Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T? You bet. The first live image of an AT&T-branded HTC Touch Pro2 has emerged proving once and for all that, yes, the device codenamed Fortress is indeed headed to AT&T. It’s way too early to speculate on price and release date (or is it?), but we do have something fairly interesting to report. If you took a close look at our exclusive leak of AT&T’s upcoming launch list you’ll have noticed that the HTC Tilt 2 was listed as model number ST7377. Now take a look at the slide of the Fortress that we saw emerge back in May. Notice anything like, say, a model number of T7337? It appears that the AT&T Touch Pro2 will be released as the Tilt 2 meaning that the Fuze is likely to never have any offspring. Welcome back, Tilt moniker.

Read

The high end Windows Mobile handset dubbed Fuze by AT&T is currently available on the website with a hefty $499 discount, bringing the price down to an even $0. Refurbished, that is. As always, the purchase of a refurbished phone at a basement price will require a 2–year contract and new activation. If you are in the market for a smartphone and don’t mind refurbs, this offer is definitely worth a second look as AT&T’s price smokes those offered by other carriers — $349 for a new Touch Pro with a 2-year Verizon Wireless contract, $299 for a new Touch Pro with a 2-year Sprint contract or $0 for a refurbished AT&T Fuze. Which would you choose?

[Via Fuze Mobility]

Read

Well, it has been rumored forever, caught on video, and we’ve even done our part in sharing the news as well, but we can’t hold out on y’all any longer — we have been toying with the BAS for the greater part of a month. It’s a solid effort on RIM’s part, but will it do anything for them or just waste engineer’s precious time? The answer, friends, is in our review after the break.

Setup:

To install RIM’s BlackBerry Application Suite for Windows Mobile, you just install the program as you would like a normal Windows Mobile app. In our case, it was from a .cab file. Once it’s installed, it adds a BlackBerry icon to the Settings folder (much like BlackBerry Connect did/does) and off you go. Since the BlackBerry operating system is virtualized, it has to boot up like a normal BlackBerry device. There’s two parts to the BlackBerry OS starting. First, TouchFLO 3D has to be disabled for it to run. We’re not sure whether this is to keep memory usage down or for another technical limitation, but it’s really not the end of the world seeing as RIM hopes to keep you on the BlackBerry side as much as possible. The second feature is that you can configure the BlackBerry portion to start at Windows Mobile bootup, effectively telling Microsoft to go jump in a lake — nice. Finally, you just choose your keyboard layout (Touch Pro QWERTY, Fuze QWERTY, or Touch Pro AZERTY) and the application starts.

Features:

It’s remarkable that RIM has been able to pull this off. As much crap as we give them (yeah, whatever), this is impressive. The OS really runs on Windows Mobile! You’ve literally got an entire BlackBerry on here.  Name something you’d use on your actual BlackBerry and we think you would be hard pressed to not find it. Here’s a quick list of what’s included in terms of BlackBerry Applications:

• Messages
• BlackBerry Messenger
• Address Book
• Browser
• Memopad
• Password Keeper
• Tasks
• Profiles
• Clock
• BlackBerry Maps
• Media
• Manage Connections
• Calculator
• Search
• Options

Now, after praises like that, this thing can’t have any flaws, right? Oh so wrong. So, so, wrong. For starters, like we mentioned, it runs the BlackBerry OS of 4.2. Hello. Hi. The year 2005 called and they want their 8700 back. Honestly, RIM. You had this in the bag. You had a viciously serious attack plan to destroy Windows Mobile (like a crack dealer, give them some BlackBerry OS here, little Messenger there, get them to finally switch away to an actual BlackBerry), except you’re giving people an OS from 2005. This is the year of the operating system in case you haven’t noticed. And in case you did, you’ve just blown a magical opportunity to shun your opponents.

Integration:

In the build we’ve been testing, things like GPS and Bluetooth were integrated seamlessly. We heard the camera might be as well but it wasn’t accessible in this version. When making a call, it’s actually a little weird because it will jump over from the BlackBerry operating system right to Windows Mobile and then back again when you’re done. Wi-Fi also does not work, but 3G works perfectly.

