HTC Freestyle (AT&T)

Can't believe this phone passed quality testing August 13, 2011

Reviewer:  turbo_95 

First, some background - I'm a software developer that has been writing code that either runs on mobile phones or consumer electronic devices that talk to phones, since the late 1990's. I bought this phone for my 14 year old (previous phone - a bullet-proof Samsung BlackJack II of nearly 4 years).

The build quality is excellent, well above par for the class. This ain't a Pantech this or Samsung that. Nice aluminum, excellent screen, resolution, size, battery life, the works. The only hardware glitch is the micro USB port needs some care when plugging in, and the battery compartment is a bit too creative. Nothing bad there, just a bit strange. The hardware feels solid.

The software is for the birds. Not to offend my former collaborators at Qualcommm, but it really is for the birds.

- The HTC Sync does not work. Installed on two Windows 7 machines, in one it does not recognize that a phone is connected, in the other it recognized it briefly then stopped. Even when it recognized the phone, it would not allow anything to be done (nothing was selectable). Punt. Phone works fine as a USB device to copy stuff from/to but will not sync.

- Several 'Oops. An error has occurred...'. We waited them out.

- A couple of hard freezes in the media player.

- micro SD not recognized because it contained other stuff from a previous phone. Deleted everything, works ok.

- a couple instances where the 'NO SIM' message was displayed briefly.

- For the first two days the phone was in 2G mode (why?) then today it decided to go into 3G mode. No idea why.

- The HTC Support Forum will not send activation emails to allow me to sign up and access the support forums.

- Bluetooth seems to be iffy. The Bluetooth guys at work have joked HTC stands for 'Hard To Connect'... I can see why.

Again, with all due respect, I'd like to meet the person who approved the release of the software. These are basic things, not far-out stuff.

And a few praises.

- hardware build quality is excellent
- great price
- good configuration options
- good sound quality
- excellent touchscreen
- Brew MP is decent - a lot better than a lot of other Java Phones

I would say a phone software update would cure most of the above but I would not hold my breath that they'd do one. Pity because the hardware is good, and the device is well positioned in the market (thanks to AT&T's insistence of data plans for everything but Firefly phones)

If I had to consider the other candidates (Samsung Eternity II, Flight II, LG Duh (Vu), LG Neon, Pantech This or That) the Freestyle is well ahead of the game. It's a good phone, but it really pains me as a software developer that HTC allowed the device to be shipped with such serious issues.

Perhaps if we hold our collective breath till we're blue in the face...

Great as design, but the WORST quality as a phone June 8, 2011

Reviewer:  Kun Zhang 

I have ordered this phone for two weeks, and at the beginning I was so excited to find a touch screen phone with HTC sense UI, an android-like system (BrewMP OS), a phone without data plan required, and from great HTC. I am tired with iPhone, and have a tablet with Android, so maybe this is the time for me to give a try on a new system. But I am wrong. I only saw the first few reviews which gave me a great favor, but didn't notice the recent ones since May, who has similar experience with me.

Pros:
1. Great UI design, as HTC sense.
2. No data plan required. You can switch on/off $15 unlimited data at any time.
3. It is a 3G phone! It can work with ATT MicroCell to boost your signal.

Cons:
1. Freeze, freeze, freeze! It randomly freezes at any time, without touching anything on it!
2. Crash, crash, crash! It can suddenly pops up a message like "Oops, system is rebooting..." The language can be either English or others, randomly!
3. Black screen! It happened at least once a day. After that, your phone quietly die, and you won't notice it until in the morning you wonder where is my phone alarm?
4. Battery gets hot, and drains too quickly! After the black screen, the battery usually gets extremely hot, and drains in less a day. It is even fast than smart-phone.

Someone may wonder if I picked a defective one, or something else is wrong. I called Amazon service (GREAT) to quickly get another brand-new one. Exactly same thing happened. I went to ATT several times, and they replaced me with another brand new sim card. Exactly same thing happened again. This is not even a phone, and it is a crappy toy. I hope I can give it a zero star.

So, my recommendation is: DO NOT BUY this phone, unless you want to lose your phone call, let your friend can't reach you, get hot stuff in your trousers, and miss your important alarm and schedule. Don't mess your time with this phone, and save your life.

Love this phone and no data plan required! February 24, 2011

Reviewer:  kirteen  (Round Rock, TX) -

I have been wanting a quality touch screen phone for a while but could not find one I liked that was not a smartphone. This one fits the bill. In 3 days I have already personalized it and more. The call quality is great and quite loud. The ringer volume is quite loud also. The vibration is strong. The phone feels like a quality phone in your hand. My husband likes my phone so much he is considering one for himself.

