HTC Imagio XV6975 Windows Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Fantastic tool for business November 19, 2009

Reviewer:  Ken Sann "krashtesterken"  (Los Angeles, CA) -

I received this phone just days after Verizon released it, replacing a TouchPro as my personal phone. I also have a Blackberry Tour and was testing an iphone 3GS for our company at the same time. So I had three of the latest technologies in my hands.

The iphone was my first experience with touch-screen only, and I was really hesitant. But after using it for a couple days, I realized that it was actually very quick to learn to type with. I was sending decent sized emails quickly. But dang, the web browsing speeds were so incredibly slow compared to the other phones. The iphone interface was very easy to learn, and one strong point was moving from app to app didn't seem to slow the phone down at all. But I have multiple email accounts (work, and two personal), and to move between accounts takes several taps. Another thing that I did not like was the back cover is a shiny plastic, only way to keep it decent looking is to cover it. I don't like that.

The BB Tour had a learning curve that I was not expecting, it was not nearly as intuitive as either WM6.1 or the iphone, to move from function to function takes several clicks or motions with the trackball, move here, then there, then here, press this, then that, however, once learned, it is an incredibly quick phone. Lots of finger motion, but it is extremely fast to move from app to app. The fastest of the three, but it really feels that you have to work for it. This phone feels well made, a decent keyboard (though I preferred the keyboard on my TouchPro) so typing is decent.

Now, my newest toy, the Imagio, my first interaction with WM6.5. The phone feels really solid in the hand, much more substantial than any of the other phones. Plus the back cover has a textured surface, it is very easy to grab, and will not scratch easily, so no protector needed. The HTC navigation is very similar to my TouchPro, but it is even easier and faster. The screen is stunning, truly. I love the tactile feedback when typing (a very nice compliment to the touchscreen typing, a step up from the iphone in this way), the screen is extremely touch sensitive, slightly more so than the iphone, so it takes a while to learn just exactly how to brush the screen to initiate a scroll rather than selecting something, iphone was better at this. Rotation of the screen seems to take about the same amount of time as the iphone, no winners there, but the multitouch (expand, open, close, etc) of the iphone is nice, something that the Imagio does not do. There is a zoom slider area, but it only works in some apps, so it helps, but no match for the iphone in this way. But the killer piece, to go from email account to email account takes a single touch, I love it. This phone feels much more business oriented in the navigation than the iphone, I feel that it is a superior tool for my usage, and again, I love the screen, stunning. The kickstand feature is cool, but I really have no intention of watching stuff on it, but my 10 year old daughter thinks it is cool. One drawback, as you open lots of apps, the phone does slow down, so I often go in and actually close the apps rather than just switching apps (iphone excelled at this). Oh, and battery life is fantastic, better than the ipone, but not quite up to the BB Tour. First phone that I have had that I didn't have to recharge every single night.

Bottom line, the AT&T rep picked up the iphone, and I turned in my BB Tour, we just call forward to my personal Imagio, and for the first time in seven years, I carry a single phone (personal, it is my home phone too, and for work).

Yes, I am a very happy customer.

ken

Great phone - picked over Droid, Blackberry, Palm Pre & Pixi January 24, 2010

Reviewer:  Firstclassfreight "FAST SHIPPING!"  (Tucson, AZ) -

After finding some standout features we decided on the Imagio.
First with Windows based phones we can view our security cameras at home on our
phone, for the first time with Verizon. (wi-life online) It is also the
only phone with actual live Mobile TV like Fox News which is an extra $15 a month,
but I am very happy to watch the news as it is happening. I really liked the Google maps on the Droid, but I was able to download and install that easily enough (m.google.com). The Droid (Motorola) has more features with Navigation, but I find the navigation to be unreliable so I started looking at the Imagio again.

When we started looking at all of the phones, I did not see many reviews on the Imagio. One said there was hissing during calls, but in fact the calls are great, clear, and reliable for the most part. (We tried iPhones which were the worst reliability in our area as well as driving from LAX to Disneyland, especially at Disneyland - just awful!) The Imagio as a phone is not the most ergonomic feel in your hand, but the speakerphone is great and there's always bluetooth.