You can even set the BlackBerry side to handle all your SMS/MMS messages.  So the only real reason you’d need to be on the Windows side is to take a flick or make a call. Calls made are actually logged on the BlackBerry side which is very nice because it lets you keep track of all your activity. Profiles are also across the board, so if you’re on Vibrate in BlackBerry, Windows Mobile will be on vibrate as well.

Usability:

There’s no question the BlackBerry Application Suite is usable. Heck, like we said, it really is the actual BlackBerry OS. The question becomes how much simpler does it make your life if you don’t have the flexibility that modern BlackBerrys afford you? Think about all the attachments you can’t view/download, how badly the BlackBerry Browser used to be (still is, but imagine the 8700), how much it sucks not to have HTML email anymore, etc. Would it be easier to just use Windows Mobile? You did actually buy a Windows Device in the first place… Our problem isn’t the usability factor so much as it is the convenience factor.

Navigation:

This is tricky. To make a long story short, you won’t want to use the touch screen for any sort of navigating. The reason is because it’s not finger-friendly. Scroll bars are absolutely tiny and using the stylus itself sometimes won’t even cut it. You’re better off navigating with the 5-way directional pad and using the four arrow keys on the keyboard. Plus all the lovely standard BlackBerry shortcuts work, helping things a bunch. You’re not flicking, gesturing, swiping, or any of that nonsense on here. Oh no, it’s down to basics and we’re kickin’ it old school — physical keys, baby.

Conclusion:

We really have to applaud RIM for making this a reality. They’re about 22 months late (more by the time this is actually released), but they’ve successfully virtualized their BlackBerry OS while practically giving up nothing. Does this mean it rocks? No. But what it does mean is that we have faith there will be many versions to come after this and we have faith RIM will work on updating it to a current 4.6 or 4.7 OS version. Plus don’t forget the fact that there’s a Symbian version coming, something which is huge as well.

The BlackBerry Application Suite for Windows Mobile is much more than a proof of concept. It works, and works extremely well. We’re sure the final shipping version will work even better than it is now; it’s probably more stable than Windows Mobile will ever be. We’re just not sure people are going to want to give up the luxuries they are finally getting in Windows Mobile. As sick as that sounds, people buy Windows Mobile devices for a reason. If it is a consumer, they wanted what they wanted and having to go through the extra step of installing and configuring an operating system just might not be for them. If you’re talking about the corporate user, well, they either have a Windows Mobile device because they wanted one or because they were given one. It’s highly possible their organization doesn’t run a BES in which that case won’t help. So, we’re torn. We love the idea, we even love the execution of it for the most part, we’re just having trouble finding users. Yes, many will download it and try it out. Some will run it tandem with Windows Mobile and flip back and forth to do different tasks, but we think many will just uninstall it after they’ve gotten their rocks off. We look forward to seeing how this evolves, and we’re really excited about the Symbian client, but for those of you who miss your trusty 7290 and can’t forgive yourself for giving it up, this might be the day you’ve been waiting for.

Well, well, well. Look what we have here. It seems dear old RIM is getting ready to unleash BlackBerry Application Suite (formerly known as Virtual BlackBerry) sometime in the near future as references to it have been found in some of the latest device.xml files within beta OS releases. Don’t remember what BAS is? It’s the little application for Windows Mobile that lets users run the BlackBerry OS virtually on a Windows Mobile device. Ok, now that we have that out of the way, hit the jump for the real news about BAS.

Unlike the last time we spoke about BAS, we have gotten word from some of our RIM ninjas and are able to confirm that BAS has been delivered to many clients for beta testing and it’s a lot better than we were previously led to believe. Internal GPS is now supported meaning that BlackBerry Maps and other location based services will function properly. That is of course provided that the LBS third-party applications have the appropriate API access. Many people were doubting that PIN to PIN messaging and BlackBerry Messenger would work, but we can now definitively say yes, it does. However, life isn’t all beer and skittles as there are many pitfalls to BAS.

