AT&T Tilt Phone, Silver (AT&T)

I was lucky enough to hear that this phone had been released just days after I had bought the 8525 to replace a previous broken phone. There seemed to be some confusion with the AT&T sales people, since currently with rebates it sells for less than the 8525 and some internal memo seems to have them telling customers that a different update to the 8525 is still coming. Make no mistake, this is the upgrade for the 8525 and it's a beauty! Since there's pretty good specs and basic data on what the phone includes on the Amazon product page, I'll just run down some improvements over the 8525:

1. New sleek black casing. It's not as slippery so less likely to be dropped!
2. When keyboard is out, you can tilt the screen up. This makes it particularly nice for watching videos on a plane or using as an alarm clock, etc.
3. GPS built in. You can pay for the AT&T Telenav...or just load on your own navigation software like TomTom. More on this later...
4. Double the memory! One of my biggest issues with windows mobile phones was they had so much less usable memory on the device. I do tend to load a lot of applications and many I really prefer to run on the device, not on an external card. So yeah for this!
5. 3 MP camera (up from 2) with autofocus. No light to use as a flash though (not that it was all that great anyway!)
6. Dual processor and graphics accelerator for improved performance
7. Windows Mobile 6

Okay, so those are the improvements in a nutshell. Lets look at this sucker in more detail.

First, the package from AT&T is pretty bare bones. You get the phone, an extra stylus, screen protector, AC charger, USB sync cable, and the usual software CD with ActiveSync and user's manual. That's basically it! There's no case, no headphones, not even a headphone adapter. This device does support stereo bluetooth headphones, so a lot of people will probably get those instead, but to not even include a basic slip case? Pretty cheap for a device in this price range.

The device itself is really pleasing to look at. The front is actually considerably darker to the eye than the photos on this page, more like a dark grey than silver, which I think is quite nice looking (see the photo I uploaded). The back does show fingerprints a bit, but it has a nice feel to it and is easy to gripe. The back however is rather challenging to get off. There's no release as on the previous model, you just have to use brute force. The speaker is on the back and can give pretty decent volume. Also on the back is the connector for an external GPS antennae (generally not needed unless you are in something like an RV).

The keyboard is a full QWERTY keyboard, and fairly nice and tactile. Also has a nice light-up feature which can automatically detect light (or you can tweak to always activate). The number keys are colored grey which makes them easier to find and the blue switch key is completely blue rather than just having a blue dot. However, the keyboard slides out the opposite direction of the 8525 so if you used that phone, you may find yourself trying to slide this the wrong way all the time! This does also put the buttons and stylus to the left...not good for most of us that are right-handed. I also wish there was a way to lock caps and/or numbers on. You have to hold down their respective shift keys which really slows me down sometimes. Also, when fully tilted up, the soft keys at the top of the keyboard are very hard to press as they are somewhat under the screen.

Now on to the buttons. There don't seem to be as many buttons on this model and they aren't as easy to customize in general. You have a dedicated Push-to-Talk button that won't let you remap it, frustrating if you never use this service. There is no longer a Comm Manager button either, which I really liked, to pull up my setting for bluetooth, wifi, etc. and turn them on and off. The internet and email buttons are now down at the bottom with all the other buttons. I expect some people will like this, I personally liked them being separate as I now often have to look to make sure I'm pushing the right button. It's not the greatest layout if you like to play games on your device. I do love the real scroll wheel (not a jog dial). Once you have a device with just jog, you'll know how nice true scroll is! The power button is really flush with the device and unlikely you will accidentally turn the device on while in a pocket or purse. Unfortunately this does mean it is not exactly easy to find that power button when it's dark out! Luckily sliding out the keyboard will also turn it on. By default the sliding makes a little chiming sound, but you can turn that off.

Built-in GPS is pretty cool to have. It does take awhile to fix the satellites, there is a utility to help with that and others you can download for free. Once you have a signal, you can use it with TeleNav, something like TomTom or with various online free service like Microsoft Live or Google Maps. Lots of cool options to make use of this. However, if you want to use this to replace the navigation in your car, there's one big issue with this device, and that's the screen. It doesn't use a transreflective screen which makes it very difficult to see in bright light. This is generally not a huge problem for typical use, but if you want to use this in your car to do navigation, it may be too difficult to see from any distance if light is hitting it. You can turn up the brightness all the way but on a sunny day, you may still have problems. Make sure your navigation has spoken text directions or you may end up lost!

