HTC: Our devices are fine the way they are, buy new devices if you want better graphics
By Will Park on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 PM PST In Announcements, HTC, Technologies, Windows Mobile
There’s nothing like a bit of class-action to goad a corporation to respond to allegations of wrong-doing. In response to claims from the HTC Class Action Organization that HTC devices using Qualcomm’s MSM7500 and MSM7200 chipsets didn’t perform as well as they could in terms of graphics acceleration, HTC has issued a public statement:
“HTC believes the overall value of its devices based on their combination of functionality and connectivity exceeds their ability to play or render high-resolution video. These devices do still provide a rich multimedia experience comparable to that of most smartphones and enable a variety of audio and video file formats”
It seems that HTC believes that their devices have delivered on exactly what they promised – which doesn’t include stellar graphics performance that leverages the ATI Imageon hardware lying dormant inside certain HTC smartphones. We’re sure HTC customers don’t exactly see it that way.
Furthermore, HTC says that they have:
“Plans to include video acceleration hardware in future video-centric devices that will enable high-resolution video support.”
In other words, HTC smartphones have delivered on their advertised performance. If you want better graphics performance, you’ll just have to buy a new HTC smartphone.
Now, if we were HTC, we might just cough up the necessary cheddar and give our customers what they want. Otherwise, there may be less customers willing to buy the next-generation of graphics-powerhouses from HTC. Even if HTC is the cat’s meow of Windows Mobile smartphone manufacturers.
Hey HTC, do what’s right and make use of that ATI Imageon hardware. There are a lot of pissed off customers out there that are swearing to never touch HTC hardware ever again. Do you really want that?
ACTUALLY, this report, or rather HTC’s claim is a bit misleading.. what owners of the said affected devices (TyTnII/Tilt, Polaris/Cruise, Mogul, etc) want from HTC is not JUST THE ATi drivers, or the disabled Hardware acceleration but the PROPER DirectDraw and other Graphics (read: and not just video playback) rendering, including over-all display performance and 2d/3d animation, Driver.
it is like having a video card (any kind of video card, may it be a low end graphics card) installed inside your computer, but having no drivers to support even ITS MOST BASIC FUNCTION.
old HTC/WM devices didn’t have Hardware acceleration present in the new Qualcom msm7xxx chipsets, but they EVEN perform better than the NEW MSM7xxx devices.. from rendering even the most simplest and basic graphics (read: today screen redraw, Internet Explorer, File explorer, document, or list scrolling) to intensive graphics like Video playback and games..
the problem is, the processor and the entire system thinks that there is a hardware that is supposed to carry all Graphics Rendering tasks, but then again, without drivers, all the graphics payload are carried back to the Processor which eats a lot more processing power to render this graphics – thus slowing the entire device upon operation..
the lack of PROPER DRIVERS didn’t just disabled the ATi Hardware Accelerated Graphics, but CRIPPLED the entire graphic rendering aspect of the device.. since ALL information on screen (may it be just the OS itself or an application) has to be GRAPHICALLY RENDERED..
that is why people are asking for the drivers.. NOT JUST to be able to play 3d games, or emulate game consoles, or have faster framerates on high-resolution-high bitrate videos, but to have an IMPROVED OVER-ALL performance..
HTCs statement is a sort of a red herring. The are avoiding the real issue here.
“HTC believes the overall value of its devices based on their combination of functionality and connectivity exceeds their ability to play or render high-resolution video”
I don’t care about high-resolution video. Not at all. I just want the graphics hardware that is an integral part of the chip that was advertised as being in my device to render all the on-screen graphics instead of the CPU software rendering it. If graphics were handled correctly the device would be as snappy as I expected it to be. That’s all I want. This issue has not a damn thing to do with high resolution video. I firmly believe that if they released the drivers this would be hands down the best WM device on the market to date. Until then it’s a big let down and a huge rip off.
word
This kind of Behaviour from HTC,
I am not buying any more HTC hardware.http://www.intomobile.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_mad.gif
Nokia I am waiting for s60 touch. http://www.intomobile.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif
