Review: HTC Freestyle
The Freestyle is a fine little phone. The hardware looks good and functions mostly as expected. It's a bit of a shame that call quality and data speeds were so spotty given the solid battery life. The HTC-derived Sense user interface is the Freestyle's best feature. It functions mostly like a smartphone would when doing basic tasks such as jumping about the home screens.
The feature phone status of the Freestyle makes itself plainly visible, however, when you dig deep and start using some of the real applications. The email program is obnoxiously expensive, but Friendstream works well on a device such as this. The camera and video camera applications are very user-friendly, so it's a bummer that photos and videos don't turn out that well. The browser is pathetic. Media support is also lacking, with lame AT&T services the bulk of what's available.
Would I recommend this phone? Well, to those who want a phone that looks and (mostly) acts like a smartphone, but doesn't require a smartphone data plan, then the Freestyle has some appeal. Adding in services such as the email application and navigation will quickly inflate your monthly bill, however, so that appeal is limited.