Don't do it. July 7, 2011

Reviewer:  Ruby 

Despite the many bad reviews, I decided, well, for twenty dollars, why not? I don't want to jump to a smart phone because I disagree with AT&T's options for smart phone data plans, but I also think most of the feature phones available at the moment are junk. So I decided that since HTC is known for good build quality and most HTC smart phones are well reviewed, I'd give this experiment a shot. The idea of giving a feature phone a smart phone-like build and user interface is, in my opinion, a great one and there is a definite market for it. That said, as the first such feature phone available, the kinks are not at all ironed out yet.

And I mean that in a big way. Frankly, HTC should be ashamed of themselves for putting this phone on the market as it is now. I've had two of them; I replaced the first one hoping that maybe I just got a faulty phone, but the second one acts exactly the same, so clearly these are problems are not limited to a small percentage of these phones; what are the odds that I just "happened" to get two faulty phones? Here are some issues I've had, with both phones:

-It shuts itself off and won't turn back on until you take off the battery case (a grueling process; well taking it off isn't too bad but getting it back on is a real hassle. Who designs something like this, seriously?) and slide the battery in and out. It also frequently loses contact with the SIM card, leading me to believe that the connections for the SIM/battery/SD cards are just badly manufactured. Especially since this seems to happen more often if you're really out and about and the phone is in your pocket moving around with you. Almost every time I pull it out of my pocket it's dead. That said, it does still sometimes shut itself off randomly when it's just lying still on my bed.
-Outside of the TOTAL shut downs it does, it also frequently shows a screen that says "Oops! There was a system error, restarting..." It doesn't take too long to restart, and luckily I don't have to deal with that darn battery case, but this is still unacceptable.
-Yes, I do receive multiple texts; not as bad as some people seem to get it. I'd say about one in fifteen texts I'll receive twice. I don't know whether they patched this issue so that it's not as bad as it once was or if I'm just lucky or what.
-The battery life is...weird. I think the little meter that shows how much is left is very poorly programmed. I can go to bed thinking I'll be fine until the morning because it shows the battery as being almost totally full, only to wake up and find the battery totally dead. I've gotten in the habit of plugging it in even if the battery shows as being nearly full. This is totally vexing and not something I've ever seen in a phone before.
-The screen has little glitches here and there.
-I seem to have pretty poor signal almost everywhere. Most of the time when I try to make an outgoing phone call it'll never go to the "Dialing..." phase, it will just say "Connecting..." and then randomly go to "Ending call..." on me for no reason.

Yes, the interface is very well programmed. It's sleek and responsive, the touch screen is great, and I love the auto correct on this phone; I can type basically gibberish and still end up with the right words in the end. But the nice user interface does not remotely make up for the fact that in general it's a failure of a phone. I like the IDEA of this phone, but it's a flop. Seriously, do yourself a favor and don't do it. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just go up to a smart phone in order to get a phone that will actually satisfy me. And I won't be getting an HTC, that's for sure. I can't back a company that would put a product like this on the market.

Could be the best smartphone-like on a budget. March 1, 2011

Reviewer:  Tigerbalm  (Renton, WA) -

First, I hate 2-year data plan contracts and I don't text! It's expensive enough to pay for wireless and broadband as it is! I use my netbook on the road at free wi-fi places. I bought this after reading very positive previews. I have to say, I have NO regrets! First, I wanted a TOUCH-SCREEN. It's true, this Brew OS is fast. Everything runs and exceeds my initial low expectations. I simply sync with my PC/netbook for new apps/games/data. It's works like a compact planner. The voice, speaker-phone, vibration, etc features were very good. The build quality is exceptional. The only difficulty was getting the cover off to insert sim, battery, and memory cards. I even put a screen protector by Xtremeguard and it still works great-just a slight resistance. The keys on the screen was surprisingly easy to use for typing. I wish it would auto-rotate, but no big deal. Actually, the smaller size is easier to put in your pocket than a bigger screen smartphone. BTW, the data for this phone is $30/mo. So if you want the best touchscreen for great web browsing and texting, this Freestyle is NOT for you! You are in the wrong league. For those who want the luxury of a touchscreen and good OS for apps, and no extra charges, this is for you...actually, it's the only choice! BTW, the normal phone jack is smart as the FM radio sounds unbelievably good. Also, the 1300 mAH batter is as strong as my Rugby II. I actually just ordered another Freestyle as an upgrade. And a tip, order from Amazon since AT&T charges 80 bucks more! Go figure that one out...