HTC PURE Windows Phone (AT&T)

It has it's uses-- but a little small for me. October 23, 2009

Reviewer:  THATCH "RST"  (OHIO) -

If you're ok with using a stylus, this phone may be for you. Being an iPhone user, I ordered this mostly for testing and to see how things have evolved with the current Windows Mobile 6.5. At first touch, I liked the following:

1. Phone seems durably built
2. Screen is very clear and touch sensitivity is good
3. The phone is stylish, as is the charger
4. It is SMALL! Smaller than I expected.
5. The Operating System is responsive. I didn't notice any lag.
6. The "haptic" feedback is great. When you press a button with the stylus, you get a tiny/short vibrate so you know you've registered the tap.

On the downside,

1. It takes a long time to boot if you ever have to restart it to take the battery out
2. The screen elements are so small, much of what you do has to be done with the toothpick sized stylus. Even though it registers a finger press fine, my small fingers are still too big.
3. Windows Mobile still feels "PDA-like". Every app you open stays open until you close it. You must go to the task manager and close it, not just going back to the applications menu screen. It's very easy to drain system resources without realizing it if you aren't on top of closing your apps.
4. Things like Facebook mobile still aren't nearly as good as they are on the blackberry & iPhone.

It didn't take me long to realize that this phone is no iPhone or Blackberry Bold/Storm class machine. Interacting with the Windows Mobile still feels a little like Window 3.1-- you can get lost easily with the layers. If you like a tiny stylus and tiny phone, this may be the phone for you. If you have any issues seeing small things, this probably isn't for you. Personally, I'd love to see this same hardware with a different operating system on it. The Windows Mobile 6.5 doesn't do a good job of "removing surrounding clutter/background clutter" when you are doing things like connecting to wireless, or entering text. They waste a lot of space by not clearing the background and enlarging the menus.

Can I recommend this phone? Yes. But not for everyone. If you love Windows Mobile or want/like a stylus entry, this is a very stylish attractive little phone.

Am loving this thing November 1, 2009

Reviewer:  VK  (US) -

Have had this device for a day now and am loving it. Its really small and sleek. The "resistive" touch screen is pretty responsive, the keyboard is good, it gives a short vibration or haptic feedback whenever a key is pressed. At first I thought Ill turn that off, but now I feel its really useful. It does have the G-sensor (gravity sensor/accelerometer), which is probably not as responsive as iPhone's and not all applications use it. But some applications do use it like the browser and outlook, and a cute little game called teeter. Its not multi-touch (I think), but the zoom bar makes up for the lack of it, and the flicks and gestures work really well. The 5mp camera is great. Windows app center is good too.

Cons: it doesnt come with a set of earphones! Who would have thought of that. The 'ok' or 'close' buttons on the top right corner are still pretty small. Sometimes its a little too responsive, when I am looking at the call history for e.g, it ends up making a call when I am just trying to scroll. Minor thing which most people have already pointed out: the earphones jack isnt standard 3.5mm jack and comes with an adapter for it.

All in all its a great cheap alternative to the iPhone.

Nice small WM65 phone November 6, 2009

Reviewer:  S. Lee "saint168"  (Oceano, CA) -

This is my 4th Windows Mobile phone so I think I qualify as an experienced Windows Mobile phone user. I am not comparing this phone with iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Palm Pre phone since enough people have done that already.

First of all, I love the small size. My previous phone was a Tilt and that thing was bulky and heavy. When I'm in my gym short and put that phone in my pocket, I was in constant fear. The Pure however is slim and light, very pocketable.

Losing the keyboard is not a big deal for me. I found I seldom use the keyboard on my Tilt anyway since I installed the Touchpal keyboard software unless I'm typing a long email. The new QWERTY keyboard in the Pure is surprisingly nice although the keys are a little small because of the width of the phone.

As a whole, WM65 is much more finger friendly then WM6 although it's still far from perfect when you compare with other choices. The new app store makes it much easier to get new software for the phone. The new lock screen is useless when you cannot set the lock screen to automatically appear without asking for a password. I ended up installing the trusty S2U2 software again. TouchFLO 3D is nice and easy to use.

