Overview
Although
Nokia has been receiving its fair share of attention for its recent Windows
Phone devices, including the Lumia 710, 800, and 900, HTC has added its own
respectable contribution to the mix: the Titan II.
Featuring
a gray, contoured body and a 4.7-inch display, the Titan II sports an excellent
16-megapixel rear-facing camera and is available on AT&T’s 4G LTE network.
Priced at $200 with a two-year contract, the Titan II isn’t quite as good as a
deal as the Lumia 900, but it’s still a solid option for those looking to
experience Windows Phone 7.5 Mango on a 4G connection.
Build
& Design
The
Titan II takes more of a conventional approach with its design than the other
recent major Windows Phone release, the Nokia Lumia 900, which was somewhat
polarizing thanks to its unorthodox combination of rounded edges and sharp
corners. With the HTC model, users will find the design to be much more
familiar, thanks to its rounded corners, flat edges, and slightly rounded back.
One
thing that that the Titan II does have in common with the Lumia 900, however,
is that it’s gigantic. Depending on your preference -- and hand size -- this
may or may not be good news for you. When I previewed the phone earlier this
year at CES, I bemoaned its large form factor, but some of you may prefer it,
as it afforded HTC the opportunity to fit the device with a sizable screen. But
no matter your preference, you’ll always know when it’s in your pocket;
measuring 5.12 x 2.76 x 0.39 inches and weighing in at 6 ounces, this is no
small device. They weren't kidding when they put "Titan" in the name.
A
unique aspect of its design that I did appreciate is how the bottom edge of the
phone is gently curved upwards, putting it closer to the user’s mouth when held
up to the ear. Unlike the Galaxy Nexus phones, the entire phone isn’t curved,
only the bottom edge is, so when it’s viewed from the side the handset has a
sled-like shape. I enjoyed this design choice, as it was subtle and felt
comfortable against both the face and when reaching for the capacitive
navigation buttons below the display.
Display
The
4.7-inch, 480 x 800 WVGA Super LCD display of the Titan II is, unfortunately,
nothing to write home about. Compared to the low reflectivity and deep blacks
of the Lumia 900’s display -- due in no small part to Nokia’s ClearBlack
technology -- the screen of the Titan II was okay at best. Aside from the
blacks not being as deep, colors did not pop nearly as much, and even on the
highest settings, the screen was far from the brightest I’ve ever seen (which
also caused some issues with visibility in direct sunlight).
Also,
the screen has a pixel density of 199 ppi, which doesn’t look great on the
phone’s massive 4.7-inch display. I was surprised at how easily I could see
individual pixels without even having to look all that closely. A display this
large deserves a better pixel density to go with it, because otherwise it’s
kind of pointless to have a huge, generally poor display.
Other
Buttons and Ports
The
button and port placement is generally standard fare, with the volume rocker
and dedicated camera button located on the right side of the device, the
power/standby button and 3.5mm microphone jack on the top edge, and the micro
USB (charging) port on the left side. A 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera can
be found in the upper right-hand corner above the display, and a large,
16-megapixel rear-facing camera is positioned toward the top of the backside of
the device (with a speaker and dual-LED flashes located on either side of it).
Unfortunately,
like the Lumia 900, the 1730 mAh battery of the HTC Titan II is not removable.
A small panel located on the bottom fifth of the backside of the device can be
slid off to access the SIM card slot, but that’s it.
Performance
Everything
there is to say about Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) -- the OS that the HTC Titan II
runs -- has already been said in our previous reviews, but rest assured that
it’s a comfortable user experience, at least to this reviewer. I’m well aware
of the fact that it’s not for everybody, especially given the animosity toward
the Metro UI, but it’s efficient (especially with battery usage), fast, and
easy to navigate.
Under
the hood, the Titan II packs a powerful 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor,
but unfortunately Microsoft’s OS does not currently support multi-core chips,
so it’s only a single-core processor. Nevertheless, it’s more than enough to
power the device capably, and I tested out a number of graphics-intensive games
without ever encountering any stuttering or hiccups. The only minor issue was
that the back of the device would get a little warm during some of the more
intense processes, though it was nothing too serious.
