HTC Ozone – Inexpensive With Plenty Of Features
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
A message centered phone, supports over seas networks of GSM, call quality is good.
Thumbs Down:
Keypad and controls could have been better, doesn’t have HTC’s inner circle feature, volume level is a bit low during calls.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: CDMA2000 1X / GSM
Band: CDMA2000 1X 1900/800 / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Stereo Bluetooth, camera, music player, GPS.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Ozone has a display of 2.4 inches which gives a resolution of 320X480 pixels. Recognized audio formats for the music player are MIDI, WAV, WMA and MP3. The 1500 mAH rechargeable battery of the phone gives talk time of 290 minutes and standby time of about 290 hours. The phone is 2.5 inches wide, 0.5 inch deep, 4.5 inch high and weighs about 3.7 oz. The phone is powered by 538 MHz MSM7625 processor. The phone has 192 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM, memory is further expandable to 16 GB through microSD cards.
Application software includes Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile, Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Microsoft Office Mobile. The mobile comes with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard operating system. The phone has a 2.0 mega pixel camera.
Razzle Dazzle:
Ozone looks a lot like Sprint Snap but this phone doesn’t have the cheap plastic back like HTC Snap. Ozone has a soft touch finish in the back. Perhaps the only other difference is the rectangular keys on the QWERTY keyboard which look better than the standard square buttons.
Inside Dope:
HTC Ozone from Verizon Wireless will directly compete with HTC Snap from Sprint and T-mobile. Both the phones have similar features however we think this phone is the winner among the three owing to the lower price. The phone also feels better in the back. The face of the phone has a cheap plastic feel but in the back the phone has a smooth soft touch finish which feels good in the hands.
The QVGA display of the phone is 2.4 inch big and gives a resolution of 320X240 or 64000 colors. The handset is 4.5 inches big, 2.5 inches wide and weighs about 0.5 inches.
The display of the phone could have been bigger and sharper. We will somehow compromise with the display size since this is not a touch screen phone.
Below the display are two soft keys, back button, home button, and toggle button with OK key in the center. The talk button is also the shortcut key for voice recorder. The OK button could have been a bit thicker because it is a bit difficult to press.
The keyboard of Ozone is different from Snap, these keys have a rectangular shape but it doesn’t change the experience much. It is not cramped but we did get a lot of mishits on the keyboard because there is not much spacing between the keys. The space bar is the short cut to application of communication manager which brings up features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and airplane mode. The function key lets you to put the phone on vibrate mode, lock the keypad and switch to speakerphone.
On the side of the phone there is a mini-USB jack for headphones and charger and there is volume rocker. HTC doesn’t give us a 3.5 mm phone jack to plug in any standard headphones. The phone comes with USB cord, international power adapters, software disc, reference manual and a wired headset along with adapter.
Ozone is a message phone just like Snap, it runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 which has Microsoft Direct Push Technology which gives you real-time delivery of e-mail and automatically synchronizes with Outlook calendar, contacts and tasks through Exchange Server. The phone supports POP3 and IMAP connectivity which delivers e-mail directly to your phone inbox. We were disappointed to find the phone doesn’t have Inner Circle feature, it was very helpful in sending e-mails. The phone also has Microsoft Office Mobile with which you can edit documents.
Ozone has dual-mode support for GSM and CDMA networks and integrated Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g). These two features are absent in Snap. Verizon gives you a SIM card which makes the phone get along with international GSM networks when you are traveling abroad. Just make sure you check out the international rates before you start using the phone or else you will end up with a big hole in your pocket. If you are willing to spend on international calls, this is a great phone for globe-trotters; you can access data and voice services like e-mail and internet in over 200 countries. However the phone won’t work with international 3G bands.
Other features on the phone include voice commands and dialing, conference calling, speed dial and speakerphone. There is no limit to phone book entries as long as you are not running out of space in the memory. A single entry can take multiple e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and IM screen names. Video caller ID and custom ringtone are supported on the phone. There is also Bluetooth so you can use it for file transfer, object push, personal area networking and hands-free kits.
We would have liked at least a 3.2 MP camera on this phone but instead Ozone gives you 2 MP which is known to give poor quality photos. The highest resolution that this phone can attain is 1600X1200. Options on the camera include 3 color effects, 4 quality modes, spot metering, self timer, digital zoom adjustable brightness, time stamp and 4 settings for white balance. Photo quality is just average.
The camera is also capable of recording videos but just like photo camera, the quality is passable. For music, there is Windows Media Player and for storing music, photos and videos there is 256 MB of built in memory, 192 MB of ROM. The phone can take cards up to 16 GB. The card slot is located behind the battery cover which is a bother when swapping cards.
Call quality is better than Snap as there was no background hiss that we faced in the earlier HTC phone. We could hear the voices of our friends clearly and our friends too could hear us clearly. However the voice could have been a bit louder which would let us hear clearly even in high noise environments. The phone will only work with Verizon Wireless CDMA network in the US and will switch to global GSM networks when you are abroad. Speaker phone call quality was good but not the best. The phone has Bluetooth so you can pair up the handset with a wireless headset for calling.
Ozone has a 528 MHz Qualcomm processor and we didn’t face any lags while starting applications. Browsing on the phone was smooth and sites loaded fairly quickly. The battery life of the phone is a little less than 5 hours in talk time and about 13 days for standby time.
Nitty Gritty:
HTC Ozone is a great messaging phone for globe-trotters. It has great phone quality, support for 220 countries networks for GSM and it is great on messaging too. Get this phone if you are often flying aboard and need a phone to stay in touch with people.
