HTC Aria Review

Introduction

Android or iPhone? The Aria is an Android phone thrust into Apple's land, namely AT&T. As HTC's flagship phone, the device competes directly with the new iPhone 4. They both have a large touch screen display, 5.0-megapixel cameras and music players, Wi-Fi and high-speed HSDPA Internet and Bluetooth and GPS capabilities.But there are slight differences between the two -- the iPhone 4 has a higher-resolution screen, while the Aria has an expandable microSD slot. Android integrates Google's online services -- Gmail in particular -- along with a sense of openness and hardware choice. Apple's iPhone has a best-in-class user interface, a stylish build quality, the largest available mobile app catalog and tight media integration through iTunes.

There is no doubt these two phones are top-of-the-line. So smartphone buyers will, no doubt, be asking: How does the Aria stack up against the iPhone?

Design

HTC decided on a minimalist design. The Aria sports a black and chrome look, with a slytlish dark face. It's also small -- nearly 10 percent shorter and 20 percent lighter than the iPhone -- for a very pocketable and very good feel in even the smallest of hands.But the trade-off is a smaller touch screen. And the Aria's 3.2-inch display is nearly a half-inch smaller than the iPhone's.

Below the display, four capacitive-touch buttons -- home, menu, back and search -- are etched into the glass. They're completely smooth, which means users will have to look at which button they're pressing. An optical joystick below that helps users navigate through the menus.

The back of the Aria has a 5.0-megapixel camera, without flash, and a speaker grille. When the back cover is removed, the battery and microSD card are revealed -- both which aren't accessible on the iPhone.

Around the sides of the device, there's a micro-USB port for charging and connecting to a computer, a 3.5mm headphone jack to use headphones and a volume rocker.

Overall, the Aria is a well-designed visual package: from the hardware to the software, everything is black with chrome accents and gives a cohesive and professional feel, rivaling the industry-leading iPhone.

It's also very light and won't put a strain on your hand if you talk for hours. While the Aria is not a top-end smartphone, it can hold its own against its more expensive devices.

Out of the box, the HTC Aria comes with a standard battery, USB wall charger, headphones and the customary user guides and manuals. and an envelope to recycle your old phone -- all encased in an eco-friendly package.