It’s
a drastic improvement over last generation’s WP7 devices, including my personal
HTC Trophy, which runs on a 1 GHz single-core processor. For instance, simple
tasks like pulling up my Xbox Live page on my Trophy can result in some
seriously sluggish framerates when my avatar begins performing animations, but
no such lag occurred on the Titan II. The disparity between the processing
power of the two devices was quite apparent.
For
those wondering, the Titan II comes with 16 GB of storage. As usual, per
Microsoft’s Windows Phone specifications, the device does not have expandable
storage.
And
as for AT&T’s 4G LTE network, I was perfectly content with its speeds, even
if I didn’t get to enjoy things like Flash video, which is unsupported on
Windows Phone. Service was reliable, even if I did notice a dip in the number
of bars I had in certain areas (where I would have the maximum number of bars
on my Verizon handset).
Software
The
apps on the Titan II are standard fare for a Windows Phone, with AT&T and
HTC both pitching in their respective contributions. Like with the rest of its
WP7 handsets, AT&T preloads its Code Scanner, myWireless (provides details
about your wireless account), Navigator, Radio, Maps, U-Verse Mobile apps. HTC,
meanwhile, provides its HTC Hub, which is nothing more than a glorified
weather/stock/news app with links to other free apps in the Marketplace.
But
as is always the case with Windows Phones, the operating system has baked-in
software for both productivity and entertainment. Easy syncing to
Outlook/Microsoft Exchange accounts is great for work, as is the inclusion of
the Microsoft Office suite (featuring Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote, as
well as a handful of cloud/syncing options like Sharepoint or SkyDrive). The phone also comes preloaded with Tango for
making video calls with the phone’s front-facing, 1.3-megapixel camera.
Of
course, there is also integration with Xbox Live and Zune, which is great for
gamers and music lovers. And ever since the Mango update to WP7, users also
have access to updated Bing search features and Local Scout (for providing nearby
restaurants or shops).
Camera
The
Titan II comes equipped with a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with a dual-LED
flash and a BSI sensor for low-light shooting. I was happy to see that the
white balance issues that plagued the Lumia 900’s camera were not present here.
In fact, the quality of the photos I snapped with the smartphone was actually
quite impressive, with images coming out clear and crisp.
I
was also impressed with how the camera could achieve a shallow depth of field,
albeit when the subject in question was extremely close to the lens. Meanwhile,
the BSI sensor helped quite a bit with low-light shooting; as you can see in
the sample image here, I shot a photo in the shadows beneath my desk, yet there
really isn’t much noise at all. In fact, it looks more like I took the picture
out in the open underneath the lights. I had to shoot in some very poorly-lit
areas before I ran into any noticeable graininess.
The
camera’s 720p video was decent, but nothing too special as it tended to suffer
from motion blur pretty easily. Still, much like the photos, the picture was
sharp and colors were well-saturated.
Battery
The
battery life of the Titan II was excellent, especially for a 4G device. Given
the size and capacity of the battery, I tried giving it a real push by keeping
email push on, as well as Wi-Fi, location (GPS), and brightness on the maximum
setting. Despite my best efforts to drain the battery as fast as I could, I
still managed to get three full days out of it with legitimate usage for other
activities like browsing, gaming, and finding directions (admittedly, I only
made one 15-minute phone call during that period).
And
after my intensive stress test of the battery, I tried seeing how long it could
last with the same settings on, but much less usage in terms of web browsing
and other activities. Truth be told, that didn’t help me squeeze too much more
out of a single charge; I managed to get roughly another 16 hours of usage out
of it.
Conclusion
With
all the attention and recent marketing that the Nokia Lumia 900 has been
receiving lately, it’s easy for people to overlook the HTC Titan II, or perhaps
not even hear about it at all. But while I personally did not find it to be
quite on the same remarkably high level as the Lumia 900, I still thought that
the Titan II was a great Windows Phone offering from HTC.
It
has a disappointing display and it’s too big and bulky for my tastes, but at
least the latter issue was somewhat mitigated by its contoured design. Aside
from that, it’s mostly pros with the Titan II, including an outstanding camera,
a powerful processor, and 4G connectivity. It will run you a bit more than the
Lumia 900, but if you’re not fond of Nokia’s unorthodox design choices or
you’re looking for a better-quality camera, then the Titan II might just be
what you’re looking for.
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