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ATT Tilt / TyTn II vs iPhone 3g Comparison

Posted by Kristofer on July 20, 2008 – 6:24 pm  Share
closeThis post was published 1 year 4 months 3 days ago.
It\'s is possible that the information within this article is now out of date or updated.

I don’t know about you guys but personally I’m rather sick of hearing about the ‘wonderful’ iPhone 3g.(and I use the term wonderful loosely..) It’s everywhere you look, it’s the popular thing to talk about and I don’t quite get what it is about this phone that has everyone in such an uproar over?! The first iPhone didn’t come out that long ago, and the new iPhone doesn’t offer that many new features over the old one, sure it has 3G, but that should have been on the first gen phone honestly. I mean Apple got into bed with AT&T, a known 3G provider/carrier but yet the phone doesn’t support it?! That just doesn’t make much sense to me really… Anyway, so the iPhone 3g adds GPS right? No and Yes, and well sort of, the actual usability of the GPS is still in question, and from what I understand it doesn’t provide turn by turn navigation, so if you need or like that feature you’ll have to buy a second device just for navigation. At least for me GPS is mainly for getting directions to help you get where you are going, what good is it to know where you are if you don’t know where to go to get where you’re going?

Continue on to read the rest… it gets interesting!

So last week I made a blog entry over on my personal blog about what the Tilt can do that the iPhone can’t, it was just a little post, but I sent it to Doug for a laugh basically and he suggested I do a sort of comprehensive comparison for Tiltsite.. so that’s what I’ve got here today… I’ve got a big chart for you to check out listing basic specs and features of the Tilt / TyTn II and the iPhone 3G, most of it I did myself, but I did email the other staff and ask for input, Tyler added a bit of notes and no one else really responded…  Technically that’s not true, I can’t lie, I have to be honest, as I’m writing this entry I got an email from Vince who said:

“Doesn’t the AppStore constitute software for the iPhone?  Seems like that one is yes on both without having to jailbreak the phone.”

my reply was:

“What I mean is free software and user developed software.. the iPhone does not have that support or even allow it actually”

and then his reply was:

“There are lots of applications that are free on the AppStore ? You can’t directly install an application without itunes and drm though.  But there is tons of free stuff in the AppStore”.

and my reply was:

“Compare that paltry amount to the literally thousands or even tens of thousands of apps and games that are available for free, without drm, without having to have an itunes account that I can get on my Tilt.. there’s no comparison really there at all”

and I guess that was the end of the conversation as I haven’t heard a response back… but seriously though you can get all kinds of free software, be it apps, games whatever for the Tilt, and of course there’s countless companies that make quality software for it as well that can be purchased cheaply

but, (not meaning to start a fight or anything) I did visit Vinces’ blog and it appears he’s an iPhone / Mac owner, so it shouldn’t surprise me that he’s defending it this way should it?! ;)

and I just got an email from Patrick as well mentioning that the Tilt doesn’t require unlimited data/texting plan like the iPhone does…

ok, so here’s the nice little chart I made up, check it out, print it out, post it on your wall, give it away to the iPhone owners you know if you wish, but enjoy it! You can click on it to get a better, large view of course!

tilt-iphone

and as always comments, flames etc are always welcome, let the fun begin!

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  • Juris
    Ok, sorry sir, but your knowledge about hardware is a 0%. i a chart you did not say anything about iPhone having like 300% more powerful GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) with full OpenGL ES support? and it's multi-stream CPU ? about iPhone having smaller pixels on it's screen? i have used Windows Mobile pocket PC for about 1 and a half year. and now i got iPhone. and i am a game programmer, engine developer for Windows. and now for iPhone too. I will tell you, there will NOT be a device that will match iPhone Power, multi-touch screen, and raw power for a long time and years to come. all aps i have had for my WM PocketPC were nothing compared to iPhone apps. most WM apps are just very bad ports. Tytn 2 in no where close to iPhone with it's raw processing power, quality software and Accelerometer...
  • Tim
    Best article/review/comparison, although your chart sounded kind of biased but everything I wanted to say about it has already been said. Especially all the people who said educated things made me happy. None of that 12 year old bs people do.
  • Ralph
    I wouldn't buy the iPhone even though it is a much better phone. I am the anti apple fanboy. Therefore I use Vista which sucks and I won't use anything by Apple. Also I drive a Geo because I won't drive the nicer Mercedes-Benz because I don't like the Mercedes fanboys. It seems like every time a company makes a great product like the Apple or Mercedes products they get fanboys so I'll always have to use junk. I also spend a lot of time trying to justify why the Geo Prism is better then the Mercedes SLK 320.

