ƸӜƷ•¨¯`•My Recuerdos•¨¯`•ƸӜƷ

My two weeks with the HTC Aria are almost up. Friday will be the day I finalise my reviews and submit them to Nuffnang. I feel like I'm passing up my final year project to my professor. Little bits of nervousness here and there. Wish me luck dear readers!!!
Anyway, I know you want to know MORE about the HTC Aria, so I'll cut the beating around the bush and just dive in!! Read on!!

According to the HTC Aria specifications, it is stated that the HTC Aria is able to last up to 372 hours on standby (that's more than 15 days!!) and up to 6 hours of talk time. I decided to keep track of the battery life and embarked on a day of heavy usage and monitored the battery level.

Not bad. It lasted 9 hours under heavy usage. I had the WiFi and GPS Satellite turned on, and those two are battery consuming. I was text-ing non-stop and made a few calls. I also surfed the internet with the browser, played games, downloaded apps, listened to the radio a little while...basically, my fingers were all over it the whole day. And it only started complaining after 9 hours. Cool. I couldn't test out the 15+ days standby mode though because I couldn't leave the HTC Aria alone for more than 10 minutes, much less 15 days. LOL!!

And I stumbled upon another function option for HTC Aria users. If you connect the HTC Aria to your PC, a list of options will appear. Pay attention to the last option please:-

It means that you can use the HTC Aria like a internet modem if you have a data plan subscribed to the phone!! If you're in a place with no internet connection,just plug in the HTC Aria and select that option, and you have mobile internet access on the PC. Isn't that great??

Also, you can import your contacts from your GMail, Facebook and whatever account your syncronise with the HTC Aria. That's quite convenient in my opinion because you can immediately check the person's contact number or e-mail through the phone and immediately compose a text or mail to that number istead of having to copy it out ad entering it into your phone!!

I mentioned in my first review that the HTC Aria size sits more comfortably in a small hand sized person (me) but might be a wee too small for people with big hands. I got mixed feedback to that statement. Well, it all really boils down to preference. Some like it "the bigger the better!!" while other might be vice versa (but generally girls like it slim). So I decided to do some size comparisons of the HTC Aria to other phones. The following pictures are generated using the Phone Visualiser courtesy of phonearena.com.





I have not forgotten about my promise to write about the HTC Aria's camera and recording functions. The 5 megapixel camera included in the HTC Aria is quite standard since most phones these days come equipped with up to 12 megapixel cameras. Pictures taken with the HTC Aria's camera are of fair quality.

I must stress that picture quality is not dependant on the megapixels but on the lenses quality, Therefore, it will be unreasonable to compare pictures taken with a phone camera to an actual camera. I'm sure photography enthusiasts will agree with me on this point. Still, the pictures taken with the HTC Aria are quite nice. I like the touch to focus option on the screen meaning you may choose where you want the camera to focus on. Below are more unedited sample pictures taken with the HTC Aria.








Note that my pictures were all taken in adequate light conditions. The HTC Aria's camera is compromised in dim lighting since it does not have a LED flash. Also, one slightly frustrating factor is that the phone keeps exiting camera mode when you try to find the button to capture picture.

However, I still like the camera function because it's still good for snap and share. I can twitpic with the HTC Aria or upload to FB instantly with the 'share' button!!!

Moving on to video function. I managed to find something interesting to video. I was in Sunway Pyramid on Sunday to catch the Battleground semi-finals. I recorded some of the performances as a sample for you readers to watch.

The HTC Aria Smartphone is currently retailed in Malaysia for RM1799. But DiGi has a GREAT OFFER for you! Just by signing up for the DG Smart Plan, you can get the HTC Aria Smartphone for as low as RM799! That's up to RM1000 saved for you if you get the HTC Aria Smartphone under the DiGi Smart Plan!! That's right, DiGi is your smarter choice!

As promised in my previous review (click here to read) on the HTC Aria Smartphone, I shall reveal to you my findings and further understanding of the HTC Aria as I got to know this fabulous smartphone better over the course of days. My focus for this post will be on 'smart' part of the 'smartphone' (get it??), showing you more info on why the HTC Aria is among the most coveted smartphones in the market today.

