HTC Inspire 4G Cell Phone Review

Additional Features

While we have never been a big fan of the overlays that manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, and Samsung put on their phones, the new HTC Sense user interface on this phone has some merits. For the most part, it actually enhances the user interface rather than bogging it down. We loved the HTC Widgets and Scenes. We also liked that fact that you can see all of the 7 Android screens at once by double-tapping the home icon and can move them around right from that screen. Another likeable feature is being able to press and hold the Home icon to get up recently used apps.

The HTC interface includes a useful Blocked Caller app that we haven’t seen much before. This allows you send calls from certain numbers directly to voice mail. There is also an HTC app that lets you transfer your personal data from one smart phone to another using the phone Bluetooth connections. Although AT&T will do this for you when you purchase the phone, this can be a useful app for do-it-yourselfers. There is also an HTC website that, with a Sense account, you can use to sync your contacts and locate your phone if it is lost.

HTC also uses its own version of the music player, camera, and web browser. Although we would have like to have seen a music section for podcasts and audio books, all the other features in these areas are very useable. And of course, you can access your podcasts and audio books in the Music section.

We only had one complaint about the Sense overlay – the keyboard. We found it a little more difficult to use than the previous Sense keyboard and we were dismayed at the lack of the Swype keyboard interface that we have come to love in other phones.

The Inspire’s 8 MP camera has a dual LED flash and records video at 720p HD. Pictures and video are both good. Outdoor pictures have good color representation; however, the LED flash when used adds a yellowish tint to the photos.

If you get good coverage from AT&T, you can expect this phone to perform admirably. All calls in our tests were clear with no dropped calls. The ability of this phone to handle the AT&T 4G network, will no doubt mean faster service. However, this phone works on the AT&T HSPA+ network not AT&T’s upcoming LTE network. AT&T says that HSPA+ provides data speeds up to 4X faster than its 3G network.

The 4G technology and the variety of different 4G networks from different carriers cannot yet be fully scrutinized. Since 4G is just being announced in various markets and since so few people are using 4G right now, it is difficult to determine just how much faster each of the different varieties of 4G will be when they are fully implemented and used. There is no doubt, however, that 4G will give faster service so you can somewhat future-proof yourself with a 4G phone. This phone also has the mobile hotspot app built in so with an additional monthly fee, it can connect up to five other devices to the Internet.

HTC includes Dolby Mobile and SRS Surround Sound in this phone, so the speaker quality is excellent. This is apparent when listening through the speakers, but is even more impressive when using headphones.

The Inspire also ha support for all the common technolgies including Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and DNLA for streaming videos.

The battery of the Inspire, as with most other smart phones of this type, will last a day with average use. It does run Android 2.2 which has slightly better battery life than previous Android versions due to better task management. Of course, you can adjust the screen brightness, and turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to conserve power, if necessary.