Rogers HTC Dream review
So by now you’ve probably seen that our Rogers HTC Dream demo unit recently arrived in a locked safe and are wondering why such a fuss has been made over a device that has been for sale in the US from T-Mobile since October of 2008. While the device is physically the same of course, there are quite a few differences compared to the stock Android OS and it really took us by surprise. Want to know more? Grab a coffee, slip on your spectacles and a hit the jump for the review.
First things first. Yes, the Rogers Dream does come loaded with Android OS 1.5 aka Cupcake. But, and this is a huge but (think J Lo circa 1999 here), it does not come with all of the awesome features that T-Mobile G1 users are enjoying / will be enjoying with Cupcake. You see, the Dream has been loaded with custom firmware that more or less kills off a bunch of the cool new features of the update, the most notable being the lack of the soft keyboard. Why is this? Well, take a look at the back of the device:
There isn’t any physical branding of the Google trademark on the device. This means that Rogers likely said no thanks to Google and asked HTC to make custom modified firmware build that includes the typical, ugly and permanent links to a few of Rogers’ mobile content shops and its website. On top of that, one of the most basic things we have come to expect in a smartphone — a note taking application — is nowhere to be found.
So what do you get in exchange? Well, you get Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. It might not be the most desirable trade-off if you don’t make use of an Exchange server, but it’s not as if the soft keypad on Cupcake G1s is something to write home about when compared to other capacitive touchscreen devices anyway. Besides, it’s not overly difficult to run and get some custom firmware up and running for those who absolutely hate the physical keypad and forgot the Magic is also about to drop.
Android OS 1.5 is rather nice and features some much needed cosmetic changes here and there in addition to some new features. At the same time, it’s still more or less the same as Android OS 1.0 which you can read about in more detail in our G1 review. Since this is our first review of an OS 1.5 device, we think it’s time we mention the things that haven’t yet made it to Android that we think should have been included from day one. For example, it couldn’t be more annoying to have to touch and hold on a message screen for two seconds to be prompted to reply, forward or delete it. Surely Google of all companies could whip up a simper way to get stuff done without always having to rely on the keypad or menu keys to get stuff done quickly. After all, isn’t simplicity and ease of use one of the main reasons touchscreen devices are now coming out left, right and center?
The guts of the Rogers Dream include a 528MHz processor, 192MB RAM/256MB ROM, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, GPS, quad-band EDGE and dual-band UMTS/HSPA (850/1900MHz) at 7.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up. This gives the Dream more than enough power to keep it running without much lag even when running apps that are extremely resource heavy. And heaven help us if the Dream is not one of the fastest devices that we’ve ever used. Even in a busy area we were easily able to get 2Mbps down while breaking 3.5Mbps and beyond here and there. GPS signals are insanely easy to lock on to and seems to work in buildings where other devices struggle to keep a lock on a signal. As for the Wi-Fi part, well, it’s Wi-Fi so it’s quite a bit faster than HSPA. But like we said, the Dream is a champ when it comes to cellular data speeds. The best part? We were able to get a full day out of the Dream before the battery died at around 2am. Just be careful with that Wi-Fi connection because it seems to have an insatiable thirst for juice.
We have to hand it to HTC because they really know how to make a touchscreen display and the Dreams is no exception. It’s respectable at 3.2″ with a resolution of 320×480; the display is crisp, bright and has a really nice feel to it despite the fact that it’s made out of some sort of hard plastic as opposed to the glass of most capacitive panels. Still, it’s extremely accurate and responds very well to the slightest touch. In terms of the overall picture quality, we would definitely rank it among the better displays currently on the market.
One of the things that makes HTC’s Android devices stand out as touchscreen devices is their inclusion of a trackball — the very same as seen on a certain line of smartphones that hails from the Northern Lands. Bluntly put, we never really use it because 1) it’s been programmed with a very low level of sensitivity, and 2) the sensitivity level cannot be changed. Why this is we’re not sure, but we highly doubt we’d use it even it we were able to crank it up to a comfortable 80 or 90 like we do on our BlackBerrys.
