Fuze Review

I remember holding the AT&T Tilt in my hand for the first time and thinking what an excellent device. I finally felt that we could officially call a phone a true “Converged Device”. One year later, the AT&T Tilt Replacement came knocking at the door. This device would have some significant design changes, a little more horsepower under the hood, and a fresh new VGA screen. AT&T would call this new device, The Fuze. Based on the HTC Touch Pro, or Raphael, The Fuze had big shoes to fill with the AT&T Tilt. How would this new device that is called the Fuze measure up to the Tilt? All that and more as we fully review the new AT&T Fuze (P4600), so read on and we’ll begin!

INTRODUCTION

As with all AT&T Branded Devices, we knew about it long before it hit the US because of the release of the Raphael, which is the HTC Branded Device called the Touch Pro. Going back as early as April of 2008, we were following the new HTC Device that was code named the Raphael. The Raphael, which was based off of the very popular Diamond, would have much of the same look and feel, but this device would have a slide out keyboard. This immediately got a lot of attention and buzz. But over at Tilt Mobility, we were waiting for the Kaisers replacement which we know as the AT&T Tilt & HTC TyTN II. Rumors were flying that the next device would in fact be called the Tilt II. On July 1st, there was even a leaked “Road Map” by several sources indicating that the next AT&T Branded Device would be called the Tilt II. This definitely got our attention and speculation was running rampant at what the new AT&T Device would be based off of. Two months slid by and we were finally made aware that the new AT&T Device would be called the Fuze and would be based on the GSM HTC Touch Pro. Launch date was set for the end of October. As with all things AT&T, October 19th, then the rumored 24th both blew by. A frenzy of mass proportions ensued and further dates of November 4th, then the 7th, and then FINALLY! November 11th, Veterans Day, The AT&T Fuze was made official and would be launched to the masses.

FIRST IMPRESSION

Pulling the AT&T Fuze out of the box for the first time was a complete shock after using the AT&T Tilt for one year. The first thing you notice is the much smaller look and feel to the device. The Fuze is much shorter and narrower than the AT&T Tilt but remains equally as thick, all while maintaining the same 2.8” screen size. But the Fuze has a much more solid feel to it and gives you confidence that this is a well put together device from HTC. The next thing that you notice is the Diamond Facets on the backside of the Fuze that have created such a buzz in the mobility world. Not quite as detailed as the Touch Diamond, but definitely visible and very appealing on the rear cover of the Fuze. After a few seconds of marveling at the slick gloss black coating, finger prints are becoming more and more visible all over the device. Unfortunately, the AT&T Fuze is a major Finger Print Magnet! Flipping the AT&T Fuze back over to the front side, there is a whole new layout on the front and quite a remarkable change in the D-Pad. Also missing is the surrounding buttons that are on the Tilt. The AT&T Fuze is left with four very tricky buttons surrounding the D-Pad. More on that later.

The AT&T Fuze first impression is a very solid look and feel with a much needed modern design than its predecessor the AT&T Tilt. Holding it in your hand is very comfortable and you have full confidence sliding out the spring assisted keyboard. This is a very impressive device that HTC obviously invested a lot of time and money in designing.

WHAT YOU GET IN THE BOX

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HARDWARE

PROCESSOR: HTC added a bit more power under the hood for the AT&T Fuze by using the Qualcomm MSM7201A 528MHz processor. Comparing the Stock ROM of the AT&T Tilt to the Fuze is no contest. However, keep in mind that the Tilt was lacking proper 3D and 2D drivers that caused a lot of lag. That being said, the Fuze seems much more responsive than the Tilt and performs very well. Screen rotation also lacks the lag that Tilt users are used to.

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MEMORY: This is something to really get excited about! The AT&T Fuze comes with 512mb of ROM and 288mb of RAM. This extra storage has come in very handy and it is a very welcome addition. During the lead up to the AT&T Fuze release there were rumors floating around that the AT&T Fuze would be slightly handicapped with a RAM of 256mb. But fortunately AT&T did in fact match the HTC Touch Pro specifications and release the Fuze with the same 288mb.

