The AT & T Tilt

The AT & T Tilt hit the ground running last month, and guess what? – It tilts. Quite apart from the obvious feature, the Tilt offers a huge range of wireless options: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0, UMTS/HSDPA, and GPS.

The smart phone supports a number of Bluetooth profiles, including those for wireless headsets, hands-free kits, dial-up networking, and A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets. It has built-in Wi-Fi for websurfing, or you can use the 3G support to get data speeds of around 400Kbps to 700Kbps (with the potential to hit up to 2Mbps) using AT&T’s network. In addition, you’ll be able to access UMTS/HSDPA networks in Europe and Asia. Fortunately, the Tilt includes a “Wireless Manager” to control all these options.

A full “querty” keyboard, email, messaging, Microsoft Direct Push and Windows Mobile6 demonstrate that this is another smart phone more aimed at the business market. At over 6 ounces and measuring more than 4 x 2 inches, the Tilt is not exactly compact. But, it is so well designed that size is hardly an issue.

The Tilt is well built, solidly constructed and feels good. This is due in part to the size. People with larger hands tend to find the miniature phones uncomfortable, but I really liked the way this one felt. The tilt feature makes it appear more like a mini PDA, but don’t let that fool you, this is first and foremost a communication device. I like it a lot and found it very handy to use. And, of course, you won’t have the Apple police knocking on your door at midnight if you choose to install some third party software.