PPCGeeks - Observations about the Shift

Since I've been learning about this phone, I will cover some pros and cons as I discover them...this is not going to be a whole review of the phone since I don't have time for that yet. My recent experience is with a TP2 so that's my basis for comparison.

Overall my impression of the phone is improving, mostly as I get used to Android and either find solutions that worked under WinMo or adjust my way of accomplishing things under the new OS. This phone is a pleasure to use

Pros:

Very fast phone.

The phone feels very solid in the hand. It is slightly smaller than the TP2 and the way the back tapers, it cradles well in hand and feels much smaller. This is a great size for a phone.

Battery compartment door will never come off by mistake.

Keyboard backlight is phenomenal. Weird thing to review, but it really is easy to see the keys.

Cons:

The battery compartment door was listed as a pro. On the other side of the coin, I give it 5 removals before the tabs start breaking. Not that I plan to remove it much, but prying off a cover like this is nothing like most of the phones I've used.

The extreme tapering on the back actually makes it kind of hard to slide this phone open, particularly when your hands are dry, since it is harder to get a grip on the right lower edge. A couple of times the phone has flipped up and I've partly lost my grip while opening it.

When you are connected with a bluetooth headset, the proximity sensor does not work, so the phone screen does not lock during a call. In other words, if you take or make a call while the phone is in your pocket, it is in there fully on, ready for buttons to be pressed, and there's nothing you can do about it.

When you disconnect said phone call (while using bluetooth), the phone STAYS UNLOCKED. IN YOUR POCKET. Now I have to find an app to prevent pocket calls. If there's one thing I hate, it is having to buy a 3rd party app to muck with something like a lock screen. The word went out with 2010, but I'm bring it back. FAIL. Ok - at the moment this appears fixable by setting a PIN and security to lock immediately. When the call is completed, the phone returns to the PIN lock screen, which at least locks. I would prefer to be able to set a 3min lock (so I don't have to enter the PIN right away if I turn off the screen and then remember I wanted to do something else) but that option allows the phone to unlock after calls.

This isn't specific to the Shift, but is relevant for anyone coming from WM to Android and using Exchange. When you go to move a message in Exchange, the built-in mail client presents every folder and subfolder in your Exchange inbox, in order, with no expand/collapse options on the folders with massive numbers of subfolders. If you used WM Smartphone Edition you know what I'm talking about (Moto Q...). Since I move a lot of mail around, that means the default client is no good to me since it takes several minutes to scroll down my entire folder list to find the one folder I want to move something to. So far I've tried the Touchdown mail client, which does allow collapse/expand view of folders while moving messages. But I will miss being able to swipe left and right in the inbox view to scan my 3 different mail accounts (necessary for work). It looks like I will need to use 2 mail programs.

Email notification lights are inconsistent. I'm using TouchDown as an Exchange client and built-in mail for IMAP accounts. After half a day, it seems the notification light stops working for any emails. This is a bummer but coming from WinMo, stuff randomly failing to work is something I'm used to. Though I would have expected this more from a Samsung phone than an HTC phone. Edit: problem remains after uninstalling all other email clients than stock.

I'm listing this as a con until I find the setting that changes it. The Evo Shift rings at your normal ringtone volume when on your desk, but in a pocket (presumably when the prox or light sensors are covered) it rings once quiet and then BLARING SO FREAKIN' LOUD IT IS LIKE AN AIR RAID. I was hoping to just have my phone ring very quietly and also vibrate, but since I can't find a way to tell it to ring quietly even in my pocket, I have to go vibrate-only, and the vibration on this phone is pretty weak.

Other observations (not pros or cons, just so far things that are different):

Keys are spaced about 1mm farther apart than the TP2. This is good (IMHO) but on the other hand they are just a little too flush with the phone for my personal preference (that may change as I get used to it, which is why this isn't a con).

I do miss the keyboard spring-assist.

The whole thing about the phone lock not working and the screwy exchange issue with the mail client just indicates how hard it is to create a well balanced mobile platform that does everything in a functional way that makes sense. For all the crap WinMo got, at least over time it matured into something that for the most part made sense (tho even with 6.5.0 they never got the phone lock quite right). Now I understand why WP7 is taking so long to update and the task that both Android and WP have ahead of them. Still, as an end-user, it is frustrating to buy a new device and experience setbacks that require 3rd party apps and workarounds to the core operating system for what I consider core smartphone functionality.