Review: AT&T HTC Pure Part 1...Unboxing

 If you have been waiting for a Windows Phone that is both svelt, stylish, and packed with capability, the Pure is probably that phone. The only thing that could arguably be added to it in terms of hardware design is maybe a slide-out keyboard. It's slimmer than either Storm or iPhone, includes a 5mpxl camera with zoom, a microSD for storage expansion, and a smorgasboard of wireless options not to mention 3G data service. This is the first of a 2-part writeup on the Pure. The first will focus on hardware aspects of the phone, and my general impressions...Read on for the gory unboxing details...

Getting Ready to Open the Box!

I have not written that many new hardware reviews, I admit--some gadget accessories, iPAQ PDA handhelds, the Android G1, etc. Which is why I am awed when I get a chance to review a new device! Suffice to say, I practically fell down the stairs when the FEDEX guy dropped off the Pure. I have a lot of gadgets no doubt, but it was like X-Mas in September when I tore open the FEDEX package (the 29th was my birthday after all).

Inside the large package was a dissappointingly small, orange on white container--a SIM card taped to the outside. I guess I expected there to be a docking station, and a bunch of other attachments considering how big the FEDEX package was. I left it for later, since I had an appointment that morning. When I came back, my wife goes,"hey, I opened your new phone up...it's cool, so can I have it?". I just stared for like a full minute. Gratingly: "No you can't "have it", it's just an eval unit, and I have to send it back after I write a review!" Knowing what a revential geek I am about my gadgets (and seeing the steam coming out of my ears), she quickly assured me that she had put everything back exactly as it was. I couldn't even tell she'd broken the seal to be honest (how do wives do that anyway)?

Actually Opening the Box!

In addition to the Pure, the box contained a quick start guide for the phone and another for the TouchFLO 3D UI. Also included is a getting started CD with MS ActiveSync 4.5 and Device Center to enable syncing information to and from your PC. A user manual in pdf format is also available on the CD. According to the press information, the eval Pure units were not the true final release of the model, and would not include AT&T apps or 3G connections. However, the unit I evaluated seemed to be a fully capable commercial model. 

Also included in the package is a small charger unit with a USB cable and dongle (the charger has a USB port). The charger base has a slot that allows different power adapter types to be slid into it, and is practically small enough to fit in your pocket. The dongle allows you to connect 3.5mm, 2.5mm, or USB headsets, and you can charge through the dongle as well. Also included in the box is an extra stylus, and of course, there is a stylus holder and stylus integrated in the phone itself.

Introducing the AT&T HTC Pure...

The theme of the Pure--if such a thing exists--would be sleekness. The face of the phone is attractively minimalist, adhering to the media-centric trend towards more screen and less buttons. A thin silver elongated earpiece sits at the top edge of the face above the HTC and AT&T logos. 

The screen is a spacious 3.2" (480X800 WVGA) TFT-LCD touch sensitive with a slider zoom bar. The zoom bar, located at the bottom of the screen is a narrow panel for touch zooming the display (in applications that support it: browser, pix, etc.). The typical call and OS-related buttons are arrayed below the zoom slider in typical phone fashion (talk/send button left, end call button right). The button configuration includes the obligatory WM OS start/back button in the middle (actually 2 buttons connected together). The buttons are aesthetically narrow and without the glossy exterior texture of the phone, offsetting them nicely. 

The outside of the phone appears almost black, but holding it at an angle in the light reveals a deep blue metallic finish that is rather attractive. 2 thin volume buttons are located along the upper left side, and a tiny slender speaker is located on the opposite side toward the back edge. 

The back cover of the phone is broken at center top by the 5mpx camera aperture with a brushed metal-like strip that stylishly extends down to the center of the phone face. The back cover slides off with more than a little bit of effort, which frustrated me for at least 10 minutes before I could get the phone's battery (1100mAh) and SIM installed.

