My TyTN is wobbly

My Motorolla MPX200 died on me recently so I’ve been on the lookout for a new Windows Mobile based phone. I finally decided to go for the HTC TyTN which I picked up yesterday afternoon.

So far I’m pretty pleased with one exception. Leaf, who if I understand correctly are the South African importers of HTC products, have stuck a tacky Leaf badge onto the back of my new phone. At first sight I thought it was a bit stupid, especially as they hadn’t quite got it straight, but later on I realised it’s actually a bigger problem than aesthetics.

The badge protrudes by about 2mm which means that when the phone is laid on a flat surface, such as desk, the phone rests on this point. Everytime you tap something on the screen the phone wobbles back and forth on this badge making the use of the phone unpleasent and almost forcing you to pick it up to use.

This short (low quality) video demonstrates.

I could of course pull this badge off, and maybe that’s what I’ll end up doing, but I wonder if this will in any way void my warranty and/or leave a horrible mark on the battery cover. It might be that I will just have to purchase a new cover but I’m not sure how easy they will be able to get in South Africa (£13.95 in UK).

I will email Leaf and ask then to replace the battery cover and let you know what they say.

Update 2007-03-26

I received the following email from Leaf:

Hi Simon, If the badge is removed your warranty will not be void. If removed carefully it will not leave a mark. Regards, Shavaan Datadin, Technical Support

The badge was a bit fiddly to come of but it did indeed come of without marking the phone so now my TyTN do longer wobbles. I wonder if Leaf are likely to change this practice.