AT&T Tilt Cell Phone Review - Tour & Design
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Mark Brezinski Published on October 25, 2007 Comment on this |
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Front Closed
Much of the Tilt's face is screen. The area around it is a thin metallic plate. At the very top, to the left of AT&T's brand, is the speaker. At the bottom is the silver plastic d-pad array. The d-pad array is more packed than usual, fitting in a send and end key, two soft keys, the Windows key, shortcuts for IE and Messaging, and the OK key.
Front Open
Cracking open the Tilt reveals a full QWERTY pad, complete with arrows. At its top are two LED indicators for caps- and function-lock, and another set of soft keys.
Left
The left side has a small cluster of features near the top. The first is a Push-to-Talk key. The second is the jog dial, which you can actually push in like a button and acts like a secondary select key. The final feature is an OK key, which either selects the OK option in the top right or closes a program — it's similar to a back key. It also brings up the Start menu on the home screen.
Top
The top of the phone has no interesting features.
Bottom
On the bottom of he screen panel (below the controls) is the MicroSD card slot, covered with a rubber panel. Below that on the main body of the phone is the mini USB port. There is also a lanyard loop and a hole for the microphone.
Right
The right side of the phone has two buttons: power and shutter. The right side is also home to the stylus.
Back
The back of the phone has a rubbery cover and two notable features. The first is the external antenna port, which is covered with a rubber panel with GPS eched in it. This label is so named because it's also where the GPS receiver is, which is useful to know when you're trying to get a better signal. Below and to the right of this panel is the 3-megapixel camera lens.
Back Open
With the screen slid up, you can access the SIM card slot on the back of the screen.
Battery Out
As it turns out, the entire back of the phone is the battery cover. This was somewhat confusing, as we didn't expect the entire thing to slide off since it has features on it. There actually isn't anything of note once you take off the cover and take out the battery.
In the Box (3.0)
In the box, next to the Tilt, you'll find a charger, mini USB cable, software, a few screen protectors, and a handful of leaflets and manuals.
Handling (5.0)
The Tilt is a fairly big phone, but still sat well in our hand, regardless of what grip we were using, both open and closed. Its weight will probably become an issue during longer calls, but the phone's rounded edges at least ensure you won't get jabbed. The back of the phone feels like hard rubber, and while its smooth surface won't offer the best grip, it will hold better than the plastic on the phone's sides.
Portability (4.0)
There's no getting around the Tilt's size. If you put it in your pocket, it'll be visible, regardless of how loose the article of clothing is. We therefore recommend you keep it in your sensibly-sized purse or bag — unless, of course, you don't mind large rectangular outcroppings on your upper thigh.
Aesthetics (4.0)
The Tilt isn't a very sleek phone. The larger touch screen immediately conjures up comparisons to the iPhone, which trounces it soundly in regards to beauty. It does have a bit of a professional look to it, but nothing along the lines of the E90, or the decidedly less-sleek BlackBerry 8800. The Tilt finds itself dipping a little into sleek and a little into business, but comes out as nothing special.
Durability (5.0)
The Tilt makes us a bit nervous. Its namesake tilting allows you to adjust the screen to whatever angle you prefer, but doesn't have a click or any signal once you've reached the end of the tilting zone. In fact, the hinges allow you to tilt the screen to a full 90 degree angle, though it won't stay. In fact, if we were more brave we could probably continue tilting the screen to points unknown, which will undoubtedly cause the phone to break. We really would've liked the phone to gives us a clear stopping point, rather than rely on the user's knowledge of the amount of stress plastic can handle without fracturing. As it is, however, the tilting screen feels very delicate, and you get a real sense you can snap it off easily. HTC, however, claims that they have drop-tested the Tilt, and that it will survive a drop from a handheld position without incident. Though we haven't stress-tested this claim, it just doesn't feel that robust.
When closed, however, the body of the phone seems sturdy. We twisted it around a bit and didn't hear any creaking. We'd recommend you cover the touch screen with some sort of protection, however, as it may be prone to scratching.
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