The new camera does have the neat autofocus which you can lock on your subject before shooting the photo. It's like most phone cameras in that it is rather slow and can't handle a moving subject. For relatively stationery ones, it's actually fairly decent. Won't beat your digicam, but it's usable in a pinch.

Now on to the operating system and software, this phone is using the new Windows Mobile 6. Not a huge different here from 5, biggest changes are in the messaging which handles Exchange servers a lot better, HTML emails, etc. Many people in the past used 3rd party products for email, WM6 actually does a pretty decent job with them now. It also has the new Windows Live service which lets you do instant messaging, maps, location searches, traffic, weather, news, etc. I've only just started playing with some of these features, but it looks really good. Just type in a location, search for something like a nearby restaurant and you can pull up not only the address and phone...but get directions and a map there as well! And yes, GPS is integrated. It's pretty cool. Other various MS functions like hotmail and IM are part of Windows Live as well. Pocket IE is still pretty crappy. I prefer Opera Mobile, but the free Opera Mini works pretty well for a lot of people as well.

Now for the big negative...AT&T bloatware. Apparently with all this free memory, they saw no reason to leave it for the user, instead filling it with all these extra paid-for AT&T services and horrible game demos (time out in something like 1 minute!) Luckily there are a couple ways around this. You can soft reset the device when it starts loading all these extra apps on and skip over it that way. Or if you are a really savvy techie type like me, you can flash the device with the original HTC ROM which is much nicer than the plain AT&T one. You do need to really spend some time learning how to do this and of course it invalidates the warranty. But you'll have a really slick device afterwards and a lot more free memory. It has a nice black theme that matches the color of the device and a really nice Today screen plugin. The dialer is much improved and easier to use as well. Google the xda-developers site for more info (again, not for the technically challenged!)

I'm the type of user that plays around with a new device for weeks trying to find just the right combinations of addon programs and utilities to get it working just the way I like it. I've found all kinds of neat programs such as one that lets you configure all the buttons (adding commands for things like double-press or long-press) and another that lets you create custom profiles like a regular cell phone, but controlling things like bluetooth/Wifi being on and changing volumes, etc. Set your profiles to switch at certain times of the day or for certain types of appointments, there's so much you can control if you want to. I was hoping with the faster processor it would load up my Today screen a bit faster with everything I have on there, but it still takes awhile on the first load to render everything. Be careful though as all software does not support WM6 yet. I found that clock/alarm programs in particular did not play well with it.

There's so much you can do with a Windows Mobile phone, I can't begin to list it all here. You can do streaming video (watch YouTube), use Skype or other VOIP services, even listen to your entire music collection from home using media sharing. Instant messaging, you can even use remote desktop! I even found a website that lets me stream my XM radio channels. Pretty amazing stuff.

You'll definitely want to drop by the xda-developers Kaiser forums (google it) and check out some of the applications available there. Top of the list is the Kaiser Tweak which you install and run in order to adjust a lot of the somewhat annoying default settings on the Tilt. Top of the list is the often-mentioned issue with the screen turning off during a call. Run this app and you will never have that problem again. Various performance-related tweaks are available as well.

Overall, this is a nice step up from the 8525 and with all the rebates currently available, a real bargain at that. I would highly recommend this to anyone that want to have a phone for doing web/email and maybe a bit more.

EDIT: While I'm not able to change my initial star rating, hopefully these additional comments will get posted about the device. While I don't regret my purchase in the least, having used it now for sometime I don't have quite so glowing an opinion of it. If you read through my comments with this review as well as all the latest reviews posted, you'll see some of these talked about (problems with the speakerphone and BT, video driver issues, poor support from HTC.) I don't regret buying it at all, and find it still a great convergence device. But there are definitely some serious caveats that would make me hesitate to recommend it to new buyers.

I have had two cell phones, but was not happy with either of them. So, for weeks I researched cell phones. I read reviews and even downloaded manuals to see what the various phones would do and not do. I finally decided to try the ATT Tilt.

