HTC Imagio XV6975 Review

Introduction:

One of the more successful smartphones for Verizon over the past year has been the HTC Touch Diamond. We were hoping to see a Verizon release of the Touch Diamond2 later this year, but it appears that the HTC Imagio XV6975 will take the place of the original model. The Imagio is similar to the Touch Diamond2; however it has grown in size in order to add a bigger screen. In addition, it runs on the new Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system and is the only current smartphone for Verizon to supportVCast Mobile TV, powered by Qualcomm’s FLO TV network. The Imagio also includes an updated TouchFLO 3D user interface, Opera Mobile 9.5 browser, and a 5MP camera. All of this combines into one high-end device that will be tough competition for the Samsung Omnia II and the Motorola A855 Android device that are due out later this year.

Included in the retail package is the HTC Imagio XV6975 phone, 1500 mAh battery, wall charger with detachable miniUSB cable, 3 power adapters, 2 stylus, CDs and user manuals.

Design:

Since the HTC Imagio is not part of the Diamond series, it loses the uniquely designed diamond-cut back that we’ve come to love. Instead the Imagio has a 2-tone back plate, of which 75% has a soft-touch finish and the remaining 25% is shiny plastic. The Imagio is also slightly taller and wider than the Touch Pro2, but is not as thick since it lacks the sliding QWERTY keyboard. Because of this, the Imagio feels less “brick like” and is more comfortable to hold in your hand. It also isn’t as noticeable when placed in your pants pocket.



You can compare the HTCImagio XV6975 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

One feature we truly love about the HTC Imagio is the large 3.6-inch 480x800 WVGA resolution resistive touchscreen display, whereas the Touch Dimand2 only has a 3.2-inch display. Since the Imagio doesn’t have a physical keyboard or d-pad, the touchscreen is the main point of interaction with the device, and it works flawlessly. Images and text look excellent on it, though one can hardly see what is being displayed once taken outdoors in direct sunlight..



Below the display are the touch-sensitive zoom bar and 5 physical buttons for send, end, Mobile TV, Start, and back. The buttons work well and are noticeably larger than the ones used by the Touch Pro2. On the right side is the volume rocker and on the bottom are the 3.5mm headset jack and miniUSB data port. Located on the back are the 5MP autofocus camera, external speaker, and kickstand (to help when viewing videos). One part we didn’t care for was the battery cover, as it has to be popped off, instead of being slid off, which makes you feel like it is going to break. But you have to remove it to gain access to the microSDHC memory card slot, which can use cards of up to 16GB in size. We would have preferred a side-access cover to the memory card slot instead.

Interface:

One feature that sets HTC apart from other smartphones is its TouchFLO 3D user interface. We loved it the first time around with the Touch Diamond, but now it has undergone some slight upgrades, making it pretty similar to the ones found on the Touch Pro2 and Diamond2.

Home Screen shows a clock, date, current weather for your location, missed calls, tasks, and direct links to the call history and calendar. Pressing on the clock will open up the newly designed world clock and alarm page, though only 3 alarms can be set.



My Favorites allows you to select picture links to your most accessed contacts, to call and send messages or emails to.

Messaging shows all recent text, picture, and video messages that have been received. You can quickly reply and view messages sent by you.

Email shows your recently received email messages in the form of a letter, but only the top part of the text is visible. You can scroll up and down to select different emails, and click on them to view all of the text.

Calendar is one of the new tabs, as compared to the first Diamond. You can scroll up and down to select different months and click on the desired day to enter an appointment. The weather forecast is also shown for up to 5 days in advance.


Internet tab has a Bing search bar at the top, link to Opera Mobile browser and other stored favorite web sites.

Stocks are another new tab that allows you to enter in your stock watch list, which is updated by Yahoo Finance.

Photos and Videos allows you to browse through your album, and there are shortcuts to the camera and video recorder.

Music gives you access to all your saved albums and songs. The player is laid out nicely and you can listen to music in the background while performing other tasks.




Weather not only gives current conditions and forecasts for around the globe, but also works with the GPS to give the weather no matter where you happen to be.

Settings show most of the commonly used settings and customizations for the Imagio, such as sync data, sounds, wallpaper, communications, customize tabs, my contact card, mail setup, and location. There is an All Settings button on the bottom-left that opens up additional setting screens.

Pressing on the top-right corner shows the Task Manager, where you can easily change between running applications, or close ones you no longer need. To the left of it are the status icons, where pressing on them brings up the Notifications screen to view more detailed information, such as battery meter and network.

Selecting the Start icon on the top left of the screen, or pressing the Windows logo button on the bottom of the phone, opens the main Start menu where you can have up to 30 shortcuts for commonly used programs. There is also a link to All Applications, where you can scroll through a list of every application that is installed on the device.



