The Review
We haven't had a chance to fully test this product yet, but we've assembled this helpful overview of relevant information on it.
The HTC Freestyle, while not a true smartphone, is nonetheless an affordable starter phone for someone looking for something in between.
HTC came on to the smartphone scene by introducing a line of higher-end (and priced) products. But with the HTC Freestyle, they’ve now entered the realm of affordable, good-for-starters phones. There’s many of the standards: touch screen, HTC’s Sense and HTC’s Friend Stream, but it comes with fairly midrange overall feel and a minimalist interface while also lacking an accelerometer and Wi-Fi. So it’s not a true smartphone, but one that’s perhaps a good bridge to one down the road.
Features List:
-3.2 inch touchscreen display
-Dimensions: 4.2 x 2.2 x .5
-Full HTML Browser
-HTC Sense UX with customizable Homescreen widgets and FriendStream
-Stereo Bluetooth Capable (v2.0)
Press Release:
HTC Freestyle Available to AT&T Customers on Feb. 13
First AT&T Quick Messaging Phone Based on Brew Mobile Platform
Dallas, Texas, February 08, 2011
Key Facts
AT&T* will begin selling the HTC Freestyle™ on Feb. 13.
AT&T’s first quick messaging phone based on Brew® Mobile Platform, the HTC Freestyle, will cost $99.99 after a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate beginning Feb. 13 in AT&T company-owned retail stores and online.
The HTC Freestyle is the first quick messaging phone to feature the HTC Sense™ experience.
HTC Freestyle
Previously announced at the 2011 AT&T Developer Summit on Jan. 5, the HTC Freestyle™ is the first of a new generation of quick messaging phones from AT&T designed to run on Brew Mobile Platform. By installing Brew MP™ across quick messaging phones, which traditionally have had operating systems specific to each device maker, software developers will be able to write an application and generally be able to offer it to Brew Mobile Platform-based phones from AT&T. Specifically, Brew MP allows AT&T and developers to more easily offer smartphone-like applications to customers who want a full-featured messaging phone. AT&T plans for future quick messaging phones to operate on Brew MP.
The HTC Freestyle features a premium design with a 3.2-inch touch screen display clad in an aluminum unibody construction. It is also the first quick messaging phone to feature the HTC Sense experience with customizable widgets and FriendStream™ app for social networking integration, a full HTML browser and 3.2-megapixel camera.
Price and Availability
HTC Freestyle™ will cost $99.99 after a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate beginning Feb. 13 in AT&T company owned retail stores and online. Requires an unlimited messaging plan. Qualified customers only. HTC Freestyle™ is configured to work only with the wireless services provided by AT&T.
Learn more about HTC Freestyle at www.att.com/mobilephones-news.
Quotes
“We are excited to add HTC Freestyle to our popular quick messaging device portfolio,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Between the HTC Sense experience, a multitude of apps through Brew MP and its top-notch construction, the Freestyle is sure to make a splash with customers.”
“With the HTC Freestyle, HTC is pleased to be supporting AT&T’s drive to bring new, enhanced capabilities to their lineup of customer-friendly quick messaging phones,” said Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC Americas.
1: Limited time offer. Two-year contract required. Qualified customers only. Other restrictions apply. See contract for details. Early Termination Fee up to $150. HTC Freestyle requires an unlimited messaging plan. Sales tax calculated based on price of unactivated equipment. Price for HTC Freestyle before AT&T Promotion Card & with 2 year contract and minimum $20 Messaging Plan is $149.99. Allow 60 days for fulfillment. Card valid for 120 days wherever major credit cards accepted. May be used to pay wireless bill. Not redeemable for cash and cannot be used at ATMs or gas pumps. Some restrictions and other charges apply. See terms at store or at att.com/wirelessrebate. Card request must be postmarked by March 14, 2011 if purchased on or before February 14, 2011 or May 4, 2011 if purchased between February 15 – April 4, 2011 and you must be customer for 30 consecutive days to receive Promotion Card.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
Digital Trends’ Cell Phone Buying Tips:
Best time to buy cell phones
With all major U.S. carriers announcing new phones around the clock and a dozen manufacturers all working overtime to produce the next killer device, keeping track of all the different models in circulation at any given time can seem like a Herculian task. But this frantic pace works to your advantage: Any time is a good time to buy a cell phone, as long as you keep your eyes open.
