stevenf
08-10-2007, 09:57 PM
I foolishly ran out and bought an HTC Advantage X7501 pretty much sight-unseen because, well, I love gadgets, and it sounded pretty amazing on paper.
To set the stage here, I've gone through a great many mobile devices over the years, Palms and WM alike. My main device is currently an iPhone, which I love to death despite a few minor quibbles. (I am a Mac user first and foremost, but I'm platform-agnostic. I'll use whatever works for me.)
The X7501 appealed to me because, as a former Newton user, I was surprised to see someone once again tackle the big screen, paperback form factor. As nice as a pocketable device is, sometimes it's just nice to have a big screen to work with. And before the iPhone came out, I was fairly happy with my Dash, also an HTC device. So, I saw myself primarily using the iPhone, but having the Advantage around to do occasional desktop-like things, without having to carry around a heavy laptop everywhere.
First impressions
So, I buy it and get it home, and turn it on, and the first thing I see is "TEST ONLY - NOT FOR SALE" and my face immediately drops into my palms, wondering why nobody except Apple can get something to just work out of the box. ( Picture here: http://flickr.com/photos/stevenf/1052133170/ )
Some Googling and phone calls later, I discover that the HTC has posted a firmware update to resolve this, and I go to download it, but I can't because HTC is having server problems, and after numerous attempts to download the 61 MB file at 10 KB/s, it always eventually times out, disconnects, and leaves me with an un-resumable download fragment.
I called HTC who were actually extremely helpful. This was a big surprise to me, because I'm always loathe to deal with phone support people. They were aware of the server problem and a rep posted a copy of the firmware to SendSpace (!) which I was able to download and install without any problems.
GPS
The next thing which baffled me is the fact that the device has a GPS module, and no software with which to use it. OK, well, technically there was a copy of TeleNav installed, but that requires a monthly subscription. I already have a Garmin GPS which I love, and so there was no point in me paying a subscription for anything -- I just wanted to try out the GPS on the Advantage.
Some research led me to Google Maps, the WM version of which reportedly works with GPS. I installed it, and pointed it at COM5, 9600 baud, as I'd read on the web had worked for other X7501 users, and...
Nothing. I get "Initializing GPS" then "Looking for satellites..." and none are ever found, even standing out in my back yard and other places where the Garmin works fine.
So, strike two.
Web
I then proceeded to do some web browsing from the comfort of my home's wi-fi network. It worked well enough, but seemed oddly sluggish for a 600+ MHz device. I did several head-to-heads with the iPhone, emptying the caches on both devices, and sending them to the same URL at the same time. The iPhone beat the Advantage in every single test, usually by at least 10 seconds, and sometimes as much as 20 or more. I tried with both IE and Opera (which also comes preinstalled) and pretty much had the same result. Considering how much RAM and CPU power it has, I'm honestly kind of shocked at how pokey the Advantage is.
Not only that but I ran across a couple of sites which used AJAX that didn't work in either IE or Opera but, you guessed it, worked just fine on the iPhone.
After a couple hours or so, I started to run into random problems with both browsers. Suddenly they would be unable to resolve URLs and throw up "host not found" errors. Opera at one point just lost its will to live and stopped trying to load anything -- you'd just type in a URL, hit the "Go" button, and it wouldn't even try. Meanwhile, every other wi-fi connected device in the house is working just fine.
So, that was disappointing.
Email
On to email. I use a completely standard IMAP server, and was able to connect with the Messaging app just fine -- for a while. Now, without me changing anything, any attempt to Send and Receive goes like this: "Connecting" "Logging on..." "Receiving headers..." "Could not connect to incoming mail server"
Uh, what? You already said you connected and logged in! There doesn't seem to be any way to figure out what the "real" error is.
I've been trying all day to do a successful Send and Receive from the Advantage, and meanwhile my desktop clients and iPhone merrily stay up to date, all with the same settings. What in the world is going on?
Sadness
So, basically, everything I've tried to do with the device so far has been met with abject failure and to say I have buyer's remorse is an understatement. Worse yet, because I've unboxed it, CompUSA is going to want to charge me 15% ($100+) just to return it.
I'd much rather keep it and use it, but as it stands, there are some really serious problems here.