The biggest pitfall is that in it’s current form only the HTC Touch Pro/Fuze and TyTn are compatible with BAS. Beyond that… Sorry CDMA users, you’re going to be getting the usual shaft from RIM for the time being (is English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Simplified Chinese with rendering for Traditional Chinese available a good enough consolation prize?). But more so than that, anyone who thought they’d be able to have all of the features of a real BlackBerry is going to be sorely disappointed. For one, Windows Mobile itself handles all calls just as it handles the syncing of Bluetooth devices and external GPS receivers. Pictures taken with BAS are not saved in its directory but rather in the default WinMo directory. MP3s and WAV files do not play nice with BAS while SMS and MMS sent from BAS do not play nice with WinMo as they will not show up in its outbox directory.

So what does all this mean? Well, to us it means that BAS is nice in theory, but will let down anyone who was thinking that they could ditch the shackles of RIM-designed handsets and still have the BlackBerry OS. That said, BAS on a Touch Pro is still very, very badass. Oh, and for you Symbian lovers out there, Virtual BlackBerry is indeed coming to Symbian devices. Makes BlackBerry Connect look a little out of place, doesn’t it? Lastly, and unfortunately, BAS for Windows Mobile runs BlackBerry OS 4.2 which will cause anyone not living in the stone age to become more than frustrated.

What better time to announce our giveaway winners than on Christmas eve? We won’t string this one out too long, just want to thank everyone though! We had an awesome response to both giveaways and we’re glad we could make Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) a little brighter this year. Thanks to HTC for the Fuze, and well, the Curve 8900 is out of our own pockets. Without further ado, we’ve got Eric Wilson as the winner of the HTC Fuze, and Mike Sickels as the winner of the BlackBerry Curve 8900! Congrats, guys! Thanks again to everyone that entered. This won’t be our last and we’ve got some great things brewing for the new year. Happy holidays!

BlackBerry Curve 8900 Giveaway! [Now closed]

HTC Fuze Giveaway! [Now closed]

The holidays are coming up fast and well, your buddies at BGR are feeling festive. Sure we’re giving away a shiny new BlackBerry Curve 8900 but we’re not stopping there. How does a brand new HTC Fuze sound? That’s right, the current king of Windows Mobile handsets can be yours for the low, low price of zilch. Our good friends at HTC are feeling the holiday spirit as well and they’re happy to hook up one lucky BGR reader with a brand new Fuze. Here’s how it works:

• To enter into the HTC Fuze giveaway contest, you need to subscribe to our RSS feed. Then, you need to leave a comment below. That’s it!
• The contest is open worldwide to everyone age 18 and older.
• If the winner is outside of the USA, you will be responsible for any applicable import tax, etc. (if necessary) other than standard shipping fees.
• We’ll run the contest until next Sunday, December 21st at 11:59PM ET.
• If you’re already subscribed to our RSS feed, click the RSS icon at the top of the page and let us know in your comment you’re already a subscriber.
• Please state what country you are in when you comment!

Don’t be too sad if your name doesn’t come up on Sunday – we can only have one winner of course. HTC has you covered though, as its giving away one Fuze each day for the next 120 days! Wow, that’s a lot of Fuzes. Head on over to the brand new Fuze microsite that just went live, howifuze.com, and enter the sweepstakes. Beyond the opportunity to win one free Fuze each day, you can also enter for a chance to win one of five huge prizes – four first place winners will be awarded one $15,000 Amex gift card and two Fuzes each, and one grand prize winned will walk away with a $25,000 cash prize and two Fuzes! That’s right people, HTC isn’t playing around…

Good luck everyone!

This right here people is the day you’ve been waiting for. The two best Windows Mobile devices out there; the Sony XPERIA X1 and the AT&T HTC Fuze. We put them head-to-head in a bunch of tests and categories just so we could help make your decision a little bit easier. They are both fabulous phones, both are manufactured by HTC, and both are practically identical in terms of hard specs. But which one comes out on top? Which one are you going to drop a weeks pay on? Well, hit the jump and see what’s really hood with the X1 and the Fuze!

Screen:

Sony XPERIA X1a:

The XPERIA uses a WVGA resolution for it’s 800×480 display, and while it’s absolutely gorgeous, we couldn’t help but feel as if it might be a little too big. The menu items are pretty small, and while it’s ok to use if you’re banging away on the soft key buttons on the front of the device, it’s kind of tricky to use your finger to select these most of the time. What we love about the XPERIA’s display is that there are no grainy artifacts, and the screen barely requires any pressure to register input. Not a bad thing, a good thing. But that might come down to personal preference.

