Review: AT&T Tilt – HTC TyTN II

If you were to make a list of the most highly anticipated mobile phones of 2007, the iPhone would definitely be at the top. No surprise there, but number two might just be the Tilt. In many ways it can be seen as just another Windows Mobile 6 device, but don’t let the boring name and commonplace OS fool you–people have been looking forward to it for a reason.

The Tilt is the predecessor to another HTC phone, one most recognizable as the Sprint Mogul and the AT&T 8525. Before it found a home at AT&T, the Tilt has a number of different names, like the TyTN II and Kaiser, so you might be more familiar with it than you think.

Tilt closed

Tilt open

Looking at the Tilt we can see that it is a better looking phone than the previous generation and the overall look is much cleaner. The buttons on the device’s face have been changed to a polished finish and the combination of glossy black and a rubberized bottom make for an attractive outside. The top and bottom halves of the phone are able to slide apart from one another revealing a keyboard that is very much like that on the Mogul and a few other HTC devices. The keys are small and slightly domed, and yield one of the better mobile typing experiences available today. The big change of course is that the display, once slid out, can be tilted up for a better viewing experience. The downside to this is that the tilt action is not spring-loaded and when pushed up the display partially blocks the soft buttons. As for size and weight, these are the Tilt’s weakest areas- the phone is 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.73 inches and weighs in at a hefty 6 ounces.

The phone has some other nice frills, like 4 hours of talk time, 8 days of standby, a stereo Bluetooth 2.0, a 3 megapixel camera, and built-in GPS. The best feature though is that the phone has Wi-Fi so web surfing can be done at speed when you are in a hotspot, at home, or in the office. Another nice feature is the 2.8″ 240×320 touchscreen which looks good–though it’s no industry leader– and feels a lot more responsive than that on the older models. It has microSD expansion that can be accessed without opening the device up and includes support for Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and 3.6 Mbps Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100.

With the Tilt, HTC and the carriers that will be using it, wanted to put out a performance Windows Mobile phone for high demand users (the type of people willing to sacrifice some size and weight for performance). As far as being a Windows Mobile device, there is not a lot to say–the Tilt is one of the best implementations of the OS because of it’s design and processing power, but they are not reinventing the wheel here. There was the occasional slowdown (switching from landscape to portrait mode when opening the device should be faster), but overall Windows Mobile runs very well on the device and it is definitely ready for some customization, which can greatly improve usability and aesthetics.

The Tilt is at its best when communicating. It combines very good call quality with quick messaging so whether you’re texting, emailing, or calling it can hold its own against some of the best phones available today. The speaker phone was surprisingly not up to snuff, but this was one of the phone’s only weak points when it came to communicating. It can also be tethered to a notebook and work with the built-in GPS, though performance here was hit and miss. As far as Internet browsing goes, the phone is very solid, thanks to Wi-Fi or a high speed mobile signal, but it is limited by Internet Explorer, which is outclassed by other mobile browsers, like Opera.

call buttons

During testing the Tilt’s battery life came in at a little under five hours of talk time, making this phone the type of all-day business tool that many people will be looking for. Though if you start taking advantage of all the multimedia tools this can have a significant impact.

Overall, the Tilt is one of the better, probably even the best, Windows Mobile phones currently on the market. It gets the proven design of the 8525 and throws in some upgrades to make for a very solid device. You have to be a Windows Mobile fan to really appreciate what is being done here–and Nokia N95 and iPhone owners will have a number of shortcomings to point out– but as Windows Mobile devices go, the Tilt is an appreciable step forward.

As a side note, Joel had a different experience (detailed in the Geek.com Newsletter), but to be fair he prefers the iPhone and the Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen) experience over the Professional one that the Tilt provides.