HTC FUZE Smartphone (AT&T) - Refurbished Review

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(More customer reviews)After comparing features on quite a few different phones, I thought the HTC Fuze would be the perfect replacement for my aging, but still quite functional HTC Wizard (Cingular 8125).
This phone has GPS, Windows Mobile 6.1, a decent camera, a nice screen resolution, a usable slide-out keyboard. In short, it has everything I was looking for in a smartphone.
Once I got it home, I found three significant issues:
1) Non-Standard USB Data/charging jack
Being someone who works with computer hardware quite a bit, I am very averse to "trying to fit a square peg in a round hole". When I went to start charging the phone, I noticed that the jack on the phone was not a standard Mini-USB, though it looked close. I looked in the box and found a small breakout adapter (for headphones) and it also had a standard Mini-USB connector on it, so my assumption was that I needed to have this adapter present to plug in for syncing and/or charging.
It turns out that the jack on the bottom of the phone was meant to accept standard Mini-USB as well as the custom adapter.
So, this isn't a showstopper, but I thought folks might want to know.
2) Way too much NON-REMOVABLE demo-ware Bloat (AT&T)
I'm used to getting phones with a few "demoware" titles put on by the provider. My normal approach to these is "give em a whirl, if they're a must-have, buy em, if not uninstall them never to be heard from again"
I was happy to see a large selection of potentially very interesting titles. However, I very quickly found that I didn't really like most of them. THEN I tried uninstalling. Only one of the pre-installed demoware pieces was available in the uninstall section.
I started researching... Just go ahead and try googling for "HTC Fuze Bloat"
Yes, there is a way to work around this, but it took me about four tries to get the timing right. Essentially you have to hard reset the phone and then catch it with a soft reset just before the AT&T setup stuff starts loading.
It's ugly, and if you ever have to hard reset, you get all the garbage back. NOBODY's come up with a way to completely remove the AT&T bloat without making a custom ROM
3) Noticeably low phone volume.
I bonded my Plantronics earpiece to the phone and made a call to a friend. I can't believe how many times I had to ask her to speak up or repeat herself. She was on her standard phone at home ... I know what volume level to expect from her. I thought maybe the phone or my earpiece were turned down... NOPE. I ensured that they were both at maximum. The volume was unacceptably low through the built-in earpiece as well.
It MAY be that there is an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) that is causing the audio to be turned down (It seemed to fade in and out even with fairly decent signal strength). I dunno, this was the straw that broke the Camel's back.
Ok, I've panned it. What's good about the phone?
1) Nice built in camera
Takes a MUCH better picture in available light indoors that the Cingular 8125
2) Nice style.
If you're an iPhone person, you'd almost feel at home with this. The styling is good, the TouchFlo interface seems very modern (though I didn't play with it enough to really decide if I loved or hated it)
3) Seems well built
This may be a small phone, but it's got some weight to it that makes it feel solid and substantial
4) ROM Update Available
HTC's official web site has a ROM Update available which is supposed to fix some performance issues. I haven't installed it because I'm taking my phone back, but this may be worth looking into if you just have to have this phone.
In conclusion, This phones features and specs say that it has it all, but I found myself somewhat disappointed. I took it back to the provider and asked that we try another unit to make sure that the volume issue was not just due to a bad unit. It was the same (low-ish normal volume with WAY over-reactive Auto Gain Control causing it to be difficult to hear the other party.
This review has been edited, but I can't appear to change the rating, so take it as read that I'd currently give it three stars instead of two. I'm about to try applying a rom update provided by HTC on their main site (specific to the AT&T version of this phone). I will update with further info if I come across anything interesting.
~~UPDATE~~
After the ROM update, my issues with the Auto Gain Control making conversations difficult to hear appears to have gone away.
I can comfortably upgrade this phone to 3.5 stars, but of course, I can't because I can't change my rating.


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