Thoughs of the New Arrive

[gibbyhome]

So,
just picked up the arrive for my wife and she really likes it, and there are some things I have noticed,
1 its not as heavy as I thought it would be wich is good, I have the Dell Venue Pro and man that is one heavy phone.
2 the screen is very small compaird to my Dell, I think this is a 3.6 in screen and it is noticable smaller, but for my wife she likes anything smaller coming from the plam treo pro.

It is a nice phone and I can see allrealy some of the bugs that I have with my dell are now fixed with the NoDo update on the phone ..

 

[foosball]

Thanks for the review.

Got a chance to see it in the store and I was really disappointed with the size of the screen after comparing it to something like the HD7.

I may even have to move to the Dell Venue Pro. If you had to use your wife's Arrive full-time would you start searching for another phone?

What are some of the bug fixes?

 

[Dusteater]

My biggest question with NoDo, is what Marketplace fixes there are. At least with my moms Focus, updating apps seems to not work most of the time. I am hoping they fixed app updating.

 

[gibbyhome]

I don't know if I can get used to the small screen, I hope we see more choices soon and larger screens like the HD7. I don't know why they would not start with that phone since the EVO did so well for Sprint. I getting to think that the carriers are all about screwing the customers. put the arrive in the hads so people love the OS but tease them with the size and make to pay agian when they release a 4 in screen..
as for bug fixes I'm not sure what they all are since I really dont have any issues, I do know the marketplace is snappy and searching is fixed. but as for that in my mind bugs werent a major issue.

 

[Thrasherx2k1]

This is my first Windows 7 Phone. While I do think the OS has GREAT potential and is very fast and smooth with just about everything... it has quite a few noticeable downsides that I am seeing so far. These may be little gripes but maybe you all will agree with me that these features are needed in a future update...

1. Need a tone or something to let me know when battery is going to die! I was on a call tonight and had not even got the low battery warning while on call let alone the critical battery warning and then bam black screen. Person got mad and thought I hung up on them!

2. When you turn the phone into landscape mode why is there no address bar in IE? I have to slide the phone open to make it pop up! That is just beyond stupid if you ask me. But then if I am already on google.com and tap in the search bar then the onscreen keyboard pops up? Just wow is all I have to say.

3. No custom ringtones which I already knew going in but it would be nice!

4. I realize the LG Quantam does not do this either but why cant they make it so the home screen rotates for these windows phones with landscape slide out keyboards??? It just looks horrible to have your keyboard slid out and then look at the home screen sideways! Ugh!

5. The back light for the physical keyboard has issues. Atleast on mine. The back light timeout must be like 5-7 seconds because as soon as I stop typing it goes out. Then in the dark I cannot see what letters are which so I have to hit a button to light the keyboard back up. Please Microsoft or HTC make a setting so we can adjust the keyboard back light timeout! Its beyond frustrating.

6. Why o why does the green indicator light at top flash for a missed call or voicemail but not for missed texts??? This has to be fixed as well. If you got the light why not use it to its full potential. You can flash a red light also for a dying battery when all that does is drain the battery faster! Real smart...

7. Make an option so we can see the top status bar all the time. I like seeing my signal strength and battery life at all times. Also a battery % would be nice as well someday.

8. Hardware wise this particular phone is very well built for the most part. The 2 gripes I have is the power button being too flush with the phone and not having good feedback. Also the sliding mechanism is very unique but I find it hard to slide open and closed compared to a Touch Pro 2 I have used before.

Anyways those are just a few things I have noticed so far that I wish they would work on. I'm not trying to just sit here and badmouth it all day but those things really bug me. I will still hang onto this phone though to watch it mature and for the great Music player it has. Just hope minor updates before Mango fix these things listed above...

 

[Djeli]

Just pick mine up yesterday afternoon..So far its a solid phone and i love it...the things that lack for me is No custom ringtones and an option so we can see the top status bar all the time cause it sucks to pop back and lock it to see time and reception..other then that ANYONE HERE HAVING FORUSQUARE ISSUSES?? IT WONT LOG ME IN...

 

[Koldfate]

Just pick mine up yesterday afternoon..So far its a solid phone and i love it...the things that lack for me is No custom ringtones and an option so we can see the top status bar all the time cause it sucks to pop back and lock it to see time and reception..other then that ANYONE HERE HAVING FORUSQUARE ISSUSES?? IT WONT LOG ME IN...

I think you do a downward swipe and it will show you the battery and reception... but I don't have mine yet, so I could be wrong.

 

[foosball]

Thanks for that rundown Thrasher.

My expectations are sky-high for this phone but your observations very much remind of the release of webOS. It'll be interesting to see the WP7 homebrew community develop and fill the void.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

I think you do a downward swipe and it will show you the battery and reception... but I don't have mine yet, so I could be wrong.

No, that's correct. Downward swipe shows battery/reception.

Swipe right dismisses notifications.

 

[Dusteater]

Would be a great phone if it worked outside of the USA. Oh well, I did have my father order one, so will be fun to play with that. I am most interested how well built the slide/hinge mechanism is built. Hardware-wise, I think that would be my only concern. I tried to go look at one in stores yesterday around Seattle and none had it, even though it is released! I am so sad, my father gets the Arrive, mother the Focus and sister the Trophy. I am left out in the cold.