If you decide to turn off the TouchFLO 3D skin, you are left with the Windows Mobile 6.5 user interface. It is updated and easier to use than the one of the aging 6.1 operating system and is laid out better for use with your finger, instead of having to use a stylus. You can scroll up and down the list of menu items, and then side to side to select items within it. For example, when music is highlighted, you can move side to side to select different songs. Going into the Start menu has a new layout and has changed slightly from the “honeycomb” design that we saw previewed earlier this year. It is easy to scroll through, and once again the icons are large enough that a stylus isn’t required. Overall we like the changes that are implemented in Windows Mobile 6.5, as it is a small step in the right direction to version 7, but we still prefer using the TouchFLO 3D interface provided by HTC.

Software and Connectivity:

In contrast to what you’ll find on the first Diamond, a brand new layout is found in your Contacts screen, which looks nice and is quite out of character for typical Windows Mobile based phones. Names are showed in large fields with a small picture next to each one. To find a contact you can scroll the list, pick out the first letter, or search any name. Adding a new contact reveals large “most used” boxes that let you use your fingers comfortably, but you´ll have to fall back on the stylus in case you need to edit any of the all available information fields (and there are many on Windows Mobile devices).

Clicking on a saved contact brings up their information, but there are tabs on the bottom to show messages, emails, events, and calls from that person. This is an easy way of viewing information from individual contacts.


Another area where the HTC Imagio and Touch Diamond2 are similar is when composing new messages. Since both devices lack a physical keyboard, you can use the phone in either portrait or landscape mode with the on-screen QWERTY keyboard. Between the two modes, we actually found the portrait keyboard easier to use with one thumb than the landscape keyboard with two thumbs. This is because when in landscape mode, the on-screen keyboard buttons are smaller and more mistakes are made. This might be one area where people with larger hands may want to use the stylus.



For web browsing you can choose between using the updated mobile version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or the Opera Mobile browser. We began by using Internet Explorer, and we did like the changes that were made to the interface, but web sites took longer than expected to load. After about 10 minutes of use we changed over to Opera Mobile 9.5 and were more pleased by the results. Not only did web pages load several seconds faster, but they were rendered slightly better. Full-screen viewing is automatic, and you can zoom in by double-tapping the screen, or by using the touch-sensitive zoom-bar  next to the display (when in landscape mode), which allows you to easily control the amount of the zoom. Opera Mobile has the ability to play YouTube videos when accessed directly from the Mobile YouTube site, as it opens in a separate player, but it does not support embedded videos in web pages, nor is Flash supported. Despite this limitation, it is still the one of the best ways to view web sites via a Windows smartphone.



Mobile IM also comes standard, where you can connect to your AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo buddy lists. When a new voice message is received, you are automatically prompted to the Visual Voicemail program. It allows you to see a list of your voice mails and plays them using visual controls on the screen. This is simpler than the older touch-tone prompt system. Lastly, what would a Verizon phone be without including VZ Navigator, as it provides turn-by-turn GPS guided directions.



The Imagio is also one of the first Verizon smartphones to come with the Microsoft Bing application. It allows you to search a wide variety of categories, has GPS maps with satellite view (you can zoom in to street level), driving directions, local traffic and gas prices, movies, and weather. There is a lot of good information here, so it will get plenty of use. You can also download a wide variety of applications through the new Microsoft Marketplace.



Additional preloaded programs include Adobe Reader and the Office Mobile suite, among others. We were able to open Adobe PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files without a problem. Games included on the Imagio are Bubble Breaker, Solitaire and Teeter.

The Imagio is a global capable device, which supports dual-band CDMA and EVDO Rev A while in the US, and quad-band GSM and UMTS/HSDPA while in other countries. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g is also supported, as well as Bluetooth Ver 2.1 + EDR.

Multimedia and Camera:

One area where the Imagio is different from other HTC smartphones for Verizon is that it is more of a multimedia device. This is evident with the inclusion a kickstand and media services like VCast Video,Music with Rhapsody, and Mobile TV. With the VCast Mobile TV service,powered by Qualcomm’s FLO TV network, you can view live and prerecordedTV shows on the device. Even though there is currently only a smallselection of channels available, it is cool to be able to watch TV onyour phone. You can view the video in standard 4:3 format, or stretchit to fill the width of the screen. The only downside to this serviceis in regards to the video quality and compression. When watching on a3.6” screen you can easily see block-pixelation, which would be lessnoticeable on a smaller screen, but the only solution would be for thevideo to be broadcast at a higher resolution.


