RadioShack to sell T-Mobile G2

If you were proactive enough to pre-order a T-Mobile G2, there's a better-than-average chance that your shiny new smartphone is already en route to your abode.

For those who slept in, it looks as if RadioShack will be the go-to place if you're looking to snag one early from the retail universe. According to the badly formatted flyer pictured above, The Shack will be the first B&M location to stock the US version of the HTC Desire Z, and it'll be hawking 'em for $149.99 on a two-year postpaid contract starting October 3rd. Got that penciled into your little black book? Good.

Via Engadget

HTC HD7 Review Nothing Comes In Small

No smartphone platform is complete without a phone big enough to double as an ice scraper. The hulking HD7 is that phone for Windows Phone 7.

Specs
Price: $199 w/ 2-year contract on T-Mobile
Display: 4.3 inches @ 800x480
Processor: 1GHz Snapdragon
Memory and Storage: 512MB RAM, 16GB built-in storage
Camera: 5MP stills, 720p video

There's a small army of Windows phones to choose from which all more or less look, work and feel the same. The HD7 is simply the biggest, with a massive, 4.3-inch screen. It's also essentially a greatest hits edition phone for HTC, mixing up various bits of its past steroidal slabs, the HD2 and Evo 4G. It's got a kickstand. It should be a slam dunk.

Before you go any further, you should read our Windows Phone 7 review, which'll tell you all about the software.

In a phone that's all about the screen, it should be using a good screen, and the one here is middling, with some seriously crummy viewing angles. A slight tilt off-axis and colors get shimmery and washed out—it's particularly noticeable with Windows Phone's in-your-face primary colors. The color temp's really warm, so the stark white backgrounds of Outlook makes you think "peeeeee." Still, having all that space is a small luxury, particularly when you're web browsing, watching videos, typing or with certain information-dense apps, like Facebook.

The best photo I managed to take with the HD7.

The five-megapixel camera is disappointing. Sometimes it'll shoot perfectly acceptable pictures. Sometimes it'll shoot totally washed out crap, rather than exposing it properly. The number of camera settings you're allowed to tweak pales in comparison to the laundry list you're able to adjust on Samsung's Focus. (Though since a nasty Windows Phone bug resets all of them to the default settings anyway, maybe it doesn't matter that much.) And while all of the buttons on the HD7 are a little too flush with the body, it's most annoying with the camera button, since half the time you're just trying to focus, it ends up taking a shot.

It runs Windows Phone 7 as excellently as it can be run, but it's not breaking any new ground in the same way that HTC phones have pushed phone specs in the past. Since Microsoft's calling the shots here, that's mostly on them. (As are the times when apps take forever to load, since epic load and resume times are common to all Windows Phones right now.) In their limited capacity to add on to Windows Phone, some of what T-Mobile and HTC have tacked on is good (Netflix, Slacker Radio, Flashlight) and some of it's useless. HTC's tried to make the phone's sound stand out by etching speakers into the top and bottom of the face and boasting that it's got Dolby Mobile and SRS surround sound, but what warbles forth is harsh and tinny.

Maybe I've just used too many gigant-o-phones at this point and gotten used to them, but the HD7 seems less obnoxiously large than other phones this size, and simply natural. The screen's bigness, which is the whole reason to buy this phone. Kickstand!

Poor viewing angle on the display. The battery life is weak, pulling me only through 2/3 of a day, thanks to a wussy-sized 1230 mAh pack. The headphone jack's on the bottom of the phone, instead of the top.

This could be a much better phone than it is, the Windows Phone to get, simply by flawlessly delivering on technical excellence. But its headline feature—the neverending display—is compromised by being less-than-stellar in other respects. And, like my ex-girlfriend told me until she dumped me, size ain't everything. Overall, the HD7 is not a bad phone, and it's a perfect serviceable vehicle for Windows Phone 7. It's just not a great phone.

