The HTC Inspire 4G is AT&T's first foray into 4G data, and the carrier picked a very nice package for the debut. The Inspire is beautifully constructed with high-grade materials, and it shows the world that the Captivate wasn't just a fluke -- AT&T is seeing the light and getting on board with Android in a big way.
But like everything else, it's not perfect. Hit the break and see my impressions of the HTC Inspire 4G after using it for a week, and decide if you like what you're seeing.
When we first got the Inspire 4G Phil had a look at it and gives us a bit of a walkthrough. You can read about that here, and the video itself is below.
The Hardware
The Inspire 4G makes a very good first impression. It's basically the same phone as the Desire HD, which is a very good thing to be. Its aluminum unibody construction -- as in a single piece of metal -- is sleek, and it gives everything a solid look and feel. But because of the unibody shell, the battery door and SIM card cover are difficult to remove. As in VERY difficult. Having a device with a removable battery, then designing things so removing the cover is as hard as a Chinese puzzle, is a pet peeve of mine, so please, allow me to rant just a bit. And yes -- it is that hard.
Everything else about the phone's design is very well done. The camera lens does protrude a bit, much like the Evo 4G, so you'll want to watch for scratches. But the placement of things like the microphones (there are two for noise-cancellation), the earpiece speaker, the volume rocker and the power button (thanks for putting that on top where it belongs HTC) are all easy to reach while holding the phone. And they extend away from the phone's body just enough to find them by feel, but not enough to constantly get "bumped" accidentally.
I can't seem to grab some phones without hitting the volume rocker or power button (hello, Nexus S), and there's none of that with the Inspire. The only other thing I can say I'm not feeling is the 3.5 mm headphone jack placement on the bottom of the phone. That's starting to become a trend, and my guess is it's a conspiracy by Bluetooth manufacturers to force me to stop using wired headphones. Or possibly that's where it fits best -- I'm sure it's one of the two.
The pictures really don't do the Inspire justice. This is one you need to hold in your hand to appreciate the design, and I'm sure a salesman at your local AT&T store would be happy to oblige.
That leaves us with one last thing about the build of the phone to discuss -- the size. The Inspire is a big phone. It's 4.84 inches in height, 2.68 inches in width, and 0.46 inches thick (123 x 68 x 12 mm) and weighs 5.78 oz (164 g). It's really no bigger (and in some areas it's not as big) as the Evo 4G but size still may be an issue for you. I'll say right here that I think the Inspire is a great phone, and one of the nicest I've used -- but I couldn't use it as my daily device simply because of the size. You may feel different, and sales numbers from the Evo and the Droid X tell me that many of you do. I simply want to remind anyone considering this one to think about it, and decide if you can deal with a phone this big.
In the specs department, the Inspire 4G is no slouch. It's not the game machine that some other phones will be, but for those who don't need an Xbox 360 in their pocket, the Inspire proves, that great software on top of good hardware can make for a better user experience than raw horsepower can.
Under the hood you have essentially the same hardware that the MyTouch 4G debuted:
Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 @ 1 GHz
768 MB RAM
4 GB ROM, 1 GB available for applications
4.3 inch capacitive LCD display @ 480x800
8 MP (rear) camera with 720p video capture
Android 2.2.1
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n WiFi
FM radio (87.5-108MHz) with RDS
AGPS
1230 mAh removable (good luck with that) battery
GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz
UMTS 850, 1900
HSPDA, HSUPA*, HSPA+
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