Just picked up my Shift 4g this morning and wanted to give you all a first quick review. Obviously since Ive only had it for about 2 hours I cant comment on battery life and I havent tested every single feature yet. But if there is something you wanna know about that I forgot to mention ask me and ill test it for you!
I havent rebooted the phone yet but when we turned it on in the store it seemed to boot pretty quickly...one thing to get used to is the power button is on the top so to make the screen go black you have to reach all the way to the top...a slight adjustment from the heros front red power button, but worth mentioning....it loads up with sense and it all looks pretty familiar (to anyone who has used sense at least).....I dont see really many new widgets or anything except FM radio (at least coming from the HERO this is new...)....the phone moves fast(!) everything is very responsive and just feels natural....more on this later as i bog it down with apps and such lol but looks like the processor is a hit....the phone feels solid and is clearly built well and easily makes the epic feel like a toy....the keyboard slides out smoothly with a very slight click when fully opened...i would have preferred a slightly more locked in feel but regardless it feels pretty sturdy and I trust HTC enough that I dont think its gonna break off from normal use in the next year or two....the keyboard itself feels very comfortable and seems to be easy to type with...not having a dedicated row for numbers is not that big of a deal as the FN key can be hit twice as a sorta "caps lock" function and then you have a dedicated number row as well as all the symbols....the "D-pad" is nice and easy to click around (took me a second to realize it wasnt like an optical pad lol you actually have to click the edges like a joypad) but theres no center click like that of a trackball....there is an enter key which can be used to click on things highlighted by the d-pad, for example, in the market to select an app to download, however, when using the default browser or dolphin HD browser, I cant seem to click on links i highlight with the d-pad...the enter key does nothing and theres no other option so i still have to touch the screen....this seemed strange to me so i checked the manual and I couldnt even find a mention of the d-pad at all!...i skimmed through so ill take a more close look later....i sure hope i can find a way to click links otherwise the d-pad is relatively useless if i have to zoom in and use the touchscreen to click links (although still not the end of the world really especially if youre coming from an all touch display)....again for other things though the enter key has been working to select whatever has been highlighted...also the onscreen keyboards, although ive only used em once or twice at this point, feel snappy and have no lag unlike the heros infamous laggy keyboard. cant comment on 4G speeds as I couldnt connect for some reason here in my office (near colubus circle in manhattan)...maybe cause im inside? or maybe cause its the first time trying to connect its having trouble finding the signal....idk but i will get more on this later as i try it again....gps connected almost instantly and maps moves quick and gets your location right away....browsing is nice, even on 3g it felt a little faster than the hero (placebo effect?) and with full flash embedded in the page its much more like a real web browser...call quality sounded good, ring lag at a minimum (only tested one call each way so far but incoming calls took about a ring and a half before the shift displayed the call and outgoing calls started ringing on the phone i was calling before the shifts dialer ringed once!)...the buttons on the bottom took almost no time getting used to going from hard keys to capacitive buttons for home, menu, back and search and the touch vibrate helps ensure you did press the button....overall im very impressed so far and really look forward to seeing what this thing can handle as i play with it more and more
edit: forgot to mention the camera!....pic quality seems to be pretty good...havent put any pics up on a computer to really see how they look but on the phone they look sharp...the flash is nice and even inside with the lights on didnt white out the whole picture....looks like its gonna be real good for night photos...havent tried the camcorder but its 720p so it will be pretty nice no matter what
I havent rebooted the phone yet but when we turned it on in the store it seemed to boot pretty quickly...one thing to get used to is the power button is on the top so to make the screen go black you have to reach all the way to the top...a slight adjustment from the heros front red power button, but worth mentioning....it loads up with sense and it all looks pretty familiar (to anyone who has used sense at least).....I dont see really many new widgets or anything except FM radio (at least coming from the HERO this is new...)....the phone moves fast(!) everything is very responsive and just feels natural....more on this later as i bog it down with apps and such lol but looks like the processor is a hit....the phone feels solid and is clearly built well and easily makes the epic feel like a toy....the keyboard slides out smoothly with a very slight click when fully opened...i would have preferred a slightly more locked in feel but regardless it feels pretty sturdy and I trust HTC enough that I dont think its gonna break off from normal use in the next year or two....the keyboard itself feels very comfortable and seems to be easy to type with...not having a dedicated row for numbers is not that big of a deal as the FN key can be hit twice as a sorta "caps lock" function and then you have a dedicated number row as well as all the symbols....the "D-pad" is nice and easy to click around (took me a second to realize it wasnt like an optical pad lol you actually have to click the edges like a joypad) but theres no center click like that of a trackball....there is an enter key which can be used to click on things highlighted by the d-pad, for example, in the market to select an app to download, however, when using the default browser or dolphin HD browser, I cant seem to click on links i highlight with the d-pad...the enter key does nothing and theres no other option so i still have to touch the screen....this seemed strange to me so i checked the manual and I couldnt even find a mention of the d-pad at all!...i skimmed through so ill take a more close look later....i sure hope i can find a way to click links otherwise the d-pad is relatively useless if i have to zoom in and use the touchscreen to click links (although still not the end of the world really especially if youre coming from an all touch display)....again for other things though the enter key has been working to select whatever has been highlighted...also the onscreen keyboards, although ive only used em once or twice at this point, feel snappy and have no lag unlike the heros infamous laggy keyboard. cant comment on 4G speeds as I couldnt connect for some reason here in my office (near colubus circle in manhattan)...maybe cause im inside? or maybe cause its the first time trying to connect its having trouble finding the signal....idk but i will get more on this later as i try it again....gps connected almost instantly and maps moves quick and gets your location right away....browsing is nice, even on 3g it felt a little faster than the hero (placebo effect?) and with full flash embedded in the page its much more like a real web browser...call quality sounded good, ring lag at a minimum (only tested one call each way so far but incoming calls took about a ring and a half before the shift displayed the call and outgoing calls started ringing on the phone i was calling before the shifts dialer ringed once!)...the buttons on the bottom took almost no time getting used to going from hard keys to capacitive buttons for home, menu, back and search and the touch vibrate helps ensure you did press the button....overall im very impressed so far and really look forward to seeing what this thing can handle as i play with it more and more
edit: forgot to mention the camera!....pic quality seems to be pretty good...havent put any pics up on a computer to really see how they look but on the phone they look sharp...the flash is nice and even inside with the lights on didnt white out the whole picture....looks like its gonna be real good for night photos...havent tried the camcorder but its 720p so it will be pretty nice no matter what
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