Camera The Aria sports a 5.0-megapixel camera, but it lacks the LED flash for low-light conditions. In properly-lit environments, even artificially-lit, the camera performs admirably. But it's unusable in dim environments.The auto-focus found its target quickly and consistently. The face detection didn't always find its mark, but the people in my photos were almost always properly focused. The photos captured, while far from aren't ready for the Whitney, will do perfectly for the Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter amateur photographer's needs. The camera has a few options as well. Users can adjust the resolution of the shots, brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, ISO, and white balance. They can add various effects, including Sepia tone and Black & White. This is a nice range of options and settings.To take a picture, users press the optical joystick. HTC could have included a dedicated camera button, but that would have taken away from the minimalist design. The company could have also added an on-screen shutter button, similar to the Evo 4G, but with such small screen space, every pixel ought to be taken up by the image. Overall, HTC included some thoughtful design choices. The Aria can also capture video, albeit at the low-ish 640 x 480 pixel resolution. This is roughly "standard definition video," just below DVD quality and far below the HD resolutions offered by the cameras on the Evo and the iPhone 4. I was disappointed by the lack of HD capture here; video-philes should look elsewhere for their HD capture needs. Basic Features The Aria is one of the most responsive smartphone on the market. There's zero delay between the fingers and the phone's response -- functions such as the on-screen keyboard, the app launch times, the different home screens, the notification bar, activating different widgets, and every other feature you can imagine -- they all performed instantly, without any delay or lag. This is an impressive feat, and something on which the Aria gets the highest of marks. If performance is important to you, the Aria is a serious contender.What can you do with all that responsiveness? That's the Android operating system with HTC's customized "Sense" interface. Android can be customized to an almost ridiculous degree. Every single part of software can be replaced or modified by hardware manufacturers, wireless carriers, and even individuals with the time and expertise to modify their mobile's operating system. Android organizes the phone around "home screens:" editable rectangles of various bits of information. So, when you look at your phone, you might see a few shortcuts to app, a weather box, a clock, and a little picture frame -- all on the same screen. You can then use the optical joystick or your finger on the screen to swipe right, and you are greeted with another home screen -- there are seven in total. You can then add some more shortcuts, applications, or widgets to this screen. Perhaps you have a widget that displays the most recent sports scores, or the news in your area, or your friends' updates to social networks like Twitter or Facebook. These widgets display "at a glance" information, which means you won't have to launch an app or tap anything to get them to do their magic; they just update in the background, at your specified update frequency, so their information is ready as soon as you unlock the phone and swipe over to their screen. The effect of all this home screen widget customization is that you get quick information without waiting. This is a very convenient way to organize your life: you can have a "calendar" home screen with upcoming events, a "sports" home screen with various scores and standings; a "people" home screen with quick links to call or message your friends, and so on. This makes the Aria, and other Android phones like it, very easy to use: you don't have to launch an app to find out what your friends are doing, or how the Yankees did last night. Combined with the its unbelievable speed, this makes the Aria a very enjoyable handset to use. There were no problem calling up Twitter updates, Facebook pictures, and so on, all with blazing speed. And this is the Aria's biggest strength: the myriad information available to you in a very small amount of time beats every other kind of smartphone -- including the new iPhone 4. Kudos, HTC. All of the basic phone functions are easy get to on the Aria: text and multimedia messaging, phone calling, dialing, and so forth. HTC's Sense adds a "phone" shortcut to the bottom of every home screen, so it is very easy to jump into the phone and make a call. That small screen size gives the Aria a leg up on the competition when it comes to power consumption. With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, and under light use, I drained only 20 percent of the Aria's battery in 24 hours. This speaks well for the Aria; battery life is a plus here. Heavy users should have no problems lasting the work day. Screen At 262K-colors, the Aria's screen is bright enough, though not as vivid as, say, the iPhone 4's 16.7 million colors. It also has one-fourth the resolution, at 320 by 480 pixels, than the iPhone 4's 960 by 480 pixel display.While it sounds bad, it isn't so much the Aria's inferior screen as it is the iPhone's superior display. In fact, aside from the iPhone, the Aria's display is considered high-end. Text on the Aria is crisp at about 10-inches away from your eyes; move the handset closer, and it gets progressively blurrier. Unfortunately, since the Aria is so small, more than 12-inches means the text is unreadable, even with my corrected-to-20/20 eyes. Combined with the relatively small screen size, the Aria's screen displays text clearly and images and video beautifully, though a tad cramped. If you have good eyes and don't read much, then the Aria is perfect for you. If you do a lot of reading on your mobile, then you might want to consider the iPhone 4. Messaging The Aria's on-screen keyboard looks small, but it gets the job done very well. You might think that a larger display, such as the Evo 4G, with its extra 1.1-inches of diagonal space, would be worlds better. But it also means users will have to move their fingers longer distances when typing. I was able to type just as quickly and accurately on the Aria as I have on the Evo and the iPhone. HTC has done a great job here of tuning the auto-correct dictionary to predict exactly the word I need nine times out of 10. That, combined with its ability to learn new words and store them for future predictions, makes the keyboard on the Aria a very attractive feature. When you first power on the Aria, you are asked to enter your Google account username and password. For the millions of Gmail users in the country, this is a familiar process. If you don't use Gmail, or any other Google services, you will have to create a Google account and associated Gmail address in order to use the phone. This might sound cumbersome at first, but I had no trouble creating a new Google account right on the phone. The entire process takes about three minutes, and is as painless as can be. Once Gmail is activated, the Aria is an absolute dream. The new mail notifications come in instantly, and the Gmail app supports all the familiar Gmail features -- such as archiving, conversation view, and so on. The app is lightning fast, even with large inboxes. You can also add other non-Gmail accounts via the popular POP3 and IMAP4 email delivery protocols. HTC has added support for Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol for mail and contact syncing. Unfortunately, the amazing Gmail app is only for Gmail. Other email accounts you add will be handled by a separate "Mail" app. This app is capable, and supports some handy widgets, but it is not as fast-performing or easy to use as the Gmail app. I am not sure why Google hasn't extended its Gmail app to the rest of Android's email functions.