First, the slide out keyboard is not as convenient as the Treo's. I used the Treo style keyboard for nearly two years and I found it annoying not to have immediate access to a QWERTY input interface. The on-screen keyboard works only with a stylus so that's even more inconvienient. However, slowly I'm adjusting and the keyboard is actually not too bad. I wish the keys had more travel (like the Treo) so that it would provide a nice tactile response, but it is still usable. As far as the other input keys go, such as the Comm Manager and camera buttons, they are somewhat of an annoyance since they stick out far too much from the body of the phone and needlessly launch these apps. I'll discuss the camera functions later.
Second, the screen is nice and bright. When the keyboard is pulled out, the screen switches from a portrait to a landscape orientation. The speed at which it does this can vary and certainly the fewer apps you have running, the faster it can switch. This is more of question of performance so let's take a look at that.
There have been times when the TyTN II has ground to a halt, but I have never had to do a soft reset, which was common on my Treo 750. Windows Mobile 6 has this great feature where you can (really) shut down individual apps or close them all in one fell swoop. Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) and the camera app seem to be the biggest resource hogs. However, there seems to be adequate memory on the TyTN II, just don't try to run too many programs (+4) at one time.
As far as the installed apps go, I like the new version of PIE since it allows me to access Microsoft Outlook 2003 Webmail since previous versions didn't. The installed Java program annoyingly keeps asking me do I want to connect to the internet since airtime charges may be applied; I can understand this maybe once and setting an option to ignore this message in the future, but not everytime, for instance, when I fire up Gmail's Java-based email applet.
The camera is a disappointment, but does have some small redeeming qualities. There is no
digital zoom on normal photo mode, but when in burst mode there's a 2x zoom; not sure why this zoom exists only on this mode though. There's an interesting feature where you can create a panaroma photo by snapping several photos in succession and the TyTN II will piece them together to make one super photo; unfortanately, the resulting photo is rather small compared to the normal photo mode. Don't bother taking photos with the front-facing camera (it wasn't meant for that) since the resolution is too low, but it does serve as a handy mirror. Overall, the pictures from the main camera are decent, bright colors can be washed out, and it takes a while for the camera to actually snap the photo (there are some strange clicking noises from the phone too) so the bottom line is don't forget your normal camera when you need quality. Check out the sample photo above, notice the bluriness and lack of strong colors.The form factor is pretty large. It's not much larger than the Treo 750, but for some reason it seems bigger. Perhaps it's because of the Treo's curved edges on its front face and on the bottom-end of the phone that give it that effect.
Let's discuss the GPS functionality. It can take a while for the GPS receiver to find the satellites, but that always depends on the surrounding environment e.g. buildings and windows blocking the GPS receiver's ability to find a signal. The TomTom Taster program is nice I just wish the additional maps for purchase weren't just for Europe...the caveat of buying a European phone. I plan on buying the full version of TomTom soon, so that's not really a problem.
Finally, connectivity speed. While I wasn't quite sure since the box and other materials didn't note this, but the TyTN II is an HSDPA phone and not just UMTS. At least, that's what I think it is since the H icon pops up when I access the internet. There were some major headaches when I first got the phone since it had problems connecting to AT&T's internet, but I learned that the automatic settings retrieval program that comes with the TyTN II doesn't quite set the correct settings for Cingular. I had to adjust the internet settings per AT&T's handy instructions for setting the internet for the Treo 750. Since then, I haven't had any problems with Outlook, PIE or any other web-enabled program. Alas, http://home/ or AT&T's normal MediaNET homepage doesn't work. It looks like I'll have to do without those occasional sweepstakes they host there...nutz.
Overall, I like the TyTN II. Has man (and woman)-kind actually made a significant step forward in terms of technology? Nah. Is this progress? Sure. Am I happy with the purchase? Certainly.
