The AT&T Fuze is Big Blue’s version of the HTC Touch Pro and offers many of the same great features as its CDMA cousin, including Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It's also tri-band HSDPA/UMTS and supports the carrier's various multimedia and voice services, such as push to talk and AT&T Video.
This particular phone is replacing the year-old AT&T Tilt that overall was a good phone but due for a face lift. There are some design flaws and performance hiccups, but overall, it's a smartphone that can competently handle the needs of a demanding business user and can also bring some fun diversions when needed.
Design
One thing that stood out 1st and foremost when taking the HTC FUZE out of the box was it’s size. You can check out size charts and the actual dimensions, but you can not describe the way a device feels in your hand in words. The FUZE just amazed me, it’s not much smaller than the Tilt on paper, but when you hold it in your hands, it feels much smaller. It’s not any lighter feeling and the bulk from the thickness is the same, but the feel of the FUZE in hand is quite awesome. Overall, it's a very sleek-looking smartphone and while at 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and 5.8 ounces, the HTC Fuze makes for a bit of a tight fit in a pants pocket, it's more compact than the AT&T Tilt.
The Fuze is very well built, with nary a creak or wiggle to be found. The slider, as with previous HTC devices, is spring-assisted, though it doesn't pop out with quite the same spring as other devices. Still, it's solid and satisfying. The screen and front-facing buttons are all flush and overall the Fuze exudes a feel of professionalism and power. The keyboard pops out with a springy click, and we heard a bit of a rattle in this phone that wasn't present in the stiffer Sprint Touch Pro. Other differences are minor. Instead of a top row of numbers on the keyboard, the HTC Fuze gets symbols, with a numeric square laid atop the keys on the right side of the keyboard. The back of the phone is faceted and glossy, more like the unlocked versions of the HTC Touch Diamond that we've seen, and not like the smooth, rounded back on Sprint's HTC Touch Pro. The whole skin of the phone is glossy piano black, while Sprint's version went for a more comfortable, less fingerprint-prone soft-touch finish.
Sliding out the screen is a smooth process, and will reveal the QWERTY keyboard in a 5-row design instead of the 4-row designs of previous models — thus, the keys are a little smaller. While the keys are smaller, they are raised and distinct in order to make your typing experience better. On the AT&T version there are plenty of shortcut buttons that can send you to various programs with ease, such as messaging, Windows Media Player, email, and calendar, among others. The Fuze also features the HTC TouchFLO 3D interface. There is a toolbar along the bottom of the screen that lets you scroll left to right and launch applications with one touch, and in several of the programs (e-mail, photos, and video) you can go through your files and messages by swiping your thumb/finger up or down the screen, all with a cool animated 3D effect.
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