Monday, November 15, 2010

Digi HTC Aria - mobile snapper




One fine Saturday morning, while wifey and I were having breakfast, I stumbled across an ad in the newspaper. Digi was having promotions on some of their mobile phones packages and it displayed a Garmin-Asus A10 for Rm499! I was delighted! First, it has Garmin navigation software. And it's an Android phone. I kind of interested in Androids since Motorola released its Milestone.



So that evening, off I went to Suria to ask for the packages at the Digi centre there. I waited for 10 minutes as there's few customers were busy ordering their Iphones. To my disappointment, it wasn't offered there, so I was asked to go to 1 Borneo.

Same thing happened there. And the whole thing made me slightly furious. Here I am, a happy Digi prepaid customer for years, and finally wanted to get a phone package from them, only to be told that they didn't know such ad, let alone the phone. One of the staffs there informed me that they only provide service for Blackberry and Iphones. Damn!



I walked out, cursing those two phone brands for making 'my' phone so unpopular. Luck was on my side I guess, I saw the add at a small Digi booth. I was informed that it was sold out, and new stocks will arrive the other week. Luckily the staff was friendly, or I would curse even more. Anyway, he then introduced me to the Aria.



I sat down, handled and browsed through the menu for a while and I instantly like the phone. And the staff patiently showed me the capabilities and features of the phone. Half an hour later, it was mine. :D



Some specs of Aria (taken from GSMArena :

General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 1900
HSDPA 900 / 2100
Announced 2010, June
Status Available. Released 2010, June
Size Dimensions 103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm
Weight 115 g
Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
Size 320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Optical trackpad
- HTC Sense UI
- Flip-to-mute a call
Sound Alert types Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone Yes
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Practically unlimited
Internal 512 MB ROM, 384 MB RAM
Card slot microSD, up to 32GB, 2GB card included, buy memory
Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth Yes v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0
Camera Primary 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus
Features Geo-tagging, face detection
Video Yes
Secondary No
Features OS Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
CPU Qualcomm MSM 7227 600 MHz processor
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser HTML
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games Yes
Colors Black
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java Via third party application
- Digital compass
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail
- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- MP3/AAC+/WAV player
- MP4/H.264 player
- Voice memo
- Predictive text input
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh
Stand-by Up to 372 h
Talk time Up to 6 h

Actually, this is my first, full touchscreen phone and postpaid line. The phone costs RM799 (almost half than the actual retail price), and I paid another RM568 (advance payment for bills and data usage). Owh, another RM70 for two-year warranty. I was worried that I couldn't SMS while driving as I am used to my Nokia 6110 keypad. After a few days however, it was kinda easy too cause I set the Aria's onscreen keypad just like my Nokia. QWERTY keyboard is available, but the button is small for me.



What I like about this phone? It fits nicely in my hand and it's light! Next thing is Android! I can personalise it with free apps from Android market. I can write more about the other features, but the only way to experience it is to test it or own one. :D Owh, with its 5 megapixel camera, I'm getting the hang of taking photos using some nice apps apart from the phone's default camera app. Currently I installed FXCamera, Camera360 and Retrocamera. Below are shots using those apps in no particular order.


Seeing double?






Vintage look.






HDR effect.




The recent flood at school.


Hehe. I'm transferring to Sabah end of this year!




Purnama Hotel, Limbang.




My new addition...Nex's strobist project.


Hehehe...going to watch Iron Maiden concert next year!

Anyway, there are some cons. Battery is weak. With moderate calls and data usage, it can only last for a day. The screen is a finger print magnet, not a big deal though, it makes the phone looks less shiny hehe.

Apart from that, I would recommend anybody to get one!

1 comment:

  1. HTC Mobile In Pakistan
    I really loved reading your blog. It was very well authored and easy to understand.

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