Leader of The Empire: The HTC TyTN II Reviewed

[Jon Westfall]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Great review Jon!

It was the Grim Reaper picture that made the review great, wasn't it?

I've been using the TyTN II now as my regular phone for almost 2 weeks, and have no real desire to use any other device in my stable!

[Jon Westfall]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Great review Jon!

It was the Grim Reaper picture that made the review great, wasn't it?

I've been using the TyTN II now as my regular phone for almost 2 weeks, and have no real desire to use any other device in my stable!

[jeasher]

Why won't 3G work on the Tytn II in the U.S.? Does ATT use 3G on a different frequency?

[Mountain343]

Thankfully the new IPAQ has a CF slot in it, but I have to agree it is definetly going the way of the dodo. Would it be to much to ask then that they give us USB Host capabilities then so I can use my own freaking card reader regardless of format?

I know others have included that in the past and it just seems like it'd be the perfect compromise. If space, battery, whatever doesn't permit them to add certain things, then give us USB host and let us add them ourselves!

[lorettaboy]

Can you clarify the 3G aspect of this device for us a bit. I am using a HTC TYTN in Canada now, on Rogers 3G network, so why wouldn't the TYTN II work the same way?

[Jon Westfall]

Originally Posted by lorettaboy

Can you clarify the 3G aspect of this device for us a bit. I am using a HTC TYTN in Canada now, on Rogers 3G network, so why wouldn't the TYTN II work the same way?

The TyTN II supports 850/1900/2100 UMTS. If you have a carrier that supports UMTS / HSDPA on those frequencies, you're good to go for 3G (Rogers, AT&T). However T-Mobile has licensed the 1700 frequency, so T-Mo users are out of luck as of now. Of course T-Mobile users in general are out of luck when it comes to 3G... :roll:

[klanum]

Good timing on this excellent article! I have a JasJar/Universal and contemplating a move to the HTC Advantage X7501 or ATT 8925/Kaiser at the end of the month. Couple questions:

1. How does the screens compare on the Jasjar and the Kaiser? Really tell a difference? Seems the faster screen may be the color aspect of VGA. Outside/Inside differences?

2. Besides a GPS, any other things you like about the JasJar that the Kaiser didn't have and vice versa? Lighted keyboard?

I'm looking for the SPB results now on the Advantage to see how it stacks up with your Kaiser test results. I'll pass those along as I find them.

Thanks,
Kent

[3waygeek]

Originally Posted by jeasher

Why won't 3G work on the Tytn II in the U.S.? Does ATT use 3G on a different frequency?

AT&T's 3G network does work on the Tytn II -- I just tried it. I don't have a data plan, so I pay $0.01 per KB. Got a HSDPA connection of unknown speed -- didn't want to do a speed test because of the expense.

The current Tytn II will not work on T-Mobile's 3G network -- many of the US sellers will tell you that up front. As I understand it, T-Mob's 3G net uses the 1700 MHz band, which this version of the Tytn II doesn't support. Apparently there is or will be a Tytn II version that will support 1700 MHz -- there have been a couple postings over at BoyGeniusReport citing FCC documents as to the possibility of 1700 MHz support.

[Jon Westfall]

Originally Posted by klanum

Good timing on this excellent article! I have a JasJar/Universal and contemplating a move to the HTC Advantage X7501 or ATT 8925/Kaiser at the end of the month. Couple questions:

1. How does the screens compare on the Jasjar and the Kaiser? Really tell a difference? Seems the faster screen may be the color aspect of VGA. Outside/Inside differences?

The JasJar probably has the prettiest screen I've ever seen on a device. however it does draw considerably slower than the screen on the TyTN II. The Jasjar has the sharper screen and higher resolution, while the TyTN II has substantially better speed. They both respond about the same to screen taps, although if one is more sensitive than the other, I'd say the TyTN II is just a bit better at recognizing my tapping, especially on the dialer screen (Although this might just be that the processor is more responsive to dialing numbers than the jasjar's was). Overall the screens are about equal averaging their strengths and weaknesses.

Originally Posted by klanum

2. Besides a GPS, any other things you like about the JasJar that the Kaiser didn't have and vice versa? Lighted keyboard?

The TyTN II has a back-lighted keyboard just like the JasJar (Just like the JasJar you sometimes have to hold your finger over the sensor in low light conditions to get the backlight to kick in (The device thinks there is enough light...). The keyboard on the Jasjar was easier for me to use with my larger hands, however the TyTN II keyboard is fairly easy to get used to. Honestly I can't think of anything else I really like about the jasjar that the TyTN II doesn't have other than in the specific case of plane travel. When I Fly I like to take my JasJar to compose emails on and play games.

Thankfully with the re-emergence of Bluetooth DUN profile in the TyTN II, I was able to easily pair my Jasjar up to the Tytn and get a data connection to the jasjar. They do make a nice pair!

Originally Posted by klanum

I'm looking for the SPB results now on the Advantage to see how it stacks up with your Kaiser test results. I'll pass those along as I find them.

Thanks,
Kent

It would be nice to see those comparisons. I don't know of anyone with an SPB XML file for the Advantage, so if you find just the raw results, feel free to contact me and I'll run them against my TyTN II results.

[klanum]

Jon,

Thanks for the quick response. The only SPB benchmarks for the X7501 HTC Advantage I found were on smartdevicecentral.com with the following comparison with your numbers:

X7501 Kaiser Universal

CPU 2321 1549.6 1848.2

File Sys 174 165.4 138.8

Graphics 476 3521 217.3

Bench Idx 390 399.7 285.7


If I copied this right, it looks like the Kaiser is in the ballpark with the X7501 except for the larger size/screen with VGA and couple other features. I'm looking for more SPB benchmarks to see if they are comparable with those found. Interested to see what you hear from someone too!

Again, thanks as I'm sure I'll have more questions but you've covered 99% of them!

[cmw]

Great review! It's enough to make me switch back to AT&T!

Quick question about application startup time, especially for the camera? Of course you know that the Wizard is terrible for camera use (I've got the Tmo MDA)... you never can catch a kodak moment, and the camera pictures are horrible, besides. The Kaiser looks orders of magnitude better!

Thanks...
cmw