Inspire 4G First Impressions/Reviews

comming from three generations of blackberry...my new aspire(4 days now) blows me away! I absolutly laugh when I pick up my bb9700(given to my son) what a rhelic the bb os is! why people continue to buy bb is beyond me. My inspire does everything better! I had one issue with the inspire that cleared up itself(yes it was me not the phone) waiting for my case mate pop case to come in today!
****the speaker is not as loud as the bb, but not bad..this is the only thing the bb has that was better.****oh..on battery life...on the bb9700 , life was clearly on what os you ran and what programs you had installed..the bb would get memory leaks and glitchy..battery pulls were daily...if you ran stock bb with minimal apps you had great battery life but boring phone. the inspire is a ferrari that does consume a little more fule...but who cares...it's a ferrari! not a vw bug(bb)
 
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I just got HTC Inspire yesterday and am loving it so far. I switched from BB Torch and this phone simply blows away in every facets except few glitches I have experienced so far:

1. I cannot sync the Bluetooth with my car (2007 BMW 530i). Neither the phone nor the car discover each other (BB Torch was excellent at this feature). I have been reading a lot about it but so far I haven't found anything to resolve this issue.

2. I use 2007 Outlook Notes a lot (2003 Exchange server at work) and the Native Exchange ActiveSync doesn't sync Notes. If anyone can suggest a good app or a workaround that will enable the Notes to sync to my phones will be appreciated.

Besides these issues, here's my feedback on Inspire:

* Aesthetics - looks and feels nice and attractive.

* Screen - very smooth, crisp and huge (in a good way - almost feels like a tablet).

* Phone - calls are clear and better than BB Torch.

* Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - UI is nice and lots of options for changes. I chose to forward my voicemails to my gmail from HTCsense.com but it hasn't worked so far .

* Widgets - nice selections all around.

* Signal quality (Compared to other devices) - haven't had much usage on the mobile network but wi-fi blows away.

* Email/Calendar - Exchange Activesync for Email/Calendar/Contacts works flawlessly however could use Notes and Task syncing also. The Gmail interface is really bad and there is no option to change it.

* Battery Life - you will need to charge it twice a day for moderate to heavy use.

* Performance - it is super fast...period.

* Camera (both still & video) - it takes amazing pics outside in normal conditions when flash is not needed. Night/inside pics are not so good. The video is of very good quality.

* How the Inspire compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable) - Can't compare BB Torch to Inspire.....this phone is just out of BB's league.
 
GDocs allows for online syncing of Notes uploaded to Google Docs. Not sure how it will work with an Exchange Server, but it works OK after I uploaded my Notes to Google Docs from Outlook and now sync those with Inspire using GDocs.
 
I actually had a great rep at BestBuy. When I asked him if I would be keeping my data plan he said absolutely! So glad I had a common sense rep.

From what I have heard it's hard to get the unlimited plan back once they take it away. Good Luck!:-\
i am a little confused. i thought there were no at+t unlimited data plans upon the switch to a smart phone. am trying to reply to a post about this issue but am not convinced that i'm in the right place. thank you
 
There are those of us who are ancient AT&T customers who had an unlimited data plan to begin with. So when AT&T took off the unlimited data plan some time last year, those who had the unlimited data were able to keep it. A.k.a - Grandfathered in.

These reviews are awesome. I'm definitely having a hard time deciding which of the Q1 "4G" phones to get. Atrix? Inspire? Atrix? Inspire? Haha. Definitely losing hair over this.
 
