Initial Impressions: HTC Aria

Here are the initial impressions I had of the HTC Aria when I picked it up

1. Light
2. Small
3. Fast

It felt very light but sturdy. It was about the same size as the Curve. Screen obviously larger. The display looked incredibly sharp, especially as compared with my poky old Blackberry. The resolution looked great.

I'd played with the Droid Incredible and the Droid and this felt much better in my hand, even though it was a smaller phone.

The real test, of course, with someone like me - I have pretty big hands - in the virtual keyboard. This is the one big thing that was keeping me from getting a touchscreen phone, my giant ham fisted fingers (OK OK they aren't that big) cause me all sorts of grief when I use an iPhone or even the iPad. I consistently hit the wrong letters.

But, despite the keyboard and screen being smaller that the one on the iPhone, it was WAY more accurate. My fingers hit the right letters, and it was pretty fast, although I can tell right now that I will need to practice to get back to the same speed as my Curve.

The other thing which really struck me was the "apparent" speed. The interface looked very fast, even when compared to the iPhone 4 sitting right there. I tried swiping the screen and firing up apps on both at the same time and the Aria seemed to snap a lot faster. I'm sure that its just the way the interface is designed, and I'm sure that the iPhone could be made to look like its moving faster, but damn, side-by-side comparison made it look like the iPhone was a turtle compared to the Aria's hare.

We'll see. Didn't have much time to play with it but you will be hearing a lot more from me once I get the phone in my hot little, not so ham fisted hands... ;)

Taking the Android Plunge

Yes, folks. I've entered the wonderful world of Android .

At approximately 9pm last night, I pressed the button on ordering not one but two HTC Aria phones from Wirefly.

As in the Godfather, they simply presented me with an offer I couldn't refuse: two free Arias with an upgrade.

Since my aged Blackberry Curve has been causing me nothing but grief lately, and I've been thinking about an Android phone for a while, I quickly looked into this phone. First, I created an interest on tweebus to capture chatter about this phone. After a few days, I got a great sense of what people thought of the phone just by looking at the reviews that were surfaced. Initially, the reviews were not so positive, but most of those were from people who wanted a larger phone. I wanted something smaller myself. So I used tweebus to surface both positive and negative product reviews. As a final step, I went into the AT&T store yesterday and played with the phone. I found it the right size and very responsive, even compared with the iPhone 4, sitting right beside it.

My price: $0. Yes, folks. Free.

So I thought, good price, right size. Let's make the plunge.

I ordered them last night, Should be here in a few days. I'll be posting my impressions as I get the phones, unbox and use them. Until then, check out the latest chatter on both Aria and Android on the sidebars at this blog.

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