I’ve been using the HTC Amaze “4G” for a solid week and half now on the Telus network and wanted to share my thoughts on this phone.
The HTC Desire Z is still in my collection, dutifully sitting on my bedside stand, waiting for the chance to “be called up” and take on the challenges of my daily communication routine. Sadly, I just never seem to put my sim back into it. Am I turning into an ”Andy”? (Woody and Buzz’s owner in Toy Story) and just don’t have time for these devices anymore? Who knows; but I sure hope not.

When the HTC Amaze found me, I wanted to review it for many reasons. One of the more pressing reasons being that I missed my Desire Z and wanted to give the Amaze the chance to see if it would make me retire my hardly used Desire Z in favour of this powerhouse of a HTC phone.

Did it do the job? Or was it relegated to hang out on the bench with the Desire Z? Keep reading for your answer!

Tech Specs:
The Phone is a BEAST, there really isn’t any other way to describe it.
-Android 2.3.4 with HTC Sense 3.0 overlay
-1.5GHZ Dual Core processor (Qualcomm MDM8220)
-4.3” Super LCD qHD screen (960 x 540)
-DCHSPA capable of downloads up to 42Mbps
-PENTA BAND 3G 1700/2100 (think wind / Mobilicity) 2100 / 1900 / 850 (the big 3)
-8.0Mp camera out back, 2.0Mp camera out front
-1080p Video recording
-1Gb RAM, 16 gig ROM, will take up to 32gig MicroSD card
-1730mah battery
-WiFi hotspot capable of up to 8 connections (B/G/N)
-171 grams
-Bluetooth 3.0

Reception:
The REAL bread and butter of any phone. What good is are all the shiny, snazzy features (dual-core processors, megapixel cameras, 1080p’s of video etc etc etc) if the phone is consistently searching for signal? I’m actually quite happy to report that the HTC Amaze 4G is adept at making the most of the Telus network. Now, I have to give my usual caveat though, because my primary line is, at this time, a Rogers phone so my experiences with the Telus network are still fairly fresh and new. With this in mind go easy on me when I say that I felt the HTC Amaze did an “amazing” job of keeping me connected, facebook’d, Tweet’d and Foursquar’d in my errands and travels around the GTA. I experienced no sudden signal degradations, no drop to EDGE (well not like it would go to EDGE anyway) and no blarps in the audio that are becoming all to common on my Rogers line. I cant be 100% certain if the Amaze makes the network shine, or the network shines through the Amaze; either way call me impressed.

Sound Quality on Incoming:
The sound quality on the incoming earpiece was excellent; when you find the sweet spot. Being that the phone is basically 2 parts that fit into each other, the backing and the phone itself, I found that at times I had to really mind the position of the earpiece to make sure maximum aural volume was being tossed into my ear canal. If you’re going to be using the Amaze 4G as your main device fear not readers, you will quickly become adept in handing the 171g beast for maximum ear-sounding pleasure.

Sound Quality on Outgoing:
No complaints from my callers to be honest, I sounded “natural” and lively. In louder environments it fairs well, but people can definitely tell I’m not in library reading the combined works of Tolstoy. Either way, it’s a cell phone; realistically in this day and age I think a bit of background noise is perfectly acceptable since you’re mobile and not using a fixed phone.

Sound Quality on Speakerphone:
Bleh, it’s OK. One of my largest gripes about phones these days is the speaker volume. How much more would It really cost putting a half decent speaker in there? Hopefully the beats by Dre does an end to the tiny speakers that HTC seems to love using. HTC isn’t the only ones guilty of this though, I played with a Samsung Nexus and it was also mediocre at best. I just don’t get it, and it makes me shake my fist to the heavens and yell out “WHY, oh WHY is this speaker about as loud as a hallmark greeting card”

Granted, it’s not ACTUALLY as bad as a hallmark greeting card, but you get the idea. For as much flack as RIM has been taking, have a listen to the 9900’s speaker; it’s LOUD. Only rivaled by the 9000 and the MIKE phone’s of the past. That’s what I want. I want a speaker that i can hear over the hustles and bustles of my winter coat as I’m shopping for the holidays in a jam packed mall. I don’t want to miss 4 calls from important contacts that I’ve been waiting on all day.

My rant aside, in a quiet environment it was decent. However, when are we ever in quiet environments these days? Chances are if you’re in a quiet environment, you have the phone on Vibe / silent.

Camera:
The HTC Amaze 4G features a 8.0Mpix shooter that brings some advanced optics to the table. Coming in with a F2.2 Aperture and a 28mm lens. This setup should provide more than adequate pictures and video. I was quite impressed by the pictures I was able to take in the sunny fall weather we were getting over the last week or so. I’ve attached a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. You can clearly see the rich oranges and browns of what fall has to offer here in the GTA.

