HTC Aria, so far so good

I'm notoriously slow when it comes to updating my cell phones, or maybe I just don't destroy them as fast as others. I've noticed looking back through my blog that I've been in the Motorola camp for a long time now. Back in 2004 I wrote about the Motorola V180, which was mediocre at best. Then in 2006 I migrated to the Motorola L7, which overall was a very good phone minus a few hiccups with Bluetooth functionality. In 2008 I moved on to the Motorola RAZR2 V9 which turned out to be mediocre as well. True to my two-year upgrade cycle, I've finally moved to a Smartphone, namely the HTC Aria. Why not another Motorola? Simply put, the only available Motorola Android from AT&T, at the time of my purchase, was the Backflip which I found to be rather ugly and cheap looking. Additionally, it also felt too thick and bulky due to the keyboard. I played around with the Samsung Captivate, which had an amazing screen, and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 which had a nice display as well and felt more comfortable in my hand over the Samsung. However, both of these devices with their 4" screens were a bit on the large side making them hard to hold when talking on the phone. Their size also makes them a bit large when stored in a pens pocket, which could make them more prone to damage when sitting down. Why not an iPhone? Let's just say that me and Apple products don't get along very well.

I've started to accept that I like my electronic devices small and light since it makes them a lot more pleasant to travel with. I used to buy laptops with large screens, but nowadays I would much rather have a thin and light laptop for travel purposes. Similarly, the 3.2” display size on the Aria is one of the things that won me over. Sure, the screen is not as large or gorgeous as the ones in the aforementioned devices; however, this screen size makes the phone more compact, lighter, and much more comfortable to hold. But there is more to the Aria than size alone. Another nice feature is the rear cover which is made of a rubber type material and can act as a protective case. Hopefully I will drop this phone less than usual, but this remains to be seen. In the car this cover has already proven itself worthy, preventing the phone from sliding all over the place. Finally, one of the Aria's major advantages is responsiveness. With the HTC Sense user interface, it is lightning fast. Running Android 2.1, it ran circles around other Android offerings even though it is powered by an underpowered 600MHz processor. Games and applications have been running fast and problem free so far. The only slow thing has been the loading of web pages which have not been optimized for mobile devices. This however, might well be a function of the 3G AT&T network - the jury is out on this one.

The HTC Aria is not perfect by any means. The battery life which lasts me just about two days without a charge, could be better. Forget your charger once, and the next day you start worrying about people being able to reach you. Another shortcoming is the button on top of the phone which is utilized to turn the phone on or off, or to bring it back from suspend mode. The flaw with the button is the placement, which makes it difficult to press when holding the phone with one hand. HTC should have moved it up a little more which would make it much easier to press. The volume level on the HTC leaves a bit to be desired. It is not loud enough which might be a problem if you plan on using it in noisy environments. Finally, taking off the phone cover is an awkward process. The first few times you may think you are breaking the phone, which is not a very pleasant experience. HTC should consider redesigning this release mechanism for sure. I've not used the camera much and in general I tend to not use phone cameras, so I can't really comment on picture quality. Those that do may be disappointed that the Aria does not have a flash and pictures in dim conditions are likely to turn out less than stellar. Overall, I'm very pleased with the phone thus far and with the Android 2.2 upgrade just around the corner things are likely to only get better.