    Number one: They both have engines. :( Oh Well...
    Number two: The geo is slower so I'm not as likely to get a ticket.
  • vader
    And by the by Alex: the tilt is a ppc(wm pro.) not a

    smart phone(wm std), learn the difference. If you are

    going to trash a product at least hae the sense to do

    basic research.
  • vader
    Alex: Closed product for a closed(read small) mind.
  • Alex
    The tilt and all the other windows mobile smartphones suck complete ass.
  • The Samsung Omnia looks like it has the best of both worlds... The form factor and built in memory of the iphone (8 or 16GB versions).. finger friendly touch screen. Fantastic movie playing drivers (its DIXV certified!). At the same time it has an aditional microsd cards giving a maximum of 32 gb of storage at any one time!) runs wm6.1 so your tilt apps and free software should work as well.

    Now if only t-mobile could call me back about the upgrade they promised me!!!!
  • bingbangbong
    Very funny article. The first thing you should note is that listing the specs. of a phone gives very little indication of how good it is. The second thing you should note is that it is easy to choose which items appear or are omitted from the list.

    In terms of spec, neither phone is anywhere near the best. Willcom D4 blows them out of the water. In terms of usability, implementation of features, general stability, the iphone wins easily. The tilt is a lot fatter, making it more difficult to carry around without a huge bulge in your pocket (wink wink), is no where near on par for speed of applications, video/audio playback/build quality. For the feautres most people are looking for, the iphone wins. Large built in memory, nice build, large screen, easy to use/add apps etc.

    The tilt is a nice phone, more of a PDA than the iPhone, has some nice features that don't really appeal to the mass audience, lacks usability and stability but has customization and an open system.

    However, for most people the iphone is clearly the better choice.

    Seriously, again, the listing of specs. (consisting of items chosen by you of course) is extremely funny. About as amateur a comparison as can be made.

    You could put another sign on the wall. IMPLEMENTATION OF FEATURES IS KEY.

    p.s. Nice cheeky inclusion of 32gb memory cards. VERY objective......
  • Tiltuser
    I've had a tilt for 2 months after having Blackberries for 3 years, and as much as I know how to tweak a phone, I've been very frustrated with the usability of the Tilt. I'm on number two now and in another week (once the Rom update doesn't work again) I'll be on my third one. It's so sluggish out of the box that simple calendar updates cause load time issues. In comparison to my old Blackberry 8830, well, I can't even begin to compare. Now my partner has the new Iphone and he can do the same task that I do and make 3 phone calls in the same time I do one task and 1 phone call. I know the IPhone is not a blackberry, but for overall usability, I'm sad to say it best the Tilt.
  • ADR
    No, the Tmobile Wing is not similar in many ways to the Tilt. In fact, Tmobile will be introducing the Tilt at the end of Q3 or in Q4 as one of the 3G phones.

    Neither phone is a good consumer phone. The Tilt is mostly an enthusiast's phone. One needs to add applications and configure the phone to work to one's own preferences. As the phone comes from AT&T, the typical consumer will have difficulties obtaining obtaining as much value as with the iphone 3G.

    However, in the hands of an enthusiast, it is a far superior phone to the iphone. Its interface can be changed ad infinitum (and there are many interfaces one can buy and install) and there are many applications that create a far more usuable phone than the iphone in all elements. In terms of browsers, one would not be limited to Safari; there are at least 3 - 4 browers that can provide a similar experience: Opera Mini 4.1, Opera mobile 9.5 beta 1, Skyfire (closed beta), Iris etc, etc...The same with podcasts, music and other uses. The Tilt is also a superior business device with min-Office applications and a great Blackberry email application. The phone can also emulate the blackberry interface (the push and cancel buttons are there).