The camera produce nice looking 5M pictures and the quality is comparable with iPhone. The accelerometer works very well but not all software support it. The battery life is not too good. I usually finish the day with less that 50% left so I have to charge every night. Not having a 3.5 or 2.5 jack is a pain in the XXX but that how it was with the Tilt. My biggest problem with the hardware is not having the D-Pad. I understand many other touch screen phone never had D-Pad (iPhone) and they all work fine. The problem is almost all Windows Mobile phones had D-Pad before and many software assume it too. One good example is Microsoft Reader, it does not support swiping to turn page. You suppose to use the D-Pad to turn page or you can click the "tiny" left right arrows on the bottom of the page. These arrows are so small it's impossible to hit with you big thumb.

I like this phone for it small size and ease of use. I've always been a fan of Windows Mobile because I feel I have more control of it. I am able to customize it anyway I want. If you are using other PDA mobile phone, you probably don't want to switch to this phone, wait for Windows Mobile 7. If you like Windows Mobile and does mind the lack of keyboard, then this is the phone for you.

Great Phone November 9, 2009

Reviewer:  Aneshea Thornton 

It took me a while to figure out just what phone I wanted to upgrade to and I finally found it. I've had this phone for about a month now and I truly love it. I waited to post a review as I wanted to ensure I thoroughly explored the phone to give my honest opinion.

I am not a conformist, so stayed away from the iphone and the blackberry. I upgraded from the Samsung Blackjack II, so have to admit the HTC pure took some getting used too.

At first sight, the keypad does seem a bit small/crowded, but I seem to type text messages with little to no errors. I do not use my phone to compose email, but love being able to receive messages from my home email account with the ability to respond back to the sender if need be.

The things that I love the most with this phone is the bright screen, the camera, the ease of making phone calls, listening to music, and personalizing my home screen to my liking.

The two downfalls to the phone are the battery life and a slow running internet. I knew those were the main drawbacks to the phone prior to my purchase from reading other reviews, but figured it wouldn't be a main concern for me since I am not a big phone talker, texter, phone internet surfer and it isn't. I can get exactly what I need from the internet while on the road with no problem its just a little slower than the BBB. I do charge the phone every night but so does my husband who owns a BBB. So I guess the battery life compared to the BBB is about the same.

Again, great phone overall. If you are still having trouble trying to decide on a phone, log onto [...]. Under review, type in the cell phone model and get more detailed reviews to help you decide. Good luck!

Aneshea

Great Phone November 30, 2009

Reviewer:  C. Rogers 

I upgraded to this phone from a Fuze and love it. The screen is not quite as big as the Touch Pro2 but bigger then the Fuze. I find that the size is perfect for putting in your pocket on the go. I did like the standard WM 6.5 but am taking advantage of additional functionality after updating the firmware through XDA Dev. Call quality is excellent and internet is very fast for me. The new app store is nice but I'd like to see more apps in the future.

Affordable Contender to the iPhone March 7, 2010

Reviewer:  Blue Agenda  (Gonzales, LA USA) -

Having been a "flip-phone" fan for years and owning nearly every company's version of it, about six months ago, I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. Unfortunately for me, the iPhone lacked in every detail that I needed a phone for - to talk on it. Less than 30 days later I was returning it for another flip-phone. However, I was intrigued by the number of things that I could do with the iPhone (i.e., apps galore) but was very disappointed with the battery life, call quality (reception) and phone functionality. I stumbled across the HTC Pure while browsing AT&T's website and was given a generous offer to upgrade. Having not put any research into the phone prior to ordering, I was a little hesitant but was pleasantly surprised once I got my hands on it. In many ways, the Pure acts and feels like an iPhone but doesn't require the amount of coin to accomplish it. The screen is clear (LCD), bright and easy-to-read (I'm a 30-something). At the bottom of the screen are tabs that you can customize to your liking that will connect you to your Home, Contacts (Favorites), Internet, Weather and Settings. The weather tab automatically updates approximately every three hours with animation (when raining, it rains on screen and a wiper blade swipes it clear) and is supported (linked) to [...]. You can also synchronize your contacts with their Facebook profile and use their pics as photo caller-i.d. The two browsers loaded with the phone - Opera 9.7 and Internet Explorer 6.5 are equally impressive. I primarily use Opera as it utilizes both portrait (vertical) and landscape (horizontal) modes. IE does not. The call quality is exceptional. Crisp, clear and loud both with the phone and speaker. Battery life is the best I have ever seen on a smartphone. It is rated at 5 hours talk time and 15 days of standby. I have been able to use this phone starting on a full charge and play FreeCell for five hours straight, periodically checking email, etc. and having only used 10 to 20% battery life. I have also been able to make a 45 minute phone call with only 20% battery life left until I was prompted to recharge. The time it takes to recharge is approximately 2 hours to fully charge but I have done it in less and still had significant battery life to get me through my work day (8 hours). If you're considering an iPhone, I strongly urge you to look at the Pure as you would have to buy the 3GS in order to do everything this phone does for half the price. Also worth noting, I DO NOT use this as a music device and have read reviews that one of the downfalls of the Pure is the lack of an onboard headphone jack. This is solved with the included Multifunction Audio Adapter, however, that has been seen with mixed reviews. I also found the stylus to be easy to use and a great way to keep smudgy fingerprints from building up on the screen.