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RADIOS: WIFI is the standard Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g which I found worked perfectly. I connected both in my home wireless network as well as at my office. Bluetooth performed 100% as expected and is a Version 2.0/2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate).

The AT&T Fuze makes use of UMTS (850/1900/ 2100 MHz ) and GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE (Quad-band, 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz)HSDPA  The actual phone radio is 1.02.25.32 and I have to say that I was truly pleased with the call quality. In my two weeks of using the AT&T Fuze I never dropped a call and call quality was exceptionally crisp. This was actually very surprising as the city I live in just recently got 3G in a very limited area. Crossing in and out of 3G coverage while on a call was seamless and I never had any call quality reduction or a dropped call.

The AT&T Fuze has a built  A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) that I again found to be very responsive. The Difference between “A”-GPS and GPS is that the A-GPS makes use of the Cell Phone Towers to help get a faster lock on the satellites. To AT&T’s credit they did not cripple or lock out the A-GPS hardware like other Carriers have done. The Other carriers lock out the A-GPS hardware so that the device owner cannot use the A-GPS unless they use it with the Carriers navigation software that comes at a monthly extra cost. AT&T Offers a very good service called TeleNav which has now been renamed to Navigator. I tested the AT&T Fuze using Google Maps and it is actually faster than my AT&T Tilt. I was not expecting this as I have always found my Tilt to have an excellent GPS. GPS Lock with the Fuze took less than 1 minute and I was keeping constant 7-8 Satellites. The Fuze was no less effective in the house and worked just as well. I am very pleased with the GPS and thankful that AT&T did not lock down the GPS Hardware.

Accelerometer: For those of you who have not heard about the Accelerometer or G-Sensor that comes on board the Fuze it is simply an amazing and fun feature to have. The Accelerometer works when you rotate your Fuze from Portrait to Landscape and the Fuze then auto rotates the screen for you by way of the built in sensor. You no longer have to open your keyboard to rotate to landscape, just simply rotate the screen! Where this does work nice in Opera’s Embedded Internet Browser, not all applications will Auto Landscape when you rotate your Fuze away from a portrait position including the home screen. There are also several games that you can get that make use of the G-Sensor. One of which is called Tweeter that is already loaded on your Fuze and is freeware, not the Bloatware you hear me complain about. There is freeware available to unlock the Accelerometer to work in all programs. Another neat tweak permits you to silence your ringtone on an incoming phone call by simply turning the Fuze face down.

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SCREEN: The AT&T Fuze comes with a vibrant 2.8″ VGA TFT touchscreen, 65K colors (640×480 pixels). Since coming from the Pocket PC days when the Dell Axim x50v ruled with that excellent VGA screen, I found myself waiting for the day that a PPC Phone would come with a VGA Screen. And now the waiting is over! The AT&T Fuze screen is very impressive. The screen is flush with the device to help make it more of Touch Interface with Windows Mobile. Trying to tap the “X” button in the corner of the Tilt is very difficult with large size fingers because of the beveled edge, but on the Fuze it is flat so even the smallest of buttons are easily pressed. The Fuze also comes with an auto-adjust back light that I thought worked very well also and works to dim the backlight of the phone during a phone call when the phone is placed against your face. I found the screen very responsive to Touch Navigation and far more responsive than the Tilt by requiring almost no pressure to get a response. Whether using TouchFlo 3D or using Opera’s scrolling and zooming capabilities, the screen and touch sensitivity worked very well without any tweaking that can be had from programs like Diamond Tweaks and Schap’s Advanced Configuration Tool.  One of the fore mentioned tweaks is to change your program directory from three rows to four rows. With the VGA screen icons are very clear even when made smaller to accommodate four rows. The screen is also far more impressive is bright light situations where the screen remains visible and doesn’t fade out. The real beauty of the screen is shown in web browsing when large amounts of the webpage can be displayed in very tiny font that is still readable because of the sharpness. I give the screen 5 out of 5 stars and it is excellent with everything I tested on it.