We’ve already covered two methods of input so now we move on to the full-QWERTY keypad of course. Accessible by moving the screen away via a sliding mechanism (which is solid and should survive a couple of years with power users) that almost instantantly converts the screen from portrait to landscape mode, the keypad takes a bit of getting used to and might feel a bit foreign to type on as the keys that are raised 1mm above the body of the device. It only takes about five minutes to adjust to however, but after five minutes of typing on the Dream you’re likely to want to take a chisel to the hump that contains all of the navigation keys because, damn, does that thing ever make for some seriously sore and cramped hands. Basically what we’re trying to say is that if you have small hands or short fingers, stay away from this phone because it’s just not gonna work out for you unless you have access to Prof. Farnsworth’s Fing-Longer. If you have the hands for it though, it’s not all that bad and we’d go so far as to say that despite its shortcomings we’d gladly take the Dream’s keypad over 95% of whatever else you can think of. Oh, one thing that we’d kill for Android to get is some sort of spell check. Seriously, what smartphone doesn’t have this?
The Dream features a flashless 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and a dedicated camera button. It takes decent pictures, but even if we were to take a photo with the light cast by an atomic bomb going off behind us, the end result would still end up being pretty grainy. C’mon, no flash? It’s 2009 and the phone is a massive 17.1mm thick — you’d think they’d cram a flash in there. Here’s a sample pic.
It’s pretty funny that one of the least talked about features of any phone these days is how it handles calls. Okay, it’s a sign of the times we live in, but we like to make a phone call now and again which is why we are so pleased that making a call couldn’t be more simple than it is on the Dream. You can either punch in a number or contact name on the QWERTY keypad, or dial the number straight up on the touchscreen. As for call quality, the Dream really delivers from both the earpiece and the speakerphone. That said, things did start to sound thin and tinny when the volume was cranked above 75%, but this can be attributed to the fact that the volume can be set so loud that you’ll be crying for earplugs. As for calling features, swapping, merging and adding additional people to a call could not be more simple. The only negative we can find with the voice aspect of this device hasn’t a thing to do with call quality or connectivity but rather a lack of a proximity sensor. Would it really be too much to ask that all high-end touchscreen phones come with proximity sensors? It seriously sucks to have to tap a key to wake up the display.
So overall, we like the phone — hardware and the software — yet there are a few things that we just can’t understand like the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack and the proprietary charging / data cable port (which is quite ironic considering the Dream runs on an open source software platform). Still, these flaws aren’t exactly uncommon for HTC devices but we sincerely hope that this changes soon.
In closing, there are a lot of things we like about the Dream and there are some things that we dislike. Maybe we’re way too picky, but we still really like the HTC Dream; it’s just not the greatest. Bottom line: take it for a spin before you buy it. 50% of you will love it and 50% of you won’t, but there is no doubt you will at least enjoy the experience.
Can some one HELP I want to get a g1 t mobile to work on rogers net work
What’s wrong with 3 years if you are going to use the phone and services anyways? The plans are so flexible you can change your phone or add features often without cost. In fact, Rogers has set the standard for mobile telecommunications in Canada. To put it simply, just because you aren’t treated kindly by Rogers Customer Service and you are unable to get a huge discount on the bill you conveniently can’t afford doesn’t mean the company sucks. If you have such a big issue, I offer you the following phrase of encouragement: PAY AS YOU GO. That should satisfy your thrifty nature and supposition that you deserve more for less money. You pay for what you get, period.
just wondering what the other missing features were. i know about the keyboard, super pissed, and i know about the voice search. i am trying to find out what else rogers has stolen from me so i can work at getting them back. i’ve thought about just flashing other firmware but then i may loose something?
@rob
The only thing you lose is your 1 year (no water, no physical damage) manufacturers warranty.
Got the Dream at Costco ($149 – $100 costco rebate). Love it in general – had a few problems:
IMAP Mail: would have been nice if Rogers had told me that the outgoing smtp server has to be smtp.rogerswirelessdata.com for any IMAP account. (Found it somewhere on an iPhone thread). No SSL, no login required.
Mail II: Use K9; the built-in android client sucks.
Exchange: sync with Exchange worked flawlessly and easily. Enter server info and Presto! – connection.
Sync: In my case I want Exchange Email but not contacts or calendar from work. I do, however want a separate IMAP account (home) and my home contacts and calendar. Although the manual says htcsync.exe is on the SD card, it doesn’t appear to be. I ended up using Companionlink. While it works, it has to do so using gmail. I don’t like that. Doesn’t anyone make an “activesync” clone for android? I don’t need real-time updates, just a two-way USB connected sync like my old and sucky WinMo machine….
