Moving from Sprint to ATT and looking at the Titan

[Maptec]

So I will be moving from Sprint to ATT this weekend. A few quick questions for the WP7 users. I currently have the Evo4g and have grown tired of android as a whole. So my questions are as follows.

How is the battery life. As of right now I have an CM7 installed and I do a lot of email and texting for work(About 40-50 emails and 20-30 texts. I can get about half way through the day before I have to plug it in.

Is the keyboard as good as I am hearing about? I find typing with the android keyboard a little cumbersome but I am a man with bigger hands so this has always been an issue.

I have been able to play with a Titan but only for a bit and felt pretty solid in the hands. Are there any build quality issues that pop up over time? Button wear, screen and body scratches?

The reason I decided to go with the Titan is build quality and just the feel and size of the phone. I feel that the upgrades that come with the Titan 2 is not worth the wait for what seems like an insignificant upgrade. I have had an HTC phone since the original touch days and I have never regret sticking with HTC. The Nokia looks nice but I am worried about the plastic body.

So thoughts?

 

[TheWeeBear]

First of all let me welcome you along to WPCentral Maptec.

While having a Titan myself and not having a single problem with it, I absolutely love it.

Not sure if you have had time to look through our Titan forum yet, but lots of AT&T Titan users are having problems with muffled sound on their Titans.

Only fair I mentioned this to you so you can make up your mind about the problem.

Here is our Titan forum here.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/titan/

I'm in the UK and have the European Titan which has newer firmware that the AT&T Titan so whether this cures the problem or not, I'm not sure, as some European users have also complained of the muffled sound.

No one is really sure if it can be cured or not by a software update but I'll leave you make up your mind after having a look through our forum.

I'm not wanting to put you off the Titan, mine is fantastic but I think it's only fair this is mentioned to you incase it helps you decide.

 

[Winterfang]

Welcome, the HTC Titan has two known issues.

1-Call quality (will get quickly fixed)
2-Picture button will break easily (not a common occurrence).

That being said, the HTC Titan is the absolute best Windows Phone you can get right now. Can't go wrong with it.

 

[Reflexx]

I'd like to add in that the micro-usb port is pretty flimsy. It may not end up being an issue, but if you happen to drop your phone a few inches while plugged in, and it lands on the plug, you may be in for some problems.

The call quality isn't the best.

But that screen is awesome. Love the real estate.

Also a note about the Nokias. The polycarbonate plastic is supposedly really really strong. And it feels super solid.

 

[btgusto]

I'm moving from sprint too but waiting for Lumia 900

 

[Winterfang]

The Lumia 900 is just too tempting. I mean I liked the 800 but I had this nagging feel on the back of my head that told me it wasn't worth it. But the 900? Uff that's the one I need. ( it even has the Flash on the left, which I think it looks better than on top)

 

[kylej1050]

I'm moving from sprint too but waiting for Lumia 900

Ditto. Hope they get a pre-order going so I can be even more impatient for the next 5 weeks to pass

As for the OP, if the Titan is anything like my Arrive, you'll be able to do that many emails and texts all day, with talking and a bit of game playing and still have about half to a quarter of your battery left at the end of the day. That's with BT and WiFi on all day to, whether its used or not because I'm too lazy to turn it off when I don't need to do it to survive a day on a charge. lol

 

[snowmutt]

Welcome Maptec!! You are going to get a ton of support on this site, so I am truly glad you are making a stop here to gauge the Titan.

As My wife owns and loves her Titan, let me give you the good as we have found on it:
- Reception is fan-freaking-tastic!!! We test our phones out in the place where cell phones go to die as far as reception: Our local Wal-Mart. And the Titan was the best I have ever seen for an AT&T device. Never dropped completely, and held an "edge" data reception nearly everywhere.
-If you are into photo's or video capture, this is among the best on the market today. Period, end of story. Great camera.
-Tremendous build. Sounds like you are already onboard with that.
-Great screen. Forget people that complain about the resolution on the 4.7" screen. Since it is so large, you will never have to pinch-to-zoom far enough to see any pixalation. It is a great, vibrant screen.
-Decent battery life. In this day and age, there is only one real standard: Can it get you through a day, morning until bedtime, with normal-to-heavy usage. More days than not, the answer is yes. She does need to get on the charger before my Focus "S", but she has rarely ever been caught short.
-As usual from a WP, it is seamless. The Titan loads websites, videos, and emails in a blink of an eye.