AT&T HTC Fuze:

Ah, good ol’ VGA. The Fuze rocks out with a 640×480 display, and while it’s not as roomy as the Sony X1, it’s more than big enough to cram whatever you want into the screen. Most applications look great in this resolution, and hey, even Skyfire works! The only downside about the Fuze’s screen is that while it’s very, very nice, it’s a little grainy if you want to get nitpicky, and the pressure required to register a touch can get a little annoying.

Keyboard:

Sony XPERIA X1a:

The X1 makes use of a 3-row QWERTY keyboard (the fourth row being the spacebar, extra buttons like “OK”, etc). We said some pretty harsh words about it in our mini-review back in the day, but we’re actually loving the keyboard now. Our gripes were that the keys were a little too flush with the case, but it seems as if that has been cleared up now. The keyboard by no means protrudes, it’s still very flush, but it’s a lot better than the unit we toyed with previously and we have no problem banging out emails or IMs on here. The only complaint would probably have to be that there isn’t quite enough room to type 100% perfectly on the top row of keys. We would have loved a tiny bit more space in between the key and the front sliding mechanism, but once you get used to it, you’re pretty much good to go.

Final critique would have to be the backlighting. We understand the keys are metal and everything, but there is really no excuse. Once you have the layout sort of memorized you’ll make out alright, but the lighting is very dim unless you are in total darkness and it doesn’t even fully light up key like it should.

AT&T HTC Fuze:

The Fuze uses a 4-row QWERTY keyboard and is pretty much what you’d expect from HTC. The keys are not rubberized like they were on the Herald or Tilt, but they feel really good. There’s enough tactile feedback to minimize mistakes and the layout is near perfect. But there are a couple things that bug us, though… For starters, while we love AT&T for kicking the crap out of whoever designed the initial Touch Pro keyboard and making them add Start and OK buttons, there is also a negative. Instead of the numbers being at the top row of the device they are placed in a standard number pad format over the keys. That’s all well and fine, but what this did is push the letters to the side of the keys so they could fit the numbers in. If you’re not typing in perfect daylight this can kind of get annoying because when you go to hit a letter to type, you actually hit the very edge of the key and not the middle of it since the letters are pushed over. It’s not the end of the world, just a minor annoyance that we would have liked to be fixed. All in all, it’s a very good keyboard; one of the best keyboards on a Windows Mobile device

OS:

Sony XPERIA X1a:

While Sony doesn’t come close to offering anything like HTC’s TouchFLO 3D, they have made great use of something called “Panels.” There are about eight pre-loaded that range from the standard Windows Mobile homescreen, to a Google homescreen, to even a Facebook homescreen. The Facebook panel is straight up addicting. Like crack addicting. Really. Why do you think it took us so long to write this review? In addition to the aforementioned panels, there is also a music player panel, and customized homescreen ones where you can add in some RSS feeds and have them display right there. Very sneaky, very cool. Navigation on the XPERIA is just the regular Windows Mobile stuff, though, and Sony didn’t do much in terms of customizing the OS. For an expert WinMo user this is obviously not a problem, in fact, you might even prefer this, yet we can’t help but think how many additional sales Sony would have gotten if they had done a little more. Well, they probably would have got a lot more sales if the damn thing was shipping and wasn’t $800, so let’s not kid ourselves there.

AT&T HTC Fuze:

The Fuze uses HTC’s TouchFLO 3D which runs on top of the standard Windows Mobile junky OS. HTC has done wonders in this regard, and they don’t plan on stopping. If you’re not familiar with TouchFLO, you could sort of think it as a very complex skin, but the whole purpose of it is to minimize the actual user interaction with Windows Mobile as a whole. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. You can always just rip into the regular Windows Mobile until your heart is content, but TouchFLO is the best Windows Mobile experience out there. In the OS department, where the Fuze differs from the X1, is that HTC has pretty much combed through everything to try and bring it up to snuff. You can’t polish a turn (well, you actually can) yet HTC has been able to deliver an amazing product that makes Windows Mobile far more usable. For instance, the soft keyboards. Instead of having to slide the phone open like the XPERIA to enter text (unless you want to use the atrocious standard Windows Mobile keyboard, or one of the other rudimentary text entry options), you can just quickly touch type and be on your way. For a longer typing engagement, just slide out the keyboard. This approach works wonders, and it’s actually one of the big complaints we had with the T-Mobile G1.