FM Tuner: Even though the FM Tuner is not enabled on the Fuze, I still thought it was note worthy to write about because the hardware is still there. All you have to do is head on over to XDA developers and locate the cab and install it. It works great but only when a wired headset is used since that acts as the antennae.

TV Out: Yet another great feature of the AT&T Fuze that is actually enabled and software is provided. Unfortunately because of the VGA cables being on back order, this part of the review will have to be postponed until we can get our hands on one! Stay tuned to FuzeMobility.com for more information. [DavidK got his confirmation that it was shipped today!!!!]

DESIGN

As the successor to the AT&T Tilt, the Fuze could not be more different. The AT&T Fuze is much smaller and narrower than the Tilt but is about the same thickness. Here’s the Dimensions:

Weight: 5.82 ounces with battery

Size: 4.02″ x 2.01″ x 0.71″  (L x W x H)

The AT&T Fuze has an incredibly solid look and feel to it and has a solid build that looks and feel good in your hand. The sliding Keyboard has a very firm track and does not give any impression that it will come apart even with the most brutal of users. I am very impressed with the construction of this device.

Starting with the front, the first thing that grabs your attention is the square look of the device. Unlike the Tilt that has a much more rounded appearance, the Fuze has only a slight rounded edge to it with a modern gloss black finish. The next thing that is very noticeable is that the Fuze is missing four of the 8 buttons the Tilt came equipped with around the D-Pad In the upper left hand corner you have a home button, the upper right hand corner is a “back” button. The lower left button is the “phone on” and the bottom right is the “phone off” button. These four buttons all surround a recessed D-Pad that also has a Touch Sensitive ring around the outside of the D-Pad that allows zooming in and out in applications like email. The Touch Sensitive ring around the outside of the D-Pad is also useful in applications like web browsers because it will act as a “jog wheel” and navigate from link to link. It is a very nice addition but takes some getting used to. This portion of the Fuze is actually a touch capacitive screen so no pressure is required to activate scrolling or zooming on the wheel. Overall, I am not as impressed with the Fuze’s D-Pad and button arrangement as I am with the Tilt. It does take some practice and pressing the D-Pad too close to the center will give the desired result. Proper left D-Pad location is actually almost between the left and right hard buttons. Once you learn this little trick, navigating becomes much easier. Also missing is all those pretty little lights that we loved on the Tilt. The Green Phone Status, the Blue Bluetooth, etc, are all now missing. Instead, the Fuze makes use of a White D-Pad Light to let you know if your device is charging, incoming call, missed call, and Voice Mail. While it does continue the sleek look of the phone, it does lack the functionality that the Tilt had with a different light for almost every notification.

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The left side of the AT&T Fuze has three buttons to it. An up and down volume control as well as….yup….you guessed it, the AT&T PTT Button (which makes the Fuze the only member of the Touch pro family to have an extra button). While I like the up and down volume buttons, the absence of the “jog wheel” is not a good one. I have grown quite accustomed to the Tilt’s jog wheel and not having it on my Fuze makes me miss it that much more. There is no doubt that there will be a serious re-mapping of the PTT button necessary which has already been accomplished on XDA forums.

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The top of the Fuze only has a power button which is a lot larger and easier to press than its predecessor the Tilt.

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The right side of the Fuze contains nothing but the stylus. There is no camera button on the AT&T Fuze forcing you to use the software to start up the camera application. The Stylus by the way is magnetic which is really neat. No longer do you have to worry about losing your stylus because it loosened up and fell out. Also, when the stylus is removed from the phone you can put it to the side of the outside of the Fuze and the magnet will hold it in place there as well. The Magnetic stylus also will wake up the screen when removed or prompt the Note Pad to open if it is removed during a phone call. This is another very neat feature.

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The bottom of the Fuze has a mini USB port and a very small soft reset hole location. An even smaller hole located on the screen section is the microphone for voice calls and also contains the light sensor.

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The back side of the Fuze is in my opinion a work of art. It has subtle facets which lends the Fuze to its Diamond heritage. To the right of the HTC logo is the 3.2mp camera and a LED Flash. At the bottom of the back side there is a small slot that you can make use of a lanyard with.