    In addition, the bluetooth implementation as well as the GPS are better than those of the iphone. Also, having compared these two phones, sound during calling is superior in the Tilt.
  • Alex... the wing is a much slower machine... 200mhz processor, with half the memory and and running older software to the tilt. I think its only 2g as well. I had a Hermes (the predecessor to the tilt) and the tilt totally blows it away in terms of performance.

    So the wing is not really a fair comparator for the tilt.

    The iPhone is very nice in a lot of ways... obviously the UI. And some of the apps are quite innovative. the new version of Opera now rivals safari and so there's not a lot of things that the iphone does that the tilt can't do as well. Of course 3rd party apps may be needed... but then the iphone needs 3rd party apps to do a lot of what the tilt can do.

    both are viable platforms.. with strengths and weaknesses. Despite what the apple marketting people may claim many of those 'new revolutionary features' are pretty old hat.
  • Alex
    I had the tmobile wing which is pretty similar to the tilt and it was a pretty frustrating experience. It took 10 seconds for the screen to rotate when I slid out the keyboard. The UI is confusing and slow, and I just didn't like using my phone. I bought the iPhone 3g a couple of weeks ago and its amazing. The UI is great the media and web experience is great. I have 3 full homescreens with amazing apps. I just love using the iphone alot more than my old wing.
  • Justin
    Hi i love your blog and i was womndering though what one is cheaper when compared to phone planes
  • on the subject of iPhone vs iPhone 3g, I've just posted my sites take on it, Tom, one of my staff, owns both iPhones and has taken a comparative look at both phones and his reaction is that it really isn't worth the upgrade, and he's an Apple/iPhone fan. You can read the entire thing here: http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/index.php?option...
  • I just got my Tilt on Friday and am really enjoying the discussion here. I was looking for an international phone from which I could do business (as in MS Office apps), voice dial, and blogging as needed without shlepping along my laptop everywhere--and I wanted to be iPhone countercultural. I have small hands and fingers, so I can actually use the WM6 interface via touch, and I love the fact that the phone shows my appointment calendar on the today screen. HATE, however, the tiny clock, but WM6 got sluggish when I installed the HTC home screen, so I'm looking for a better solution. When it comes to apps etc., I'm cheap, so I'm looking around the freeware right now, but I did break down (despite the Starbucks 2 hours a day thing) and add the $30 data plan, also to get the mail-in rebate. We'll see how long I'm going to keep that.
  • Crazysamz
    @Jon- I'm not an apple fanboy. Nor am I even a fan of apple in the slightest bit, I own the 3g iphone and I still hate apple. (always will). I don't care for stereo bluetooth, as I use my zune for music, and my stereo bluetooth headphones rarely get used (some jabras) because they are Waay too big to use on a daily basis. Sling box, on the other hand, is coming to the iphone. I can't wait for it , even though I don't have a slingbox (I own a locationfree player, which is meant for winmo and psp and laptops, I used it on my tilt). But the tilt sucks for any video (you know why), so I don't see how the tilt with slingbox is any good (and I had my tilt with locatoinfree player, which is the same as slingbox but by sony, and it wasn't too great)
  • Jon
    if you are a snobby, trendy, prius-driving apple lover then in your little world the iphone is the greatest thing since you got your cute macbook, but until the hype-phone has stereo bluetooth, and can use SLING BOX, it's not even in the same ballpark at the tilt.
  • Crazysamz
    @ADR- I understand how you say the tilt isn't exactly a consumer device, and i too haven't needed to reset it too often (it's stable, but it's slow).

    Anyways, you said jailbreaking wasn't the greatest thing to do??? It's pretty much the same thing as flashing roms from xda-developers or some other website. It gives you advantages, and when you need to sell it, you can restore it to the original firmware and/or if you have to get it fixed for a warranty thing, just restore it in itunes/on a tilt re-flash the AT&T rom. only problem is this- if your usb post on your tilt or your sync port on your iphone were to break, you would be SCREWED! (and I've heard one guy on xda-developers flashed his tilt via a microsd card, and he bricked it, because your not supposed to for some reason??)
  • ADR
    Nino,

    I agree with you that the Tilt as sold as not easily usable by consumers.