Jamie Lendino, a contributing editor at PC Magazine, recommends spotting three or four phones that suit your needs, then jumping on whichever one dives in price first. With the rapid pace of cell phones, you shouldn’t have to rest on your laurels for long. “Remember that ‘old’ in the tech world could mean just a few months from now,” says Lendino. Even the original iPhone, a high-demand handset which originally sold for $600, dropped a whopping $200 a little over two months after launch.
Of course, to take advantage of the most attractive phone deals, you’ll need to agree to a two-year service contract with a carrier like AT&T or Verizon. For potential buyers locked into existing contracts, this could mean riding it out with an older phone for a few more months in order to grab the massive rebates available upon renewal. Always call your provider to see if you might be eligible for an upgrade prior to an existing contract expiring. AT&T, for instance, allows customers with monthly bills over $99 to upgrade after just one year – as long as they’re willing to lock into another two years of service.
Different form factors
Even after choosing between a smartphone or feature phone, you have a lot of choices to make to decide what your phone will actually look like.
A full touch layout like the iPhone has become popular for smartphones, but you’ll usually forgo a hard keyboard as a result. Some smartphones like the Droid 2 or the BlackBerry Torch offer a slide-out keyboard as a compromise, but get thicker as a result, too. Many smartphones also dupe the popular BlackBerry design: small screen on top, small keyboard below.
In feature phones, the flip or “clamshell” form factor has proven especially popular because of its small size and the fact that it protects the screen and keys when closed. Phones with both the screen and keypad on a fixed rectangular slab are typically called “candybar” phones. As with smartphones, you’ll many feature phones with dedicated QWERTY keyboards, which can be handy for frequent text messagers.
Whichever you decide to go with, make sure to physically handle the phone at a kiosk or store prior to buying. Pictures can often drastically misrepresent the size of phones.
The difference between a smartphone and a feature phone
You could divvy up cellphones into dozens of different categories, but these are the two umbrella groups that matter. Smartphones like the iPhone can serve as personal calendars, e-mail machines, Web browsers, gaming platforms, and a literally unlimited number of other purposes. They’re essentially mini computers. Feature phones are more basic, but they still offer features like cameras, text messaging, and even some limited data connectivity, like checking weather or sports scores. Although smartphones obviously have a lot to offer, they also weigh more, offer less battery life, cost more to buy and run, and can make basic tasks like calling seem more complex. If you plan to buy one, make sure you’ll really take advantage of all the extras.
Notable Features
The list of features to look for in a phone could fill an anthology, so we’ll run down some of the most important ones.
Cameras appear on nearly every phone these days. Although a quality camera can be great for quick snapshots, few phone cameras are ready to replace a trusty point-and-shoot. The few with variable focus far outperform fixed-focus cameras, which you’ll find on the majority.
When considering a display, pay attention to size and brightness, which will both come in handy when trying to read it in difficult conditions like outdoors in the sun. LCD displays are still the most common, but OLED displays have been cropping up lately as well. They use slightly less power and produce extremely vibrant color, but suffer from poor outdoor visibility.
Battery life often gets buried at the end of buyers’ wishlists, only to lead to disappointment when they realize they can barely go a whole day without recharging. Be particularly careful with smartphones, which can get particularly thirsty.
If you plan to use your phone for playing music or watching video, be sure to check for internal and external storage. If the phone has a microSD slot you should be able to add up to 32GB of additional storage.
Choosing a carrier
Because most U.S. cell phone carriers heavily subsidize phone purchases in exchange for two-year contracts, and lock the phones to their networks, your choice of cell carrier will have more impact on which type of phone you end up with than any other factor. If you already have carrier and feel satisfied with it, the choice is easy. If not, you’ll need to choose one.
AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon dominate the cell phone market in the States. Speaking in very general terms, AT&T has a reputation for having the hottest phones but somewhat flaky service due to its overloaded towers, Verizon has the best reception but expensive rates, T-Mobile and Sprint offer some of the most affordable plans but have more limited phone selection.
Prepaid carriers like Cricket, Tracfone, and MetroPCS often appear to offer excellent deals, but caveats like poor customer service, limited phone selection and inferior coverage have to be taken into account.