My thoughts on day 4 of having the device

Aesthetics - feels great in hand, doesn't feel bulky, love the metal back, HTC build quality is always A+

Screen - love the 4.3" (coming from a 3.7") very crisp, screen looks good in sunlight, plenty bright, VERY responsive

Hardware - 2nd gen snapdragon is very fast, very little lag, plenty of app memory, camera takes great photos, speaker is load (Dolby mobile is great)

Phone - bluetooth works as it should, speakerphone sounds clear and loud, handset speaker is clear

Overall User Interface - sense is great, love the customization, really a one of a kind user experience, the whole OS is skinned

Widgets - plenty of great widgets out of the box (love the bookmarks widget)

Signal quality - signal quality is great, as good or better than the N1

GPS - locks on fast and accurate

Social Networking - Twitter/Facebook work great, integrate with friend stream widget which is nice

Email/Calendar - Gmail works great, love google calendar

Battery Life - on par with most smartphones, but carry a charger

Performance - Super fast, plays even more demanding games with ease (I got 1700 in quadrant)

Media - streams right to my PS3 with ease

Keyboard - use the android central guide to installing swype...you won't regret it

Camera - HD video is great and the 8mp shooter takes very nice pictures

It's way ahead of the N1, I just can't get over how responsive the screen is (or how unresponsive the N1's screen was)

Disappointments - no front facing camera, needs little bit bigger battery, no dual core, no HDMI out, needs more internal memory
 
I just got HTC Inspire yesterday and am loving it so far. I switched from BB Torch and this phone simply blows away in every facets except few glitches I have experienced so far:

1. I cannot sync the Bluetooth with my car (2007 BMW 530i). Neither the phone nor the car discover each other (BB Torch was excellent at this feature). I have been reading a lot about it but so far I haven't found anything to resolve this issue.
2. I use 2007 Outlook Notes a lot (2003 Exchange server at work) and the Native Exchange ActiveSync doesn't sync Notes. If anyone can suggest a good app or a workaround that will enable the Notes to sync to my phones will be appreciated.

Besides these issues, here's my feedback on Inspire:

* Aesthetics - looks and feels nice and attractive.

* Screen - very smooth, crisp and huge (in a good way - almost feels like a tablet).

* Phone - calls are clear and better than BB Torch.

* Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - UI is nice and lots of options for changes. I chose to forward my voicemails to my gmail from HTCsense.com but it hasn't worked so far .

* Widgets - nice selections all around.

* Signal quality (Compared to other devices) - haven't had much usage on the mobile network but wi-fi blows away.

* Email/Calendar - Exchange Activesync for Email/Calendar/Contacts works flawlessly however could use Notes and Task syncing also. The Gmail interface is really bad and there is no option to change it.

* Battery Life - you will need to charge it twice a day for moderate to heavy use.

* Performance - it is super fast...period.

* Camera (both still & video) - it takes amazing pics outside in normal conditions when flash is not needed. Night/inside pics are not so good. The video is of very good quality.

* How the Inspire compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable) - Can't compare BB Torch to Inspire.....this phone is just out of BB's league.

You might find what you are looking for here being that the desire and inspire are so closely related. It seems to be an Android issue, and not entirely a Inspire issue.
 
These reviews are awesome. I'm definitely having a hard time deciding which of the Q1 "4G" phones to get. Atrix? Inspire? Atrix? Inspire? Haha. Definitely losing hair over this.

I am having the same dilemma. The Inspire is absolutely GORGEOUS. I would easily buy the phone over looks alone.
 
I am having the same dilemma. The Inspire is absolutely GORGEOUS. I would easily buy the phone over looks alone.

No doubt about that. Best thing to do is sit and wait till the Atrix hits the shelves for the eager buyers to hold a deathmatch for what limited supplies retailers will have and see what the consumer's first look and hands on experience on the device will be.

The Inspire is definitely one of the most gorgeous phones I have laid eyes on, and for the price, its truly amazing how HTC is keeping their cash flows steady.
 
I've had this HTC Inspire 4G, my first Android phone, for less than a week so far, coming from an iPhone 3GS.
A few days ago I wrote a post to my blog about my initial experiences and it's interesting already to compare my opinions today with earlier this week!

