Geek Review: T-Mobile Comet (Huawei IDEOS)

With a new job, which I start next week, I was finally able to get back on a mobile contract with a proper mobile device.  It’s kind of ironic­—AT&T; declined to give me a 2-year contract (because of the bankruptcy), but T-Mobile did provide one, only to now be potentially acquired by AT&T. Guess AT&T got my account after all.

That aside, I’ve been looking to go back to an Android device since I had the chance to play around with Verizon’s Droid 2 last year. T-Mobile has a few free ones online with a new two-year contract, but none of them as powerful or versatile as the Droid series, so I was not expecting much.  Once you’ve been spoiled by the Droid 2, Incredible, or the new Thunderbolt, everything else is just awful.

I did, however, settle on T-Mobile’s Comet (a.k.a. the Huawei IDEOS), quite possibly the smallest Android device I’ve seen. Following is the review I posted on T-Mobile’s site, along with some updates since the review was posted.

This is a good entry-level Android device, but it you’ve already been spoiled by Motorola’s Droid/2/X/Incredible or Samsung’s Galaxy with beefy 1GHz processors, auto-focus/flash cameras, tons of RAM, and HD video, this is not your phone. The processor is half the speed, the RAM is significantly less, the screen is QVGA (240p, but still very readable) versus the 480p HD screens on the bigger devices, and the responsiveness is significantly slower with frequent delays and/or stalls. Many camera-based applications supported on the more powerful devices like Google Goggles, QIK, UStream Producer, etc., are not supported on this device (Microsoft Tag, however, *is* supported, so you’re not totally out of luck). You will also need to convert any video down to iPod (320×240) format if you want to be able to watch it without glitches (most podcast video is being released in 640×480 or higher nowadays, which this phone will not play–I tried). The small screen resolution will also complicate some Android apps designed for the larger screens; they don’t always scale correctly.

Those are the negatives, but this phone has a lot of positives as well.

The device is extraordinarily compact compared to other Android devices on the market; that’s the Comet’s biggest selling point. The screen is small, meaning the touch keyboard is also tiny, but it’s extraordinarily dead-on touch-accurate; I’ve had no issues using the tiny keyboard and rarely make touch errors even with my long fingers holding this itty-bitty thing. You *do* want to be careful holding the phone in vertical profile that you’re not accidentally resting a finger on the on/off/screen key on the top left or you will find yourself getting frustrated when you unwittingly keep dimming the screen in the middle of something (it doesn’t take much of a push on that key). The built-in speaker is also surprisingly powerful and provides good quality sound for speakerphone use and listening to audio podcasts with Google Listen or another podcasting application (I recommend Google Listen and sticking with audio podcasts because of the aforementioned limitation on video resolution); however, the device’s built-in FM radio only allows listening through headphones as it uses the headphone wire as an FM antenna (it’s a 3.5mm three-contact plug, so your iPhone/BlackBerry’s stereo headset should work just fine for listening and making/taking calls). The device does include Wi-Fi and it works decently with my Apple Airport Extreme with WPA2 encryption. Skype also works over wi-fi (and only wi-fi) on this device without any apparent T-mobile restrictions except for not being able to use it over 3G (that restriction is universal to all the carriers except Verizon, which only lets you use Skype over 3G and not Wi-Fi, and you probably wouldn’t want to try it over 3G anyway).

The device’s physical features are kept to a minimum: Volume keys, power/screen dim, call/hang-up keys (many wonder why on an Android device, but it’s actually nice to be able to *feel* keys when you don’t want to have to use the screen to dial or hang up), and a big center button with surrounding four-way keypad-ring (the big center button only really works to bring up the screen and snap camera pics; they really could have taken better advantage of this button for other things).

Overall, this is a great starter device for those who want Android in a smaller, less expensive package and don’t need all the more advanced bells and whistles; but if you’re looking for a device that really does it all (including visual searches like Google Goggles, barcode snapping other than MS Tag or small QR codes, and best-of-class responsiveness), you really should invest in one of the higher-end devices like Droid or Galaxy.

---

Some new things since I wrote the initial review:

• QRCode, DataMatrix, and UPC scanning using AT&T;’s new barcode scanning application seems to work fairly well in addition to Microsoft Tag.
• The FM radio stops working and refuses to turn on if you use Wi-Fi; you have to shut down wi-fi and restart the device in order to get the FM radio working again. I also found that you can listen to the FM radio thru the built-in speaker, but the headset still has to be connected for use as an antenna.
• Voice searching and voice commands work just about as well as it does with the more powerful devices.  I used it to search for Foursquare locations with a good deal of success. You really need to have 3G coverage rather than 2G/EDGE as it appears that Android uploads your voice to the internet to do the interpretation “in the cloud.”
• Some additional applications that will not work with the Comet/IDEOS: Firefox Mobile (however, Opera Mobile and Opera Mini run flawlessly and quickly—I recommend the Mini version as it provides RSS reading support not apparently provided by the full Mobile app), Square credit card processing app (so much for being able to use the reader I got from ’em), Skyfire web browser, Adobe Flash, pretty much any app that incorporates the need for a higher-resolution/autofocus camera such as the USAA banking application or banking applications that have a “deposit by snapshot” feature.
• The best way to find out if the app you want to install will work with the Comet, use the web-based Android Market (http://market.android.com). Look for the app you want to install, and when you click the “INSTALL” button it will ask you which device you want to install to. If the Comet is grayed out or otherwise not selectable, then the app is not designed to function on it.  If you use the bulit-in Market app, an application that isn’t compatible with the Comet will simply “not be found” if you search for it in the Market.