I bought my HTC handset in E-Hub(an affiliate with Complink) Eastwood City just last few weeks. It's SRP is around P21k but I got it for only P14k(P13,990 to be exact). I found this out when I was browsing the web and somehow ended up in Complink's website. That is why I rushed to their store thinking that it would go out-of-stock in a few days. My old XDA2 Mini's battery is already showing signs of deterioration and my wife needs a new phone since her Nokia handset is already giving up on her. If I will buy the Viva then my wife will inherit my XDA2 Mini which is a perfect replacement according to her.
The sales guy also could'nt believe it. He even called their main office just to verify if the current price is valid. I also couldn’t believe that it was sold 50% off. It was like selling a second hand phone. They said that it was HTC’s move to slash the price. It was the only HTC item that was on sale at that time. It will cost P15k when purchased by credit card and i thought that the extra P1k can already be spent on a 4GB of flash drive at CDR King so I decided to purchase it on Cash. I borrowed money from my friend and promised to pay him up when the midyear bonus arrives. He agreed and gave me the cash that I need to purchase the Viva.
But before purchasing it, I made some Googleing first since the price made me suspicious that there might be a catch or some sort of bad reviews about it. After a day of research I couldn’t find any drawbacks that would hinder me from doing my usual tasks upon using the device. Most of the reviews came from India which the reviewer states that this device is made for developing country since this is much cheaper than it's mightier siblings. It’s already running on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional which means that it already has built-in MS Office Mobile which was one of my major requirement. I always do Financial and mathematical calculations using Excel and view office documenrts using Word and PowerPoint. I also like to read e-books using Pocket Acrobat Reader, Repligo, and TomeRaider. It should also able to play MP3s since i plan to use it as a substitute for my ipod nano when its not around.
By the time I bought it I immediately given it a test drive. The touchFlo interface is seamless and fast. The way it was designed for me is user friendly and I have no trouble using it. I turned-on the Wi-fi using the Comm Manager and looked for the nearest hotspot. It takes a little while to load the built-in Opera browser but once you're in everything seems to function okay. It has a Youtube program to directly link you to the site and view videos immediately. The bluetooth function was also tested by connecting the phone with my Cardo Bluetooth headset. The text message function in touch flo is also superb with the iPhone like scrolling. The phone is a bare since applications are not yet installed. I like using the built-in file explorer but Resco Explorer is better. It's more windows explorer like than a cellphone file explorer.
Okay enough with the hype and I'll tell you some drawbacks. First is that the device can open pocket office documents from my previous SD card used by the O2 handset, but it cannot save it in it's original form. You have to use the "Save As" function in order to do some changes and it saves it as the conventional .doc and .xls files. These files take larger amount of memory compared to the Pocket Office documents. I'm feeling the growth since I have'nt decided yet to upgrade my memory to more than 2GB. Second is that the device cannot play continuously video files like MP4 and AVI. But it's not a major concern for me since I play videos on my PDA rarely. Maybe that is the reason that they built a software exclusively to play Youtube videos online. Youtube videos play smoothly by the way once it is played. Maybe the reason is it's processor is only 201MHz compared to the O2 Mini which has a 400MHz Intel Processor. Third is that although you can use your bare fingers to do some things, most often I get a false commands. So it is better to use the stylus that came with it. I use my thumbnails to input commands and type on the very tiny keyboard of my O2 mini (Maybe that's why they call it 2 Mini) and probably I will still use it most of the time. Despite of this, the full QWERTY soft keyboard is quite functional with larger keys compared to the old traditional pocket PC soft keyboard.
The HTC Touch Viva is not as powerful compared to it's HTC Touch siblings but for me it packs all the functions and flexibility that I need to do most of my tasks. I recommend this phone to those who are tech savvy with a tight budget. The Viva can be a direct replacement for the more powerful but pricey Windows Mobile handsets. So I give it a one Viva-Horaay!!!
You can view the complete specifications of the HTC Touch Viva in the following links:
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