Via Gizmodo

T-Mobile announces new myTouch with HSPA+, front-facing camera, and Android 2.2

Just a few weeks after the announcement of their first HSPA+ phone, the G2, T-Mobile has just announced their second: the myTouch by HTC.

“But wait,” you say, “hasn’t the myTouch existed forever?”

Yes, yes it has. But that was the myTouch 3G – this one’s just the “myTouch”. Hurray for confusing names!

Via Crunchgear

HTC Evo 4G

HTC Evo 4G is Sprint's premier smartphone and you'll get a great device regardless of our quibbles. We just hope Sprint starts to light up those 4G markets faster, so everyone can take advantage of the 4G capabilities and get their money's worth. HTC Evo 4G will be available June 4 for $199.99 with a two year contract and the aforementioned data plans. Though Sprint requires a $100 mail-in rebate, Best Buy and Radio Shack do not, so you get the $200 price tag instantly. Cut from the same cloth as the HTC HD2, HTC Evo 4G isn't what you'd call a dainty phone.

It measures 4.8 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 6 ounces, so you're dealing with a good chunk of hardware. It's right on the cusp of being too big, but HTC was able to keep HTC Evo 4G relatively thin, making it more manageable. Plus, you might be willing to overlook the large size once you get a glimpse of the smartphone's massive display. Like the HD2, HTC Evo 4G rocks a 4.3 inch capacitive touch screen that's downright mesmerizing. The extra screen real estate makes a huge difference when viewing Web pages and reading text, and HTC Evo 4G supports the pinch to zoom gesture in a number of apps.

The display shows vibrant colors and the sharp WVGA 800x480 pixel resolution makes everything look crisp. There is a built-in light sensor that will automatically adjust the backlight based on the ambient light we were able to read the screen in most environments, but it did wash out a bit in bright sunlight. Another benefit of the large display is a spacious keyboard that rivals the iPhone's in ease of use. Even in portrait mode, we were able to quickly punch out a message with both thumbs (none of that pecking at the keys with one finger) with minimal mistakes.

As you can imagine, the landscape keyboard is even roomier, but most times we found we could get away with just typing in portrait mode. Below the screen, you get four touch sensitive navigation controls : home, menu, back, and search. A long press of the home key will bring up a list of your most recently used apps. There's a volume rocker on the right side, and the top of the device features a power button and 3.5 mm headphone jack. On the bottom, you'll find a Micro-USB port and an HDMI port. Be aware that the latter is a Type D connector, so you'll have to get a compatible cable to hook the phone up to your TV.

Of course, you can watch video and view photos right from the phone, and there's a handy kickstand on back so you can prop the phone up on a desk. Though there will be purists who prefer the standard Android skin, in most cases, we'd choose a device running HTC Sense. Out of all our custom skins for Android (Motoblur, TouchWiz, etc.), Sense is our absolute favorite, as it gives Android a more user friendly interface. In many cases, it improves on the core functions by better integrating the features, which is why we're glad to see that Sprint had the sense (sorry) to go with Sense on HTC Evo 4G.

Just like the Droid Incredible and the HTC Legend, HTC Evo 4G runs the newer version of HTC Sense, which was announced at Mobile World Congress 2010. This includes a revamped mail widget that can take you to a list view of all your e-mail instead of just one message at a time. (This view, however, is only one of several choices.) Once in the mail app, there's a handy tabbed interface at the bottom that lets you view unread messages, attachments, meeting invites, and more with a simple touch.

The Agenda widget also now displays your whole agenda on the screen, and, like the latest HTC devices, you get an animated weather widget right on the home screen that automatically displays the current conditions based on your location. You also get a new Group Contacts widget, which lets you organize your contacts by groups. For example, you can set up one for work colleagues, another for friends, and another for just family whatever you please. The UI looks good, and it's simple to add contacts to a group, though removing them requires a few extra steps.

Sense also makes it easy to access as much information as possible within the contact management system. If any of your contacts have Facebook updates, it will display them right next to their pictures in the contact database. You can also see all your exchanges (text messages, call logs, etc.) with a single person from his or her contact card, and all your contacts are accessible within the phone app.