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Design Summary: While there is no doubt that the AT&T Fuze is canvas for mobile art, I find the lack of buttons not worth the trade off for aesthetics. The Fuze was tricky at first to use but like all devices that are different than the one you owned previous, you will get used to the layout and enjoy the phone as I am. If you suffer from Mobile Device OCD like I do, be prepared to carry a cloth with some cleaner because the Fuze is an absolute finger print magnet! I have read several comments of people waiting for the HTC Touch Pro back cover becomes available and assuming it will replace the Fuze’s back cover so they can get rid of the finger print prone back cover! I may be getting in line for one myself as I am not happy with smudges all over my device. With all that said, the AT&T Fuze is a beautifully designed mobile device intended for touch navigation, hence the lack of buttons. So all of us button dinosaurs will have to learn to lie without them.  

CAMERA

I have become more and more reliant on my cell phone’s camera for a number of reasons. First, I am the father of two small children and my wife and I are both photo nuts! She has the “Big” camera and takes 99% of all the pictures with that. But I have found myself at Soccer Practices and places where you would have never have thought to bring your “Big” camera to and I hated having to lose those precious moments because of a wimpy cell phone camera. But AT&T Fuze owners will not have to worry about that! The Fuze comes equipped with an excellent 3.2mega pixel camera with auto focus and LED flash! I have thoroughly enjoyed the Fuze’s camera and video capture abilities. One of the neat features about the Touch Sensitive D-Pad is that you can now zoom in and out using the outer Touch Sensitive Ring around the D-pad. This is really a slick ability of the Fuze and I greatly enjoyed this. It does take a little getting used to, but once you master the technique it is excellent. A couple of small irritations with the camera is the delay before the shot is taken. This can be resolved through Diamond Tweaks or Advanced Configuration Tool. Also in Diamond Tweaks you can enable the Burst mode, Photo theme, sport Mode, Video Share, GPS Photo, and set the Burst Mode Resolution, and Sport Mode Resolution. If you enjoy taking pictures, do yourself a favor and download Diamond Tweaks and make better use of the excellent camera you have on your AT&T Fuze. The LED flash on the Fuze is also great (obviously it’s an improvements over the Tilt which lacked one) but it is strong and instead of a strobe it is a constant light so you can actually see the preview onscreen and not have to wait to take the photo to see if the flash will be strong enough in very dark settings

Video Capture, this is something that was not very good on the Tilt. I found that it was not worth the effort and basically just used the Tilt for photos only. However, the Fuze’s video capture capabilities are way better than the Fuze’s. To illustrate how well the Fuze captures video head on over to this link and check out the video comparison done by one of our community, crimson12. Since crimson12 first brought this up and did the original videos that I posted, I think it is only fair to give him a little credit and thanks for showing us firsthand how well the Fuze can capture video. Click here for the article.

KEYBOARD

I’ll just start off with a very bold statement that nobody makes a slide out keyboard for mobile device better than HTC. There I said it. I’ll also say that the AT&T Fuze is no exception! When the rumors started flying about the Fuze being based on the HTC Touch Pro I was absolutely thrilled! Five rows of QWERTY keyboard goodness. Then the leaked photos emerged and I was immediately concerned. First, AT&T once again decided to change the keyboard around and instead of taking advantage of the HTC design which put numbers going across the top row, AT&T instead choose to but symbols across the top and use their now famous number pad style for their keyboard numbers which will require the user to press the Function Key prior to pressing a number. I do a lot more company emails than most people and I use a lot of numbers. For me, I would have liked to see the HTC Touch Pro style of keyboard to make better use of the numbers. The only reason I can come up with that AT&T changed the keyboard around is that this style of keyboard lends itself a lot better to people who text message. Since I have been text messaging more often these days I have noticed that the symbols come in quite handy when text messaging. So I am now on the fence about which keyboard layout I would have liked better. I still think I would pick the Touch Pro keyboard with the numbers because of the productivity improvement with my company emails. However, a neat little trick to make the number pad work a little better for you is that when you need to press a lot of numbers at once, just double press the Function Key and it will allow you to press the numbers without having to press the function key prior to each number. It’s also interesting that there are no hard keys mapped to the soft onscreen keys. The Tilt, for example, had two small keys at the top of the keyboard for the left and right onscreen keyboard to keep your fingers on the keys and off the screen. However, the Fuze’s flush screen feels a lot closer so this is hardly noticed.