I'm open to any suggestions, and I'm especially interested to hear from other Advantage users who either are or aren't having the same sorts of problems.
To set the stage here, I've gone through a great many mobile devices over the years, Palms and WM alike. My main device is currently an iPhone, which I love to death despite a few minor quibbles. (I am a Mac user first and foremost, but I'm platform-agnostic. I'll use whatever works for me.)
The X7501 appealed to me because, as a former Newton user, I was surprised to see someone once again tackle the big screen, paperback form factor. As nice as a pocketable device is, sometimes it's just nice to have a big screen to work with. And before the iPhone came out, I was fairly happy with my Dash, also an HTC device. So, I saw myself primarily using the iPhone, but having the Advantage around to do occasional desktop-like things, without having to carry around a heavy laptop everywhere.
First impressions
So, I buy it and get it home, and turn it on, and the first thing I see is "TEST ONLY - NOT FOR SALE" and my face immediately drops into my palms, wondering why nobody except Apple can get something to just work out of the box. ( Picture here: http://flickr.com/photos/stevenf/1052133170/ )
Some Googling and phone calls later, I discover that the HTC has posted a firmware update to resolve this, and I go to download it, but I can't because HTC is having server problems, and after numerous attempts to download the 61 MB file at 10 KB/s, it always eventually times out, disconnects, and leaves me with an un-resumable download fragment.
I called HTC who were actually extremely helpful. This was a big surprise to me, because I'm always loathe to deal with phone support people. They were aware of the server problem and a rep posted a copy of the firmware to SendSpace (!) which I was able to download and install without any problems.
GPS
The next thing which baffled me is the fact that the device has a GPS module, and no software with which to use it. OK, well, technically there was a copy of TeleNav installed, but that requires a monthly subscription. I already have a Garmin GPS which I love, and so there was no point in me paying a subscription for anything -- I just wanted to try out the GPS on the Advantage.
Some research led me to Google Maps, the WM version of which reportedly works with GPS. I installed it, and pointed it at COM5, 9600 baud, as I'd read on the web had worked for other X7501 users, and...
Nothing. I get "Initializing GPS" then "Looking for satellites..." and none are ever found, even standing out in my back yard and other places where the Garmin works fine.
So, strike two.
Web
I then proceeded to do some web browsing from the comfort of my home's wi-fi network. It worked well enough, but seemed oddly sluggish for a 600+ MHz device. I did several head-to-heads with the iPhone, emptying the caches on both devices, and sending them to the same URL at the same time. The iPhone beat the Advantage in every single test, usually by at least 10 seconds, and sometimes as much as 20 or more. I tried with both IE and Opera (which also comes preinstalled) and pretty much had the same result. Considering how much RAM and CPU power it has, I'm honestly kind of shocked at how pokey the Advantage is.
Not only that but I ran across a couple of sites which used AJAX that didn't work in either IE or Opera but, you guessed it, worked just fine on the iPhone.
After a couple hours or so, I started to run into random problems with both browsers. Suddenly they would be unable to resolve URLs and throw up "host not found" errors. Opera at one point just lost its will to live and stopped trying to load anything -- you'd just type in a URL, hit the "Go" button, and it wouldn't even try. Meanwhile, every other wi-fi connected device in the house is working just fine.
So, that was disappointing.
On to email. I use a completely standard IMAP server, and was able to connect with the Messaging app just fine -- for a while. Now, without me changing anything, any attempt to Send and Receive goes like this: "Connecting" "Logging on..." "Receiving headers..." "Could not connect to incoming mail server"
Uh, what? You already said you connected and logged in! There doesn't seem to be any way to figure out what the "real" error is.
I've been trying all day to do a successful Send and Receive from the Advantage, and meanwhile my desktop clients and iPhone merrily stay up to date, all with the same settings. What in the world is going on?
Sadness
So, basically, everything I've tried to do with the device so far has been met with abject failure and to say I have buyer's remorse is an understatement. Worse yet, because I've unboxed it, CompUSA is going to want to charge me 15% ($100+) just to return it.
I'd much rather keep it and use it, but as it stands, there are some really serious problems here.
I'm open to any suggestions, and I'm especially interested to hear from other Advantage users who either are or aren't having the same sorts of problems.