Battery:

The X1 makes use of a 1500mAh battery while the Fuze uses a 1350mAh battery. No question which one lasts longer, right? Well, not so fast. We’d say they are practically equal in terms of battery life, and if they aren’t exactly equal, the Fuze beats the X1 by a tiny bit. This as usual depends on your usage patterns, but we found both handsets lasting well into the late evening from an early morning full charge. If you’re a power user, you’ll want to pickup a second battery or car charger for either device.

Connectivity:

Both handsets are practically identical in this regard — quad-band GSM/EDGE, tri-band HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, etc. We noticed that the Fuze holds onto a 3G signal a tad bit better than the X1 but this wasn’t really a concern as both units 99% of the time mirrored each other in the signal department, and both would hold onto low signals in fringe areas very well. The only part where we can see these two differing in the connectivity department would be Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi just plain sucks on the X1. We’re not sure why. It might be the placement of the Wi-Fi antenna, it might be the semi-metal casing — we’re just not sure. But even standing 5ft away from one of our wireless routers wouldn’t yield better than a 1-2 bar signal. Wi-Fi dropped every so often, and it just wasn’t a pleasant experience in general. The Fuze fared much better and we really don’t have anything to complain about there. At least in terms of connectivity.

Speed:

Hard specs on the X1a:

• 528MHz Qualcomm CPU
• 512/384MB ROM/RAM

Hard specs on the Fuze:

• 528MHz Qualcomm CPU
• 512/288MB ROM/RAM

As you can see, they are pretty much identical. But how do they fare in real world usage scenarios? It’s tough to compare them, but we’d say overall the Fuze is a tad bit more responsive and polished. Neither device has crashed on us so far, and that’s very impressive seeing as how we’ve put both through the ringer.

Sexiness:

Beauty is the eye of the beholder, right? This one’s going to be tough to judge as y’all probably have more than your own opinions (anyone ever looked at our comment sections before?), but if we had to give you our take, we’d say the X1 is simply the sexiest Windows Mobile device out there. That’s not an insult to HTC either, they built the thing. The Fuze is a little more understated from the front, but we love the diamond back, though some people would have preferred the flat one that didn’t pickup an ant’s fingerprints, we dig it.

The X1′s backside is a little too “Sonyish” for out tastes, it reeks of the P-series, and while that might not be a bad thing, it sort of takes away from the beautiful aspects of the phone. The triangle front navigation keys, the sexy-crafted angled aluminum keyboard, and the very sleek polished aluminum bezel around the handset.

The Fuze isn’t an ugly duckling, and the all polished device really looks professional yet sexy. The all black theme works wonders for it as well. And while the casing is metal on the Fuze, we’d have to go with chrome/polished aluminum over gun-metal glossy black. But hey, we’re just speaking for us. Go on with your bad self and lust over whichever device you want to!

Navigation:

Sony XPERIA X1a:

The X1 uses the beloved (at least by us) optical joystick. You won’t see an onscreen cursor here, but you will be able to do pretty much all your navigating with the optical joystick. Some nice tweaks by Sony (or HTC, we might add) include using the optical joystick to scroll in the browser in a page up / page down mode instead of selecting individual items. This works great because you can scroll to wherever you want to go, and then when you need to actually select something, hit the up/down/left/right key and select with the optical joystick (yes, it’s a real button also, that pushes in). There are no arrow keys on the keyboard however, and at first this is pretty annoying. Once you get used to navigating with the optical joystick though, it’s really no problem. You just keep one hand on the joystick instead of on the non-existent arrow keys on the keyboard.