Battery life: Several reviewers complained about short battery life. So, this was my first test. On day one I turned up the brightness and set the backlight to stay on longer. Then I played with it by going to every program and application. I also went to all the settings and played around getting them how I wanted. I also placed a few brief calls. Then I spent a while online using WiFi. I even took a few pictures. I put this phone through its paces for 6 hours and had 17 percent battery life left. The next day I completely drained the battery and recharged it to condition the new battery. Then I put it to work again for another 3 hours or more. I had 40 percent battery life on the second day after a full charge. Of course, if I had been on phone calls most of the time, I am sure that the battery would have only lasted 3 or 4 hours. Therefore, because of my experiences thus far I would rate the battery life as fair when compared to some other smart phones. For power users they do make an extended life battery available online.

Camera: Many reviewers also said the 3mg camera does not take very good pictures. This is true. Even though there are some settings to help improve the picture quality, I found that it really did not help much. So, I rate the camera as average to poor.

Performance: Again some reviews I read complained about screen refresh rate or lag. I found this does happen sometimes. The lag time can be from 1 to 4 seconds. However, there are ways you can minimize this. As with any computer, the more programs you have running the more memory they use and the slower the response time. Try launching a few programs then tap on the memory icon. There you will see how much storage you have on the main unit and SDcard. You will also see how much memory the programs are using. To help with response time touch the Quick Menu at the top right of the screen and close all open programs that you are not using. Plus, wait a couple of seconds for a program to fully load before you try to navigate within the program. Also, files such as MP3s, photos and documents should be moved to the SDcard to free up space on the device itself.


Keyboard: I love the slide out QWERTY keyboard. It is much easier and faster to use than the tiny keys on most other smart phones. Of course, having a large keyboard means you have to use both hands which most users do anyway. I give this feature a very high mark for convenience and usability.

Microsoft Mobile: Personally I love this system because it is like my home computer, complete with a Start Menu. I find it familiar and easy to use.

Sound quality: Addressing some reviewers concerns about low sound when playing MP3s, this is what I found. There are 2 sound settings. One is for the ring tones and the other for the device itself. Tap the Speaker Icon on the top right and you will see these settings. I turned both of them up all the way and launched the music player. The sound was loud and clear. I set a Blackjack II next to it and found that the Tilt was actually slightly louder.

Size: I almost did not get the Tilt because of the weight. Plus, it is a little thicker that most other phones. While in the ATT store I picked up a Blackjack II then a Blackberry then held the Tilt in the other had. The weight of the Tilt was a little more that either of the other two, but not enough to matter to me. Although, this might be an issue for some that want a smaller or lighter cell phone.

Voice quality: While on a call I found the sound quality clear and loud. There is a scroll wheel on the upper left side that will adjust volume while on a call which comes in handy. I also handed the Tilt to someone and called it to see how it was from both ends of receiving and placing a call. The quality was better than my cordless landline phone. I rate the call quality as excellent.

Helpful hint: When on a call the screen turns off in about 10 seconds. However, you can still use the Talk key to mute the call or End key to disconnect the call. If you want the screen back on, simply press the Power button on the upper right side of the phone. Or, you can use the Scroll wheel, but this will also adjust the volume at the same time. Also, when the screen is off in idle mode none of the keys will turn the screen back on except one. To turn the screen back on from idle either press the Power button or slide out the keyboard.

Word and Excel: You can create and edit in these programs without Documents To Go. Then you can either import or export them to your computer or email them. This is a great feature.

WiFi: I do not text or get online that much with a cell phone. But, when I do get online then this is the only way to go. Plus, I can save twenty or thirty dollars a month by not getting the data plan. I simply get online at home or in hotspots. I also disabled the Media Net so that I do not accidentally get on line and get charged a fortune for it.

Today Screen: The home screen desktop is called the Today Screen on the Tilt. I did not like the looks of this desktop at all. For one thing there is a lot of wasted real estate that could be used. The European version of the Tilt is different. I found a free plug-in that is the same as the other version and installed it. There was no editing the register, you just click on the file then reset and that is it. Now, the Today Screen is fully occupied with great looking icons and shortcuts that you can customize.

Navigation: There are a few choices when it comes to navigating. You can use the scroll wheel, the touch screen or the navigation buttons on the front bottom of the phone. I also found that I can use my finger on the touch screen 90 percent of the time and with very good accuracy. I seldom use the stylus.

There are a few other features you can discover for yourself. I just strongly suggest that you read the manual and experiment with the different setting to see what all it will do. I have not seen a cell phone yet that was perfect, and the Tilt is no exception. However, if you are aware of the quarks from the start then you simply learn how to work around them. Therefore, if you want a cell phone that does it all then this is a device to consider.

