Thinking about getting Aria

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I'm thinking about getting the Aria.. can anyone tell me any downsides to the Aria? Is PDAnet in the marketplace? The one at the ATT store had it removed. I'm probably just going to root it.. is it possible to root it and revert back to ATT's firmware if I need to?

Originally Posted by MJennings

I'm thinking about getting the Aria.. can anyone tell me any downsides to the Aria? Is PDAnet in the marketplace? The one at the ATT store had it removed. I'm probably just going to root it.. is it possible to root it and revert back to ATT's firmware if I need to?

Lack of keyboard and small on screen keyboard

Apart from that I have NO complaints.

Originally Posted by MJennings

I'm thinking about getting the Aria.. can anyone tell me any downsides to the Aria? Is PDAnet in the marketplace? The one at the ATT store had it removed. I'm probably just going to root it.. is it possible to root it and revert back to ATT's firmware if I need to?

You will be able to revert back to the original AT&T firmware; HTC already has the original shipped ROM on their support site for the Aria.

As for downsides, what kind of phone do you currently have? I upgraded to the Aria from a WM 6.5 Samsung Jack, so it is a bit smaller and has a virtual keyboard instead of a physical keyboard. The battery life on the Aria is on par with Jack. Yesterday was my first full day with in on the job and by 10PM the battery gauge showed about 40%.

As you mentioned, there are no tethering apps in the Android Market, so you would have to either side-load a tethering app using the Android SDK 'adb' utility or root the phone. So that it is the one thing that I am currently missing. If I go out of town and need to tether, I will just pull my SIM card and put it back in the Jack.

Regards,

Tom

Originally Posted by MJennings

I'm thinking about getting the Aria.. can anyone tell me any downsides to the Aria? Is PDAnet in the marketplace? The one at the ATT store had it removed. I'm probably just going to root it.. is it possible to root it and revert back to ATT's firmware if I need to?

The big worries I had before ordering it were that due to it's small screen, slower cpu and being on ATT, it might not get updates as quick as some other flagship android model ATT might put out, and that it's service life in terms of updates might be limited by the fact that it's a mid-lower range device.

I personally don't mind the 'unknown sources' lock so much simply because it's so easy to get around. I was kind of disappointed by the lack of live wallpapers, though I'm pretty sure there will be a way to hack them on later.

To be honest, I wanted to wait until after the iPhone release to order mine, simply to see if ATT would announce anything else. If you recall, they promised us 5 Android handsets by the end of H1 2010 (Motorola Backflip, Dell Aero, HTC Aria, and two other yet unknown HTC devices). Then I saw the Aria for $50 on Amazon with a contract extension and figured it wasn't worth the wait.

I got the phone.. it seems the phone is kinda quiet on normal and speaker phone, anyone else think so?

I have a Tilt that is a little beat up, but runs well for an old phone.

For the last month, I been looking to switch. Tilt2 sucked so my decision came down to Bold 9700. Then I saw the iPhone 3GS for $100. But I waited and got a chance to miss around with the Aria and for the 15 minutes of playing around with Android, I was very happy with the device.

So it looks like by Wednesday, I will have to make a decision. Bold 9700 is a sold phone, but I have never had a BB and have heard very mixed reviews. Plus, the fact that without a data plan the phone becomes very limited in terms of GPS, etc., that was a turn-off. I have never been too high on an iPhone, but the nice thing is, I could get unlimited data for $10 a month for it (connection). After the Tilt, the Aria's size is a big plus. I don't plan on getting a data and can get the phone for $45 without a contract extension.

So now it comes down to iPhone or Aria? Man, that Aria is sexy as heck! Do I make the leap? I have been looking the Aria forum and while I have a lot to learn about Android, I learned enough about flashing, etc. with the year I had the Tilt that I think with some reading and Q/A from the good folks at XDA, I can learn to take all the crap off of my Aria.

I have 24/7 wifi so no need for giving damn ATT an extra $15 a month.

So do I wait a little while to see what else comes out or dive into the Aria? I usually keep my phones for about 2-3 years. What's this about the Aria being a mid-range phone? I don't really play games, etc. on my phone other than the occasional Tetris or something on my commute. And from my interaction with the Aria, it was way faster than the Tilt.

I just upgraded from a Fuze (Energy Rom) to an Aria yesterday. I'm not a microsoft fanboy, but I'm a huge fan of the Zune / Zunepass (Best deal in music stores IMO) I've been trying to hold out for a windows mobile 7 phone, but then again who knows when one will be released. I recently played around with XANDROID on the fuze and fell in love with it. It runs my phone better than WM6.5 aside from the bugs and the 3 hr. battery life (im sure at some point xandroid will be usable but not yet) I was eligible for an extension but still 6 mo from being out of contract so I needed to stay with ATT. I thought about a droid milestone, nexus one, and did some searching for unlocked droid phones. I stopped in the store and tried out the aria and loved it. Ive avoided touch screen only phones for the fact that i like keyboards, until I realized I actually type faster with the aria on screen keyboard than with my Fuze. The phone is light. thin, and compact, but not too compact. The screeen is plenty big, and the touch screen is responsive. Its also extremely smooth, no noticeable lag in android. I recommend trying it out in the store to see what you think, if its durable I think it will prove to be a great phone for the price, it also looks fantastic.

The loudspeaker is a bit low and harsh sounding for music and no camera flash. Other than those things I can't really think of anything I don't like about my Aria. My battery life has been very good over moderate usage and call quality is solid. I haven't made any changes to dl 3rd party apps yet and I haven't really missed anything.
This phone is very fast and never lags on me. That's something I can't say for really any of the Smartphones I've had except for my 3gs.

I don't own the phone but the concerns i have are:
1) No camera flash
2) small screen
3) no BT voice command (from what i hear)
4) some reports that HTC sync is kind of buggy