Usability: love the trackball; screen sensitivity to touch is a bit high, could use a “tone down” for klutzy people like me. QWERTY keypad is fine – I have small hands and have no problems with it. Screen is brilliantly clean and sharp. Built-in YouTube works very well, as does all browsing. Maps and GPS works well, though the compass seemed a bit off….SkyMaps is fun though.
SD card: a gripe here. It’s been “mounted” but is now inaccessible. Shows that it wants to be “unmounted” and can be “formatted”, but still….zippo. Have power-cycled to no avail. May try again with SD card out and then reinsert.
Contact notes: a gripe here, too….full notes show up on gmail in the contact field (I keep a lot of client notes), but only about 10 lines on the Dream. Not sure what the solution to this might be, if any.
Power consumption: seems a bit high, but it’s also running a lot of stuff. I’ve added a little app called 3G Watchdog to pay attention to my usage – it’s a sweet one. Will see if power consumption is an issue.
Physical fit and finish: feels great in the hand. I suspect the two tabs (one for the SD card and one for the USB connector) will disappear shortly – they seem very flimsy indeed. The back is a pain to remove to get at the battery and feels like it’s going to break (it is actually quite flexible though, so we’ll see).
Tip: I like a holster for my phone. I found a nice Roots one for about $20, remove the snap-on top and it’s great. Holds very snugly and is easy to remove/reinsert.
Really big gripe (not really about the Dream or Android though): why the heck does no-one make a calendar app that allows me to place my Exchange-synced calendar and my home-synced calendar in SEPARATE databases, but viewable side-by-side? I cannot possibly be the only person who wants this!
Anyhoo – so far, so good…will report back to BGR on anthing further.
SD card mounting issue: not intuitive, but easy to do (sigh). USB-attach the Dream, Pull down the notification bar from the top and find USB-connected. Tap it and choose “mount”. Done. Shows up as a drive on the PC. Load whatever files you want (in my case it was some Word Docs). Unmount the drive the same way. SD card now accessible to internal browser (”Quickoffice”) for Office files.
It does seem like the most likely reason that the soft keyboard was removed from the HTC Dream was to differentiate it from the HTC Magic. I was quite dissapointed when I discovered the lack of a soft keyboard. Quite annoying when you just need to type something quickly.
Thankfully, there is an alternative. After looking around, I discovered the “htc_ime” keyboard application. All you need to do is install the application loader through the Android Market and copy the application to the root of the SD memory card. Then launch the application and it’ll see the keyboard application. Install it and voila.. you have a soft keyboard that’s almost identical to the one that comes with the original Cupcake release.
Link to file: http://www.droiddeveloper.com/hrbuilds/htc_ime.zip
Hope this helps. Worked great for me!
Uhh Rogers sucks? What? I like Rogers, I wouldn’t go with any other carrier. Fact is all Canadians bitch about their cell providers, doesn’t mean that Rogers sucks.
@ Don,
Thank you for the info about the exchange client… I was looking for days for someone to review that. I had a couple questions for you, or anyone else that uses the exchange client on this phone.
1. How quick is it to receive an email? Does it arrive before, at the same time, or after your computer receives it?
2. Can you send HTML emails, or just plain text like the bberry?
3. When you send an email on the device, does that email appear in the ’sent items’ folder on your outlook?
4. Do emails in subfolders in outlook appear on the device? There has been problems with bberries that I’ve seen in this respect. They show the folders, but not the emails in them.
Thanks in advance for your help! I will be getting this phone tomorrow if it works so well using Exchange.
@jrblackyear: Yeah, that’s why I get unlimited text and unlimited data for 15$/mo. with my carrier. The rest is pay as you go-style, just the way I want my phone to be.
Rogers would never understand this concept, and it’s part of why they suck.
I got my HTC Dream from Rogers here in Canada as well.
Question: I can’t seem to access our companies Lotus iNotes – web mail, nor our Microsoft Office Sharepoing Services (MOSS 2007) site.
I’ve tried generic browser, opera, cocobrowser, stell – all give me an Authorized Access error 401.2 – Unauthrozied access is denied due to server configuration. Internet Information Services (IIS)
I do know Lotus came out with an iPhone app – maybe need to wait for an Android version.
