I Just Traded In the Best Smart Phone I Have Ever Owned

**Updated Info on 11/28*********************************************************************

I’ve been using my HTC Titan for almost a week now. I was a little skeptical on the battery life but HTC has proven me wrong. I’m getting more than 12 – 14 hours of batter with my normal usage (email, text messaging, a few calls, social networking, and an occasional game).  Mileage may vary if you’re a heavy user but I’m more than pleased with the length of time I can go without a charge

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It’s probably best that I start this post with a little history….. I remember the Windows Mobile 6.5 Treo I owned a few years ago. It was slow, clunky, far from dependable, with horrible battery life. I finally gave up and purchased a shiny new iPhone 3GS (After all it was what all the cool kids were doing). I really enjoyed the iPhone because it had tons of apps and well it was dependable. Shortly after the 4.0 IOS software was released I upgrade my 3GS and it was all downhill from there. My trusty iPhone was no longer the ruby it once was. Around this time I was hearing a lot of hype about Windows Phone 7 and how it was going to be something completely different than the Windows Mobile of the past. I decided why not. Give Microsoft one last chance on doing the smartphone right. I went to the local AT&T store the day the Samsung Focus was released and I had to practically beg to have them sell me the one they had in stock. I brought the phone home and instantly loved it. It was fast, full of features and something completely different and new. A few weeks past and I soon became a little frustrated that the apps I once used on my iPhone were not available on the Windows Phone. However I decided that I really needed to give the phone a chance and apps would come over time (After all those iPhone apps did not appear overnight). Fast forward to the release of Mango….

I have to be honest, when I first heard about the new features to be released in Mango I wasn’t very excited. My Focus running Windows Phone 7 had proven to be very reliable, not bad on battery life, and provided what I expected in a smart phone.  My fears of Mango slowing down my phone (after all that’s what Apple did to me) were soon put to rest after installing the beta. My reliable Windows Phone 7 was now a faster with tons of new features.  A couple of months later Mango was released and my Focus upgraded itself without incident.

Ok I know… I just gave you a ton of history that wasn’t even the the topic of this post. So fast forward to today. I’ve been eyeing (and drooling over) the reviews of the new HTC Titan for a month or two now. I decided last week I was going to trade up my trusty Focus for this new “beast” of a phone and it does not disappoint.  I’ve only had the phone for a few hours now but I love it. The large screen is amazing yet the phone fits perfectly in the pocket of my jeans.

 

I won’t do an extensive review of the device as Engadget and WPCentral have already done this. I will however point out a few features that stand out to me.

 

First of all, they aren’t kidding when they tell you this phone has a big screen (in a very good way). This thing is huge, but still easy to hold in one hand. To give you an idea, I drew an outline of my new HTC Titan, and placed my Focus inside of it. Note the Focus has a curved back so it is actually inside the lines of the outline, though it may not appear so.

 

The Titan has a very nice looking display. It doesn’t seem to be as bright as my Samsung Focus, but the difference isn’t that noticeable. The sharpness of images is pretty much the same, they just appear a little larger on the Titan due to the massive screen. Overall the phone feels really solid and the gunmetal casing on the back is a nice touch.

 

One interesting thing that I did notice is HTC has a “Docking” app available for download. Rumor has it there will be a dock available for the Titan.  I have to say I would look forward to seeing a Windows Phone dock.

After flipping through various settings on the phone I discovered the “attentive phone” section. I have to say I’ve never thought about my phone being “attentive” to my needs but hey..why not.  I haven’t had time to test out these settings yet, but definitely interested in seeing if these features work as advertised.

 

 

Finally I can’t forget to mention the fact that this phone will look really sweet running the Lync mobile client due to be released before year end!

That’s it boys and girls. I just traded in the best smart phone I’ve ever owned for the new HTC Titan. One can only hope this phone will be as reliable and usable than my good ole Samsung Focus. So far it looks like this phone will live up to my high expectations however I’ll hold on to my Focus for a month or two just in case.