However, we still had multiple instances of duplicate contacts and had to go back and manually link them together. Another feature, called Friend Stream, provides a single place for all your social networking needs, piping in updates from Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Unlike Motoblur, it's not server based the phone connects to the sites and pulls information directly from there.

HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless)

Though HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless) touts itself as a multimedia smartphone, it is not as flashy as other multimedia focused hand helds. This is not to say it isn't attractive indeed, we love the large touch screen display as well as the smooth edges and tapered corners. But the dimpled bezel surrounding the display, which doubles as the speaker, and the thick plastic casing gives it more of a hefty industrial feel. Measuring 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighing 5.25 ounces, HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless) has quite a sturdy construction and is not at all flimsy or cheap.

The back of HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless) is partially covered in a matte black soft touch finish, which gives it a comfortable feel in the hand. By far the most stunning thing about HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless)'s appearance is its large 3.6 inch WVGA touch screen. It has 65.000 colors output, 480x800 pixel resolution, and a smooth glass surface, which result in beautifully crisp images and sharp text. The extra screen real estate lends itself well to Web page scrolling and video viewing as well.

Also handy is the built-in accelerometer that switches the screen from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone. This is only applicable in certain situations, though, like with the Web browser, e-mail, photos, and videos. Even though HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless) does not have the Touch branding. Like that on the HTC Touch Pro2, you get additional tabs for the Calendar and Stock quotes, plus the ability to add and remove tabs on the Home screen. We also really like that the Start menu is presented in a grid view, which you can customize with different apps and settings.

HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless) has a resistive touch screen rather than a capacitive one. We usually complain about this because resistive displays require more precision than capacitive screens, but in the case of HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless), we were quite pleased with it. The touch screen felt responsive and easy to use, even when we were just using our fingers instead of the included stylus. We even liked the onscreen QWERTY keyboard, especially since it supports XT9 auto word complete and tapping the keys provides haptic feedback.

We do prefer using the keyboard in landscape mode rather than in portrait mode, however, as the keys are a bit bigger, thus resulting in fewer mistakes. The zoom in and out bar underneath the display helped a lot when reading and selecting hyperlinks in the Web browser as well, since you could just zoom in easily by sliding your finger on the bar. It does take a couple of seconds for the page to render when zooming in, though. Underneath the zoom controls are the Talk and End or Power keys, a media key, the Start menu key, and a back key.

The media key can be mapped to any media application, like V Cast TV, V Cast Video, or the music player. The keys are flat, but there is enough delineation between each key that they weren't hard to press. The volume rocker is on the right spine and the mini-USB port and 3.5 mm headset jack are on the bottom. On the back is the camera lens plus an antenna that doubles as a kickstand simply press the release button and it'll pop out. This way you can set HTC Imagio (Verizon Wireless) on a flat surface and watch videos as if it were a portable television. Also on the back toward the lower right is the stylus compartment. The microSD card slot is inconveniently located behind the battery cover on the right side.

HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless)

In the hand, HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless) feels like a solidly constructed phone. It measures 4.45 inches tall by 2.19 inches wide by 0.51 inch thick and weighs 4.23 ounces, so it's slim enough to slip into a pants pocket and feels comfortable to hold during phone calls. In addition, HTC added a proximity sensor, a feature that was missing on the Sprint HTC Hero, so now the screen will turn off when you're on a phone call to prevent any accidental misdials from a brush of your cheek.

Speaking of the screen, HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless)'s 3.2 inch HVGA capacitive touch screen is hard to ignore. With a 320x480 pixel resolution, the display is amazingly sharp and vibrant. Text is easy to read and the colors of images are vibrant and rich. The Android interface, with its icon based main menu, is familiar, but we're disappointed that HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless) comes only with Android OS 1.5. That means you'll have to wait for OS 1.6 and 2.0. In addition to a light sensor, the screen has a built-in accelerometer so the screen orientation automatically changes from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone.