I'll follow your lead on subjects:



  • Aesthetics
    This new phone is quite large and heavy, but feels well built / sturdy; a metallic case is much better feeling than plastic - and I much prefer the curves edges over something like the hard edged iPhone 4.
    I like the dark gray industrial color too.
    Very nice design.
  • Screen
    I needed a phone with a bigger screen, the iPhone just doesn't work for this close-to-50-year-old now! Checked out a few different AT&T phones and this one had the biggest, clearest, crispest display.
    Having used it now for a week, I love it!
    Huge size means I can use it to read email, etc - and it's clear and bright.
    My colleague argues that his iPhone 4 is "clearer" since it has more pixels, but it's smaller so it's not so clear for me :)
  • Hardware
    I don't like the microUSB connector, I wish it was a standard miniUSB so I didn't need special cables or adaptors.
    I also wish the volume buttons were a little easier to feel, you've basically got to look to see where up or down is, no way to feel their position.
    Apart from that, very nice.
  • Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage
    I've made a few calls and they've been successful and clear every time; this phone seems to cope with poor AT&T coverage at work, better than my 3GS did (as well as my colleagues iPhone 4).
    The speakerphone works fine, perhaps not loud enough sometimes - and it's a bit silly to have the keyboard come up over the top of the speaker select (try using voicemail on speaker!)

    Bluetooth connected easily to my car (Audi Q5) and works well.
    But there seems to be an issue with Android compatibility here, compared with iPhone.
    The iPhone transferred all contacts / numbers I have, exactly as I would expect. But the Android messes some of them up.

    For example I have "Joanne & Earle Smith" as a contact - with Android this appears in my car as "& Smith". Then I have "Florida Mgt, Brian & Angie"; this also garbled.
    I changed the "&" to "and" in Gmail contacts, but that only changed the way that the car shows things, they were still garbled - it seems that "," also confuses Android.
    I will be forced to rename a number of contacts, so that they appear correct in the car - I didn't have to do this with my iPhone before.
  • Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense)
    I really like HTC Sense. Definitely one deciding factor to move from iPhone is the ability to have active information (like weather) on the home page, without needing to open an App.
    The seven pages is a bit strange - I don't have all seven filled yet, but can't find any way to add or remove.
    I've found folders, good.

    I really got much more happy with the phone after installing WidgetLocker; it works perfectly and I've been able to set up a lock page that shows unread mail count, Google Voice count, current weather, and a quick slide link to the camera!
    Shame there's no screen-capture function, like iPhone has!
  • Widgets
    There's some great widgets and some awful ones!
    I have the clock/weather App right on top of my home screen. It took ages to figure how to set it up - Apple gets it right here - with one function to add cities, a different function to remove, and yet another to re-order them!
    I installed Quick Battery, to give me a percentage, as the battery vanishes rapidly on this phone!
    I also installed Gmail Unread Count - excellent! - which I set up to have two widget links to my home and work email, with unread counts for each, very nice.
    And I installed Weather Forecast widget to use with WidgetLocker on my lock screen, since the HTC weather App apparently doesn't work there.

