HTC brings on the Dream, but will it turn out to be a Nightmare?


Alright that was kind of lame, but I had to pull out the generic title for a review blog.

So I had a chance to attend the big Pre-Launch event that HTC was holding for the upcoming launch of the HTC Dream and Magic on the Rogers network. The event in itself was pretty fancy, where they provided breakfast for all of the guests, and it wasn't gross for once. But enough about the event, lets talk about the phone.

HTC is really putting all of their eggs into this 'revolutionary' release of the first Android platform phone in Canada. From the huge daunting countdown found on the Rogers website, to trying to muster up all the media attention they can get for the release, they are really hyping this phone to be the next juggernaut of the industry. They do a good job in at least getting people curious about the hype, but I did have a number of pre-conceptions before the event:

1) Track record: HTC in my mind has a terrible track record in regards to the quality of their phones. Their two latest releases to the Rogers network include the not-so-hot HTC Touch, and the HTC diamond. I've had a number of complaints about the HTC Touch to the point where I will try my hardest to persuade customers away from the phone ("Run! Just go!!"). Although to be fair, some could argue that the majority of problems lie within the Windows Mobile operating system more than the hardware itself. Whereas with the HTC Diamond, I haven't heard much about it given the dominance of the Iphone and other smartphone devices.

2) Price: HTC has always been traditionally overpriced. It could never keep up with the competitive prices that Blackberry has always provided, and it's taken a big beating in the market because of that.

3) Android phones have been out in the US for a year now. If there was anything breakthrough about the phone, we would have gotten the phones in Canada much earlier. Or at very least, we would have seen a bigger movement within customers buying their phones unlocked (via Ebay), and bringing them to the Rogers customers.

Well we got to mess around with the Dream in the event, and I'm not gonna go into tech specs (cause I'm not that smart or savvy), but there were a number of things that stood out to me that might interest you:

1) Triple Threat: This is the only device to have the touch screen, track ball, AND the full QWERTY keyboard. This is HUGE for the smartphone market as the common complaint is the Iphone lacking the keyboard, and the Blackberry lacking touchscreen (the Storm doesn't count because everyone says the push-in touch screen sucks). This also adds huge value and longevity to the phone because if any one of these parts were to screw up, you could navigate using alternative methods. This has been a common complaint among Blackberry users that the trackball eventually wears out or dies, and their phone becomes essentially useless. Overall the keyboard felt solid, the screen was much more responsive to touch than I anticipated, and the trackball also worked well.

2) Sliding screen: This phone is SO FUN to slide. The sliding mechanics and build seem surprisingly solid, and the screen snaps into place very comfortably. I remember spending the first minute I got my phone just sliding the screen in and out.


3) Unlock screen: One of the things people really enjoy about the Iphone is the cool unlocking swipe bar it has whenever you turn on the phone. Well HTC brings it up a notch by letting you set your own swiping pattern password. The screen displays a 3 by 3 grid of dots, and set up a specific pattern that involves a minimum of 4 points connected to one another. It's a cool way to access the phone, and also a legitimate excuse to drawing lightning bolts on your screen, like I did with mine.



4) Applications: I thought the applications for this operating system would be sparse, but the selection surprised me. The rep said there were 3200 apps currently released for the phone, and 2/3 of them are free. Another big plus to the phone is that the Android apps system is open sourced, meaning anyone can develop an app for the phone with the easy to use wizard that Google provides. This could potentially mean more apps to choose from, but my worry is people making retarded apps that don't work, or the possibility of encoding malicious software for the phone. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

5) Google everything: It has integrated programs for all the popular google tools that people already use: YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Google Search Engine, etc. Searching is very easy on the device as you just start typing and your letters begin to appear in the search bar.

6) Easy to use: Like the Iphone, everything is pretty simple with this phone. There's a built in home button on the right side of the phone should you get lost, as well as a menu button that works extremely well with any app you're in. The desktop controls are easy to work with, however I did find myself doing Iphone 'pinching' gestures to zoom, which don't quite work with this phone.

7) Great Calendar: One of my biggest pet peeves about the Iphone is the lack of depth in the Calendar app. Maybe I just need to go buy a better application to organize the calendar, but you would think that the built in calendar would do a half decent job. Nope. Instead they just provide you with a basic month to month calendar where you can add events, but you have to actively set an alarm for each event, and your schedule isn't seen as clearly as it could be seen. With the Dream, the calendar could be seen in three different views: monthly, weekly, and daily. Each had a distinct level of detail that was displayed on the screen and it just seemed much more intuitive and informative than the crappy Iphone Calendar.


The cons:

1) A bit chunky: Given the hidden QWERTY keyboard, you expect some width to this phone, so I'll give it a break on that. Still, when you're competing against a company like Apple that prides itself in making devices sleek and sexy, your phone could stand to lose some chunkiness. The weight of the phone wasn't all that bad, just the thickness of the phone may be a problem for anyone whose used to a smaller phone.

2) Camera: Although HTC loves to point out the superior 3.2 MP camera with video capabilities, I wasn't all too impressed. It didn't have a great refresh rate or stability control and I found photos to be only slightly better than with the Iphone. There's no flash included in the phone, and the camera is positioned in an awkward part at the back of the phone. I found myself accidentally covering the camera with my hands/fingers most of the time before realizing what was going on.

3) Speaker: One of the greatest and most underrated things about the Iphone in my opinion is the quality of the external speaker. When you decide to show a buddy a video from YouTube, you can typically count on the Iphone to provide good sound and clarity through the one speaker. I tried searching up some videos on the Dream and playing sound from there, and the speaker quality wasn't nearly as good. The speaker seemed very quiet and lacked the depth of sound that the Iphone usually provides.

4) Application store organization: Although the rep went on about the thousands of apps available in the store, it didn't seem like there were many that were as fun as the Iphone's. Maybe I've just gotten used to the Itunes app store layout, but I missed the old layout of Top 25 paid/free apps, what's new, etc. The layout for the Android App store didn't seem as user friendly, and it seemed like you needed to know the application you wanted before you went into the browser.

5) Lack of hard drive: I believe it comes with either a 1 GB or 2 GB mini SD card, but that's all the hard drive space you'll get with the phone out of the box. If you plan on using the phone as a music player, the memory may be too small to store a decent sized music collection. What was weird is that you need the Mini-sd card in the phone in order to take photos. Although there's barely any reasons for taking your flash card out once it's in, I found that a weird choice.

Overall:

I'll keep this short, seeing as this blog is getting longer than I wanted it to. The price of the phone is yet to be determined. If you're in the market for an Iphone but can't stand the on-screen keyboard, then the Dream may be the phone for you. Overall the robustness (is that a word?) of the phone impressed me, along with the navigation of the Android system. It didn't seem to have any lag issues as I have had with previous HTC Windows Mobile devices, and the phone itself is very fun to play with. I think it'll prove to be a very strong competitor to the Iphone. With that said, the future of the phone really rests on the warranty that HTC is willing to provide for the device and the amount of commitment Google is willing to put into it's application store. I can easily say that at least 50% of the Iphone's success has to do with the outstanding warranty and coverage Apple has provided in regards to device warranty and also pushing new content into the App Store.

If you believe in HTC and Google to continue to support their Android phones in this way, and you want to get a cool new phone that's different from everyone's Iphone, then the Dream is a great alternative.