[Advantage X7510 General] oyumurtaci:
Opinions

I know everyone has an opinion on the new Advantage, but here are my thoughts and hopes:

The new keyboard, despite being a step in the right direction, isn't what I had hoped for. I was looking for a more 'click' type of feedback, even if only light such as that of the Tytn II. This new 'vibrate' tactile feedback has been great on the LG Viewty that I have been toying with, but that is only because the LG unit lacks any decent hard keys and the feedback is received when screen buttons are pressed. Considering the hard feel of the keyboard, a small click with minimal travel seems to be too much to ask. Hence, touch typing will still be a hit and miss issue, and I have a feeling all the vibrating from thumbboarding on the keyboard will drain the battery a little faster (thinking of corporate e-mail addicts and frequent SMS senders here). Other than that, considering they were able to fit a 'vibrator' under the keypad, it would only make sense that HTC managed to fit some sort of backlighting for the keyboard as well. If not, shame on them.

I will miss the hard keys surrounding the bezel. After all, that is the point of the bezel isn't it? If there aren't going to be any useful features on a bezel then why have it at all? Either extend the screen or make the device smaller. If 'smaller' isn't possible due to internal parts, then make the screen bigger or keep the buttons. I agree with most users in that I will miss the D-pad and OK buttons the most.

I appreciate the increased storage capacity and the switch to no moving parts. Not that I plan on dropping it on concrete any time soon, but you never know.

Lastly, the software front. Considering most of the internals are identical to the previous (current?) version, I have a feeling WM6.1 won't have trouble running on the Advantages we already own. The question is will HTC support it (I know that if they don't xda will get right on it). I know that most of the video playback issues regarding the Advantage and Tytn II stem from lack of software support but the UI must be just bad programming on the drivers front (correct me if I am wrong). Despite the rumors that HTC will have full support for the ATi chipsets in the new version, considering that they are the same chips as those in the current advantage, it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't release them for current owners (unless there is some great legal dispute with the Broadcom/Qualcomm lawsuit that also has an effect on HTC). Therefore I believe the best we can hope for is software support in TCPMP for video playback, and just hope for the best with WM6.1. Considering the Sony representatives at WMC mentioned that the UI issues on the demonstrated XPERIA X1 (Also HTC built) will be resolved by the time of sale, I have a feeling that we will finally start to see devices that aren't bogged down by WM. In general though, I feel that the real disappointment all this time has been Microsoft. I realize that they have had to develop a platform that will support vast variations in hardware while providing maximal software support (both with Windows and Windows Mobile) but general UI issues despite having hardware support is just plain disappointing.

All in all, I'm hoping that the new Advantage drives the price of the current version down so I can get a second one. I like the 16gb solid state storage, but that can be offset with SD cards, and it's not like the added speed will make a difference with a PATA interface (my guess, may be something other than PATA). Even if it did, we'd still be waiting for the TCPMP window to close and return to the Today screen... but I still love my HTC devices.