    I junked the HTC Friend Stream (Facebook widget), concerned about mobile data usage, and I wish there was less built-in, or a way to remove un-needed ones, as it makes it harder to hunt for wanted stuff!
  • Signal quality (Compared to other devices)
    AT&T is acceptable at home (3 bars) and awful at work (borderline 1 bar); but this HTC Inspire 4G works more reliably than my iPhone 3GS at work, so I'd say that it's better in poor signal areas. It also sounds clearer.
  • GPS
    GPS is worse than my old 3GS, taking longer to locate me, especially indoors. But I've not tried to use it for tracking yet (I've used MotionX on iPhone, not sure what equivalent there is for tracking on Android).
  • Social Networking
    I use FaceBook a little; the Android FaceBook App seems to work well for me and I like the touch of putting people's latest FaceBook post in the People (Contact) list.
  • Email/Calendar
    When I first installed the phone, HTC prompted me to set it up using their services - but I didn't like the HTC Mail, especially it adding [Imap]/ folders in to my Gmail labels. I thought Android was Google/Gmail friendly!
    After a day I did a factory restore, skipped the HTC prompts, and set up the standard Google Gmail / Calendar / etc.
    It's nice to have an Agenda list right there (one flip left from home screen).
  • Battery Life
    Coming from my iPhone 3GS, I think battery life is very poor! I could go a couple days (of very light use) on the iPhone, while the HTC struggles to last a day. 20 minutes of phone conversation took at least 10% battery.
    Of course, because the phone display is bigger, I use it more; that drains the battery too! But this is definitely a "daily charger".
  • Performance
    HTC / Android is reasonable, but nothing like as responsive as iPhone. It's not smooth scrolling in the browser, not smooth pinch-zooming, and very poor scrolling in the gallery.
    On the other hand, apart from the Gallery, it's very acceptable and things like flipping from screen to screen are good.
    "Multi-tasking" in the Apple way of describing it is MUCH better than iPhone - re-launching an App that you've used previously is really instant, while on the 3GS there's still noticeable load time to re-launch a recent App.
    Initial App loading time also seems good (though I've not tried any games yet).
  • Media (music, movies, DLNA)
    In comparison to Apple and iPhone/iPad, this is TERRIBLE!
    When I connect my iPhone or iPad to my Mac, iTunes automatically makes it up to date with the music and photos I want. And if I want to view photos or play music, it's easy and instant on both devices.
    I connected my HTC Inspire 4G to Mac, and I get a flash drive. No hint as to where to write music or photos, and no tool to do it either.
    The first time I put some music on the SDcard, the phone decided it was "read only" (and yes I did properly eject it). I had to find a microSD adaptor and use CHKDSK/F on a Windows computer, to solve the problem!

    And ... why do *I* have to worry about internal memory and SD memory? On Apple devices, there's just storage, that's it. On Android, some things have to go in this memory, some things in this memory ... stupid!
  • Keyboard's
    The "compact" virtual keyboard seems to be a joke. I type "this is a test" and get "tgua us a teat". What happened to auto-correct?
    The normal virtual keyboard is reasonably good, though it doesn't track my keys as well as iPhone.
  • Camera (both still & video)
    I've done a few quick tests of both still and video, and I'm impressed. This was another area like screen size where I needed better than my iPhone 3GS.
    However - white balance is poor; I got blue/green pictures under fluorescent lights at work, and very green pictures with the internal flash. The flash is unusable for that reason - this issue needs fixing!
  • How the Inspire compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable)
    See all answers above!
    Initially I was frustrated by the Android based HTC Inspire, but now if I pick up my iPhone I find it too slow, and not customized enough. So I guess this phone is better!
  • Disappointments (if any)
    Again I've mentioned various disappointments above.
    Battery life is much too short.
    The camera white balance is poor.
    Having no easy way to sync photos and music - and having to deal with two separate storage areas - is bad.
    The Gallery App is nothing like as good as iPhone, and also I've not found anything to replace Photogene yet.


Overall, no matter how negative some of those comments may be, I'm very pleased with owning a phone that i can read - and customize so that I can quickly see information.
My iPhone will be sold!
 
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comming from three generations of blackberry...my new aspire(4 days now) blows me away! I absolutly laugh when I pick up my bb9700(given to my son) what a rhelic the bb os is! why people continue to buy bb is beyond me. My inspire does everything better! I had one issue with the inspire that cleared up itself(yes it was me not the phone) waiting for my case mate pop case to come in today!
****the speaker is not as loud as the bb, but not bad..this is the only thing the bb has that was better.****oh..on battery life...on the bb9700 , life was clearly on what os you ran and what programs you had installed..the bb would get memory leaks and glitchy..battery pulls were daily...if you ran stock bb with minimal apps you had great battery life but boring phone. the inspire is a ferrari that does consume a little more fule...but who cares...it's a ferrari! not a vw bug(bb)

I hate to say it but the 9700 is one of the best smartphones ever made. The battery will last for days without a charge and the phone could stay on for months without the need for a reboot. It was small and no touch screen but that's by design and I'm sure you knew this before you bought it.