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BATTERY

The AT&T Fuze uses a Lithium-ion Polymer 1340 mAh battery. The only reason I can think of that HTC would use a dramatically underpowered battery with a device that is intended for the “Serious Mobile Device User” is that it just plain ran out of space. Power using the Fuze with the music player in the back ground while reading my RSS feeds will not take long to deplete the battery. Heavy phone users will have to have a second battery or a constantly keep the device plugged in. When an AC Outlet or power source is not available, I tend to fall back to external battery packs especially when I fly. But whatever secondary power choice you make, if you are a heavy user, count on needing one. I was more than able to make through the day with light or medium use. I for one never found it a problem to plug in overnight, so having to do this does not bother me. I have have not seen any aftermarket extended batteries available yet, but I cannot image the girth it would add to the Fuze.  Again, I am not that thrilled with HTC’s choice of battery and would have liked to have seen a much larger capacity battery to match the needs of the phone that is so feature packed. Many users have already decided to turn off 3G in order to ensure that they make it through the business day even though they are sacrificing speed and the ability to simultaneously receive voice and data simultaneously. However, it should be noted that the higher amounts of memory do help to offset the higher processing power and the stock Fuze battery will probably last a little longer than the stock Tilt battery under the same circumstances because there is less taxing on the memory.

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SOFTWARE INCLUDED

The AT&T Fuze runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Operating System. We all know WinMo 6.1 well enough so I won’t get into that, but what I would like to get into is TouchFlo3D. TouchFlo3D is a User Interface developed by HTC to make Windows Mobile easier to navigate with better Touch Navigation.

Check out the 11 tabs of HTC TouchFlo3D goodness:

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TouchFlo3D on the AT&T Fuze comes with 11 different tabs to allow you easy access with touch navigation to just about anything you could want to do on the Fuze. I have used a lot of different Today Screen plugins and by far, TouchFlo3D is my favorite. It is very quick on the Fuze and navigation is excellent.

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Even though AT&T does another superb job at providing the Fuze with tons of memory hogging Bloatware & Trialware like:

AT&T did include some very handy and cool software like:

AT&T did deliver some excellent software, and if you are not happy with all of the Bloatware, then you can always perform “The Bloatware Removal Trick” that you can find here. With the amount of memory that we now have on the Fuze, Bloatware does not become a real issue in terms of functionality, but it is easy to remove if you just don’t like the thought of it. Stay tuned to Fuze Mobility for a more in depth reviews of the AT&T software provided on the Fuze including all of the Tips and Tricks you could ever want!

 CONCLUSION

The AT&T Fuze P4600 by HTC is easily the most powerful windows mobile device ever built here in the United States. The AT&T Fuze delivers everything the Hard Core Mobile Device Owner could want all in one “Converged Device”. No Other Device can match the Fuze across the board in: Processor, Memory, Camera, GPS, Slide Out Keyboard, VGA Screen, Accelerometer (G-Sensor)TV Out, FM Tuner, and Expansion Memory Slot. The Fuze only falls short with a battery that does not match up with the horsepower provided in the Hardware. HTC not including a 3.5mm Audio Jack at this point is just not acceptable when so many other devices are now coming equipped with one. And Lastly, the lack of a solid embedded browser and Microsoft’s OS Issues continue to draw harsher criticism in the review process. With that said, HTC does a stellar job covering for Microsoft with TouchFlo3D and plugging Opera Mobile into it. The TouchFlo3D user interface is fast, reliable and feature rich. TouchFlo3D and the strength on the AT&T Fuze combine to make an excellent Mobile Device. I have truly enjoyed my AT&T Fuze and would highly recommend it if you are looking for a device that can deliver a knockout punch.

PROS

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