AT&T Tilt Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Mark Brezinski Published on October 25, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (3.66)
Given the Tilt's great plug-in that essentially gives you a media player on the home screen, we were very disappointed in this score. All you have to do to get a song playing is click the play button. That's the extent of interaction. At this point, we had to wait 5.47 seconds for the song to actually load and play. Again, the Tilt is hamstrung by the slow response; the software is well organized, but slow to actually do anything.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| AT&T Tilt | 5.47 | 3.66 |
| Nokia E90 | 7.31 | 2.74 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 7.62 | 2.62 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.06 | 3.30 |
| Palm Treo 750 | 4.36 | 4.59 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.10 | 6.45 |
Dedicated Music Controls (1.0)
The Tilt doesn't have any dedicated, hardware-based music controls. It does, however, have a plug-in that essentially integrates the music player into the home screen.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (6.2)
Online Song Downloading (0.0)
Unfortunately, as this is an AT&T phone, the Tilt doesn't support online song downloading yet.
Streaming (2.0)
Like all Windows Mobile phones, the Tilt supports streaming Windows Media files. It can't handle streaming MP3 or Real files, however.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The Tilt doesn't have any software that supports podcasts.
Music Sync with PC (11.0)
There are two viable ways to sync the Tilt with your PC. The first is to simply connect it as a mass-storage device, either via USB or Bluetooth, and then sync it up with Windows Media Player. The second is to install the included software and use ActiveSync.
Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
The Tilt will play AAC, WMA and MP3 files, as well as Microsoft's own PlaysForSure DRM. It won't support any other DRM files, so music bought through iTunes won't work on this device.
Music Interruption (10.0)
The Tilt performs admirably with music interruption. When a call comes in, your music is paused. When your call ends, music playback resumes. The only additional feature we would've liked to see was a fade-in, as abrupt, loud music startles us. But we're sensitive like that.
Video
Video Software Access (1.96)
Normally phones take a second or two to start playing a video file. This load time is a bit more exaggerated on the Tilt. It took us 10.18 seconds to get a video playing, due to menu delving and the aforementioned loading time.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| AT&T Tilt | 10.18 | 1.96 |
| Nokia E90 | 7.55 | 2.65 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 8.08 | 2.48 |
| HTC Mogul | 7.64 | 2.62 |
| Palm Treo 750 | 6.88 | 2.91 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.20 | 6.25 |
Video Controls (7.0)
Video Software & Organization (6.5)
As the Tilt uses Windows Media Player Mobile for audio and video playback, the library software is solid. It's also exactly the same as the music software, meaning it supports automatic updating as well as sync-able ratings. You can watch videos in portrait or landscape, as well as full screen. On the organizational side, you can sort your videos by title or genre. You can still synchronize your (Windows Media Player) playlists; most phones don't support playlists for videos. Overall, this is decent functionality that seems impressive compared to the dearth of video software features offered on most phones.
Video Sync with PC (7.0)
As with music, there are two synchronization options: the ActiveSync software or connecting the phone to your PC and using Windows Media Player to sync.
Video Formats (5.0)
The Tilt could play all of our 3GP test video files regardless of the encoded bitrates It could also play our MP4 file that was encoded with H264. It also supported Windows Media Video files. It did not play any Real, Flash, or QuickTime files.
Video DRM (5.0)
Of course, as a Windows Mobile phone, the Tilt can play Windows Media DRM. It doesn't support any other DRM, however.
Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
We test video playback smoothness by playing (or attempting to play) a series of test videos of different bitrates. The Tilt could handle our highest bitrate test file, which plays at 768 Kbps. This means you shouldn't have any smoothness issues with video playback.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
Unfortunately, the Tilt doesn't support online video downloading.
Video Streaming unscored
As there is no set standard for us to judge online video streaming against, we don't score this section. We do perform tests, however. We found we couldn't watch YouTube or Zoovision videos, but we were able to watch clips off windowsmobile.com.
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