Yes, it is a "boring" phone but there's not a smartphone that can touch it's email capability if that's what you are into. RIMs push email is just about perfect and when you pick up the phone you have your recent emails and there's not waiting for the email app to "refresh"

I do like the way the BB has a dedicated phone button and convenience key you can assign to any app or the camera.

That being said...I love my Inspire and would never go back to BB but I do miss the simplicity of the BB compared to Android.

I like the larger screen (did have a Captivate) but not the extra weight but it's not that big of deal.

The worst thing is the way htc puts the home button where the menu button was on the Captivate so I dump out to the home screen way too much. But I'm getting better at pressing the menu button. lol
 
I moved to the Inspire from a Captivate and boy am I happy!

My review will be short since others before me have said what would have said.

I'll just list a few things I've found from my mere 4 short days with the phone.

I'm comparing directly to the Captivate.

Hardware Speed: Compared to the Captivate this phone is FAST. The Captivate was a dog, until I rooted it and put on a custom ROM.

Screen: The SAMOLED Screen of the Captivate is brighter, but it's smaller VS the Inspire with the same resolution. What this means to me, I can read web pages without as much zooming in, and my 43 year old eyes appreciate this.

GPS: Works flawlessly on the Inspire. Locks quickly and doesn't lose track.

Camera: has an LED flash, but the picture quality on the Captivate is a little better. I don't use the Camera that often so no big deal to me.


From a geekery standpoint, the Inspire is a better choice IMHO than the Captivate. HTC encourages the development community, and is quick with fixes vs Samsung.

The Dev community on HTC Android devices is HUGE and some great stuff will be coming once HTC drops source code and binaries for the OS.

I'm very glad I switched.
 
I was ready to get an HTC Inspire "4G" and renew my unlimited AT&T plan. It looks like a great phone, but yesterday according to Gizmo Crunch, AT&T confirmed they disabled the HTC Inspire 4G and it will not be HSUPA capable (HSDPA is download and HSUP is upload speeds). So while you may see "speedy" 3G download speeds of around 2Mbps and maybe/hopefully more, you'll be stuck at 200kbps to 300kbps when it comes to uploads (HSUPA is estimated to be around 1.5Mbps). All the reviews on multiple sites bear the BIG difference between download & upload speeds. Evidently AT&T has been doing this to all their android phones... but NOT their iPhone. (Also, HTC Inspire 4G will not work with the soon-to-be-rolled-out, AT&T's LTE or Long Term Evolution, which has to potential of someday getting true 4G speeds, not the redefined 4G speed allowed to be advertised in the U.S.) Hopefully AT&T gets some backlash ( AT&T ) and they correct this internal disability they force onto all their Android phones and put this HTC Inspire phone back how HTC intended. *But for AT&T*, the HTC Inspire 4G is capable of significantly faster upload speeds according to gsmarena (HTC Inspire 4G - Full phone specifications )

It's one thing to not allow third-party apps on their Android phone, but to disable the designed HSUPA capabilities on Android phones but not iPhones is crazy AT&T, and wrong.

AndroidCentral community, what's the solution? Can we depose a dictator... or at least get AT&T to correct its Android prejudices?

AT&T Disables HTC Inspire 4G HSUPA, iPhone 4 Around Twice As Fast
 
"The Inspire 4G is not HSUPA capable, according to AT&T" doesn't necessarily mean that AT&T disabled it, but that the phone just can't do it.

Where do you read that AT&T *chose* to disable an available feature?
 
I have had the Inspire for a few days and I thought I'd give my 2 cents. Just to give you some background, I have had dozens of smartphones. I benched my iPhone 4 for this phone.

Initially, my main concern was battery life. I'm happy to report that it's not an issue. While 1250 maH sounds like fail for an Android device with a 4.3" screen, it's obvious that the next gen Snapdragon is very good at keeping power consumption to a minimum. I unplugged the phone from it's charger this morning at 6 a.m. and at 10 p.m., I still had 30% battery. I had two lengthy calls and used the phone plenty to check e-mail and surf the web. I also streamed Slacker for a while. While I would feel more comfortable with a 1500 maH battery in the phone, the 1250 seems to be sufficient. I actually thought HTC was crazy when I originally read the specs.