The email is not supercool. It was confusing to set up because they have it in two places. I actually had to call Verizon for help. Now that it is set up, it is still not the most user friendly. I read in a review to try downloading and using SPB Mobile shell to replace the existing interface, so I plan to try that but haven't done so yet.

The Imagio touch screen is sensitive as the other reviewer says. I was very hesitant about having only the touch screen but it works fine overall. The setup for synching to my computer went on and on but eventually I figured it out.

As far as battery life goes, Verizon sells an extended battery and cover. I bought that and it doesn't add too much weight or size to the phone. The battery adds the extra time you need to make it not so bad on battery life. Removing the micro-sd is not that user friendly because you have to take the battery cover off and take the stylus out before replacing the cover or you will lock the stylus in and will have to take the cover off again to get to it.

Having less to do with the Imagio:

If you are buying your first smart phone I would just recommend that you find 3 really cool features about the phone that make you excited and want to put up with the phone's shortcomings. They all had some. This is where I found my peace with picking and feeling happy about a phone. We looked at Blackberry's which are probably the best for emailing and had cool radio station apps. We looked at the Droids which are really cool and have great potential. The Motorola was fun to scan the map, look for restaurants in the area. The screen is really nice on that phone. After comparing it to the Imagio however, the Imagio was just as cool.

The best phone out there March 17, 2010

Reviewer:  Caden "You will learn to love me."  (Cambridge, MA) -

I'm serious. I've owned just about every kind of phone, and the Imagio is the very best, hands down. While a n00b might find it more than a little harrowing, those who seek a truly authentic, powerful and robust pocket computer will fall in love with the Imagio.

WHY I LIKE IT
-It is a global phone, so if you travel internationally, it works.
-It's feature set is awesome. The 5-mpx camera snaps great shots.
-It's customizable - unlike the iPhone, you can mod this baby all you want!
-There are five times as many apps for WinMo than any other platform.
-The stock Verizon ROM is actually very good. It's the first time I haven't been in a rush to flash a new one.
-Serious integration with Facebook. You can associate your contacts with those who subscribe to FB and it seamlessly and automatically updates their status and picture on the phone!

WHY YOU SHOULD GET IT
-Very easy to use.
-Quality is excellent.
-You'll find yourself using it for everything.
-Applications for every conceivable need.
-The WinMo platform is the most sophisticated.
-Verizon is the *the best* network, hands down.

HOWEVER
-One thing to keep in mind is that if you'll want to upgrade to WinMo7 when it comes out, you can't do it on the Imagio. I fact, you can't do it on any of the current phones that don't have Snapdragon (which is virtually all of them.). What was MS thinking?!?!

Not bad but underpowered... June 3, 2010

Reviewer:  John S. Dean "John"  (Sturtevant, WI United States) -

I purchased one of these when they first came out, and have used it since. We have a contract with my office so several of us have gotten these and I use it for both work and personal.

Windows Mobile 6.1 so I get my exchange server activesync working just fine, so mail, contacts, calendar, all are there always, instantly updated in either direction.

Phone signal is pretty good compared to previous HTC phones I've had with Verizon. My home is in the suburbs and I was never able to get a signal if I was inside the house unless standing right by a window/wall on the south facing side of my house. With this one, the signal is still poor and sometimes breaks up or disconnects but the fact that I can talk at all from inside my house is an improvement over previous phones, both from HTC or the other smart phones I've used.

The screen is nice, good size, vivid display, easy to read, but the processor really limits the enjoyability. This phone was pushed out in the same quarter the faster android based phones were, and when you look at them side by side, there is no comparison in the responsiveness of the display and the menus. Things just seem to barely be able to chug along.

I've always done mods on my phones, and so of course I hit some of the websites out there to see if there were any ROMS to update anything, but it was too new for anything that extensive, however I did find a homebrewed update to some of the menus and such, that gave me a much better touchflo experience as far as content went, and customizing. You can easily do a web search for several mods like this, don't want to post any links in here... But while it didn't help the speed issue, it DID at least make my menu more what I wanted, additional tabs, more customizable.

