First Look: HTC Inspire, AT&T's first 4G phone

The HTC Inspire 4G, available from AT&T for $100 with a two-year contract and after rebates, is that carrier's first foray into the murky waters of 4G technology, which promises the fastest downloads over a cellular network. As with T-Mobile, the "4G" technology AT&T currently deploys is actually HSDPA+, which is essentially a fast lane on the carriers' existing network.

Besides 4G network capability, the phone has a gargantuan 4.3-inch, high-resolution touch-screen display; an 8-megapixel camera with HD-recording capability; a 1-GHz Snapdragon processor; and access to some new HTC services.

My impressions of the HTC-provided press sample were mostly favorable, though the phone flunked in one important area: Network speed. Here are the details.

The 4G that wasn't? Most of the T-Mobile and Sprint 4G phones I've tested deliver comparable peak download speeds, about 3 to 5 mbps ( megabits per second); Verizon plans to deploy the first phones with its 4G network next month. AT&T signals were strong where I tested the Inspire, even for HSDP+.

Unfortunately, I was unable to measure download speeds any faster than about 0.5 mbps using the FCC Android app by Ookla. That's barely respectable for 2G, much less for 4G. Upload speeds were proportionally dismal: about 0.1 to 0.15 mbps. With other AT&T phones (all 3G, of course) I had no trouble reaching download speeds above 2 mbps.

What's puzzling, though, is that our lab equipment confirmed the Inspire has the hardware to handle download speeds of up to 14 mbps, so this problem may be the result of a glitch on the press sample. We'll run these tests again on the Inspire we recently purchased at retail.

The net result was that YouTube videos and never-before-visited Web pages seemed to take a tad longer to download than on some of the other 4G phones we've tested. But overall, this didn't greatly hamper the experience.

Brilliant display. When we read Web pages and and e-books on the Inspire, type actually seemed sharper than on the 4.3-in. display of the Inspire's cousin, the HD7. And the display didn't wash out as much in sunlight—a problem I've experienced with some HTC phones, including the HD7.

Interface. The Inspire runs on Android 2.2, with the latest version of HTC's Sense interface. Sense has been upgraded to provide a few convenient services from the cloud, including remote phone lock or wipe in case of theft, and allowing you to forward calls or messages to different numbers.

After setting up your account on the HTC Sense site, you can initiate these services or change settings from just about any device that supports with an advanced Web browser. One cool feature: You can have Sense send a signal to get the phone to ring at full volume, a great option for people, like me, who frequently misplace their phones.

Data entry. I already liked the phone's Android 2.2 keyboard, which offers multiple word suggestions as you type. Because of the Inspire's larger screen, it was easier to enter text than it can be on other phones. You can also perform voice searches, which seemed reasonably accurate during informal trials in sometimes noisy rooms.

Bottom line: The HTC Inspire is an appealing smart phone with a with a gigantic screen that's well-suited for data entry, reading text, and viewing Web pages. But our press sample's surprisingly sluggish data-network performance prevents me from endorsing its gaming and streaming multimedia prowess. Our engineers will soon confirm whether this flaw is a family trait.

—Mike Gikas