HTC Aria
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 18, 2010 by Philip Berne
The HTC Aria is a slick little Android phone, easily the most pocketable of the bunch. Did it sacrifice too many features to keep its small stature? Find out in our in-depth review. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Great Little Phone - If You Can Hear It !!!
I bought this with no contract and loved it for about 6 hours. I had two very basic problems:
1) As one reviewer said earlier the ringtone is nearly worthless. I tried everything I could think of to make the ring tones louder (different ringtones, custom ringtones, different directories, etc.) and regardless of what I did it didn't make any difference. The ringtone would be manageable for me in a quiet room, but outside or driving, etc. it just wasn't going to work.
2) In call volume - again, for me really weak. You can change it for a "hearing aid" setting which helps the in call audio but for me that was a stretch.
Except for these two issues I really liked the phone - tons of customization capabilities, quick, perfect (for me) size-wize, etc. BUT - I had to return it.
Apparently I'm not the only one that had some audio issues with it 'cause I visited several forums prior to buying it and saw some other comments regarding the audio but I was really hoping it was their specific phone.
Good Android toy, only a so-so phone
First off, I had this phone for 2 weeks and even took it to europe. As an Android device it seemed quite good. As a phone, not so much. Size is extremely pocketable which is great, but a 3.2 inch screen is a little on the small size. The screen is very nice to look at and is quite readable indoors (if your eyes are good) but 3.2 inches is too small for comfortable typing. As a phone, the screen completely washes out in the sun and the ringer is almost completely useless, I missed more calls in those 2 weeks than I have in the past 5 years. Also, in Spain (Madrid) the time would not auto update, although here in U.S. it worked fine. Had the phone part been better I would have kept it. As it is I traded it for the new Samsung Captivate which I think is totally awesome and definitely the better phone as long as you can handle the bigger 4 inch screen.
Good Phone, but...
Pros:
Small
Quick
Sense UI
Cons:
Mine has the problem where the back cover is loose where the headphones plug in. This looseness causes the antenna which is the entire back to lose connection and drop the call. This is a documented problem on the internet. I will be going back to a Blackberry
Good Phone
I had this phone for about 3 weeks until I got the Samsung Captivate. This phone was awesome though easy to text just like a mini HTC Evo.
PROS:
2.1 Android
Smallest Android Phone
HTC Sense
7 Screen Layout
CONS:
No Flash for 5mp Camera
No Live Wallpaper
Att Crippled so you cant have 3rd party Apps
I would recommend this phone for someone who likes a small sleek phone. This candy bar phone is Atts smallest little android phone
Better than most, but still many shortcomings...
PROS (not mentioned by other reviewers):
1. No physical hardware button to end a call. Yay! On many smartphones, hardware End button remains enabled even with screen off or locked, causing accidental disconnects while using bluetooth with phone in pocket. I don't miss that feature!
CONS (not mentioned by other reviewers):
1. Proximity sensor (designed to turn off screen during call when you bring phone to ear, then turn it back on when you move phone away from ear) remains active even on bluetooth, causing unexpected behavior, including occasional disconnects when handling phone or moving into/out of pocket - compounded by #2 below:
2. Power button to turn off screen overridden by proximity proximity sensor. Since power button is directly above sensor, when you press the power button to manually turn screen off during a call, then move hand away, screen immediately turns back on. No setting in phone to disable proximity sensor. They clearly didn't think this one through!
3. No file explorer. May be a 3rd party app for this, but nothing included out-of-the-box.
4. No way to Snooze or Dismiss multiple reminders individually, only Snooze All or Dismiss All.
5. POP/IMAP mail client only allows you to attach files with certain pre-determined file types/extensions. No option to simply browse SD card and select a file to attach. Must choose from limited list of file types (Picture,Video,Audio,Document) then select from the corresponding list of files that appears. Word 2007/2010 (docx) files will not appear in the list, only 97-2003 (doc) files appear, so although you CAN read Word 2007/2010 files with included QuickOffice app, you can't email them as attachments!
6. GMail attachment types even more limited than POP/IMAP mail client.
7. Syncing calendar events with Outlook 2007 using HTC Sync caused duplicate events on both PC and phone!
HTC Aria
- Firmware 2.1-update 1
- Software 1.25.502.2
HTC Sync
- 2.0.38
Good Phone
This is my first android phone so I may be swayed by my lack of experience, but the things this phone will do are COOL. I am very impressed with the apps, the interface, the voice to text command and the overall look but...the battery life stinks, the keyboard is hard to use and you can not use a pen to tap the screen, it is a 3 step process to turn off, and I want a voice dial button on the side of the phone. Other than that, it rocks. I had a Blackberry and this smart phone blows it out of the water!! (except on the email, Blackberry emails were faster, but that is not an issue for me)
For the price it can not be beat!
Rockin!!!
Two words apple freaks....IPhone Killaaaaa!!! Surprisingly FAST, and hands down...HTC finally brings back quality. Missing a flash, but really how much do you use it? Smooth as can be. Love it!
I love it
I love this phone.... left the Iphone jungle and have not regretted it one minute.
I read and watched all the reviews, but was still surprised by this phone.
The Market has 98% of the apps I had on my Iphone !!
PROS:
Great call quality.
Display looks great
Easy to customize.
Excellent quality phone
love the widgets
love the size
CONS:
No camera flash
wish the battery was a little better
Run away
Run away from this phone as fast as possible. I wanted to download a ringtone and between calls to ATT and HTC I spent 7 hours, literally, not kidding. I talked to 5 people at HTC. The 3rd or 4th said I needed to download a ROM update, which took hours, then the last person said I didn't have an SD card so I needed to buy one. I went to Radio Shack to buy one. I had one. The guy at Radio Shack took my SD card out and put it back in and within 2 minutes at most I had a ringtone. What a waste, like I have nothing better to do. Also battery life stinks and it's not user friendly. I'm in the market for an Iphone.