UPDATE: I only had my Tilt for a few days and it kept locking up when in standby. It would not turn back on by pushing reset or the power button. I could only get it working again by taking out the battery then replacing it. The phone would lock up about every 2 or 3 days. So, I took it back and got a brand new one and it did the same thing. I returned it for a refund because I have no use for a cell phone I can not depend on. Therefore, I can only say that my 5 star rating was for everything I listed above, and I stand by it. However, I have to give it 1 star for reliability.

I was between the iPhone and the tilt. I'm so glad I went with the Tilt.

iPhone Pros:
Web Browser - The safari browser on the iPhone is nice. You can get Opera for the Tilt and get browsing very similar to the iPhone, but it's not quite as nice, although it will download faster than the iPhone if you're in a 3G area. Not a big deal for me since I don't surf much on my phone, but I use my phone as a modem for my laptop - see laptop tethering below.

Real headphone jack - There's an adaptor for the tilt, but it's not included. I don't use my phone as my music player anyway. i have an ipod. 8GB isn't enough for me.

Tilt Pros:
Built in GPS, great for Google maps and Microsoft Live search. Actually shows you where you are and you can search for things near you. I travel a lot and the GPS takes a minute or two to find you when you move large distances. Once it's aquired you once in a town, it's usually like 5-10 seconds. I'm not a big fan of telenav and wouldn't want to use my phone as my primary GPS for driving around. There's a program you can buy that will secretly text you the GPS coordinates of your phone if someone steals it.

3rd Party apps - tons and tons, including apps that make your tilt look and act like an iPhone. Many apps are free.

3MP camera - is actually quite good for a camera phone. I've emailed pics to people and they were amazed it came from my phone.

3G - awesome. This phone is fast on the 3G network. Downloading files/attachments is a snap.

Laptop tethering - the unlimited data plan is a must if you travel. Many people don't know you can use your phone as a modem for your laptop. Can't with iPhone. I don't pay $10-15 a day anymore for internet at hotels. If I'm in a 3G area, I average about 700-900kbps speed, very fast. Just USB to your laptop and turn on Internet Sharing. Airports, hotels, in back of cab, city park. And your phone charges from the laptop the entire time.

Real Keyboard - I tried the iphone keyboard. I have big hands and big fingers. Didn't work that well for me, even with the 'smart type' or whatever the iphone has that autocorrects. You can't really autocorrect web addresses or usernames/passwords. Having a real keyboard is nice.

Replace the battery - can't do that on iPhone. Well, I guess you can send it to apple.

Upgrade Storage - go greater than 8GB. Takes MicroSD cards. I believe up to 32GB support.

I bought this phone to replace my old 8125 (HTC Wizard) thinking that this phone has all the features to make it worth an upgrade. What a joke that was. My two year old phone with a much slower processor outperforms this phone in almost every way. After further research it looks like HTC did not include the proper video drivers so the phone apparently runs off software acceleration instead of hardware. As a result the touch screen is very lagged, video very choppy, quicker drain on battery life. After contacting HTC support 5 times they finally got back to me and then told me to buy one of their upcoming phones and these issues will be solved. I have always been a big fan of HTC phones and have recommended them to many people, and also as an IT manager I've always purchased these phones for employees. At this point I would never buy an HTC phone again or recommend one. Do your research if you still plan to purchase this phone!!

The TiltKaiserTytn II8925, or whatever name you would like to use, is supposed to be the pinnacle of HTC's 8000 series of PDA phones. Featuring the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset, it has the feature set to best all the competition:

400mhz dual core CPU
256mb ROM space
Full keyboard
HSDPA, EDGE, Wi-fi, GPS, and bluetooth enabled.
3MP, auto focus camera
Etc....

The Tilt also features ATI's Imageon processor. The Imageon line of processors is, from wikipedia:

"The Imageon (previously ATI Imageon) is a line of media processor line developed by ATI providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)."

Curiously, HTC has decided not to support the Imageon chip that is included in the Tilt's chipset by not providing drivers for it. This chip provides hardware acceleration for nearly all graphics related processing. Since the chip is un-supported, all video processing is software based, executed on the CPU. This EXTREMELY limits the graphics performance of the Tilt. And when I say limit, I am not talking about you won't be able to run PS2 games, I am talking you won't be able to use google maps smoothly bc the screen lags as the map moves around. I mean when you switch from portrait to landscape the screen will lag. I mean you cannot use the included 3 MP camera bc the screen cannot refresh fast enough to display what your camera lens is actually seeing.