 

The camera also takes a decent macro shot which is always nice to know if you need to have that feature readily available, and working decently:

 

 

Modern Day Connectivity:
The HTC has your usual gamut of connectivity options:
Bluetooth, Check!
Hotspot, YUP! (with up to 8 users to boot)
MicroUSB cable connections sharing options, YUP!
DLNA via “connected media,” Uh huh!
NFC Capability, Yup!! That’s there as well which was a pleasant surprise.

There is no shortage of connectivity on the HTC Amaze.

I also found it interesting that you can specify now what type of usb tethering you’d like to use, and set a default.
As an example you can choose Windows or MAC. It will also remember this default, and can easily be changed.

HotSpot:
the HTC Amaze 4G supports up to 8 people connected at once. I never did test that but I was able to get 5 devices connected and using bandwidth happily as if they were connected to a cable / DSL backend. For the purposes of experiment I connected my iPhone 4S, an iPad, a PlayBook and a Samsung GS II; there was more than enough bandwidth to go around which is a real testament to the Telus network.

Speedtests:
Is the Amaze fast?
Oh heck yes, Broadband speeds in the palm of your hand. The best part is that I’m able to consistently get these speeds reliably, Not just at 4am on an idle Wednesday, but at 7pm on a Thursday evening as well. Even at 5pm during rush hour gridlock the Amaze / Telus network happily churned along spitting out bits and bytes as I needed them.

I also tethered to my PC to download a larger file to see what sustained download speeds I could get
I was quite impressed with the results:

NFC:
also onboard, as a pleasant surprise is NFC. Similar to the Samsung G2X there isn’t a whole lot you can do with it, Yet. That being said who knows really when the technology will mature. With Ice Cream Sandwich coming to the Amaze in 2012, my guess is that the major initial use of NFC will be for Google’s Android Beam technology.

Aesthetics:
the HTC Amaze 4G is a beast of a phone. Very well designed, and crafted from fine materials the Amaze 4G will definitely give you that quality feeling of spending your money on a phone of substance. Weighing in at 171 grams (or approximately 25 Canadian Loonies!) you’ll definitely feel like you spent your money wisely.

It’s design is very industrial feeling with very good use of metals and rubbers that are soft to the touch but also durable to stand up to daily usage.
One of my favorite features of the Amaze is how it’s actually 2 pieces. The back housing is 1 solid piece that the phone actually sits in. it’s almost like it’s an aluminum case for the phone itself. When you take the backing off you can see all the “guts” and antenna leads and points of contact. It’s very interesting and really gave me a sense of quality because these 2 pieces fit into each other and are both very tight, and very solid. This phone is very “iPhone” feeling which means it feels like 2 solid pieces. However, unlike the iPhone you can easily get to the sim card, MicroSD card or battery once you take the back plate off

 

 

Battery Life:
Battery life wasn’t the greatest. As a matter of fact the first outing I had with the Amaze 4G plainly had me worried. I had charged it up and was working a Saturday. It came off the charger at approximately 8am and by just after 2Pm I had already killed it below 10%. Granted, I was pushing all my apps from Google market to the device, but I was still taken aback. As I used the phone, the battery life got better, but it’s still nothing to write home about. With my usage I was able to get ¾ of a day. (9am till about 430pm) With heavy usage like YouTube, facebook, Twitter and playing some Slacker radio I got a half day (9am to 2PM). Again, the above figures are an average “work day”, but I typically go to sleep at 12am so I run my day from 9am till 12am approx. Not the average measurement for a day I guess you could say, but that’s my day. Needless to say, you’ll be charging the phone up at the office if you plan on going out later in the evening and want the phone to work.

Regardless, the Amaze does pack a 1730 mah battery which seems large at first but when you start to use the phone you realize that the dual-core processors and the qHD screen as well as the 42Mbps DCHSPA network access all start to wear away at the battery. So, I highly recommend having a MicroUSB charger at home / in the car if you can.

Closing thoughts:
the HTC Amaze 4G is truly a well crafted phone with a very good set of features. It has HTC’s Sense UI which you either love or hate. Personally I prefer Vanilla Android, but we all know how long it seems to take Google just launching pure vanilla experiences. As of writing this the Samsung Nexus is gearing up to be launched and many Android purists aren’t the patient type

What I would love to see, and I’ll tell anyone this that will listen, is to be given the option to chose. I happen to really like HTC’s build quality and feel in the hand vs. some of the more plastic competitors; I would also appreciate an option to run a Vanilla OS at initial setup or time of boot. Sure, you can go download Launcher Pro from the market, but I would prefer an actual option from the manufacturers. I realize I’ll never get this wish, as manufacturers use their Skin’s to differentiate their products against a sea of android phone’s and OS’s.

At any rate, if you’re a fan of HTC, I truly believe this phone won’t disappoint you. Being that it’s also PentaBand, this phone will also work with, and has also launched on our AWS equivalents WIND / Mobilicity.

All in all it’s a great phone, at a good price, and of course, on a superb network; you really can’t go wrong

Pick up the HTC Amaze 4G from Telus for $99.99 on a 3-year term here.