My only hardware fault on this is a repeating problem where it just turns itself off and will not power back on, period. The system seems to think the battery is dead. I have to pop off the back cover, remove the battery, reinsert the battery, and here's the kicker, power it on initially with the charger connected. Then it finally boots up, and shows the battery well charged again. Every time this has happened I've never been below about 60 or 70 percent battery. It doesn't even happen when I get as low as 8 to 10 percent battery remaining, only when I have a nearly full charge. Frustrating, but at least simple to overcome as long as I have a power cable handy...

The size is pretty good, a little larger than I'd like but still fits in the side pocket on the leg of my jeans even if it is very snug.

The fact that it has a stylus is another strength, as those seem to be going the way of the dodo... Most of the phones out there now don't have them anymore, and for me it is something I really like having for precision...

Buttons work well, and while there's a slight feel of a "click" or tactile feedback that it actually engaged, it's not much of a feel. But I've never had to press any button more than once to get it to do what I wanted (other than hitting "END" repeatedly trying to get it to hang up a call quicker or return me to the main menu quicker).

Another nice feature for people who use wired earpieces is that it has the little 1/8" stereo jack to plug into it without any adapters like so many other phones make you use. So if you're not into bluetooth but want the earpiece, this is a necessity and saves another cable from having to be used.

Charger plug is a slightly different shape than "normal" usb charging plugs (only one side is beveled) but normal USB charging cables work on it, although this one won't work in other things.

Bluetooth works great, I've used it in three cars so far, and never had a problem pairing it with anything.

I don't use any of the Vcast stuff, so can't comment on that.

Camera works alright, but it's a phone, i have a digital camera for things like that so for me it's mostly been seeing how it works by accident ;)

The power issue is probably the biggest downfall of it, but I only know another couple people who had similar experiences with it, most of the units have not displayed that issue, so doesn't seem to be an "entire line" problem. I didn't drop the stars at all for that, but simply for being a slightly overstuffed phone that should've been using a faster processor rather than being squeezed into the tail end of this processor's life cycle.

I'm planning on replacing it soon with an android based unit probably, or maybe the droid incredible, but that's more because I want more speed and new features, not because of any glaring failure in this hardware.

Not recommened April 2, 2010

Reviewer:  Joe "Joe"  (Hickory, NC) -

I got this phone from Verizon about 4 month ago. After two month touch screen start working partially. I could dial number or letter. Then the touch screen quit completely. My phone has never been dropped and keep in a case since was new. This is my first touch screen phone, I was excited but now I'm very dissapointed. I don't recommend this phone, it is not reliable!

complaints and programs you can use to make them go away April 13, 2010

Reviewer:  Blackwolf "X"  (HELL) -

It was awesome when i first got it, I bought it off the verison site, everything ran fast and i had no problems for a couple of months except I couldnt get photos texted to me, so I messed with the data settings and figured it out via web page searching. Its not easy to do youll probably have the same problem and panic since its blocked when you first get it for some reason just look up your problem on goggle your not alone I dont remember how to re do it that was years ago.

I like the youtube app, the internet and pics for everyone on my phone list, also the camera detail, the weather and animations, color scheme, apps, battery life, reception even the default sounds are great. Though most features it has are ruined by it turning slow and glitchy. The phone will slow down to a crawl, freeze and even merge pages together and images when glitching. I will write in the lagging, freezing, and glitching for reference to people who will or have experienced it like I have. It might happen eventually but wont be dramatic or a real problem if you keep up with cleaning your phone itll go away if you even notice any problems at all. Except the couple seconds it takes to go thru and load the phones menus, all memory problems can be avoided. Thats why Im still very attached to this phone. I did hate it when it was ridiculously slow until I searched on ways to fix my problems with it. Lag and memory problems can be fixed by downloading system cleaning apps and diving into the folders yourself with file explorer and deleting high memory files/programs that you dont use and arnt important to the system. Also using a storage card helps alot. Keeping all your downloads and pictures on that will greatly help your performance just like having a external hardrive on your computer. Though somethings downloaded will tell you theres not enough memory on it which is a lie and will save to your main memory. If that happens you should go back and cut and paste it into your storage card.