A couple of worries:
-Hers freezes. I have not seen this a lot from other Titan owners, but hers does. It often requires a hard restart.
-While good, the battery is inconsistant. Some days it just lasts forever, some days it dies early. My battery comment above is based on the usual. Sometimes, it is just unusual.
-It is a horrid call quality phone. She has a lot of echoing, hissing, and general poor sound quality. She is not a big phone user, so she doesn't care.

Overall, she LOVES her phone. If you are sold on HTC and WP, and know the disadvantages, I say go all in. It is a great device!!!

 

[Reflexx]

Welcome Maptec!! You are going to get a ton of support on this site, so I am truly glad you are making a stop here to gauge the Titan.

Just though I'd comment with my experiences here too.

As My wife owns and loves her Titan, let me give you the good as we have found on it:
- Reception is fan-freaking-tastic!!! We test our phones out in the place where cell phones go to die as far as reception: Our local Wal-Mart. And the Titan was the best I have ever seen for an AT&T device. Never dropped completely, and held an "edge" data reception nearly everywhere.

My reception has actually been pretty weak. Granted, if the area around my house was a square, mountains take up 2 sides and the ocean takes up a 3rd side. So I'm not in the most ideal place.

My Samsung Focus tends to barely have 1 bar if I'm downstairs. My Titan has no reception at all downstairs. Upstairs both my Focus and Titan have reception. But I still choose to keep my SIM card in my Titan. That means that I get missed calls and texts a lot when I'm downstairs. So ask people to send me emails or chat me on IM+.

My wife's old phone is a Nokia feature phone. It has full bars, or just missing one bar, downstairs. That thing's reception is amazing.

To keep things in perspective, my friends' iPhones have pretty much 1 or zero bars downstairs at my house. Same with some Samsung Android phones. But I forgot which models.

-If you are into photo's or video capture, this is among the best on the market today. Period, end of story. Great camera.

I agree that it's a great camera. A significant upgrade from my Focus. Though it's not quite as good as the iPhone 4's camera. But it's close enough.

-Tremendous build. Sounds like you are already onboard with that.

Other than the flimsy micro-usb port, everything else feels solid. It feels good in the hand.

-Great screen. Forget people that complain about the resolution on the 4.7" screen. Since it is so large, you will never have to pinch-to-zoom far enough to see any pixalation. It is a great, vibrant screen. My friends call it my Windows Tablet. haha

I do love the screen. It took a few days to get used to the tiles being so big compared to my Focus. But after a while, it wasn't an issue. And playing games on a 4.7" screen is awesome.

-Decent battery life. In this day and age, there is only one real standard: Can it get you through a day, morning until bedtime, with normal-to-heavy usage. More days than not, the answer is yes. She does need to get on the charger before my Focus "S", but she has rarely ever been caught short.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the battery life. It lasts longer than my Focus. Even though the Titan has such a huge screen.

-As usual from a WP, it is seamless. The Titan loads websites, videos, and emails in a blink of an eye.

Web pages do load up quickly and smoothly. I love the little bounce animation and the slight squashing of the text if you scroll quickly and hit the end of a page. It's little things like that that show me that they put a lot of thought and care into the design of the OS.

A couple of worries:
-Hers freezes. I have not seen this a lot from other Titan owners, but hers does. It often requires a hard restart.

That might be worth getting looked at for warranty replacement.

-While good, the battery is inconsistant. Some days it just lasts forever, some days it dies early. My battery comment above is based on the usual. Sometimes, it is just unusual.