Thestandard VCast Video service shows only pre-recorded clips, and thoseare at even lower resolution than with the Mobile TV service, as theyare streamed over Verizon’s EVDO Rev A network.

There is also a built-in FM tuner,but it requires you to connect 3.5mm earbuds, which are used as theantenna. The radio can be played through the earbuds or through thephone’s rear speaker, but not via Bluetooth (like the normal musicplayer). There are arrow icons on the screen to scan up and down forstrong stations, or you can manually tune to weaker stations. There isalso the option to store 20 presets. We like having an FM radioincluded, as it doesn’t cost extra to use and can be listened to in thebackground.

The music playerhasn’t changed much and still categorizes the library into now playing,artists, albums, playlists, genres, and all songs. There is also a linkto the VCast Music Rhapsody store. Unfortunately, sound quality throughthe tiny rear speaker is lacking, so prepare to use wired or Bluetoothheadphones.



We were able to use the HTC Media Playerto playback our own H.263 and H.264 encoded MP4 videos files withresolutions from 220x96 up to 720x306 and with bit rates from 128kbpsto 1524kbps, but the higher resolution files at 720x306 were moresluggish and dropped frames. We also installed the DivX player and hadno problem using it to playback DivX and XviD files, but wish HTC hadit integrated with their own player, similarly to what Samsung did withthe Omnia.

The HTC Imagio XV6975 is currently the 3rd Verizon device to come with a 5MP camera,after the Casio Exilim and the Samsung Omnia. The interface is basic,but it does allow for a variety of settings, such as the resolution,ISO, and white balance. Since there isn’t a physical shutter button onthe phone, you have to press the on-screen shutter icon to capture theimage, which in turn takes a total of 4 seconds to focus, capture andsave the image. Pictures taken outside are crisp and a bit sharper thanthe usual, so the level of details is just fine. Color representationis accurate, though bright white areas are overexposed. Unfortunately,things begin to go downhill when you move indoors, as images start tolook blurry in low-light conditions. Since the Imagio doesn’t include aflash, we would only recommend it for taking pictures outside duringthe day, but it does a far better job at capturing 5MP images than theExilim. We are interested in seeing how the Samsung Omnia II andMotorola A855 Android phone stack up to the Imagio, as both of thoseshould also include a 5MP camera.





Videoscan be recorded in H.263 and H.264 formats at CIF 352X288 resolution,and in 3GPP2 and MPEG4 formats at VGA 640x480 resolution. Between thesechoices, we found that MPEG4 at VGA resolution produced better lookingvideos than 3GPP2, but the quality is still blotchy and isn’t anythingto write home about.

HTC Imagio XV6975 sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution

Performance:

One area of disappointment is that the HTC Imagio XV6975 still continues to use the same 528Mhz processor that has been around for a while now, but thankfully the memory has been increased to 288MB RAM and 512MB ROM. This increase in size is noticeable as the system doesn’t feel as sluggish as the original Touch Diamond and overall responsiveness is better, but we do wish the processor was faster.

Unfortunately we had a slight issue with the phone’s call quality. Even though people we called said we sounded clear on their end, we could hear a bit of background “hiss” through the earpiece speaker, and there was some distortion if the volume level was raised past medium. There was also a good amount of distortion when using the speakerphone. Another weird thing we noticed is that when using the phone normally (not the speakerphone), we could feel the rear plastic battery cover vibrate when the other caller would talk. This was the first time we remember a Verizon phone doing this, but it is clear that the battery cover could use some beefing up. The phone’s reception was good, however, and we never had any dropped calls during our testing.

The 1500 mAh battery is rated to provide up to 5.3 hours of talk time or 13.5 days of standby time on a full charge. During our testing we were able to get up to 5.5 hours of continuous talk time, but had to turn all data connections off, such as Wi-Fi and email checking.

Conclusion:

Overall, the HTC Imagio XV6975 is a worthy replacement to the HTC Touch Diamond for Verizon; through we wish it looked more fashionable. The large 3.6” WVGA display makes the Imagio stand out from other smartphones, and the updated TouchFLO 3D interface along with the Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system make it easier to use. We also like the added functionality, such as VCast Mobile TV, VZ Navigator, Microsoft Bing and an FM tuner. The included camera takes good 5MP pictures outside during the day, but it isn’t much useful when indoors. Even though the call quality was good, it could have been better, especially if the background “hiss” could be removed. Currently, the HTC Imagio is the most advanced smartphone for Verizon, but it does lack a physical QWERTY keyboard, like on the HTC Touch Pro2. If you use your phone to type a lot, you should keep this in mind. At this point we’ll have to wait and see if the upcoming Samsung Omnia II, Motorola A855 Android phone, or BlackBerry Storm 2 will dethrone the Imagio from its top spot.