Look for another option! December 3, 2009

Reviewer:  Randoll  (KY) -

I really wanted to like this phone. I disregarded all of the negative comments and reviews about it, purchasing it in hopes that an iPhone would not be in my future. When looking at it's specs, it's amazing. In actuality, those specs don't play out well. I experienced major software glitches involving the phone-lock mechanism, wi-fi hook up and overall usability. The charger it came with also did not work.

As far as usability goes, the touch screen is not very sensitive. You must be very aggressive with it or always use the stylus, which isn't convenient. For me, the most used functions of the phone were very tiny and hard to reach easily even with my small fingers and experience with touchscreens. Touchflo3D navigation often switches off and lands you in the tiny Windows menus without warning. Also, getting the keyboard to flip to landscape mode is quite tricky sometimes! The general lack of ability to customize the look of the interface was a minor but irritating area of opportunity.

On the bright side, it comes with a lot of great games! It's a pretty phone.

Overall, by the time you spend the money on this, you may as well get an iPhone that you'll be able to customize and navigate better (iPhones also have a LOT more memory!). Windows phones need to look at a more finger and user friendly interface in the future.

Am I the only one that finds this phone entirely dissapointing? February 2, 2010

Reviewer:  S. J. Carpenter 

I purchased this phone after hours of research and reading reviews from many websites. I was nothing but excited to get it. I almost even admitted love for it until the annoying aspects started to crop up...

1. I was never able to get a screen protector to actually stick and stay on the screen. I tried 3 different brands but all of them would peel around the outer rim. I tried all the tricks like apply it and let it sit for 24 hours with the phone off, leave it on for over a week, but the darn things kept coming off. I concluded that it is due to the incredibly cheap plastic used for the front screen, it flexes and just feels awful. Guess what? It scratches easily too, which I now know due to the fact that I have no screen protector.

2. Windows is slow, just like it is slow for desktop computers. Using touchflow 3D and no programs running I usually have 65% to 75% of my system resources in use. This thing crawls, and has even hard locked on me from time to time. I have even been trying to shut it down and start it back up every day or two but it doesnt seem to change it.

3. Absolutely no worthwhile applications. Wait I take that back, you get Facebook, MySpace and MS Bing. Facebook is very flaky and I have had tons of trouble using it compared to iphone and blackberry versions.

4. Hardware problems... Headphone jack? I didnt think it was going to be that big of a problem, but guess what? You could pretty much remove video playback and MP3 because its worthless without having headphones. Plus not having a flash just about ruins things too.

5. Yeah it's tiny, that's neat, but the keyboard is terribly small too. It is obvious why they decided to add the stylus because you really can't do some functions without using it.

There are probably other things I am forgetting but you get the idea I am heading towards. I expected an end all solution that I could use to send pictures to my family, cruise the net and do all those cool things. I was wrong. Remember that professional reviews are bought and sold and that once you click that contract agreement you are stuck with a phone for 2 years. Choose wisely.

Locks up and sluggish January 6, 2010

Reviewer:  C. EDWARDS 

I decided on this phone because I thought I wanted a Windows based phone also after reading many positive reviews on other websites. After having the Pure for 2 weeks, I've had enough and returned it today. The Touch-Flo was a good feature, but I believe it is to blame for a lot of the RAM usage. The first day I had the phone I noticed that, at best, I only had 50MB out of 186MB of program memory free. BTW, this was with ALL apps closed. It was slow and would freeze from the time I got it. I talked to a friend who suggested downloading a memory manager to help free up more memory. I tried a couple, but got only 65MB at best...and no better performance.

