[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General] poriggity:
I had an Iphone 2g and was looking to upgrade. Immediate thoughts were to go to an Iphone 3g or 3gs, as I did really like my Iphone. As I started doing research though, My eyes kept landing on the HTC Tilt 2 with Windows Mobile 6.5. I've heard plenty of horrible things about previous versions of WinMo, but everything I had read about WinMo 6.5 slated it to be a pretty kick ass OS..

After having it for a couple of weeks, I can tell you, that there are alot of things I like, some things I don't, and a few that I can take or leave. For one, The phone does not really have much built in memory, but the use of an 8 gig or 16 gig micro SD card in the card slot alleviates that issue. The phone itself has 228 MB of storage memory and 188 MB of program memory. The touch screen is very easy to use, the zoom bar is a nice feature, but IMHO, the best thing on this phone is the slide out hardware keyboard. I never thought I'd need or want a phone with a hardware keyboard, but after using it for a couple of weeks to send multiple emails and numerous text messages, I am loving the hardware keyboard. I also really like how customizable WinMo is right out of the box, and how easy it is to flash new ROM's onto the phone. The iphone can do similar things, but it needs to be jailbroken in order to do so, which ALOT of people don't want to do...

Battery life on the Tilt 2 is not superb, but better than the Iphone was. I multitask all day, between facebook, twitter, emails and text messages, as well as actually using the device as a phone, and at the end of my 12 hour work day, I still have around 40% of battery life left, without ever plugging in the phone. On my old Iphone 2g, if I went about my day doing the same tasks, the battery would be dead by around 3pm, which left me with 3 hours to kill.. I always had a spare USB charging cord at work, so I could keep the phone plugged in during down times, to keep the battery charged. I don't have to do that with the Tilt 2.

The speaker on the Tilt 2 is 1000 times better than the one on the iphone 2g, and talking on the phone is crystal clear on speaker and with standard talking. This wasn't always the case with the Iphone.

The camera is also better than my 2g, but from what I gather, its the same on the 3g Iphone as it is on my tilt 2, so I would say it's not fair to compare cameras.. The Tilt2 has a 3.2 MP camera that does video out of the box, and the iphone has a 2 MP camera, that could not do video out of the box (my Iphone was jailbroken, however, and I used Cycorder to do video recording).

Overall, My initial impressions on the HTC Tilt2 are positive. I REALLY like this phone, and windows mobile 6.5 is very easy to operate. Below are a list of pros and cons to this phone for anyone looking for a new smartphone.

Pros:

Hardware keyboard is awesome

Display is crisp and clear on the screen

WinMo 6.5 is easy to navigate

Speaker on back is very clear

Internet loads quickly (Opera Mobile 10 is awesome)

Battery life is better than Iphone, but could still use improvement, IMHO

Customizing and modifying phone to suit you is easy to do

Cons:

Battery life could use SOME improvement

Phone itself is bigger/bulkier and heavier than others

Not much Memory on phone (Micro SD card will cure this though)

touch screen not as responsive as the Iphone

Overall, I am really happy with my decision to go with the HTC Tilt 2, as it is for personal and side business use, and it has suited both those needs very well.

As a side note, I wrote this review based on the stock ROM. I now have the "Energy Leo" ROM listed in my signature, and it's made me enjoy this phone a BUNCH more. Overall, I couldn't be happier with my decision to go from Iphone to Tilt 2.

Scott