Be aware that the feature only works in certain applications, such as photos, the Web browser, and e-mail. The onscreen keyboard also will change depending on the phone's position. Just like the Hero, HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless) uses HTC's own virtual keyboard rather than the stock Android one. We find it to be a little easier to use with its bigger buttons, white background, and more spacing between the keys, particularly in landscape mode. Even with those refinements, it's slightly behind the iPhone's in terms of precision, but it's responsive and provides haptic feedback.

The capacitive touch screen generally is responsive, whether you're tapping an icon to open an app, scrolling through long lists, or swiping through the various home screens. We love that HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless) offers full multi touch support in the Web browser and photo gallery. That means that you can zoom by pinching your fingers and by double tapping the screen. It's a big improvement over the first-gen Android phones and it removes one of the last remaining advantages of the iPhone's browser. On the bottom of the display are three touch controls for the main menu, a home screen customization menu, and the calling menu.

The latter opens the phone dialer and offers access to your recent calls and your contacts list. There are other ways to interact with your device. Below the display you get four navigation buttons : Home, Menu, Back, and Zoom. However, unlike the Sprint and GSM Hero, these four navigation controls are touch sensitive rather than physical buttons. Like the keyboard, they provide haptic feedback and we preferred them over the Sprint Hero's since they have a more spacious layout and are more responsive. We occasionally had to press the Menu button a couple of times for it to register, but it wasn't a big problem. You also get some physical controls, including a Talk and End or power keys and a trackball navigator.

HTC Android

It is not only noticeable from the back of the phone displaying a text 'with Google' the applications in the menu also make it clear that this phone features the Google operating system. Google Maps, Gmail, Google Talk and YouTube are all available for the HTC Magic Android mobile phone. And of course, the large search machine Widget on the main screen. The large touchscreen makes the HTC Magic excellent in combination with the Internet.

Also thanks to the support of HSDPA and Wifi, and all connections possibilities are available. Email is a matter of inserting the email address and the password, whereupon the application will connect to a server to load the settings. This is extremely easy to do; it provides access to your email in only two steps. The internet pages are well displayed, no black edges or ambiguities.

HTC Magic is the second mobile phone since the HTC G1 to feature the Google Android operating system. The HTC Magic is available in black and white. In addition to the Android operating system, this new HTC mobile phone features an integrated 3.2 Megapixel digital camera, GPS antenna, TrackBall navigation, HSDPA internet and WiFi.

HTC Magic

HTC Magic Google Android smartphone is introduced with a Vodafone simlock. The modest yet colorful Vodafone package displays a small picture of the smartphone itself, including the phone's main features. The Magic Android does not really look like an actual HTC Smartphone. It has an elegant design and feels extremely solid. The phone also provides a perfect hand fit, and the weight is not bothersome.

In addition to several buttons below the touchscreen, we also come across a trackball here, as we have seen before on other phones, for example the Blackberry mobile phones. Standard included with the HTC Magic are a neat leather pouch, a USB lead, a headset, a charger, an 8GB memory card and a quick start guide. As mentioned earlier, the HTC Magic runs on the Android platform, which is why this phone is also called the second Google phone, or the HTC G2.

You can simply drag up the menu from the bottom, instead of via the menu button below the touchscreen, as you would expect at first. This menu button opens a new menu for every application, for example; the browser allows you to either open or refresh an Internet page, and Google Maps lets you change the map mode or search for a location. The menu's structure is quite easy, although the combination with the menu button does require some practice.

It seems not everything is stored in the same way, however it would not call it complicated. It's just a little bit different than what we are used to luckily enough, however, it is stable and fast. Everything runs smoothly and upon opening the menu, you will find a large number of icons. In addition to the standard functions, such as settings and gallery, also Google applications such as Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail and YouTube can be found.

HTC Hero

HTC Mobile, a global designer and manufacturer of mobile phones, debuted HTC Sense, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of cell phones beginning with the new HTC Hero Android smartphone. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, HTC Hero smartphone introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.

HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly listening and observing how people live and communicate. HTC Hero smartphone continues HTC leadership in cutting edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality.

Boasting beveled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero handset is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while you're on a call. HTC Hero cell phone is built to last beginning with an anti fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display. The white HTC Hero phone includes an industry first, Teflon coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that is soft to the touch.

With its 3.2 inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including a GPS, digital compass, gravity sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a 5 mega pixel auto focus camera and expandable MicroSD memory.

HTC Hero multimedia handset also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero. HTC Hero android will be available to people across Europe in July and in Asia later in the summer. A distinct North American version will be available later in 2009.

HTC S743

HTC is all about offering different styles of handsets to meet individual needs, and as we mentioned earlier the HTC S743 falls somewhere between the Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro. The handset is smaller than the Touch Pro, measuring 4.5 inches tall by 1.7 inches wide and 0.6 inch deep and weighing 4.9 ounces, yet still manages to pack in a full QWERTY keyboard using a slider design, so it's a good device for the mobile professional who needs to keep on top of email, appointments, and such.

The HTC S743 (pictured next to the T-Mobile G1) keeps a slim design while packing in a full QWERTY keyboard. The thinner profile makes it feel more like a regular candy bar style cell phone in the hand and when on calls, but the S743 is still on the thicker, longer side so it might make for a tight fit in a pants pocket. It's a solidly constructed handset, however, and has a pretty sleek look with its classic black chassis and mirrored face.

The smartphone also has a similar geometric design on the back like the unlocked GSM version of the HTC Touch Diamond, but it now features a soft touch finish so it's not as slippery or smudge-prone as the Touch Diamond. On front, you'll find the 2.4-inch QVGA non touch display with a 65.000 colors output and 240x320 pixel resolution. The S743 isn't part of the Touch series, so you don't get a touch screen or HTC's TouchFlo interface.

Instead, you get the more traditional Windows Mobile UI. It's not as flashy as TouchFlo, but at least with Windows Mobile 6.1 the Home screen offers more of your information right at a glance. For example, you can preview new email, scroll through bookmarked Web sites, launch your media player, and more. You can also choose from other Home Screen options under the Settings menu.

Below the display, you get a standard navigation array of two soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a Home shortcut, a back button, and a four way toggle with a center select button. Overall, the controls are pretty easy to use, though we're not huge fans of the tiny Talk and End keys. Fortunately, the alphanumeric keypad features large buttons, so we didn't have many misdials or errors when composing simple text messages. Overall, the S743's full QWERTY keyboard is easy to use, but we wish the spacebar were bigger.

For longer emails, you'll probably want to use the four row QWERTY keyboard, which you can access by pushing the face of the phone to the right. The sliding mechanism is smooth and securely locks into place, and the screen orientation also automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode. For such a compact phone, the keyboard features good size buttons so we think most users won't have too many problems. The one thing we do wish for is a bigger spacebar.

Though we appreciate the inclusion of extra SMS or MMS shortcut key on the bottom row, we'd much prefer that was taken out to make the spacebar larger since we had to stretch to reach it as is. That said, the smaller size and lighter weight of the S743 over the Touch Pro also makes it more comfortable to hold while typing messages, since it doesn't feel quite as top heavy from the slide up screen. We found the location of the microSD expansion slot to be inconvenient, since you have to remove the SIM card to get access to it.

On the left side, there's a volume rocker and a camera activation or capture button on the right. The power button is located on top, and on the bottom of the unit you'll find a Mini-USB port and headset jack. We're once again disappointed by the lack of a 3.5mm standard headphone jack, though you can get an audio adapter so you can use your own headphones. Another annoyance is the location of the microSD expansion slot.

It, along with the SIM card slot, are located behind the front cover, so the phone needs to be in an open state to access it. Our gripe isn't its location but rather the fact that the microSD slot is located under the SIM card so you have to remove the SIM card every time you want swap a memory card. Granted, you probably won't do this often, but it's still an annoyance. Last but not least, the camera is located on the back.