Available starting February 13, the Inspire operates on the carrier’s HSPA+ network (now recognized as 4G), which AT&T says can provide data speeds up to 4X faster than its 3G network. Unfortunately, we didn’t experience anything close to that during our test period but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss the Inspire 4G. The HTC Inspire 4G ($99.99) is a big, powerful and affordably priced Android cell phone for AT&T, and it can stand up well against Apple’s iPhone. Comparable in many ways to Verizon’s popular Motorola Droid X, this high-quality super-phone is loaded with useful apps and makes a good big-screen theater for videos.
Going to carry around a 4.3-inch smart phone, it had better feel solid. And the Inspire 4G delivers, with a unibody aluminum design that feels sturdy but measures a slim 0.46 inches thick. Still, 4.3-inch phones aren’t for everyone. Although this 5.8-ounce handset weighs less than Sprint’s EVO 4G (6 ounces), it’s still pretty hefty. The front of the device, rimmed in black, sports the 4.3-inch Super LCD display (800 x 480 pixels). This screen looks sharp and bright, but viewing angles are narrow compared to Super AMOLED panels and Apple’s Retina display.
The back of the Inspire 4G sports a protruding 8-MP camera lens, dual-LED flash, and speaker (which supports Dolby Mobile and SRS Wow sound). In addition, you’ll find two charcoal panels. The battery cover on the side was more difficult to pry off and attach than we’d prefer. The other panel, which hides the microSD card and SIM card, slid down fairly easily. A microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone jack line of the bottom of the Inspire 4G. What you don’t get (unlike the Evo 4G) is a front-facing camera for video chats, a kickstand, or HDMI output. For this price, we can live with those omissions.
The Inspire 4G is an Android 2.2.1 phone with a second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8255 1Ghz processor. Performance is impeccable; the phone feels fast, and it performed very well on our range of Android benchmarks. HTC and AT&T have added a lot of software to this phone. Is it bloatware? You can’t delete any of it, but a lot of it is useful. AT&T provides the Asphalt 5 driving game, FamilyMap geo-fencing, a 2D barcode scanner, AT&T Navigator for GPS directions, Blockbuster for movie downloads, the Kobo e-reader, a Live TV streaming app from MobiTV, an account management app and a yellow pages app.
The Inspire 4G packs a 1-GHz Snapdragon processor, 768MB of RAM, and 4GB of ROM. The device ships with an 8GB microSD Card, and it accepts up to 32GB. Although this is the first AT&T smart phone to tap into the carrier’s HSPA+ network, the Inspire 4G’s data performance didn’t exactly inspire. When combined with Ethernet or fiber backhaul, AT&T told us that speeds up to 6 Mbps are possible.
Sadly, the Inspire 4G packs a relatively low-capacity 1230 mAh battery, compared to 1500 mAh for the Evo 4G. So we weren’t surprised when this smart phone lasted only 4 hours and 48 minutes in our battery test. (This test involves surfing the web over 3G/4G with the screen on 40-percent brightness.) So even if you assume the true runtime is 5:06, that’s 22 minutes shorter than the Android category average, and well behind other 4.3-inch phones such as the Evo 4G (5:48) and Motorola Droid X (7:42). In general, we were satisfied with the battery life. With moderate use, we were able to get a full day out of a single charge.
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