    On the other hand, although I do run a lot of programs, I have to tell you my Tilt is remarkably stable. I do not have to reboot for weeks and when I reboot it is when I have done something silly or installed a program that I should not have installed. In fact, for a WinMo device, it is amazingly stable.

    Again, the Tilt is not a "consumer-friendly" smartphone because neither HTC nor AT&T designed it to be. This was not clever, but I guess that AT&T wanted to preserve the consumer base for the iPhone.

    For some here who want to "jailbreak" the iPhone. Why bother? if you "jailbreak" it, the likelihood is that you are not going to get any updates from Apple and you will likely invalidate warrantees and the possibility of reselling the item. If you want customizable phones, these abound. Beyond the WinMo phones of today, we will soon have open Symbian and open Android phones that will have open, customizable platforms for which no "jailbreak" will be required and which, at minimum, would allow voice dialing and have decent bluetooth implementations!!!
  • Nino
    Well I own both. I have purchased 5 iPhones and 2 Tilt's.

    I originally bought the 2 iPhones (one for wife). They were too basic (no copy paste, etc) and sold both of them and then bought the two Tilt's.

    The Tilt's were being rebooted several times a day. There sluggish, crash prone and SLOW!!!. The default dialer a joke and yes I installed the HTC black one which made it better. But the Tilt factory spec without any hacks is a Joke. A cell phone should not HAVE to be hacked, customized to be useful.

    Any other WinMO device is better than the Tilt. Having said that, the Tilt hardware it the best, but as a package it sucks.

    So we just bought the iPhone 3G (one for wife) and we love them. I will sell the two Tilt's and buy myself an Blackjack III since it will have touch screen and the best apps (especially now... iPhone!) are touch screen rather than standard screen.

    WinMO was the Best until the iPhone came out. Then again I hate Apple and their, our way is the best way. I hate the way the iPhone is so limited and controlled!

    I hope Android will join with HTC and be the ruler of all. That or Maybe WinMO 7 will copy the iPhone OS.
  • @JJ: But see you keep coming back to TiltSite because you miss us! LOL

    The iPhone is a great phone with very loyal followers. That much is for sure. For me, I got to have a keyboard. Granted the iPhone has an intuitive interface. But lets be honest, how many iPhone guys would kill for keyboard as nice as the Tilts? Keep in mind the Touch Pro's keyboard looks amazing!
  • ADR
    A lot of heated discussions here but one fact remains predominant: the Tilt is really directed towards power users and business persons. The iPhone is a consumer product with limited features (even as a consumer product if fails without a usable turn-by-turn GPS program and no video recording). For crying out loud, the iPhone does not even have voice dialing!!!! As for business, who wants a phone that does not have a Powerpoint viewer and cannot edit text passably well?

    But at the end, what determines the audience of a particular phone is the manufacturer (and, to some degree, the supplier). Both HTC and AT&T have done a lousy job with the Tilt. For voice dialing, one needs to buy and install Microsoft Voice Command; for photo viewing, a much better application (I have the Resco Photo Viewer that has most of the functions of the iPhone); for podcasts and news, one needs Newsbreak by Ilium; for IP telephone, Skype; for browsing, at least Opera Mini 4.1 should be installed (Skyfire, which is in beta is coming on nicely but it is not ready yet for primetime); for access to YouTube and other videos, VTap by Veveo, and so on [Telenav and Mobic are offered as options by AT&T]. HTC could have provide all these in a nicely integrated user interface and have made the Tilt a more consumer-friendly device. As is, it is a "power-user" uber-phone, which, when fully configured is a far better tool for our lives than the iPhone would ever be [and let's not talk here about the many customization options such as Kaizer tweaks, etc, etc that are impossible for the iPhone].

    The iPhone follows Apple tradition of producing "closed", "consumer-oriented" products (from computers onwards) that are not and are not supposed to be "power-user" friendly.

    It is amazing, however, how Apple can mobilize the press for a product that is in many ways inferior to what is out there. I give them kudos for their marketing expertise.
  • boorishid
    @helix Acually i started out with the 40 dollar pda plan! I called att to ask some questions about the data plan and what i would get charged for and what was free. I told the lady i was using a tilt. I acually just had some questions about messaging to make sure i wasnt getting charged for IM or anything.