I haven't experienced this yet. Well, I mean that any time I've seen a difference is because I was doing something different. Like playing more games.

-It is a horrid call quality phone. She has a lot of echoing, hissing, and general poor sound quality. She is not a big phone user, so she doesn't care.

Agreed.

Overall, she LOVES her phone. If you are sold on HTC and WP, and know the disadvantages, I say go all in. It is a great device!!!

Agreed! Even though there are things I definitely don't like about it, I'm overall a happy customer.

 

[snowmutt]

"My reception has actually been pretty weak. Granted, if the area around my house was a square, mountains take up 2 sides and the ocean takes up a 3rd side. So I'm not in the most ideal place."



Huh. Yours is the first Titan I have heard of with reception issues. I was sure the pure size of the device allowed for a larger antenna. I was betting on that being the main reason for her good luck. Sorry about that, and hope it isn't a huge drag on your Titan's performance.

By the way, I am not even a little surprised your Wife's old Nokia kick's all the fancy, new phones tushes with reception. Nokia has always been among the best hardware makers. That is why we are so lucky they adopted WP.

 

[kevm14]

How is the battery life. As of right now I have an CM7 installed and I do a lot of email and texting for work(About 40-50 emails and 20-30 texts. I can get about half way through the day before I have to plug it in.

Wow, that's pretty bad. On the contrary, I think you'll find you have at least 50% at the END of the day with usage like that. Huuuuuge difference. And you don't need to micro-manage your radio settings (BT, wireless, etc.).

Is the keyboard as good as I am hearing about? I find typing with the android keyboard a little cumbersome but I am a man with bigger hands so this has always been an issue.

Yes. You will find some typing techniques work better than others, but overall, I find if I just pound out what I am saying and don't worry about typos, the auto correction is stunningly accurate. I've seen zero iPhone-like blunders, as well.

Build quality seems good to me. I moved from an HTC Touch Pro on Sprint (had that phone for 3 years and Sprint for like ~12) to AT&T and the Titan. The only regrets are that I have yet to see speeds higher than ~3.5Mbps despite the "4G" promise and signal icon. And despite Sprint having the reputation for poor coverage, I can't say AT&T has been a huge upgrade. Maybe a little.

 

[kevm14]

-Great screen. Forget people that complain about the resolution on the 4.7" screen. Since it is so large, you will never have to pinch-to-zoom far enough to see any pixalation. It is a great, vibrant screen.

I don't have any issues at all with the resolution but this is a bit inaccurate. The pixelation that occurs is actually MORE of an issue when zoomed out, as there is not enough DPI to cover the small text. Zooming in puts a TON more pixels on anything vector rendered (font, et al) and will look better, not worse. The limitation essentially means that depending on your vision, there's no reason to hold the phone closer to your face than like 12 inches. Which I think is a good thing.

 

[oldpueblo]

If you can wait till March I'd highly recommend it. The Lumia isn't really plastic, I've seen it described as amazing material (polycarbonate), and I am assuming the Titan II will have fixes for the complaints people have around the Titan I (it's not the exact same device, the shape is slimmer so it has to have been redesigned I'm guessing). It's so close, just pickup a used WP7 on craigslist to tide you over. I've picked up three for $100 or less just by watching, one of which was a Focus in excellent shape. Then two Verizon Trophys for 60 and 80 which work fine on ATT with edge after I SIM unlocked them. Good enouh to hold off till March, then resell.

 

[jfa1]

The titan II with LTE is being released on Mrch 18 as well its the titan with LTE for the same price as the Titan.

 

[Maptec]

Well We decided to go ahead and switch. I got the Titan and my wife went with the Iphone 4S. I have been able to play with the phone for a day now. I am in love with the integration and just the overall feel of the phone. Pictures look great and I have not had a single muffled call out of 20 or so. No reception or wifi issues either.


Thank you all for the info and recommendations. I see myself sticking with a windows phone for a while.