Thoughts after 18 days with the HTC Merge

[jtowndawg]

So I have had my Merge for a few weeks now and wanted to share my thoughts and ask for yours. Let's start with the keyboard. It is wide and took some practice after using a blackberry for so long. Now I am happy to say I am close to being as fast as I was on the berry and I think I will be faster with a few more weeks of use. I tried swype and the stock keyboard wondering if I might like to trade in for a milestone x. I could do it if I had to but I just love this physical keyboard and could not do it. I am new to android so I got to tell you that this is the best phone that I have had. Windows and blackberry just don't compare. Haven't tried the iphone but I have never been a fan of apple. The camera takes great pics and vids and the screen shows them well.

I have a few things that I don't like as well. This thing is heavy. Not bad as far as weight while I hold it in my hand but I used to keep my blackberry in my shirt pocket at work and as far as size it fits fine but it is not comfortable. No big deal I just keep it my pants pocket or in my Golla case that I bought. The only problem with that is it doesn't fit very well with a cover on the phone in the Golla case. I have found that the phone is easier to hold with the keyboard out but comfortable either way. Also the merge doesn't get as good of reception as my blackberry did. But it may be an alltel thing because some of my friends are having problems with droped calls and calls going straight to voicemail. I know 4g is the big thing now but my blackberry never had 3g showing at the top and I get it with the Merge and it is much faster!!!

Now what I would like to know is some what of a roll call. Who else has the Merge, what are your favorite things about it and and any tips and tricks for it. Also what do you use your AP1 shortcut key for?

 

[petaf]

Jealous!! I fancy the Merge but don't live in right zip code for it. Glad you're enjoying it for the most part.

 

[jtowndawg]

I realy wish it would release on more carriers so more people would be able to give good tips on it. I haven't been able to find any info on rooting it or custom roms yet so I think as more people get it maybe those things will come. It is a great phone despite the few things I found not to my liking (Alltel is more than likely to blame than the phone).

 

[oldpueblo]

I wonder if the EVO Shift ROMs/tweaks would be compatible, you should poke around those forum sections since the device is just about the same hardware.

 

[jtowndawg]

I will have to give that a try. So far I haven't seen anyone get perm root on the merge.

 

[rickhamilton620]

Awesome, glad you're having a mostly good experience. I'm still holding out hope but it's fading fast...

 

[cthunder]

JTowndawg,
Hi, Does the Merge have FM radio?
Thanks

 

[jtowndawg]

Yes it has fm radio. You have to plug in the ear phones and they are used as the antenna.

 

[cthunder]

Sweet! Thanks

 

[Rick-In-NC]

I've had my Alltel Merge for about 3 weeks now and really do like it. No real complaints other than the wi-fi sharing not being activated. That's something Alltel has to do in the future, something about an update after they move over to a new billing system. The phone does everything to my satisfaction. However, reception sensitivity is not as good as my old LG. That will be recitified with the Wilson repeater that should arrive today. I'm mystified as to why this phone is not getting more attention, other than Verizon grabbing all the media attention with the Thunderbolt.

 

[jtowndawg]

I think it would get more attention if it would have been released on a major carrier like verizon and at alltel they got the milestone x 2 weeks after this came out and all of the store sales people pushing it. I wish every one would give the merge its due at alltel. I have had friends go get the X then complain about typing on the screen. So many people from verizon are holding out hope wanting the merge and they have higher end phones they could buy but have had enough and want a physical keyboard.

Rick-in-Nc I'm glad you like your Merge and maybe the hot spot will get fixed. The people I talked to at the store didn't know what I was talking about.

 

[jtowndawg]

Oh yeah I almost forgot one of the things I started this trend for. I got a tip!

When you are typing an email adress or url and you want to enter ".com" press the "FN" button then "@" and it will enter it fore you. 2 keystrokes instead of 4!

 

[BoSoxSuperman]

I picked up an ebay-ed Incredible to tide me over until something with a good keyboard came out for Verizon...it only cements the feeling for me about how:

A) Android is far superior to Blackberry in terms of form, function, and fun.

&

B) I LOATHE TOUCHSCREEN KEYBOARDS!!!!!!! I don't text or send email from my phone much in the week since I got this, because its a pain in the ass...and when I DO text, i usually use the voice2text button, as it gets it right more than my fat fingers on the screen.

and just because you guys (especially you bunny ) would expect no less from me, I end my post thusly:

I EFFING HATE YOU VERIZON!!! Damn you for not having a decent keyboarded Android. I LOVE Android but hate hate hate hate hate the all touchscreen factor that you insist on forcing down our throats you worthless pieces of dog feces!!


