Over my lunch break today, I decided to stroll down to the At&t store a few blocks away to see if I could get my hands on the new Fuze. The Fuze has been showing up at retail locations across the country over the past few days, but of course with my lunch, the story by new had not gotten them in till today. I was a bit disappointed when I walked into the store and did not see the phone on display. I did a quick scan of all the display shelves, thinking they might have put it somewhere different than with all the other Windows Mobile phones, but the Fuze was nowhere to be seen.
Approaching one of At&t’s fine sales reps, I asked if they had gotten their Fuze shipments in yet. It turned out that the UPS guy had just dropped off their daily shipment and they were just now unpacking things. Without hesitation the sales rep dove into the boxes, throwing iPhones and Blackberries to the side and came up with he new At&t Fuze. He handed me the box and said "Have fun playing with it"
The first impression of the device always comes with the packaging. Unfortunately for At&t, the really dropped the ball on this one. At&t packaged one of their sexiest phones and their bland At&t boxes (if you’ve purchased an HTC branded phone of late you will know that HTC has some incredibly nice packaging).
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Luckily, the At&t Fuze was able to recapture my enthusiasm. The glossy black finish of the device looked completely out of place in a plain white box. I turned the phone on and quickly ran through the Windows setup process. At&t’s and HTC’s device customization took a bit longer. It took nearly five minutes for the customization to load and then re-boot.
While the device was running through this process, I took a closer look at the physical design of the Fuze. This was actually my first time handling an HTC Touch Pro variant and to my surprise it felt great in my hand. I’m sure we’ve all seen pictures of the Touch Pro (Fuze) and compared it to the HTC Touch Diamond. The Diamond is an extremely thin HTC device and makes the Pro look like a chubby older sibling in pictures. But holding the Fuze in my hand, I realized that the phone’s thickness should not be too much of an issue for someone who wants to run Windows Mobile on a full QWERTY equipped handset.
The hardware buttons also well placed on the front and sides of the Fuze, but there’s always has to be a downside. As many of you are aware, the HTC Touch Diamonds back cover is known for being a fingerprint magnet. The At&t Fuze is no exception to the rule. The glossy faceted design of the back plate seemed to have picked up nearly 1000 finger prints even before the device had finished it’s initial customization process.
Once the device loaded up, I put the Fuze through a quick exam. I ran through HTC’s touch FLO 3D, testing out the various panels. The device did not have a SIM card is it so I was not able to test the weather panel or the Opera browser. Touch FLO 3D did have a bit og lag to it, but not enough to raise any issues.
Overall, I’d say the At&t Fuze is a great upgrade for current At&t customers who are ready to get rid of their Tilt’s and move up the ladder to something with a bit more sex appeal. The device is weighted just right and has a solid feel to it. The At&t rep made a comment about how he could use the phone as a weapon is someone was attacking him. All At&t stores should be getting their Fuze shipments in this week. If you have not had the chance yet, I’d definitely encourage you to go down to your local At&t store and play with the Fuze for a bit. You’ll definitely enjoy it.
