vB Easy Archive - HTC P4350 (aka Herald) reviewed

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HTC P4350 (aka Herald) reviewed
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Posted by: bonsai

Hi all! I just found this review of the HTC Herald and thought some of you might want to take a look.
http://www.intomobile.com/2007/03/0....html#more-1101
I am seriously considering getting one now, but I want an iPhone too. Maybe I'll just get this phone and then get the iPhone in a few months.

Anyone else in the same situation? Other than the money issue (two smartphones within 6 months is a lot of money), what persuaded you to get it/not get it?

Posted by: bungsana

im not the best judge, but after alot of research (aka, reading and playing w/ other ppls ppcs) i decided on the p4350 as my first ppc phone. it does everything i want it to do and its small enough that it doesnt look like im hiding a brick in my pocket.

and sue me, but im not much of a fan of the iphone. i mean, what does it really offer besides multi-touch (which i wont use) and OSX (which, correct me if im wrong, but is just another OS). it doesnt even have a keypad. beh.

Posted by: kxgard3

In that review they site the phone on the right at the prophet but I actually think it's the Trinity. I could be wrong though.

I just bought this phone about 2 weeks ago. It was my first Pocket PC phone and only my second Pocket PC. It was a really tough decision between it and the P3300 and the P3600 for me. What really pushed me over the edge on this phone was how every review of it gives it very high praise. I wanted a phone that was stable and sturdy. Between the three phones (P3300, P3600, and the P4350) the herald seemed to really stand out as a outstanding phone.

So now that I have it how do I feel about it? Well first off let me say that everyday I find another reason why I think it is the greatest phone that I have ever owned.

When I took it out of the box my first though was WOW this is small......I was actually expecting it to be BIGGER. I picked it up and it felt very very. It has only froze on my once, when I was trying to install Googles Java midlet, and then attempted to open the midletmanager while it was already open. Other then that the only time I have soft rest is after I have installed software or uninstalled.

Battery life is amazing. On Tuesday I took it off the charger around noon, made about 1 hour worth of phone calls and about 30 mins of music via bluetooth headset, sent a couple texts, had about 4 emails come through via push and used my calender a few times to add appointments, then when I got home made about 6 changes in my calender on the computer. Each change would have fired off a exchange sync. At that point it had about 60% battery left. Right before I went to bed I had it hooked up to my computer via USB to install a program. It was connected for maybe 10mins. I purposely didn't charge it and had a similar usage pattern the next day ( a little less talk and music) at the end of the night I was down to about 35%.

As far as A2DP goes I bought a pair of Motorola HT820's to go with the phone. The phone and headphones paired perfectly the first time. Music sounds good and calls sound great. I am amazed on how simple it is to use them, now that they are paired I just turn on BT on the phone and then turn on the headset and they almost instantly detected and ready to use.

Tonight while I was at work, after we closed I went to the office to do the computer work while the employees cleaned the store. I realized I forgot my CD's I was pretty bummed that I didn't have any music to listen too................Herald to the rescue! I opened the audio manager and selected my play list set the phone face down on the desk and was able to hear the music just find over the noisy employee's and the music sounded pretty decent.

I love this phone it's fantastic. I bought my through egadgetdepot and payed a little extra for 2nd day air. Total it was about 609. My family gives me a bunch of crap about spending that much on a phone but in my opinion it was well worth it. I have only two complaints about the phone and its not really the fault of the phone. I have very big hands and sometimes when typing on the keyboard I hit the left softkey and my message gets send prematurely. Also because my big hands the font buttons are a little difficult for me to hit while holding it in one hand and I worry about dropping it.

Posted by: bonsai

bungsana, i like the iPhone because of its features, but mostly because of its design. i dont have visual voicemail or multitouch right now and i still get along fine.

kxgard3, thanks for the info. my hands are quite large and i was wondering how the phone and button would feel.