That is all

 

[rickhamilton620]

I picked up an ebay-ed Incredible to tide me over until something with a good keyboard came out for Verizon...it only cements the feeling for me about how:

A) Android is far superior to Blackberry in terms of form, function, and fun.

&

B) I LOATHE TOUCHSCREEN KEYBOARDS!!!!!!! I don't text or send email from my phone much in the week since I got this, because its a pain in the ass...and when I DO text, i usually use the voice2text button, as it gets it right more than my fat fingers on the screen.

and just because you guys (especially you bunny ) would expect no less from me, I end my post thusly:

I EFFING HATE YOU VERIZON!!! Damn you for not having a decent keyboarded Android. I LOVE Android but hate hate hate hate hate the all touchscreen factor that you insist on forcing down our throats you worthless pieces of dog feces!!


That is all

Haha, it wouldn't be a bosoxhusker post w/out a Verizon rant! It's a shame about the incredible, I've used my Dad's and while it's keyboard's ok...it's no merge that's for sure. Voice 2 Text is good but I'd hate to use it most of the time because it's still just odd enough for other people to go "what the hell is that guy doing with his phone?" lol.

I'm admittedly wavering a bit...i find that i do "ok" on the touchscreen on my Droid 1. I actually feel less stress in my thumbs due to not having to smash a mushy as hell teeny tiny membrane key (thanks...Motorola....NOT!) but there are frustrations like not having a constant comma key, having to switch keyboards if i want to type a string of numbers, and some wacky text correction that linger.

The sad thing is, after seeing the BB Bold 9900 over at Crackberry and watching the videos, it sounds like a great phone and I'm a bit tempted to consider one, even though the hackability is pretty much nonexistant when compared to a Android phone.

If Droid 3 turns out to be everything people are thinking (stock, unencrypted bootloader, no 4G-and the associated 100 buck "4G Tax" verizon's adding into the LTE phone prices) then I'll begrudgingly shove money Motorola's way. If not...I'll be looking into BlackBerry and quite possibly Windows Phone 7 since its rumored that the HTC Arrive/7 Pro could make it onto VZW.

 

[dyslexicbunny]

I demoed the Charge yesterday at the Atlanta event - didn't win it though. Felt nice. I didn't mess with too much because I didn't want to hog the phone but I played with a couple things. If everything sounds good a week after release, it will probably be my next phone.

I just want to weigh the first wave of problems against the Dinc2's first wave.

Does it suck that Verizon lacks an awesome QWERTY phone? Yes. Does that fix my aging battery problem? No.

 

[bridgett88]

I was wondering if anyone has Ford Sync in their vehicle and if they are having trouble getting the merge to sync with the text messaging feature? I wanted a new phone just for this reason, sync has a feature where it will read your texts aloud and allow you to respond to them for a reply, but I keep getting a message saying "connected phone does not support text messaging"...which is strange because my 13 yr old has the little messenger and it supports the text feature??? anyone else having these issues?

 

[oldpueblo]

I was wondering if anyone has Ford Sync in their vehicle and if they are having trouble getting the merge to sync with the text messaging feature? I wanted a new phone just for this reason, sync has a feature where it will read your texts aloud and allow you to respond to them for a reply, but I keep getting a message saying "connected phone does not support text messaging"...which is strange because my 13 yr old has the little messenger and it supports the text feature??? anyone else having these issues?

The Ford SYNC system reads text messages... in theory

 

[noster420]

hey does the merge run on bing or google

 

[jtowndawg]

hey does the merge run on bing or google

It comes set up with google but I have found bing buried deep in it with the option to make it the default.

 

[jtowndawg]

I was wondering if anyone has Ford Sync in their vehicle and if they are having trouble getting the merge to sync with the text messaging feature? I wanted a new phone just for this reason, sync has a feature where it will read your texts aloud and allow you to respond to them for a reply, but I keep getting a message saying "connected phone does not support text messaging"...which is strange because my 13 yr old has the little messenger and it supports the text feature??? anyone else having these issues?

I don't have ford sync so I can't help to much other than to ask do you have a task killer? If so it might be causing the problems. I have seen it kill things it shouldn't like gtalk and things like that and if it does you won't be logged in.