OK, so I have got one. It came in the post yesterday - Royal Mail Snail mail.
Here is my review:
Overall a great phone - here are some downsides...
Firstly if you want one from HTC who are currently the only supplier in UK to my knowledge, and you are a new customer, you will HAVE to supply a copy of your driving licence or some kind of ID. I really did not like this (perfect material for identity cloning), especially as you had to supply this info to not HTC, not even the company delivering the phone, but some other company - something to do with Dragon's Den. I kid you not. HTC and their supplier were very unreasonable about this and refused to listen to my objections or to simply check the electoral role.
I was told by HTC that if I ordered from them the guaruntee wouold be for two years, whereas if I order it elsewhere, I would get one. Currently to my knowledge, this phone is only available to the UK via HTC, unless you want a Chinese import that has to be reprogrammed - these mostly cost more too.
The phone arrived reasonably speedy and set up is mostly autopiloted. Its a little thicker than the HTC, so the two cases I had for HTC one did NOT fit. The phone pops out, they nearty fit, and I suppose this is OK-ish. I don't know of any current supplier of cases for the dual HTC one. I am looking for a decent leather wallet type.
This phone does NOT have 4G so when HTC states that it is the same spec as the HTC one (which does), its NOT. It does have a SD slot which takes up to 64 gig. Mine seems to be working but I have not accessed it properly yet, I am a bit of a newbie with Android. I was expecting some kind of way of viewing the directory, have not found it yet - not a problem though I think, maybe I need to download an app.
The phone is as snappy and as well constructed as the HTC one, no problems there, and I wont repeat all the functions that are covered by standard HTC reviews.
The back plate comes off. inside are three slots, two for sims and one for SD. The second slot is 2g the first 3g.
They have done a good job of integrating dual SIM management into the phone. Dial a number and you can push a button for SIM1 or SIM2 to make the call. You can rename these SIMS with up to five characters so I have got Pers and Work. These names apply throughout the phone.
Contacts from both the SIMS and from Google are handled well. You can show all contacts or you can show from one Sim or another, or you can show google contacts
You can disengage or silence one sim or the other.
The phone comes with extra gbs of cloud storage for dropbox, google drive and other providers, it just gets offered when you use it. Some deals are for 2 years of space others permanant, I forget which is which. See the HTC site.
I havent yet investigated the storage, but I intend to put a lot of music on - I measured my current library and its about fifty gigs, no problem for this HTC, its got 32 gb internal and then a further 64 gb on my SD.
As other's have said, this is a quality product, its well constructed, and has a sophisticated feel through and through.
At present dual SIM seems to be only be available in silver (I love the red) and very confusingly, the HTC site offers two seemingly identical variants at two prices ?495 and ?499???!!!
I think they are the same phone. I ordered the ?499 because it stated 'silver' was charged ?495 and got a silver anyway. It does not make sense (no pun intended).
HTC support seems a bit flakey. If you want tech support you get Taiwanese heavy accents (I think) they are knowledgeable but will not/ cannot deal with order info matters as this is done by a second 'English' company, that can't give tech support. These are the ones that force you to send confidential information to a further third company (via a secure connection but why should we) before they will despatch the order.
You only get told this at a late state in the ordering game. I received a confirmation of my card details and order, then an email stating they would be in touch again for' further information', this email stated thaty If I did not receive this email request for further info then I should phone. The email did not come, so I phoned HTC, who could not help me and put my onto a second company who handled their deliveries. Only after I phoned up to say I never got the third email, did they reveal this requirement and insist on this information. I have no idea why they need to inconvenience and compromise their customers so much. Their lame excuse that 'the phone is expensive' is unacceptable. I recieve many other products that cost more without this hassle. My name and address is easily accessible via the Electoral Roll on the net (which they dont accept) and I have never had any trouble with credit or the law, I have no debts at all and own my own house, I have a decent job too. I got treated like I was under great suspicion until I was forced to give them my tax return. It's wrong and I for one wont forgive them for this. End of Rant.
The only 'issue' I have ecountered with the phone so far is that only one SIM card contacts appear in my blue toothed car phone/media player. I own a VW golf match 2012. It's no big deal as the phone does accept calls from both SIMs via the car (hands free). You can also dial any calls via the car but you wont get the ability to select SIM 1 or SIM 2 (as you do on the handset). This is more a VW oversight than HTC I guess and I dont hold it against HTC..
Summary:
Overall the HTC DUAL SIM seems so thoughtfully put together, you can see both SIMs are active or not in the notification area and many other tiny little fixes make for a great experience. I have heard its due Kit Kat in either January or February. Ordering robbed me of a lot of pleasure, but overall, I am pleased with the phone, I will live with it for a few more days then probably sell my MOTO G.
I guess there is a strong case to state that this IS currently the best phone in the world, even though the support is suspect.
If you wait then possibly CES will bring even higher specced phones. There is talk of 64 bit chips, chips with over a hundred cores, and prices of both HTYC and= other high spec phones being slashed in 2014.
There is soon, for example, to be the ZOPO ZP980 5.0Inch MTK6589T 1.5GHz Quad-Core Android4.2 OS 1+16G
Personally I could not wait and am very happy with this one.
