Review: AT&T smart phone's adjustable screen impresses

PC World - Slider phones have become increasingly popular; but until now, they've been limited to handheld devices that are best used in two hands. That changes with AT&T's newest Windows Mobile device, which you can either hold in your hands or rest comfortably on a surface.

The aptly named AT&T Tilt (also known as the HTC 8925) has a hinged display designed to accommodate various viewing scenarios. When open, the roomy adjustable screen gives the phone the look of a tiny laptop, complementing the phone's use for computing or entertainment. (The phone costs $400 when purchased along with a two-year contract from AT&T; unlimited data plans are priced at $45 a month.)

Good design isn't the only thing the Tilt has going for it. It's also AT&T's first Windows Mobile 6 device. And it's a quad-band GSM world phone compatible with EDGE/GPRS and with high-speed 3G UMTS and HSDPA broadband networks. This makes it a great phone for travelers, especially if they can take advantage of high-speed networks.

Specs

The device has slimmed down ever so slightly from its predecessor, the Cingular 8525: It still measures 4.4 inches long by 2.3 inches wide, but the product's maker, HTC, scaled down its depth by nearly 0.2 inch and its weight by 0.2 ounce (to exactly 6 ounces). It also has double the ROM (256MB) and double the memory (128MB). The display remains the same -- a generous 2.8 inches, with 320 by 240 resolution and 64,000 colors. The processor is still 400 MHz, too, but now the unit uses a Qualcomm MSM7200 instead of a Samsung CPU.

The new phone is rated by AT&T to support up to four hours of talk time and up to eight days of standby time. Our battery tests are pending, and we'll update this review with a full rating once those tests are completed.

Pros and cons

In my informal tests, I found the audio quality over AT&T's network pleasing. I heard a faint (but not disturbing) hissing noise in the background, but the other person's voice consistently came through loud and clear. Another positive: The people I called could discern little background noise, even though I was in a noisy locale.

The volume wheel helped augment the sound considerably. When I used the wheel, my voice sounded louder when I spoke -- even to myself -- than it actually was. I still sounded clear enough to the other party, but this unadvertised amplification caught me by surprise. The effect diminished when I reduced the volume to its minimum level. The speakerphone, meanwhile, sounded tinny to my ear, and audio became distorted at higher levels.