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My quick little write up on the Inspire.

Yaken

Member
Feb 8, 2011
88
8
So as you know I have had the pleasure of playing around with the phone for the past few days. Here are my thoughts, keep in mind I only have at&t handsets to compare this to so I am using my knowledge on those handsets.

The first thing you notice about the phone is how big it is. Although there are other phones on at&t that have 4 inch screens, the extra .3 inches does make it look a lot bigger. The screen is clear and sharp ad I really have no complaints. It is exactly what you would expect. Loaded up some videos and they all looked fine.

The speaker is somewhat lacking. The back of the phone says that SRS Surround and Dolby Mobile sound, but don't let that fool you. The speaker is the size of a fingernail and the sound is "meh". This didn't really bother me as if I want to hear something I will use headphones.

The overall look of the phone is odd. The back looks like it was stitched together from many different pieces of phones. I don't think it looks bad, but at the same time it is hard to say that it is a elegant looking phone. It looks very utilitarian.

As everyone said the battery door is crap. After taking it on and off for a few days I can already see a crease where the plastic flexes when you pull at it. Not a problem for me as I can get a replacement battery door easily, when (not if) it breaks.

The sim card door on the bottom of the phone is a bit off. It snaps on and off quite easily and there are no problems with that, however it does not sit flush with the back of the phone and it pops up a little bit on the back of the phone. This makes it very easy to remove the door, but it does look odd. I don't know if this is a designed feature, poor build quality, or just one bad unit I looked it.

Call quality was fine, I could hear people fine and they could hear me. No complaints. One thing that will take a bit of getting used to is that the screen lock button is located on the top left of the phone, and not the top right like the Aria, iPhone etc.

Wrap up:
I have my phone in the back room with my name on it. By far the best Android phone at&t has ever carried, and it looks and feels very solid. The Big screen makes web browsing a very nice experience and although I did hit some lag while running flash in the browser I think it was more to do with our crap wifi than the phone itself.


Took me about 3 minutes to type this up so if anyone has any questions just ask.
 
So as you know I have had the pleasure of playing around with the phone for the past few days. Here are my thoughts, keep in mind I only have at&t handsets to compare this to so I am using my knowledge on those handsets.

The first thing you notice about the phone is how big it is. Although there are other phones on at&t that have 4 inch screens, the extra .3 inches does make it look a lot bigger. The screen is clear and sharp ad I really have no complaints. It is exactly what you would expect. Loaded up some videos and they all looked fine.

The speaker is somewhat lacking. The back of the phone says that SRS Surround and Dolby Mobile sound, but don't let that fool you. The speaker is the size of a fingernail and the sound is "meh". This didn't really bother me as if I want to hear something I will use headphones.

The overall look of the phone is odd. The back looks like it was stitched together from many different pieces of phones. I don't think it looks bad, but at the same time it is hard to say that it is a elegant looking phone. It looks very utilitarian.

As everyone said the battery door is crap. After taking it on and off for a few days I can already see a crease where the plastic flexes when you pull at it. Not a problem for me as I can get a replacement battery door easily, when (not if) it breaks.

The sim card door on the bottom of the phone is a bit off. It snaps on and off quite easily and there are no problems with that, however it does not sit flush with the back of the phone and it pops up a little bit on the back of the phone. This makes it very easy to remove the door, but it does look odd. I don't know if this is a designed feature, poor build quality, or just one bad unit I looked it.

Call quality was fine, I could hear people fine and they could hear me. No complaints. One thing that will take a bit of getting used to is that the screen lock button is located on the top left of the phone, and not the top right like the Aria, iPhone etc.

Wrap up:
I have my phone in the back room with my name on it. By far the best Android phone at&t has ever carried, and it looks and feels very solid. The Big screen makes web browsing a very nice experience and although I did hit some lag while running flash in the browser I think it was more to do with our crap wifi than the phone itself.


Took me about 3 minutes to type this up so if anyone has any questions just ask.


Idk how long you got to use it, but how good is the battery life (I know this is a dead horse, but you know, it's fairly important)?

Does the camera protrusion seem to get in the way or make th phone rock side to side while it's flat?

what color would you say it is?
 
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I would say it is charcoal. The battery seemed very tiny. Very. Smaller than my Samsung Captivate and Windows Phone 7 batts. Can't really comment on battery life as most of the time I used it there was no sim in it.

The camera does stick out a bit, but when it rests on its back the camera is flat against the table so it does not rock back and fourth. The bezel around the lens seems almost ceramic or metal so it appears to be pretty durable.
 
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My one concern is that when batteries go bad they bulge. There is like no room in the battery compartment if it gets stuck

First, thanks for reviewing the phone for us.

How would you compare build quality, materials used, and fit & finish compared to a Captivate?

I've been very happy with mine & it's trouble free.

What would you like to see improved or changed?

Thank You ...:)
 
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Im going to add to Yakens post:

The camera is really awesome. I have always preferred the tap to focus over the physical camera focus. The on the fly effects are awesome and you can edit them real time to get some awesome photos.

