non shiny matte alternative?
 

Bentecho#AC

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I actually like the style.

The two tone black divided by the red metal stand and red outlined camera lens looks way better than a boring 2005-style plain back.

Also, I can't believe you guys are making such a big deal out of this.. If you don't like the grille on your car buy a new one! This isn't an unalterable design flaw people!
 

lightyear420

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Lets be honest, we are a bunch of geeks (by definition, since we are on this forum) and I very much doubt HTC or Sprint are taking a look or even aware of this thread.

It would be a different matter if this petition was on AndroidCentral's frontpage and also on all the other Android and tech sites/blogs, then at least it would have some visibility. Or at least if it was emailed to all the top execs at both companies.

Arguing here on the merits doesn't really do anything. Get it out in the open, it's too late to make any changes to the device at this stage, but at least we will make them aware and possibly get an official accessory.

ummmm....this IS front-paged lol. WAY before you even made your post :p
 

Raadius

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This letter is exactly how I felt.

I'm no engineer either but I am a graphic designer and looking at the back of a two tone phone makes me puke. It's not even close in colors, its gunmetal / thunder gray bottom and shiny black up top, WHAT?! Lol. If this is the only conclusion the engineers and hardware developers could come up with, count me out, lol.

Seriously though, it would be pretty awesome to make an all white phone, with a silver kickstand and the top plate matte white (or for his purpose) shiny white. At least shiny white isn't as cheap looking as shiny black. Also fingerprints are not that easy to see compare to black.

Just makes you wonder, if the top part IS poly carbon as the bottom and the only thing different about it is the shine, how bad is reception effected? Something based off the outside coat of the poly carbon top? Don't engineers fix or find another solution for things like this, to keep the phone colors flowing? Meh.
 
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lightyear420

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really? this is an issue? "i don't like the back cover of the phone, and even though it's going to be one of the best phones available when it comes out, i wont buy it because i don't like it's aesthetic" read that to yourself, this is exactly what you're saying...put a cover on the dang thing(like most of you are going to do anyways) and be happy with a phone that is going to be one of the best phones available upon release

one of the best??????? Are you completely MAD???? Remove sense, add aosp, then MAYBE I will consider this statement.
 

Darrkman

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The part of the phone you'll see the LEAST has people upset. My wife like to talk about how when people have nothing to complain about in life they'll make something up. This is a prime example. Mad about it being SHINY. SMH.

Sent from my EVO Shift
 

BigDinCA

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one of the best??????? Are you completely MAD???? Remove sense, add aosp, then MAYBE I will consider this statement.

Then do it. Root the phone and there you go! If that's not an option for you, you should try the Nexus forums. Not everyone wants the vanilla ICS experience. That's why every manufacturer has their own UI (some better than others) and Google contracts with one manufacturer each year to create a Nexus device. They're not all Nexus because not everyone wants Nexus.
 

crzycrkr

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This letter is exactly how I felt.

I'm no engineer either but I am a graphic designer and looking at the back of a two tone phone makes me puke. It's not even close in colors, its gunmetal / thunder gray bottom and shiny black up top, WHAT?! Lol. If this is the only conclusion the engineers and hardware developers could come up with, count me out, lol.

Seriously though, it would be pretty awesome to make an all white phone, with a silver kickstand and the top plate matte white (or for his purpose) shiny white. At least shiny white isn't as cheap looking as shiny black. Also fingerprints are not that easy to see compare to black.

Just makes you wonder, if the top part IS poly carbon as the bottom and the only thing different about it is the shine, how bad is reception effected? Something based off the outside coat of the poly carbon top? Don't engineers fix or find another solution for things like this, to keep the phone colors flowing? Meh.

Isn't the bottom aluminum?


The part of the phone you'll see the LEAST has people upset. My wife like to talk about how when people have nothing to complain about in life they'll make something up. This is a prime example. Mad about it being SHINY. SMH.

Sent from my EVO Shift

The part of you your wife sees and other people see the least may be the part of she complains most about, lol. I kid, I kid

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
 

RonD

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The main body is not poly carbon. It is the micro arc aluminum. So the poly carbon top is a different material.It is a very fine texture. I think if they tried to match the top to the bottom, the texture and color would not match, but would rather clash and look horrid. I think the shiny black needs something to dress it up, maybe a red EVO logo. Then it would like a badge or emblem similar to a badge on a car.
 

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