Phone calls, to get to your contacts you have to click phone, contacts, click on the person then click call. Which is slow at times to load. Most screens in this format can take up to 5 seconds to load for each screen for some reason, some times more. Thats why I use touch contact it has a much more visually appealing look and its lightning fast, as soon as you click or slide it happens. Also you could use avatar which gives you little thumbnails of your contacts iphone like look and you just click and click on call or text. If you have a image for them though. For the key pad itself, since that too takes too long to get to I use idialer, it comes up immediately and is just a full screen keypad.

Youtube, after your screen turns off it boots you out of the movie you were watching so youll have to restart it which is really annoying. Also in the windows/youtube folder itll save many thumbnails sizing almost 4 k each that you can only get rid of by deleting them in that file. Even programs like sktools cannot find them. I recommend getting sktools package for tweaking and keeping your system clean, though as said it wont find everything.

Internet, its the actual one opera which is great but a real pain with finger flicks and tiny link touching. You really should use the stylist for it. Say if your looking for a pic in google, click the thumbnail, the page will pop up but with the frame on it. You will not be able to scroll the rest of the page, you have to click on the image link or remove frame link in the frame which is very small, almost impossible to do with your nails let alone finger even tilted and itll dissapear if you zoom in. No flash installed on the phone for say myspace or others. Also you have to remember to delete the downloads in windows/opera/downloads or anything you download will be saved there too, making you loose double the memory you would have originally and saving it there till you delete it from that specific folder. There are also anti virus and such programs you can download if your afraid of that effecting your phone.

Email, didnt try didnt need, I used email for my old black berry pearl and was sick of getting junk mail every two seconds waking me up at night. I expect itll take up a load of memory too.

My favorites, I dont use. With a push it automatically calls them. I learned quickly NOT to have people in that since some how i kept pocket dialing them. A fix to pocket dialing is to set your screen to dim and lock automatically quicker. Itll save the battery as well.

Text messaging, the slowest response time ever if you dont use 3rd party programs. To answer a text you have to unlock your phone, click or slide to the message icon, wait for that to load, click on the message, wait for that to load up, click on the empty message and click on the keyboard icon, then type. For texting I use sms at hand cause its colorfull, shows all my texts bubbled and together and I can use it lightning fast compaired to clicking thru all the defualt text screens. Also theres a glitch in the system that youll notice right off that the light goes on and it means that theres a text you havent read even if you have read it, and it still says on the unread texts thing that you havent read some. Theres a download that fixes this its called fix unread count. Its not an official microsoft program, none of these are since theyre solution to fixing problems with phones is just making a new one and telling you to buy it, like the droid. I doubt they fixed any of the problems from this in it either. The phone can hold some 4252 messages, and just in the inbox which slows your phone down even more. You have to go into all messages and select all and delete them in your inbox which often freezes it and has been as bad as to a 1 number going up every 1-10 seconds example 1/90 selected..........2/90 selected. Then you have to delete the sent, and delete the deleted! After that there will still be messages on the first gray messaging screen that you deleted already, and the only way to get rid of those is to delete them one by one which just fking forget that. Itll say something like 1/25, but youll delete 25 and there'll be more so, youll have to ignore it. You can avoid all that deleting by using separate text programs like the sms at hand which makes them go to it instead of your phone. So you can easily clear them off its own program and leave your phones empty.

Typing, too fast, id say normal speed on imagio will lead to the phone lagging and putting in your letters slower sometimes and it either has some glitch where it puts v in between your words instead of spaces or the keys are just too close together so you have to go back and delete those. For that I use spd keyboard, it gives you smaller wider keys and a full screen keyboard that doesnt rely on tilt, it can if you want but you can also just hit the key to switch and ive only experianced delay keying once and it was nothing inconvenient.