Every aspect is effected by HTC's neglect. I have owned the Tilt for almost 3 months now, and am appalled at HTC's response to the situation, and their unwillingness to support the hardware they included with the device. It is dumbfounding. I hope HTC comes to their senses, until they do, the Tilt gets a 1 star rating.

I have had my Tilt for 2 days now, and have experienced the "won't wake up" problem three times already. The last time it happened, I tested to see if it could receive a call - and it could not. I pulled the battery and I'm up and going again. So far, I'm disappointed and thinking about going back to my 8125.

I'm running this version:
ROM: 1.57.502.2
ROM Date: 8/25/2007
Radio: 1.27.12.11
Protocol: 22.45.88.07H


Update:
After some experimenting, it seems that the bug I was experiencing is caused by the new Windows Live Search. I think there is a problem with the way it handles the device going to sleep. Until this is fixed, Tilt users should either not use Windows Live Search, or at least make sure they Exit that application before the device goes to sleep.

The hardware on this device is excellent, as is the ATT service. Unfortunately HTC chose to Not implement proper video drivers. The video is slow and is significantly outperformed by 3+ year old devices. When this issue was called to the attention of HTC (The device manufacturer) we were informed that they would not address the issue and re-iterated that the device delivered a "Rich Multimedia Experience". Odd how they redefined Rich Multimedia to exclude video playback and good screen re-draw performance. I'm a long-time HTC fan, but this experience is going to mean that my next phone purchase is NOT a HTC manufactured device.

This is in all honesty supposed to be a great phone. I've gone through a couple of Cingular 8125s over the last 2-3 years, and was anxiously awaiting the next best thing to come out. And i was particularly waiting for something that had GPS built in, which is one reason i skipped the 8525.

But this phone in all honest SHOULD be a great phone, it has a lot of available ROM to install lots and lots of programs and utilities. As usual, w/ HTC handsets running windows mobile, you can get a boat load of custom applications if you're a tech savy person, and are comfortable w/ modding your phone. I personally love being able to pick and choose the applications that come w/ the phone, as the standard AT&T "bloatware" and today screen dont really interest me.

Speaker quality is actually pretty good, considering it has a single speaker compared to the dual speakers of my 8125. The placement is kind of bad though, being on the backside, if you lake the phone down then well...the sound coming out (if playing music) gets completely muffled.

As far as the speed of the phone, it seems to handle multiple programs pretty well, but i've had some issues as far as the screen lagging when switching from portrait to landscape modes (will discuss this a bit more later). Otherwise the internet seems to work great, 3G and HSPDA are a hell of a lot better than the standard EDGE i used on the 8125, or what people w/ the iphone have to deal with.

One of the main reasons i got this phone was i wanted it to be my portable computer, something that would be able to play music, movies, tv shows and keep me connected while i'm on the go. As it does music and connectivity just fine, there is a huge issue as far as video playback. In all honesty, the video playback on this phone is beyond horrible, its unwatchable. I've had better playback experiences on my 8125 which is amazing considering this is HAILED as the best and most multimedia powerful phone HTC has ever produced. The lack of video support offered by HTC is something that borderline makes me want to vow never to buy another HTC handset again. The thing is, they know that there's video playback issues and this stems from them not incorporating the proper video drivers to work w/ their chip inside the phone. They released a statement saying that updating the drivers is something that would cost a great deal of money (as if they're giving their handsets for free, and we're not paying them a tons of money for them), and there isn't going to be a fix with these current phones. If you want to get a fix, wait for the next generation of devices from them. I'm not sure about anyone else, but a company that says, "we gave you a product that doesn't fully function, we're not going to update it and fix it...but if you want a fix in the future, buy our newer version." is very undeserving of my future business.

If all your doing is using the basic features of the phone, this might be one of the greatest phones you've ever purchased. But then again, if you're just using basic features save your money and get a BlackJackII, Motorola Q Global, or a Palm 750 or Blackberry Pearl...you'll save a lot of money, and wont be left in the cold by any of those companies.

As many other reviewers have said, the phone lacks proper video drivers to use the chipset resulting in very poor screen and video rendering.

Also, this phone has very poor speaker phone and bluetooth performance. I know I cannot use the speakerphone on my tytnii even though the phone is advertised as having such; do not know if this is a hardware problem or software problem; but even for users who have returned there phone for replacement under warranty, the speaker problem remains (one user returned his phone 3 times in attempt to resolve the speaker problem; and each time the problem remained).