Let me start by touching on the platform that made all the wonders of the HTC Aria possible. The Android OS. Now I'm sure a lot of you have question marks on why techies everyone gets excited at the word Android. Confession : I actually had no idea until I got this HTC Aria to review and started doing my own research.Let me try to explain in laymen terms, like how your desktop or laptop (computers) runs on Windows/Linux/Mac, handphones also run on operating systems; iOS, Windows Mobile, Android, to name a few. And it is a race between the different phone manufacturers (e.g Apple iPhone, Blackberry and HTC) to develop better operating systems for ease of usage for the customers who buy their phones, YOU. So there you go. The Android OS which the HTC Aria runs on was developed by Google, which basically means; Google is managing the HTC Aria for you. This is in fact, HTC's unique factor since most smartphones run on Windows mobile (HTC previously did run on Windows Mobile) and HTC runs on Android. Now do you know why people get excited about Android??

The magic button in the HTC Aria that turns the phone into anything you want is the Android Market icon here:-

Having Google running your phone for you sure gives it a cool touch, huh??
It has also taken the appointment book in the HTC Aria one step higher. Now, normally when you key in a reminder for an event or appointment into your phone, the standard info keyed in would be the date and time and place. Like this:-In the HTC Aria, there is a space for you to fill in the venue where your event would take place....
and this gets really cool. If you click on the venue, Google Map will automatically pop up and plot the place for you on the map so that you may see where it is!!


Or alternatively, you can download a GPS from the Android Market and enable the GPS satellite in the HTC Aria to get live directions while you drive. Yes, the HTC Aria can serve as a GPS!!! I tested it out and the GPS is pretty accurate. And yes, it has a voice and talks like the actual GPS device too. Haha!!
You can access all these with WiFi internet or mobile internet. I don't have a data plan with DiGi (yet) but to get unlimited internet access for a day, I just enabled the mobile internet and hit the RM5 usage tier; and then I could use the internet without any extra charge for the rest of the day. That way, I could use the GPS, surf the internet, update my Facebook and Twitter and download apps, etc, etc through the HTC Aria for a day using the Digi internet access. The internet speed was fair. Let me show you the results of the speed test I did:-
So now do you see the endless possibilities with the HTC Aria?? There will be more and more apps being created and released into the market for download, so you will always have the latest apps available for your download through the Android Market. And for your info, the apps available there are same as the ones available in the Apple Store when you use the iPhone. In fact, some of the apps offer full version in the Android Market while only the Lite version is available in the Apple Store!!


Also, the apps will constantly be upgraded by their creators, so no worries in being outdated!!
Carrying the HTC Aria is like carrying your phone, dictionary, newspaper, GPS, appointment books and game device with you, all compacted into one!!! Now isn't that cool??Let me just show you another one of the cool apps I downloaded before I come to the end of this review. This app lets me doodle and draw on the HTC like a sketchpad. Such fun!!!



Yes, I do so love the HTC Aria. I'm happy to have managed to finish up this post which covers the most exciting functions and features of the HTC Aria. Please pardon any inaccuracies in the technical language since yours truly is a accountant in training and not very fluent in techie lingo (am learning and improving though.). It's been a little over a week since Nuffnang and DiGi have entrusted it into my hands for my reviews and it has been splendid to explore and write about my findings. I hope you, dear readers like my reviews, and wish me luck that I will be able to keep this HTC Aria as my own for the reviews!!!

And wait!! There's still more to tell about the HTC Aria. Look out for my next review where I shall focus on the Camera and Recording functions of the HTC Aria. It should interest you readers since the phone camera is a handy and much used feature of phones. So expect a colourful post coming up soon!! Stay with me!!!

The HTC Aria Smartphone is currently retailed in Malaysia for RM1799. But DiGi has a GREAT OFFER for you! Just by signing up for the DG Smart Plan, you can get the HTC Aria Smartphone for as low as RM799! That's up to RM1000 saved for you if you get the HTC Aria Smartphone under the DiGi Smart Plan!! That's right, DiGi is your smarter choice!