AT&T Tilt Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Mark Brezinski Published on October 25, 2007 Comment on this |
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Dialing Speed (3.59)
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| AT&T Tilt | 5.57 | 3.59 |
| Nokia E90 | 2.36 | 8.47 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 3.16 | 6.33 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.16 | 3.25 |
| Palm Treo 750 | 4.25 | 4.71 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.96 | 5.05 |
Talk and End Buttons (7.0)
The talk and end buttons are located at the top left and right corners of the d-pad array. Buttons in corners are preferred, as their position is often the easiest to find. As with all the d-pad buttons, the talk and end buttons have good snap to them, so you'll know when you've hit them. They're also a good size, so dexterity shouldn't be an issue. Unlike on most other phones, the talk and end buttons only really perform their namesake functions; they don't perform differently if you hold them down.
Call Management (7.5)
The Tilt manages calls just as well as any other phone with Windows Mobile 6. Call history can be filtered by incoming, outgoing, or missed calls. Clicking on an entry shows you the entire history of that number. Here, each call is listed with the date, time, and duration. Tapping an item on this list calls the number. You can also add the number as a contact via the menu screen. There still isn't a counter for your total minutes or data, which is an odd omission; most phones have several "total" counters — one for lifetime minutes used or data transferred, and one you can reset to better keep up with a monthly allowance.
There are myriad options available while in a call, such as mute, hold, and accessing things like your contact list and the notes application. We wished there was an option to record the call, but this functionality isn't included in most phones, so its absence isn't a huge deal.
Startup to Call (1.55)
Advanced phones never do well in this test, where we measure how long the phone takes to go from being turned completely off (as if you had jsut inserted the battery) to hitting the call button to make a call. They often have incredibly long startup times and lag considerably for a few seconds after booting up. This is most certainly the case with the Tilt, as it was only able to get a call going in about 64.55 seconds. A great majority of this speed run consisted of us waiting for the phone to boot up, then waiting for the phone to get past the lag, register the number we had input a few seconds earlier, and begin the call. We could certainly see phones like the Tilt being used as a horror movie device, with the victim screaming at it to hurry up as the villain closes in on him or her, waving a chainsaw. Many advanced phones take more than a minute to perform this test, and the horror movie of the Tilt would end up with the hapless caller being sliced and diced before they could call the plucky heroine for help.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| AT&T Tilt | 64.55 | 1.55 |
| Nokia E90 | 32.12 | 3.11 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 7.12 | 14.04 |
| HTC Mogul | 55.00 | 1.82 |
| Palm Treo 750 | 42.26 | 2.37 |
| Apple iPhone | 26.12 | 3.83 |
Ring Volume (8.57)
To test ring volume, we hold the phone's speaker two inches away from a sound pressure meter and run through the ringtones. In this case, the list of ringtones was fairly extensive. After slogging through the huge list, we determined the loudest part of the loudest tone to be 85.7 decibels. This is actually a bit on the quiet side, but we assure you hearing the ringtones won't be an issue. We're not sure if it was just our model, but playing any of the built-in, band-performed music at the highest volume will elicit a horrible vibrating sound. This is sure to get your attention.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| AT&T Tilt | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Nokia E90 | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 85.6 | 8.56 |
| HTC Mogul | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Palm Treo 750 | 83.2 | 8.32 |
| Apple iPhone | 84.9 | 8.49 |
Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
The Tilt offers good options for ringtone customizability, allowing you to use MP3, AAC, and WMA files, provided you drop them into the ringtone folder via the File Manager. This is a refreshing feature, as even the iPhone still won't let you use your own ringtones, charging a buck for a song, and then another buck to cut it down to size. The Tilt also allows you to set your voice notes as ringtones, so you can yell at yourself to answer the phone.
Non-Audio Alerts (10.0)
The Tilt has a pretty good vibration, and we were able to feel it shaking around in our pocket. There are also on-screen pop-ups and a tiny LED that attempts to alert you. Of course, if you can see the screen, chances are you'll be able to hear or feel the phone vibrating. Overall, though, the Tilt's non-audio alerts were refreshing, as a majority of the phones we review offer substandard functionality here.
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