The picture taking is slow, its defiantly not going to catch anything that happens suddenly unless your ready with burst on. So far, I might figure out how to speed it up, ill update later. I changed my music button to open the camera for convenience. It waits to auto focus before a normal shot but if it cant it will wait up to a minute to take and sometimes just doesnt auto focus at all and takes blurry pics of still things. It has photo, video, panorama, burst (30 pics in a row), sports(5 in a row), gps photo and more.

Video, is easy fast and nice though tricky. You have to and I recommend, take all your video with videomms, not with video. Meaning click show navigation, capture mode, mms video. Video mms: 59 secs is 1.1mb, a 59 sec video is 5.5mb! If you try to send that via mms even something 20 secs or smaller it will not work. You have to shoot in mms or forget it. I dont even know why video is an option, theres little if any difference in quality.

Album has nice scrolling thumbnails and you can click one and scroll for a closer look at all of them. Though if you want your pics saved to another location after getting a message from a friend youll have to figure out where it is in your phone via file explorer. Its all select one and cut and paste some where else. Its very tedious. Sending pic/video messages often slows the phone way down trying to get into the message screen, youll probably have to re push the button to go into it again.

The music section can freeze your phone clicking on your music or trying to scroll thru their albums if you have a lot on your phone already. Also some times using mp3s or custom ring tones or alarms can take too long to load up making them not go off at all when they should. Though that shouldnt be a problem if you keep up with your system memory.

Your lock screen wallpaper wont resize pics automatically like your main one, itll create 3 pictures of the same thing. They still havent fixed this for droid either, instead it zooms in on a corner of the image for that. So quickest solution is find a image, resize it on your computer and email it to your phone. (send a text to your email and send the picture back to the phone number) Or you can download a photo editor app for your phone and try and resize/crop it on it directly.

If you like the apps and email and internet, it all comes in the data package which you have to accept if you buy the phone so thats 30 more dollars youll be paying plus text and talk. Right now its about $70 for me with unlimited text and data and the lowest talk time possible.

The Imagios visually appealing, functional and fast at first but then you have to take care of it. Just like your computer, the more you use it, the more junk you put on it to slow it down. In my opinion it looks way better than the droid and iphone outside and in. Just doesnt have there apps. Yet anyways, Im still on the watch for someone to make it so. And those two phones will probably end up the same way the imagio can get in the wrong hands. The only major complaints I have I couldnt fix were the questionable auto save locations that didnt help the phone at all (youtube and opera mentioned before) that you can still delete but will always be a problem and the slow menu to menu. Slow compared to clam phones at least. Most menus can be avoided using other apps but theyll always be there.

So if I never tryed to fix my phone problems Id say this is the worst one I ever had. Which many people have, since it slowly degrades to a stand still if you dont do anything about it. Since I did, I dont want any other one. Looking back at the slow clam typing method and the black berrys shotty scroll ball, id so much rather point at something and make it happen then figure out a way around it. That and the phones far sleeker than any other phone ive had and with the apps to boot it out shines all of them.

Once you step onto touch screen and windows phones its less about the phone and more about user error. If you never serviced cleaned or tryed to update your cars parts is it your cars fault if it breaks down?

Worst Cell Phone I've Owned in 20 Years February 13, 2010

Reviewer:  Steven Metz  (Pennsylvania, USA) -

The purchase of this was a huge mistake--I doubt I can tolerate it for a year before replacing. It has three most pressing flaws:

-- The user interface system is horrible. The slightest touch makes things start opening, spinning and moving. It is literally unusable without pulling out the stylus, and even that is difficult. The interface system is so much worse than an Iphone or Android that it's not even like talking about the same thing.
--The browser is unusable. Whether connecting wireless or 3G, it takes a matter of minutes to load every web page. Then when they do load, they are in a miniature font and I have to struggle with the zoom to try and see anything. I have just given up using the browser all together and rely on my Blackberry from work.
--The number of applications is minuscule compared to the Iphone or Android, and most of them are poor.

This is a disaster that I cannot recommend for anyone.