This phone takes great pics and videos as long as you have BRIGHT lighting. I played with the camera adjustments for quite a while, and even with the brightness maxed out, pictures were very dark under moderate lighting. I compared it side by side with my wife's LG Xenon while sitting under the light in our living room and her camera was MUCH brighter at regular settings than this one was set at MAX brightness. Worthless to me under normal indoor conditions.

Internet use was EXTREMELY slow at first until I changed to mobile view which only slightly improved speed. The WiFi was no better than the sluggish 3G connection. Even set to mobile view, the web pages would freeze for several seconds while loading. I read someone complain that the Pure wouldn't play YouTube videos, this is only PARTIALLY true. YouTube won't play in Opera, but IE will open the vids in media player, even though they were very choppy due to the slow internet speed.

Today was the last straw. First thing this morning after unplugging the charger, the phone partially locked up and the Touch-Flo home screen would not load. I hit the soft reset button a few times before completely removing the battery and SIM card for 10 minutes. Neither helped. The Start page was the only thing I could access and was the only way I could access the phone menu to place a call! This went on for half the day before the Touch-Flo FINALLY started to work again...kinda'. The Touch-Flo screen would then freeze every time I tried to open an app. When I finally got off work, I couldn't get home fast enough to pack this phone back up and return it to the store. I believe I'll try the BB Bold next. I had a BB Pearl before and had very few problems with it, so I hope the Bold has improved on those "few". Good luck if you choose the HTC Pure...you'll need it!!!!!

Sexy and useless, bad for your eyes December 1, 2009

Reviewer:  Schweig  (San Francisco) -

This sexy, classy device hides a multitude of shortcomings.
Pure is a Windows device and as such promises to provide a useful PDA replacement. The Windows Mobile operating system permits storage, organization and even editing of documents, which can be transferred by cable or blue tooth. The phone comes with a desktop sync application, which I did not get around to trying, but probably works adequately.
There are quite a few negatives.
First: Size. The screen is so small that editing or reading your applications requires magnification. It is less useful than it sounds.
Software/Operating system: I had to replace the first unit I purchased, as the system caused unwelcome programs to open in the middle of other processes. Having experienced this on a Trio, I wouldn't take the chance of this recurring out of warranty.
Resolution: I spent a jet lagged hour playing the game included in the software. I noticed that I was having problems seeing the screen, but it was not until I put it down that I realized that I was seeing everything double and blurred, a condition which lasted a few hours. A subsequent trip to the eye clinic put my mind at rest regarding my eyes. Prescription: "Get a different phone".
Battery life: I have had any number of phones, smart and dumb, and any number of PDA's (which I had hoped to replace with this). None have run out of power so quickly.
Unlocking: I travel on business, hence the need for a phone with PDA features. Like all international travelers, I carry overseas sim cards with minutes for my stays. This phone at the time I purchased it was extremely difficult to unlock. As a matter of fact, it took the techie several days to get the code, which did not to get to me. I was out $40 with a locked phone. This was fortunate, as it permitted me to return it.
The AT&T plan. AT&T's recent announcement that all users of Smart Phones, even if they decided they did not want the Internet services, would have to pay the extra $30, which after tax and fees is $40 per month for the Data Plan. This phone could have WiFi, but at $480/year AT&T is motivated not to offer the most customer friendly option.
Keyboard: Even with slender fingers, I hit it wrong plenty of times. Very annoying.
Memory.The phone has essentially no memory, which is odd for a Windows machine, but this goes with the size. A memory card will set you back anywhere upwards of $40 for anything useful.
Price: This phone is valued at $500, although AT&T is currently giving it away for $.01 on Amazon in the cutthroat race for customers. This with a two year plan. If you really want a useful item and are willing to sell your soul to T for twenty four months, consider as an alternative Blackberry. (The extra $40 /month applies.)

My solution: I decided to continue as I had been, with phone and PDA separate. I am forcing IPod Touch into the role of PDA (DocumentsToGo, HandBase for the database functions, Easy Reader and other relatively cheap apps make this possible). IPod Touch has bluetooth, WiFi, 16gb memory.