Loving the new Sense. Not just the performance enhancements (it's fast), but the little things like the ability to skin and theme the device. Unlike Motoblur, Sense UI actually enhances Android. I have always felt this way, having had several HTC Android devices, but now I feel more so.

Screen is great. I don't like that you can see so many of the capacitive screen dots at times, but I can live with it. The screen is super responsive and very clear.

The Camera is actually really good. The main reason I held onto my iPhone 4 for so long was for the Camera. Every phone I have tried (I'm looking at you, Captivate) has let me down in the Camera department, but so far, I find the Inspire's Camera to be very sufficient. I love the interface and all of the effects, and the picture quality is excellent. Overall, the iPhone 4 is still slightly better, but HTC definitely put a good camera in this phone. It's the first phone since iPhone 4 that I actually have confidence in the picture quality (Samsung Focus was close) and wouldn't hesitate to use as a standalone camera. As some reviews have stated, the flash does make some night shots yellow, but this only appears to be true of fairly close-up shots.

Honestly, the only thing I wish this phone had was a Front Facing Camera. As little as I used it, it was just nice to know I had it on my iPhone 4. Still, I wouldn't trade this for an Atrix. I know that the phone will be more stable, functional, and I'll get an update to Android faster with HTC. Motorola soured me when I had my Droid X and proved that they shouldn't be allowed to mess with software.

Forget dual core. While the specs of the Atrix are impressive, I find this phone to be very responsive and smooth. It's clear that the next gen Snapdragon is more than sufficient for the task.

My only real wish with this phone is that I could uninstall ALL of the bloatware. I hate that about Android. WP7 lets you uninstall all apps and iPhone doesn't allow any in the first place. Android seems to be the whipping boy of carriers. I hate that the apps are ROM locked and that you have to root to get rid of them. This is especially true of the AT&T Navigator, which is pointless on Android in the first place. It's deeply integrated, too, so it shows up as an option when you click on a contact (use AT&T Navigator to get you to their address). I could hide these apps with Launcher Pro, but I shouldn't have to. AT&T disabling app side-loading is crap, too. We can always use side-load wonder machine (thank you Android Central), but disabling the feature is like taking a steaming dump on what Android is about (openness) to me.

Still, overall, I feel this is one of the best devices available on AT&T, and the only real Android option. Samsung needs to sort out their GPS issues (no, the software fix didn't resolve it. The issue is bad hardware) and Motorola (looking at you, Atrix) always manages to ruin perfectly good hardware with an encrypted bootloader and buggy software "enhancements". If you don't absolutely need a FFC, then this is your #1 Android choice on AT&T.
 
iPhone has some Apps that you cannot remove and some are useless (Stocks for example - useless for me at least!); I had a "junk" folder on the last screen of my iPhone for those.
Trouble with Android is the Apps list has no organization ability so you can't even hide the unwanted stuff in a junk folder (mid you, iPhone doesn't have the Apps list at all!)
 
iancull,
QUOTE: AT&T has also blocked the HSUPA capabilities on the majority of their Android smartphones such as the Samsung Captivate, HTC Desire Z, and most likely the upcoming Motorola Atrix 4G as well. However this isn't the case with the AT&T iPhone 4 ( AT&T Disables HTC Inspire 4G HSUPA, iPhone 4 Around Twice As Fast )

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And according to many comments-- this being a random one chosen from ( HTC Inspire 4G Does Not Have HSUPA Capabilities | Android Phone Fans ) :
Check the XDA-Developer site. People have enabled the HSUPA capability by rooting it and applying an alternate ROM. I’m not sure if that’s worth it to me, since I’m not usually uploading a lot. However, kudos to HTC for not locking the boot-loader, so the option is there if you want it bad enough.

AT&T is just being AT&T, an overgrown corporate bully.
 
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Nobody has commented on how the Inspire screen performs in bright sunlight. Can you comfortably use the phone outside in the sun?
 

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