Also, it should be noted that the video rendering problem is for any HTC phones that use the msm7xxx qualcomm processor; thus include the touch as well as other htc phones...do your research first; in general, be wary of any htc based phone based on msm7xxxxxx qualcomm processor as so far htc has indicated that no fix will be coming for "any existing" devices. (many are rebranded: ie: htc tytnii is also called the atandt tilt, the htc touch is also known as the sprint touch)

(NOTE: I'm coming to the end of my contract, and I see the Tilt is no longer available. I plan on using my Tilt after my contract for its WiFi capabilities. I was told at the AT&T store that without the SIMS card, I couldn't use it; however, that is not the case. There may be other ways to do this, but here's what I did: 1) After taking out the SIMS card, I rebooted. Once rebooting is over, I pressed the "red" telephone handset button on the bottom right, to get out of the warning screen; 2) I went into the wireless manager where the Bluetooth, WiFi, Airplane, and other settings are, and activated the WiFi; 3) Next, at the bottom, I hit the "settings" button and clicked on the WiFi link; 4) At the top where the SSID: is, I typed in my Wireless LANS' name; 5) At this point if you've ever used your Tilt with your WiFi LAN, it may immediately connect, if not, go to the "Configure Wireless Networks" page, you will see your network there. Accent that network from others shown by touching your wand to it; 6) Press "next" at the bottom left of the page; 7 ) Put in what type of authenication you use from the drop down list, and how incripted (my WiFi is Netgear "N," and It has WPA=PSK authenification and TKIP encryption if that helps anyone), and re-enter the Network Key," (there will be asterisks there, but usually they are different from your true key for security reasons.) 8) Hit "Next" at the bottom and "Finished" at the bottom of the next page, and your Tilt will try to connect to the WiFi. IF it takes a long time, and you are at home, move closer to the wireless modem. Once it is connected, it is easier even from the dark recesses of your home.

One other thing I learned from having the Tilt, and this is just good common sense: every so often, clean-up the memory by restoring your computer to a certain stage. I have two restore points on my Tilt: 1) One if the back to basics restore, and 2) Is a restore with all the bells and whistles, but before I began downloading a lot of programs. Over time these programs begin to hog memory, slowing down the Tilt.)

(NOTE: It has been almost two months since I posted this review and I wanted to add a couple of comments. First, I like this phone even better than I did two months ago. The "3G" connection you get with AT&T/Cingular is faster (for data) and clearer (for voice) than land lines sometimes. I have purchased as an auxiliary charger/auto adapter one from Orion Products (http://www.amazon.com/Tilt-Retractable-Synch-Charge-Travel/dp/B000X9PLHK/ref=cm_cr-mr-title) that is less expensive and great for traveling. Speaking of Orion Products, they have this aircraft aluminum case that I use, just in case I might drop this bugger, and it is really nice. The case comes in black or silver. With the case on and closed, you can still select programs, turn on and off Bluetooth, etc., very easily. Whether you get an additional case, as I've done, or not, I'd suggest you play around with the Navigation controller at the bottom because it will save you several steps in going from one program to another. The Mobile 6 software, and how it is configured, is really great. When you select your contracts, you get to choose how you want to connect to them (call, text, E-mail, E-mail2, etc.), and it shows your most recent call. Voice commands can be assigned to a contract, a program (like Excel), practically anything. I have yet to have a voice command I assigned not immediately go to the right person or program. Speaking of Excel, when I say, "Excel," it goes to Excel and shows me all the Excel files I have on the main memory AND the memory card, which didn't happen with my previous PDA/Smartphone. Oh, and the claim about being able to pair up to 6 Bluetooth devices. Yes, you can. I have mine paired to my house cordless phone system (in addition to my car's audio system), which makes life easier around the house because my Tilt is channeled through the six extensions I have at home, and I don't have to carry both when I'm working out in the yard (also, I can conference call, etc. If you're interested in this feature, be sure to read my review of my AT&T Cordless phone. Bottom line: would I have purchased this phone again? YES!)