Posted by: bungsana

i understand about the iphone. design and style is a personal thing. and it does look very sexy. i just wonder how it will function as a ppc or if it will be a 'super' smartphone. but i digress.

im with kxgard3. i travel alot so the airplane mode and the wifi make it excellent. and the installed comm manager and the ability to actually close apps were smart choices by HTC so that you wouldnt have to install 3rd party software to do those functions. like stated above battery life is amazing. i mess with it all day on and off and i never run out of juice.

im sure you also saw comparison pics, but suffice to say, its thinner than my pebl. and despite what people say, the heft is nice.

oh, and i also bought mine from egadgetdepot.com. great guys.

Posted by: ThePhoneGuy5

I would totally buy this phone but a few things are holding me back.

I am not buying a WM5 phone today hoping that either a hack or HTC gets around to giving us an upgrade to WM6, from the looks of it, HTC is not going to be doing this for any of their WM5 phones.

And with WM6 out, I see no reason to buy a WM5 phone.
WM6 runs a lot faster and has a lot of fixes which WM5 needs.

The only other things are the 200mhz OMAP cpu, vs the 400mhz 8525 cpu,
the lack of a LED light/flash for the camera, and the lack of 3G(don't care much about this).

Posted by: SneezyRobot

Thanks for the review link, that was definitely helpful, I've been looking at the p4350 for a while myself but I'm having the same dilemma. The problem is that the iphone is yet to have it's field testing and It's hard to say if it's worth waiting for. Right now windows mobile has a great developer community behind it, it's hard to say if the Iphone will or not.

I haven't made up my mind completely yet, but I think I'm going to go with the p4350 for now and ebay it once (if) people start giving the iphone some good reviews.

Posted by: kxgard3

Quote:

Originally Posted by SneezyRobot

Thanks for the review link, that was definitely helpful, I've been looking at the p4350 for a while myself but I'm having the same dilemma. The problem is that the iphone is yet to have it's field testing and It's hard to say if it's worth waiting for. Right now windows mobile has a great developer community behind it, it's hard to say if the Iphone will or not.

I haven't made up my mind completely yet, but I think I'm going to go with the p4350 for now and ebay it once (if) people start giving the iphone some good reviews.

The Iphone will most likely not have a developer community behind it according to Mr. Jobs.

Posted by: bonsai

sneezy, exactly, i want to see how the iphone works from a hands on perspective.

phoneguy, the processor is older and slower on paper, but i actually got a chance to play with the device and it is actually pretty fast, like the review says.

my friend just loaded wm6 on his tytn with no problems so i dont see why i wouldnt be able to do the same with the p4350. when its available of course.

im going to pull the trigger and get the p4350 online. im looking at getting it from www.sugarpipe.com. i have purchased a couple phones from them in the past and they seem to be reliable and fast (plus i have a discount there!).

Posted by: ThePhoneGuy5

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonsai

sneezy, exactly, i want to see how the iphone works from a hands on perspective.

phoneguy, the processor is older and slower on paper, but i actually got a chance to play with the device and it is actually pretty fast, like the review says.

my friend just loaded wm6 on his tytn with no problems so i dont see why i wouldnt be able to do the same with the p4350. when its available of course.

im going to pull the trigger and get the p4350 online. im looking at getting it from www.sugarpipe.com. i have purchased a couple phones from them in the past and they seem to be reliable and fast (plus i have a discount there!).

For the TYTN XDA devs released a WM6 update/hack, MS made them remove it though.
It is doubtful that they will release one for the 4350.

Either your carrier or HTC themselves would, and I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

Posted by: kxgard3

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhoneGuy5

Yeah but right now I don't see any advantages of WM6 over AKU 3.

Posted by: Mike Mercury

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhoneGuy5

...
And with WM6 out, I see no reason to buy a WM5 phone.
WM6 runs a lot faster and has a lot of fixes which WM5 needs.

I hear ya... but that's always the battle cry for a newer OS version. Then months later the PC community has found new bugs and that it's actually slower in some tasks.

I hope you are right, but Microsofts track record isn't all that great.

Posted by: igotDASH

what provider is gonna support this phone?

Posted by: kxgard3

Quote:

Originally Posted by igotDASH

what provider is gonna support this phone?

The P4350 is sold by HTC as unlocked thus this phone will work on any GSM providers network.