Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Windows Mobile 6.5, a slew of productivity apps, GPS, Bluetooth, the zoom bar on the screen is great while zooming in and out of photos.

Thumbs Down:

No capacitive touch screen (it has a resistive touch screen, no multi touch), bad battery life.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: CDMA2000 1X / GSM / WCDMA (UMTS)
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 / CDMA2000 1X 1900/800
Phone Design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: TouchFLO 3D touch-screen, Bluetooth, Camera, Music Player

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Display – 3.6 in TFT LCD, 800 x 480 pixels resolution, 3.5 mm head phone jack
Supported audio formats AAC, WAV, AMR, MP3, WMA, MIDI, AAC+
5 Mega pixel camera, Operating System – Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
Wireless Interface – Bluetooth , IEEE 802.11b , IEEE 802.11g

Razzle Dazzle:

The sexiest part of HTC Imagio is the big screen that stares at your face when you hold the phone. When you are watching videos you can make the phone stand on the sides with the antenna in the back which works as a stand. There is a zoom bar below the display through which you can zoom in and out of photos by just running your finger on the bar.

On the sides of the phone is the volume rocker. Mini-USB port and a 3.5 mm head phone jack are on the bottom of the phone. We were happy with a 3.5 mm phone jack and it is located at the bottom of the phone which is good ergonomics. On some Sony Ericsson phones it is on the sides which make it difficult to put it in the pocket.

Inside Dope:

The display of the phone is a huge 3.6 inch size and gives you amazing 480X800 pixel resolution. Watching videos on this screen is really good and they look quite crisp. We weren’t expecting such a big resolution even though the display is big. The space that you get on the screen to work is amazing. With a bigger resolution screen you won’t have to scroll much to read the documents. You get additional tabs for calendar and stock quotes plus the ability to add and remove tabs on the Home screen. The start menu is presented in a grid view where you can customize different applications and settings.

There is built in accelerometer which switches the screen from portrait to landscape when you hold the screen sideways. The accelerometer takes a while to switch and it is available only for specific applications like Web browser, videos, e-mail and photos.

HTC Imagio doesn’t have a capacitive touch screen but has a resistive one. With a capacitive touch screen you can use the screen without a stylus. The icons are big enough and the screen is responsive to finger touch which is quite thicker than a stylus. Contrary to this, a resistive touch screen may not respond to thick finger touch and requires precision stylus touch. A capacitive touch screen is better than a resistive touch screen since you don’t have to use a stylus. The capacitive touch screen revolution was first used by iPhone and it has become popular so naturally everyone is using it. HTC Imagio has a resistive touch screen which means it is bundled with a stylus, but this screen was responsive with finger touches too.

There is no slide out keyboard which gives way for virtual keyboard. Using this keyboard was a comfortable and we didn’t have anything to complain about. It is supports XT9 auto word complete and tapping the keys provides haptic feedback. Haptic feedback means the phone responds when it registers a touch, like vibrate or gives you a ‘click’ feel. The QWERTY keyboard can be used in both portrait and landscape mode but we prefer using it in landscape mode since we get more space to work on.

There is a zoom bar underneath the display which is touch sensitive and you can zoom in and out of the photos by just rolling your finger on it. This was a great feature and we had great time going in and out of our photos. Below the zoom bar you get five physical buttons which are the call, call end (which is also the power key), media, back and the start menu key. The keys are flat on the surface of the keyboard but it won’t bother you much because they are comfortable to type and as it is, you won’t be using these keys much.

HTC Imagio comes bundled with AC Adapter, USB cable, set of international plug adapters and software disc. There is no limit to the number of phone book entries you can make and as long as you don’t run out of disk space, no one can stop you. Each entry can store multiple numbers, e-mail, home and work addresses, birthdays and more. You can link up a person to his FaceBook profile and you can check call, message history as well as status updates.

HTC Imagio comes bundled with Windows Mobile 6.5 so you get tools like, Adobe Reader LE, calendar, task list, Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, voice recorder, and more. The phone also has POP3 and IMAP connectivity. Microsoft Direct Push technology lets you sync your e-mail, calendar, tasks, and contacts via your company’s Exchange server.

For internet enthusiasts, HTC Imagio comes preloaded with Opera and Internet Explorer. You can choose between mobile or full desktop versions! Internet Explorer looks a lot sleeker but we don’t prefer IE, and consider it quite outdated even if it has borrowed all the features that Firefox and Opera has. We used Opera to surf the net and once again the big screen and the great resolution made our browsing experience a great one.

The device has a five mega pixel camera behind the device and it gives pretty good photo quality, in fact it is one of the best five mega pixel photo cameras that we have seen till date. You can take photographs in six resolutions and has lots of settings like white balance, adjustable ISO, brightness, a self-timer, a panorama stitching mode, a shutter sound toggle, four quality settings and a wide-screen mode. There is also a touch focus mode which focuses on a particular object when you tap on the object on the screen. You can change contrast, saturation and brightness.

The video camera lets you shoot videos and store them in H.263, 3GPP2, MPEG4, and H.264 formats. If you intend to send the clip through MMS then you are limited by time but you can store unlimited video on the phone as long as you are not out of memory. Video quality, like photos was really good considering that this is primarily a phone and not a camera.

The Imagio’s phone features include, voice commands, text and multimedia messaging, speed dial, smart dialing, a proximity sensor, and support for Verizon’s Visual Voice Mail service.

For audio video entertainment, the phone can read formats of AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV. There is Windows Media Player 10 for Mobile which plays your media files. Multi media entertainment doesn’t end here; Imagio supports V Cast Mobile TV which is Verizon’s live mobile television service. This is rare even among the Verizon devices and with the huge screen it actually feels like you are watching on TV. This service is not free, of course, and you pay a fee for watching the channels. Some of the channels are not live and some content is made especially for mobile phones. Check out with Verizon for more details. You can put a card up to 16 GB in the microSD expansion slot. For watching video you can make the phone stand on the sides with stand included in the back of the phone, next to the camera.

Nitty Gritty:

HTC Imagio is a great phone and we have very little to complain about. It has great display, good camera, good music, great browser, what else do you need in a mobile phone? Go get this if you are looking for a good multi media phone.