I am getting concerned about Sprint though, it seems they do not care much for Windows Phone or any other platform and are going all in with Android. I am thinking it is time to dump them, even though their plans are so great.

 

[Djeli]

Anyone having issues with signing into certain programs like FOursquare or Flory IM??

 

[theefman]

Would be a great phone if it worked outside of the USA. Oh well, I did have my father order one, so will be fun to play with that. I am most interested how well built the slide/hinge mechanism is built. Hardware-wise, I think that would be my only concern. I tried to go look at one in stores yesterday around Seattle and none had it, even though it is released! I am so sad, my father gets the Arrive, mother the Focus and sister the Trophy. I am left out in the cold.

I am getting concerned about Sprint though, it seems they do not care much for Windows Phone or any other platform and are going all in with Android. I am thinking it is time to dump them, even though their plans are so great.

You'd be hard pressed to find a carrier that is not going all in with android, tmo, vzw have publicly said so. at&t seem mostly impartial, and actually so do Sprint IMO, they have a lot of android devices but have not to my knowledge expressed any great love for android. You could do worse.

 

[gibbyhome]

Yea,
I agree but I would give Sprint a break since there was only android and BB's for the past what 2 years ? WP7 took awhile to come out and windows mobile did nothing to improve market share .. so thats all the carriers had for sometime.. I think once Verizon and Sprint get as leat 3 phones on their networks you well see them change there toon..
and Once you see more and more customers getting viruses on their androids and stealing phone numbers this will also change there toon ..
I do agree they are not being fair but again its there job to sell phones and when all you have is android they have no choice..

Would be a great phone if it worked outside of the USA. Oh well, I did have my father order one, so will be fun to play with that. I am most interested how well built the slide/hinge mechanism is built. Hardware-wise, I think that would be my only concern. I tried to go look at one in stores yesterday around Seattle and none had it, even though it is released! I am so sad, my father gets the Arrive, mother the Focus and sister the Trophy. I am left out in the cold.

I am getting concerned about Sprint though, it seems they do not care much for Windows Phone or any other platform and are going all in with Android. I am thinking it is time to dump them, even though their plans are so great.

 

[josh_johnson11]

Anyone having issues with signing into certain programs like FOursquare or Flory IM??

I was having trouble signing into Flory IM after updating the application this morning. I uninstalled the old version and restarted the phone prior to downloading v2.0 from the Market like the article on WP Central said. Had some trouble setting up my Google Talk account, but after a few tries and restarts it ended up working.

I'm really hoping for a better/more native Google Talk application in the future. Flory is a great gap-fill but it's not quite enough for how much I use the Google Talk application.

 

[Djeli]

I was having trouble signing into Flory IM after updating the application this morning. I uninstalled the old version and restarted the phone prior to downloading v2.0 from the Market like the article on WP Central said. Had some trouble setting up my Google Talk account, but after a few tries and restarts it ended up working.

I'm really hoping for a better/more native Google Talk application in the future. Flory is a great gap-fill but it's not quite enough for how much I use the Google Talk application.

how did u originally sign up for it? I went to there main site and cant and when i launch the app it says sign in but there is no register option..this is my first time using it since i just got the HTC Arrive

 

[frylock]

Considering they are just releasing CDMA phones, I am not surprised that no one had made a global version yet. Seems kind of early to expect something like that. Look how long it took Verizon to make a global version of the Droid! It doesn't seem like the highest priority for the carriers.

As for the hinge, I was able to play with 1 in a local Sprint store (but they won't let SERO people order in stores anymore!). The hinge is a little odd to get used to when closing (it's down and then in, as opposed to my current 6800 which snaps back and forth quickly). I don't think it's any worse than the hinge on my 6800, and I've had it for 3.5 years, and the hinge still performs the same today as it did the day I got it. Not something I would be worried about.

 

[Dusteater]

Considering they are just releasing CDMA phones, I am not surprised that no one had made a global version yet. Seems kind of early to expect something like that. Look how long it took Verizon to make a global version of the Droid! It doesn't seem like the highest priority for the carriers.

The Verizon HTC Trophy that comes out this week is CDMA/GSM global roaming. This brings me back to my question about how much influence does the carrier have over the OEM in putting what they want in a phone? Does Sprint just not care?

 

[frylock]

The Verizon HTC Trophy that comes out this week is CDMA/GSM global roaming. This brings me back to my question about how much influence does the carrier have over the OEM in putting what they want in a phone? Does Sprint just not care?

I never saw Sprint as being a big global phone company. The Evo isn't global. The Epic isn't. It seems Sprint is just not as concerned with global use as others.

 

[gibbyhome]

I was having trouble signing into Flory IM after updating the application this morning. I uninstalled the old version and restarted the phone prior to downloading v2.0 from the Market like the article on WP Central said. Had some trouble setting up my Google Talk account, but after a few tries and restarts it ended up working.

I'm really hoping for a better/more native Google Talk application in the future. Flory is a great gap-fill but it's not quite enough for how much I use the Google Talk application.

Remember this is very new and it will only get more and more support moving foward
hot do you like the Arrive and what did you come over from ?

 

[mock19]

In the Sprint forums they have been doing a feedback blog on the Arrive for some contest winners who got a free trial device. One of the Sprint reps stated something along the lines of "we deem the Arrive a niche device." in one of their posts. I think carriers are still skeptical.