I was very impressed with the feel of the phone. While its all metal, its very soft to the touch, and is very light. You really do feel like you are holding a quality device.

Performance was great, and the customization is endless. I have used launcher pro since it came out last year, but i will not be using it on this phone.

you guys will not be sorry! I had hands on with the Atrix, but this phone just blows it away just by build quality and reliability alone!

short, crappy, ninja video of it coming in 5 min
 
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IMG_20110211_113410.jpg


here is they crappy video i took in the cellar of at&t....super ninja!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l48FeENmS28

would have done a better video but someone walked in to the store (who happened to be my regional manager lol)
 
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HTC Sense.com is very compelling. I'm very eager to pickup my phone on Sunday and connect to that site.

Initially I plan to avoid rooting mine, as I will be using my phone in it's original configuration for a period of time. Learning to get the most out of it, and maximizing it to my preferences.

Then after I've progressed to that point I will make a decision as to rooting. Also by then I expect to have many different sources of info from those who couldn't wait to root & mod theirs extensively.
 
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Wait one sec. I dunno about the others but this just stopped me on my tracks. Are you saying the Inspire is better than the Atrix? Cos that would put me back on the fence on which one to get. :eek:

well this is completely subjective of course,


but i feel like the atrix will not be a very reliable phone as of now. apps on the market arent updated to work tell with tegra, so there are bugs and force closes with some apps (as stated in a bunch of reviews). I prefer the all metal body of the inspire over the Atrix. The screen quality is about the same if you can believe it lol. The atrix has some cool features like the front facing camera and finger print reader. Sense UI is definitely a plus over motoblur

the way i see it

the HTC is a more reliable device to take places, and for my speedy tegra 2 fix, im planning on getting a honeycomb tablet in the coming weeks. I feel like the honeycomb tablets will compliment this phone nicely and fill some gaps
 
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Its hilarious, ironic, and annoying when I read people go off about HSPA+ acting as if they actually know what the f their talking about.

Just because LTE is a new technology does not mean it is true 4G either. It all depends on speed. Thats the only thing that matters. Who gives a rats ass if im using HSPA+ that is just an enhanced 3G network? Not me, especially when it is just as fast or faster than Verizons LTE network lol

So before you go off spreading a bunch of BS, try and realize you probably dont know what your talking about either. In fact the UTI has declared neither HSPA or LTE true 4G (yes they then changed it but that was the initial response to all this). Ohhh the big red and their poor 1mbps download time ha!
 
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well this is completely subjective of course,


but i feel like the atrix will not be a very reliable phone as of now. apps on the market arent updated to work tell with tegra, so there are bugs and force closes with some apps (as stated in a bunch of reviews). I prefer the all metal body of the inspire over the Atrix. The screen quality is about the same if you can believe it lol. The atrix has some cool features like the front facing camera and finger print reader. Sense UI is definitely a plus over motoblur

the way i see it

the HTC is a more reliable device to take places, and for my speedy tegra 2 fix, im planning on getting a honeycomb tablet in the coming weeks. I feel like the honeycomb tablets will compliment this phone nicely and fill some gaps


This......

Pretty much EXACTLY as i predicted even BEFORE anyone got their hands on either phone.....
 
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This......

Pretty much EXACTLY as i predicted even BEFORE anyone got their hands on either phone.....
yup

You just cant bet against HTC, plus all the reviews from CES said that the Atrix looked and felt a bit plastic'y'. HTC just makes a solid device that feels good in the hand. Even the MyTouch4G for T-Mobile has a superb feeling when your holding it. Sucks that the HD7 isn't Android because that phone is built and looks absolutely gorgeous.

Every category that I care about I think the Inspire knocks off the Atrix. People act as if the Inspire is already old news but its go the new Snapdragon under the hood which is plenty fast and will most definitely get the job done. It would be nice to have dual core but only for 'future' purposes because right now the common user isn't really going to be able to tell a difference between the two. At least I wont be able to especially because I dont game on my phone. I dont know, I never considered the Atrix once i heard about the Inspire.

If anything, ill wait till AT&T gets the HTC Pyramid later this year and sell my Inspire to use towards it. That is, if there is actually some functionality to take advantage of the dual core cause otherwise its a waste of money.
 
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Its hilarious, ironic, and annoying when I read people go off about HSPA+ acting as if they actually know what the f their talking about.

Just because LTE is a new technology does not mean it is true 4G either. It all depends on speed. Thats the only thing that matters. Who gives a rats ass if im using HSPA+ that is just an enhanced 3G network? Not me, especially when it is just as fast or faster than Verizons LTE network lol

So before you go off spreading a bunch of BS, try and realize you probably dont know what your talking about either. In fact the UTI has declared neither HSPA or LTE true 4G (yes they then changed it but that was the initial response to all this). Ohhh the big red and their poor 1mbps download time ha!

100mbps on the mobile device is 4G, and it's gonna be a long time before we actually see it.
 
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