Centered along the bottom edge is the extUSB cover/port and a tiny mic hole. The stylus holder is integrated in the bottom back right edge of the phone. What I call the ctrl-alt-del hole (reset), is cleverly hidden in the interior of the stylus holder. I would prefer that the microSD slot, which is located under the cover, be available through an opening in the cover itself. After installing the SIM and the battery and waiting for an exceptional long period while the phone went through initial load and setup, I was ready to finally try it out!

General User Experience

This phone is where I wish the MS phone experience had been 2 years ago. That is, if phone geeks had their way and the OS and hardware were integrated directly like iPhone. The phone interface (TouchFLO 3D) is fairly intuitive, responsive, and touch-friendly. You really see the difference this means if you navigate into settings and turn TouchFLO off (though the updated Start Menu screen is an improvement...see below).

The default WM home screen and menus are still not exactly easy to manuever, but it is important to remember that MS allows developers and OEMs to create/run their own enhanced UIs like TouchFLO. In comparison, this is only possible on iPhone if you jailbreak. The enhanced soft keyboard is better than native WM, but still cramped in portrait mode (which most apps require).

It offers a nice "hold-to-shift" feature to quickly enter symbols, num and characters. A couple of buttons I really miss are the D-Pad action, direction arrows, and a camera snapshot button (soft input required). Several apps are dead without them, to be honest. The phone has a G Sensor motion sensing internal device, and tilting the unit will change screen orientation in certain apps that support it. There's a tilt game included called Teeter that illustrates the motion sensor capability pretty well (manipulate a silver ball through a maze of holes by tilting, etc.). Overall, the experience is a bit disappointing compared to the iPhone or iPod motion-sensing abilities, not to mention the games available that support such. I am still stoked by tilt features making their way to WM phones. The support and apps will certainly follow. 

Camera

The camera is pretty impressive at 5mpx (with auto-zoom), and the pix were superb. The camera app in TouchFLO is pretty nifty, allowing you to flip through images and videos with a dragging gesture up or down. The camera offers either auto-focus or touch mode, which worked nicely, but the delay could be a problem if you are trying to capture dynamic events, and with no buttons external to the phone, you have to tap on the screen to focus your shot on a part of the screen. Personally, I like point-n-shoot, so I can't complain much, and the camera application starts fast. The images the Pure produced were lavish compared to the cheap HP digital camera I normally use (which these screenshots were made with). However, you need plenty of light, as there is no flash. A ton of tweakable settings and features are integratred with the camera (which I could write a mini-review about on it's own...)

Applications and User Interface

TouchFLO UI, at the heart of the Pure, in many respects blows the iPhone UI out of the water. The various home menus (contacts, messaging, stocks, weather, music, and more), which similar to iPhone can be easily manipulated with finger gestures, are much more robust in capability. The home screen widgets like mail and photo apps allow you to browse mail message content or peruse your photo album for instance (without having to open full applications). The weather applet has gee-wiz animations. It's about as slick, honestly as anything iPhone can do. Pocket IE gets an overhaul in this version, with a much better double "tap-to-zoom" functionality, and gesture based panning (you can also use the zoom bar at the bottom of the screen). Opera is also an option, and pre-installed on the phone. Overall browsing was a bit sluggish, and YouTube's embedded player in the mobile version would not complete loading a video for some reason. The Standard YT mobile link launched the internal media player app, which did work and the video played fine in that mode. I need to verify I had a good connection, and post back in a follow-up on the connectivity performance to be fair on this point.

If you are a WinMo user already, I think you will love this phone. It has operated in a very stable manner for more than a week now as my main companion phone, and I frankly think it's performence has been good as well. I haven't used the "ctrl-alt-del" hole yet! As a media device, it is getting better marks than previous WinMo devices I have used. I have not yet started installing my huge library of WM applications, but next week I will post on how the phone holds up under more extensive testing including working with wireless features, and GPS. If you have been thinking about switching to a WinMo phone, the Pure might be a good candidate. It does a good job of keeping the important tasks close at hand in your home screen, while providing robust hardware/OS which can be geeked out if that's your thing. Check back next week for my final recommendations.