Birds in the bush...
Here is my review:
Overall a great phone - here are some downsides...
Firstly if you want one from HTC who are currently the only supplier in UK to my knowledge, and you are a new customer, you will HAVE to supply a copy of your driving licence or some kind of ID. I really did not like this (perfect material for identity cloning), especially as you had to supply this info to not HTC, not even the company delivering the phone, but some other company - something to do with Dragon's Den. I kid you not. HTC and their supplier were very unreasonable about this and refused to listen to my objections or to simply check the electoral role.
I was told by HTC that if I ordered from them the guaruntee wouold be for two years, whereas if I order it elsewhere, I would get one. Currently to my knowledge, this phone is only available to the UK via HTC, unless you want a Chinese import that has to be reprogrammed - these mostly cost more too.
The phone arrived reasonably speedy and set up is mostly autopiloted. Its a little thicker than the HTC, so the two cases I had for HTC one did NOT fit. The phone pops out, they nearty fit, and I suppose this is OK-ish. I don't know of any current supplier of cases for the dual HTC one. I am looking for a decent leather wallet type.
This phone does NOT have 4G so when HTC states that it is the same spec as the HTC one (which does), its NOT. It does have a SD slot which takes up to 64 gig. Mine seems to be working but I have not accessed it properly yet, I am a bit of a newbie with Android. I was expecting some kind of way of viewing the directory, have not found it yet - not a problem though I think, maybe I need to download an app.
The phone is as snappy and as well constructed as the HTC one, no problems there, and I wont repeat all the functions that are covered by standard HTC reviews.
The back plate comes off. inside are three slots, two for sims and one for SD. The second slot is 2g the first 3g.
They have done a good job of integrating dual SIM management into the phone. Dial a number and you can push a button for SIM1 or SIM2 to make the call. You can rename these SIMS with up to five characters so I have got Pers and Work. These names apply throughout the phone.
Contacts from both the SIMS and from Google are handled well. You can show all contacts or you can show from one Sim or another, or you can show google contacts
You can disengage or silence one sim or the other.
The phone comes with extra gbs of cloud storage for dropbox, google drive and other providers, it just gets offered when you use it. Some deals are for 2 years of space others permanant, I forget which is which. See the HTC site.
I havent yet investigated the storage, but I intend to put a lot of music on - I measured my current library and its about fifty gigs, no problem for this HTC, its got 32 gb internal and then a further 64 gb on my SD.
As other's have said, this is a quality product, its well constructed, and has a sophisticated feel through and through.
At present dual SIM seems to be only be available in silver (I love the red) and very confusingly, the HTC site offers two seemingly identical variants at two prices ?495 and ?499???!!!
I think they are the same phone. I ordered the ?499 because it stated 'silver' was charged ?495 and got a silver anyway. It does not make sense (no pun intended).
HTC support seems a bit flakey. If you want tech support you get Taiwanese heavy accents (I think) they are knowledgeable but will not/ cannot deal with order info matters as this is done by a second 'English' company, that can't give tech support. These are the ones that force you to send confidential information to a further third company (via a secure connection but why should we) before they will despatch the order.
You only get told this at a late state in the ordering game. I received a confirmation of my card details and order, then an email stating they would be in touch again for' further information', this email stated thaty If I did not receive this email request for further info then I should phone. The email did not come, so I phoned HTC, who could not help me and put my onto a second company who handled their deliveries. Only after I phoned up to say I never got the third email, did they reveal this requirement and insist on this information. I have no idea why they need to inconvenience and compromise their customers so much. Their lame excuse that 'the phone is expensive' is unacceptable. I recieve many other products that cost more without this hassle. My name and address is easily accessible via the Electoral Roll on the net (which they dont accept) and I have never had any trouble with credit or the law, I have no debts at all and own my own house, I have a decent job too. I got treated like I was under great suspicion until I was forced to give them my tax return. It's wrong and I for one wont forgive them for this. End of Rant.
The only 'issue' I have ecountered with the phone so far is that only one SIM card contacts appear in my blue toothed car phone/media player. I own a VW golf match 2012. It's no big deal as the phone does accept calls from both SIMs via the car (hands free). You can also dial any calls via the car but you wont get the ability to select SIM 1 or SIM 2 (as you do on the handset). This is more a VW oversight than HTC I guess and I dont hold it against HTC..
Summary:
Overall the HTC DUAL SIM seems so thoughtfully put together, you can see both SIMs are active or not in the notification area and many other tiny little fixes make for a great experience. I have heard its due Kit Kat in either January or February. Ordering robbed me of a lot of pleasure, but overall, I am pleased with the phone, I will live with it for a few more days then probably sell my MOTO G.
I guess there is a strong case to state that this IS currently the best phone in the world, even though the support is suspect.
If you wait then possibly CES will bring even higher specced phones. There is talk of 64 bit chips, chips with over a hundred cores, and prices of both HTYC and= other high spec phones being slashed in 2014.
There is soon, for example, to be the ZOPO ZP980 5.0Inch MTK6589T 1.5GHz Quad-Core Android4.2 OS 1+16G
Personally I could not wait and am very happy with this one.
Birds in the bush...
Last edited:
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