    Anyways the lady offred to cut me down to the 15 dollar plan knowing what device i had so i said sure. I really dont know jack about these plans but when someone offred to save me a few bucks a month im going to take it. If they tell me i need to go back to the 40 dollar plan whatever but i dont think they could charge my data usage i was just listening to an att reps advice on the phone.
  • helixtimestwo
    @boorish

    >what is the data plan with the iphone? Why cant you use the same one thats used for the tilt? There both 3g phones? Is this att’s rediculous way of ripping apple users? How much is an iphone plan my tilt plan is unlimited 3g for 15 a month, hell my texting cost more.

    The iphone data plan is $30/mo. It is the same price for the tilt data plan. The $15 data plan is for handset phones only, although in your case it looked like someone goofed...

    just fyi -- network ops ppl do sweeps, so don't be suprised if you are somehow contacted by blue that you are on the wrong media plan with the phone you are using and must switch to a pda personal plan or they'll bust you down to payperuse data
  • JJ
    ok i sold my tilt for an iphone and here are my thoughts

    tilt.....much more of a pain in my pocket as far as size goes..iphone much better
    tilit much funner to costomize..BUT..once i jailbreak iphone will be better...but not quite as good
    music and video are much much better on iphone not even close even with s2p and all the video apps i had on my tilt...its still just too small to watch on
    iphone keyboard takes getting used to but once you do it is very very good...using itunes is ok...however it does backup my iphone no matter what every time i plug it in wich is good...the normal stuff is all much better like dialing a number email and sms...i know the tilt can do all that stuff well but iphone makes it feel like less of a task...bottom line is that i chose the iphone 3g cuz it fits better in my pocket,can be jailbroken and messed around with and cuz it is fast and easy to use..having iphone now makes the tilt feel old and slugish
  • Jericho
    Another point, I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about AT&T's 3G coverage (known non-3G areas withstanding). Has it occurred to anyone that it could be the iPhone's radio contributing to that? Another point for the Tilt: upgradeable radio firmware. Of course, only if you have the fortitude to flash your phone. But hey, if iPhone users are willing to jailbreak their devices, I thought it worth a mention. :)
  • @ Jericho...

    Yeah, I thought about that and then I forgot actually..
  • fight-fight-fight-fight...

    anyway...

    @Crazysamz

    again with the geotagging.. we're talking about the TyTnII here that included this, I could've swore I covered that already.. and to implement it on the tilt is an easy as pushing a couple buttons, my kids could do it..


    @iPhoneSucks: Do you know what site you are on? Did you notice the domain name itself? It says TILTSITE.COM it's doesn't say anything about the HTC Touch.. Oh and I feel it's perfectly fine to compare 'last years tech' to the new iPhone, it just proves that newer still isn't better..

    and as for the storage card issue, I was listing 'basic specs' as it says in the chart.. if you go anywhere and read about the Tilt/TytnII it says it can handle up to 32gb microSD card...

    but if you want to argue the storage point... the iPhone maxes out at 16gb right? well y'know what my case has slots for storage of two memory cards, so if I have three 8 gb cards that's 24 gigs of storage space I'm carrying around with me.. sure it's on separate cards, but why not, I can put my music on one, movies on another and business on the last card, that works very well at separating things and making it easier to keep work separate from pleasure....


    and don't say that would be a pain to do that way, it makes my life easier keeping things separate actually, so yeah I've got more storage than an iPhone already because that's how I roll...

    of course though i could further argue that I could go and buy 10 or 1000 8 gig cards
  • Jericho
    Missing from the chart: no background processing for apps on the iPhone.
    Example: download email + GPS navigation + take a phone call.
  • Crazysamz
    alright so you found a cheaper 32gb card then the one I found on a quick google product search. Whoo-hoo. it doesn't matter, the argument is still stupid if the product doesn't even exist yet. If I wanted a 32gb tilt TODAY, can I get one?? NO.

    Also, I KNOW the tilt is the AT&T re branded TyTn II/8925/Kaiser/Tilt (WAY too many names for one device), I owned one. And regardless of that, does the tilt come in-box with geotagging images?? Even with a non-approved rom, or a non approved tweak, gps geotagging isn't something the average user will know how to implement.
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