We managed to sit down with HTC to go over their new flagship Windows Phone, the TITAN II landing soon on AT&T. The 4G LTE device sure caught a lot of us off-guard specifically due to the inclusion of a massive 16MP camera. The meeting was very productive as not only did we get to play with the phone more (always an exciting "geek moment") but we found out some other relevant information that we hope you folks will find interesting:
- The TITAN II is not replacing the TITAN. The plan is to sell both phones in the same market with the TITAN II augmenting AT&T's offerings to customers with different price points and features. In other words, the TITAN II is the high-end, premium version for customers who want that feature set. The TITAN will be a lower-priced offering for those who are okay with HSPA+, etc. It's an interesting and we think smart move for both HTC and AT&T.
- As we mentioned in the video test, the TITAN II features a secondary processor for the camera--we're a little fuzzy on the exact details but it explains why shooting at 16MP feels no different than shooting at 8MP, with zero lag
- We passed on the info about the SRS stutter bug as well as the microphone/sound issue that quite a few of you have reported. That info should get to their engineers for further investigation.
- No word on those docks for the Radar and Titan, in fact, it's probably best to forget those
- On HTC using but not always announcing Gorilla Glass--in short, they want some wiggle room in case of during production they switch to an alternative scratch-resistant screen due to cost or supply issues. What you need to know is that basically all high-end HTC phones have Gorilla Glass or its equivalent on board.
- The HTC TITAN II is an AT&T exclusive. No word on world-wide release though we can expect some announcements at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month in Barcelona--as HTC considers that to be one of their big events. Perhaps an international version of the TITAN II will be announced or something similar.
- The push for 4G LTE devices is driven a lot by AT&T wanting to get people off of their overloaded 3G network, so devices like the TITAN II and Lumia 900 are highly welcomed by the carrier
- Like Nokia, HTC doesn't seem keen on 32GB memory devices. Everyone is pushing for the cloud.
- The HTC TITAN is selling very well world-wide and they're very happy with its performance
And what about our second experience with the TITAN II? If HTC and AT&T are aiming for this to be a premium version of the TITAN we think they did a pretty good job as the new changes really give the device a more classy feel to it. The curved glass near the bottom is a really excellent engineering feat and the Super LCD on the TITAN II is even better than the TITAN I (better contrast, brighter). We're pretty excited about getting our hands on this as our daily driver--that LTE is quite the blast to use, especially when web browsing.
More pics after the break...