AT&T HTC Fuze:

Out of the box, the Fuze offers a 5-way directional pad with a circular touch wheel. The problem is that the touch wheel doesn’t really do anything besides zoom in and out in Opera, or increase text size in emails, and so on. To get it to work like a scroll wheel, you have to hit up XDA and get your freak on. That’s fine with us, but for the average user that just buys a phone and keeps it stock, that won’t work so well.

Touch:

Sony XPERIA X1a:

The X1′s screen, like we said before, requires a much lighter touch to register touch input and this is really preferred in this neck of the woods. You get very fluid touch movements that are easy to control. This makes it more prone to user error if you aren’t careful, but once you get used to the thresholds, it’s very nice to use. The X1 does use a form of TouchFLO for scrolling, so you can simply swipe in any directions and phone will continue that touch interaction for you. One of the negatives about the touch screen really doesn’t have to do with the touch screen at all, rather how it’s placed. The screen isn’t flush with the casing, and while it doesn’t make or break the phone, it does make it a little annoying when you can’t seem to hit the start menu or “X” button just right because it’s sunk in the corner of case.

AT&T HTC Fuze:

HTC’s Fuze requires a stronger touch to register input, and while it’s cool that you can get away with lightly touching the screen to wipe it clean, or not accidentally hitting buttons while you are talking on the phone, we think it requires a little too much force. We’ve begged HTC to integrate capacitive touch screens into their Windows Mobile phones, and while that might be a pipe dream (there’s too many damn tiny check boxes in the OS to make a capacitive screen effective at this point), the touch should require so much… touch. The good news is that HTC’s screen is flush with the front panel and this makes our problems with the X1 seem like much bigger problems — the layout is great here on the Fuze.

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, what phone is better? That’s the ultimate question isn’t it? I personally crowned the AT&T Fuze as the best Windows Mobile device out there. Am I sticking to it? More or less, yes. Here’s why… The XPERIA X1 is a fantastic Windows Mobile phone. But the more we use it and evaluate it, the more we think its target market shrinks. Not so much because the device is sub-par, it’s quite the opposite. It’s just that we feel the only consumers interested in the X1 will be prior Windows Mobile users that know what they are doing and know how to handle the shortcomings in WinMo. Then there’s the $800 price tag which will certainly push a huge segment of the target market away. Like real, real fast. Looking at both of them from a consumer’s perspective, there really isn’t any reason to not go with the Fuze. Even if you’re not on AT&T, paying $500 for an unlocked unit is still better than paying $800.

The Fuze offers a much more complete experience than the X1, and that combined with the price really makes this a winner. If we eliminated price altogether, which one would we choose? That’s really tough, folks. The fact is we’d be happy with either one of them, but at this point we’d probably just go ahead and choose the Fuze. It’s much more streamlined, the entire OS is cohesive in terms of what HTC has done (everything from the volume up/down screen, to the Connection Manager, to TouchFLO, to well, you get the point) and it’s just an all-around more usable phone out of the box. If you want to man up and get your hands dirty with customizing the X1 and making it suit your needs better, more power to you. We’ve pretty much raped this handset and got it up to snuff, we just don’t think that many people want to be bothered with doing that. Not with Android, Symbian, BlackBerry and the iPhone around.

Remember when HTC devices used to look like they were all business and no fun? As we all know, they’ve recently taken a turn with more elegant, classy and sexy designs. Can anyone really say that the Touch Diamond or the Fuze are ugly phones? One & Company Design, Inc. is the San Francisco-based lifestyle design firm responsible for the latest crop of HTC beauties, and HTC is seemingly so please with the firm’s work that it has just announced an acquisition. One & Co. have won several awards for its designs, packaging and products so there is no doubt that this new venture with HTC is going to do well for the latter’s mobile handset line. After a few years working together and bringing the Touch Diamond to life, the two have decided to continue their relationship but will keep their names independent of each other. One & Co. will keep its client base and retain its name while working closely with HTC. If HTC keeps up the innovation and quality it has become known for, it will surely rise pretty quickly with functional and attractive handsets for the future.