Before I begin, let me say that I agree with everything Ms. Sminkey says in her review of the AT&T Tilt Smartphone, and she's done a lot more with it that I have, at this point, but I have three bits of advice that anyone who buys this phone needs to know:

1) If one of the main reasons you use a "smartphone" for is to make your life easier by keeping your contact information there in the palm of your hands, then you need to know that to synchronize your data between Outlook (I use Outlook 2007) and your AT&T Tilt) you need to do the following. Once you have installed ActveSync: a) Launch Active Sync, Go to the "Tools," select "Security" and uncheck the box. or b) You can also select "Options" and then select "Security" and uncheck the box. I have posted two images under "customer images" that can be viewed at the top of this product's web page that show how to do this. When I installed ActiveSync, it had this box checked and none of my Outlook contact's information was uploaded. This is a problem the AT&T tech support people did not know about (BTW, I first had this problem with a Treo 750 that I bought a day earlier. The AT&T folks referred me to Palm's folks, who said they couldn't help me with AT&T's version of the Treo... which is about normal in this world.)

2) I bought my AT&T Tilt at an AT&T Store in Alabama. The price they have here is much cheaper than what I paid, but they had problems with getting me a case. So, I kept the case I had with the Treo 750 (UPC is 8-8806-380-607-0), which according to AT&T's website is actually the case they recommend for it, but let me tell you, it could be better because it needs a hole to push the phone "up" and out so you can easily answer a call. There is a Palm case sold on Amazon that "looks" like it would do. It is Palm One Treo 700 / 650 Pouch Leather Case. Other cases that are similar in design have poorer reviews and their snap or magnet clasp scratch the phone after a few months of use. I will probably have my friend down at the leather shop cut a hole in mine and stitch around the hole, but most folks probably don't know someone who can do this.

3) Setting-up the Bluetooth for the phone for my car's stereo link was very easy, but turning it on was a little different for this pocket version of Windows, since there weren't "on" and "off" buttons for Bluetooth on the main (today) screen. Using "Start," then selecting "Bluetooth Manager," then selecting "on" is the easiest, but you can also use "Start," select "Settings," then the "Connections" tab at the bottom, and select "Wireless Connections," and tapping the Bluetooth screen (it is also a good idea to occasionally look at "Wireless Connections" just to make sure you don't have any connection on that you don't want on, and thereby preventing a premature low battery condition.

While the [...] review goes into the features, here's a listing from the AT&T site that gives you more of a checklist of features:

Talk and send data simultaneously and combine up to six Bluetooth® wireless pairings at once.

The AT&T Tilt(TM) is loaded with features including a 3 MP camera, music player,

Telenav GPS Navigator(TM) support, and integrated Wi-Fi.

Get the latest Windows® Mobile 6 Professional device with a next generation processor for 3G fast wireless broadband connectivity and speed.

Included Features

* All-in-one device for simultaneous voice, data, and email
* Large tilting touch screen, slideout keyboard and Wi-Fi
* 3G fast wireless broadband connectivity and speed
* Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6 Professional with Vista compatibility
* Go global with tri-band UMTS/HSDPA & quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
* Stereo Bluetooth® 2.0 - Use voice, data, and accessories simmultaneously
* Next generation processor for 3G fast wireless broadband connectivity
* Music player, AT&T Mobile Music, and Cellular Video capabilities
* Instant Messaging - Yahoo!®, AOL®, & Windows Live(TM) Messenger
* Sliding QWERTY keyboard with trackwheel for easy navigation
* Microsoft Office® Mobile - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
* 3 MP camera with 10x digital zoom and autofocus
* Multiple messaging capabilities - Text, picture and video messaging
* microSD expansion supports up to 32 GB potential expandable memory
* Integrated Wi-Fi (802.11 b.g) capabilities
* Tethers to your laptop as a high-speed modem
* Push to Talk capable for instant communication
* Built-in GPS for use with Telenav GPS Navigator(TM)
* Voice command and voice dialing

Overall, this is a great phone, and quite frankly, an even better computer. I have installed a 2 GB mini-SD card. It doesn't have an earphone jack or stereo speakers but with the ability to have up to 6 Bluetooth pairings, you probably don't need them.

FINAL NOTE: I will be coming-up on my two years with the Tilt, and in some ways I miss it. Since it has Wi-Fi, I will be using it as another wireless computer on my LAN after I get another phone. I did buy the attachment to plug into the USB for ear buds, so it may become like an Internet radio, or a way to receive E-mail at the sofa. Next phone may be either the FUZE, EPIX or Blackjack. One thing I learned though, it is less expensive to buy through Amazon.com than my AT&T store.