[Touch 3G General] ruiz64:
My reply may come a bit late but I needed time to have a concrete opinion...

I wanted to post my "Personal Opinion" about the HTC Touch 3G so called JADE. ;)

It's been about 3 months since I bought this slim gadget and I have no important issues to complain about… :)

After reading some of the available reviews in the internet and combine those useful feedbacks with my own experience, I have concluded that the HTC JADE is an awesome machine. :eek:

Let's point to some of the cons I read on the reviews:

"Resolution is not very good" :( You get what you pay for… Please do not get me wrong. ;) Our JADE handsets are shipped into a very small and slim package. They have a small screen of 2.8" where other resolution bigger than QVGA would make the display unreadable. 320x240 could not give you more quality in my opinion, without a serious impact on the device performance. Otherwise the display is clean and bright and give you the information as fine as it was intend to do. There are indeed better resolutions out there but not into a package of 4.016 inches x 2.110 inches x 0.571 inches and 96 grams. Of course neither within its price range… :cool:

"The camera is bad"… :( I have not find yet any handset with a real photo camera built-in. Better cameras in? Certainly… but no real photo cameras whatsoever.

The photo market is currently offering cameras in similar size and price of our JADE. They are equipped with great Lents, hardware zoom, flash and red-eyes effect compensator. They deliver up to 12 or more megapixels resolutions. They record video in VGA and memo sounds for the pictures. Their batteries last for about 200 to 400 shots and they support storage cards able to hold up to thousand pictures… You want to take good photos? :confused: Then, buy a photo camera. Our JADE's cameras are for GEO Pictures, Photo Contacts, Footprints, take pictures of special occasions when we do not have our photo camera on hand and that's it. In the case of handset with front camera, that is obviously for video call. Perhaps, this last, is something important our JADE lacks of... :(

"The sound and video quality is average". Again, our JADE are not iPods. Those multimedia dedicated devices are intended for that usage rather than our handsets. We can hold some CD into our JADE's storage card and listen to then within a compromise of size and sound quality without carry on another specific and costing device along with us. If you are a multimedia maniac, you certainly would not buy a handset for that usage... :p

GPS is good but the screen is too small to have a good GPS experience. No comments... That is exactly the difference between a Windows Mobile Powered handset with GPS built-in and a standalone GPS dedicated machine or a built-in car navigation system...

"Battery life" Well... if I use my JADE for all it is really intended, I obtain good battery life figures in my modest opinion. Example:

•	6 hours of PDA usage: Appointments, alarm clock every morning (and I am heavy to wake up... :D), Wi-Fi to gather quick GPS info, weather info and some RSS news.) Some sporadic 3G data connections to read and answer my email messages on the go.

•	50 hours in standby where my phone antenna is always on...

•	About 20 SMS and perhaps 1 MMS

•	2 to 3 minutes of Skype via Wi-Fi

•	About 10 minutes of real phone calls (no counting attempts or lost ones)

•	Ringing and/or vibration always on with automatic profile selected

•	2 synchronisations with the desktop PC but with the "via-USB-charging-facility" switched off to avoid unnecessary battery degradation.

With more or less mentioned usage, I face to have to charge my handset every two nights even if the battery was not completely flat to avoid charging during the day.. Otherwise, the battery lasts for a total of about 60 hours, which is quite impressive on a machine running so much communication software at 528 MHz and having only a 1.100 mAh to power it. Again it is a small package of 96 grams. Please do not forget that... :rolleyes:

"3G reception is poor" I do not agree with that statement. :mad: I have indeed very bad 3G reception at home switching often to 2G, but who does use 3G at home when Wi-Fi is almost for free? Also who does browse the web on a tiny screen when you have your PC on hand? We have to use our devices properly, in my opinion. A PDA/phone device is intended for a certain usage and normally on the go. Contrary, stationary phone lines and PC equipped with LAN or DSL connections are for home and office usage... On top, let's share a little experience: I have Microsoft Voice Commands installed. When the antenna icon shows 1 dot and 1 bar, if I request the signal state information using the mentioned application, it replies 60%. When the dot and 3 bars are shown (normally outside home or office), the reply from voice commands is 100%. When full icon shown, still 100%... Two bars some times 60% and other ones 90%. Therefore, either the icon shown or the voice command replies are not accurate. I would think rather on the icon, but again these are my personal experience and opinion. :cool:

Performance is great in general. The GPS works like a charm and if I need to travel for long time, I will certainly use a car power plug to power on my device during the trip. That will certainly shorten my battery life, but this is a price to be paid when it comes to GPS usage. Any way the original battery replacement cost about €25 and you could even find a compatible one for half that price.

For the price I paid I find the JADE as an elegant, fast and all-in-one device that will enable you to face any usual business situation on the go, while delivering some fun during work pauses due to its multimedia capabilities. At the end, we pay for a phone and that is what we get... a POWERFUL one.

We can get better things at higher prices... indeed! and worse and cheaper things as well... but the compromise is up to your needs and budget.

JADE definitely serves me very well and if lost... I will certainly consider to buy another one...

Enjoy! ;)