[Via Phonescoop]

Read

Hey folks, it looks like the HTC Fuze, which was release just last week, is making its way to Best Buy. If for some reason you prefer buying your phones through the mega-electronics-retailer, the Windows Mobile phone will be arriving shortly. Oddly, it’s not coming on Black Friday but December 7, to be exact. We’re not quite sure, but the last time a Best Buy stock screen said “Not Carried by Loc”, it meant that it was going to be available online only. Unfortunately, we don’t know what pricing will be like but don’t expect it to be any cheaper than what you can find at AT&T, and since the screen is showing it as the “AT&T HTC Fuze” don’t expect it to be unlocked, either. Still, if the AT&T site or corporate stores weren’t enough channels for getting this awesome new phone out, there is now another source for getting your hands on AT&T’s latest and greatest.

[Thanks, Nixon!]

We actually weren’t even going to do an unboxing / first impressions post. Seen one HTC Touch Pro, seen ‘em all, right? Wrong, guys. In a rare example of AT&T not scumming down their devices (adding crapware, horrible themes, removing features, blocking stuff), we think they’ve actually made the device better! For starters, one of the most important things is the connectivity. The regular Touch Pro does not have tri-band UMTS/HSDPA support. The AT&T Fuze does. Also check this… on the original Touch Pro, there were no “OK” and “Start” buttons. A complete meltdown of necessary Windows Mobile functionality. Well, AT&T’s Fuze has both. Instead of the numbers being laid out across the top row of keys, they are in classic number pad format on the left side of the keyboard, and we’re actually really feeling the default AT&T TouchFLO theme here. They even made it so the Start menu was always visible on the home screen, too. We approve. How about a short, short summary? The AT&T HTC Fuze is the best Windows Mobile Professional phone on the market. Good? Make sure you hit the gal-gal for all the shots!

Note: we haven’t reviewed the Sprint Touch Pro, so we’re not sure if the key layout is the same, etc.

Click on over to our AT&T Fuze unboxing gallery!

Have you had enough of this AT&T Fuze flurry hitting you left and right with constant updates? Didn’t think so. Just hours ago, we let loose some pics of the HTC Fuze in its official packaging in all its glory, and now it’s live on AT&T’s website. First AT&T stores have started receiving some early shipments and now this? Is anyone going to start losing sleep over this or perhaps sleep in their cars in the AT&T store parking lot? If you’re hauling your piggy banks with you, remember that this is going to set you back $299.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate. But hey, we all know the good news and that’s that if there are no corporate stores in your area, you can order yours online now!

Thanks, R and MrSlacker!

Read

Rest easy, HTC fans – it looks like AT&T is starting to get its first shipments of the HTC Fuze. We got a hold of some of pictures showing the Fuze sitting pretty in its AT&T packaging, just waiting for its launch date so it can officially go on sale. It’s so close you can practically taste it. How many of you will be hitting AT&T tomorrow morning to see if you score one of these bad boys for yourself? Hit the jump for a few more shots of the Fuze!

Looks like the Fuze may be hitting sooner than initially anticipated. An anonymous tipster just dropped some official AT&T documents on us that show the Fuze dropping on November 11th. Start saving your dough now as the Fuze will be a bit pricey according to Big Blue’s recommended pricing:

• No Commitment : $499.99
• 1 Year Contract  w/o $50 MIR : $424.99
• 1 Year Contract  w/ $50 MIR : $374.99
• 2 Year Contract  w/o $50 MIR : $349.99

This looks pretty official so were gonna give it a thumbs up. Now we just have to wait for AT&T to officially confirm it. Hit the jump for all the Fuze and Fuze accessory info you can handle.

Well, that didn’t take long! It now seems as if AT&T Fuze demo units have started popping up in AT&T corporate stores across the country. We weren’t given any sort of launch information, but hey, it can’t be too long now, can it? There’s a couple more shots after the jump for all your dirty Windows Mobile fans. We can’t wait to get one of these…

With all the furor over the Bold, it is easy to forget that AT&T has another hot handset slated for release in November. According to this latest leak, the Fuze will start shipping to stores within the next two weeks and is targeted for a release sometime around Black Friday. With the recent rebate leak and now these new shots, we cant help but start to get excited. The Fuze will reportedly be available for $349.99 – $50 MIR with 2-Year contract and data Plan. We sure hope this one pans out. Hit the jump for a few more close-ups.

Thanks, Justifier!

Read