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Review: HTC Inspire 4G

Form Basics Extras Wrap-Up Comments 59

Screen

What's not to like about a 4.3-inch display that packs in 800 x 480 pixels? It looks fantastic. Colors appear rich and full, blacks are nice and inky, and it's bright enough to light up a nightclub. Outdoor visibility is not exactly awesome, and much of the colors are washed out in sunlight. It is still mostly usable, though, with the exception of some of the inner menus.

Signal

The Inspire 4G is the first smartphone to take advantage of AT&T's fastest HSPA+ network. Mind you, AT&T still hasn't announced how fast its HSPA+ network really is. That said, the Inspire displayed a little “H+” symbol most of the time I used it. Signal strength ranged from zero to full bars, but the Inspire 4G never lost contact with the network entirely. In my short testing period, it did not drop any calls. Network speeds were all over the map. Downloads ranged between a paltry 800Kbps and a not-so-impressive 2.1Mbps. Uploads were a miserable 122Kbps to 240Kbps. (For comparison, the iPhone 4 reached a max download of 5.1Mbps and upload of 880Kbps in the same location using the same testing tools.) What exactly about the Inspire 4G is, uh, 4G, AT&T? To be fair, I have yet to transit my entire signal strength testing circuit due to the extremely cruddy weather in NJ.

Sound

Call quality via the Inspire 4G was very good. With the exception of a very minor hiss, I didn't experience any sound issues when making voice calls. Voices coming through the earpiece had a warm sound to them and avoided the digital overtones that can rear up. The earpiece speaker was plenty loud. Set to the maximum, it should be easy to hear most calls. Quality of speakerphone calls was the same, just a slight hiss. The speakerphone could be set loud enough to suit most people. Ringers and alert tones were loud, but not nerve-gratingly so. You won't miss calls. The vibrate alert was average.

Battery

The Inspire 4G just barely made it through 24 hours on a single charge. This is about what I expected, since it is an HTC Android device with Sense. You're going to have to charge it every night. If you use the WI-Fi hotspot feature, plan to plug it in somewhere when doing so. The hotspot feature will kill a full charge in several hours.

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HTC Inspire 4G

4.3" display 480 x 800 pixels
Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 processor
1,230 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

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