Also i was sent this link on browsers supported by MOSS – none are on Android…
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526.aspx
Any ideas around this?
Otherwise I love the keyboard – and can’t envision all typing simply on a touch screen…
Also need access to Document to Go – which is not available to Rogers customers b/c its a paid app…
@Saeed
Exchange email update is virtually immediate – it’s a race between the server and the handheld as to which gets it first. Just tested HTC vs WinMo (old phone) and within seconds all three had the email.
No idea on the HTML email – I just send/reply as they come. Um – just checked – message format is set to HTML, so must be OK!!
Sent email shows up in Sent Items in Exchange virtually immediately.
I see subfolders, but not items in them – not sure why that might be and don’t see a setting that picks that up. My WinMo phone only grabs Inbox as well.
@Don
Thank you for the information. I ended up caving and getting the Dream and it works amazingly on exchange. I am having one problem that I haven’t been able to resolve and that is that I get a notification that says ‘an error has occurred on the computer that is running the exchange server’. This happens when it is syncing contacts and once I get that message, it will no longer sync contacts to or from the device. I still get push email and calendar though. If anyone has ideas that would be appreciated. If I get the issue resolved I’ll post the solution.
I really want to keep this phone. I’ll migrate my 500+ personal contacts to google if I have to in order to get it to work so we’ll see.
Thanks again for the info Don.
Oh! I almost forgot, if you go to the subfolders and click menu>refresh, you’ll get the emails in those folders. It doesn’t push it to those folders unfortunately which means there are a couple of Rules that I had to delete. But at least you get the emails if you choose to have them.
@Saeed
As I run both Exchange (work) and Outlook (home) I have a somewhat different setup: I sync Exchange email only. Then I sync separately my home (POP3/IMAP4) email, contacts and calendar via Companionlink.
I have a couple of gripes about this, though. First is that I can only do so through Google’s gmail calendar and contacts (The email syncs through K9 without problem.) I really don’t like Google holding my contacts and calendar info. Until last night I couldn’t find htcsync.exe, which I’ve now downloaded and will clear the phone and retry.
The second gripe – and it is a biggie for me, is that gmail’s contacts hold all of the data in my “notes” fields, but syncs only the first portion (maybe 512 chars?) of each. Some are extensive notes that I’ve now had to copy off to Word docs and stash on the SD card. This never happens with my WinMo setup. Also lots of duplicate tasks and calendar items. Sigh.
My thoughts are to return the phone to default, install htcsync.exe and see what it does without anything else (I’ll record all my other settings first!).
Good News Everyone!
Android finally in Canada, I can’t wait to get my hands on the Magic.
And nice Futurama reference.
@Don
I have the updated drivers for the HTC Dream that apparently go with htc.sync. If you’re having trouble getting it to work check out androidforums
i’m there under the username happyally
I also got the files from that forum i believe
I have had the HTC Dream for about 2 weeks now. The phone is good…I dare you to find some good accessories for it. C’mon, they don’t even give you a holster with it. Just a cheap pouch.
@runtime:
go to MSG digital in the states. price, delivery and selection pretty awesome. Look under T-Mo’s G1 Accessories (HTC)
http://www.msgdigital.com/accessorylist.asp?productid=46560
Although I don’t have this phone but a blackberry 8900, they have awesome selection and pricing is pretty awesome!
im having a problem that I hope someone can help me with. I installed the ringdroid which works amazing and I also installed….tone picker which I dont have a problem with either. what im having a problem with is I changed the “notification” tone to a different song and yet it still plays the same song that i chose in the first place..did I miss something that I should of done?…being as it may im not a phone genius so this is frusturating me very much!!! would be appreciated if someone could help me
Is the mini USB port a “Mini-USB Type B”?
Sorry I’m not really high tech kind of guy
After 8 hours of struggles with cell phone experts, I finally figured out how to get my Contacts from my Windows Mobile HTC Touch phone to my Gmail contacts. It was a breeze then to load them into the Android HTC Dream.
So far I am impressed, I can even use the keyboard with my two thumbs, not bad from a one finger typist. I’ll never get as fast as my grandkids.
Now I will have to see what app I can write for it myself (I have to learn some Android first) “Power to the People” as one commercial says.