Unlawyer-At-Large looks at his first-hand experience with HTC Touch, a Windows-based mobile phone
which features the much-touted "TouchFLO."Just what exactly is the TouchFLO? And why many mobile phone users think it is an iPhone killer?
TouchFLO provides an experience similar to that of the flagship mobile phone from Apple called, unsurprisingly, the iPhone. A swipe from bottom to top, a swipe from left to right (or vice versa), and you immediately see an animated, rotating interface that is quite an eye candy. Adding a few taps to the simple swipes can easily get you to the basic functions of the phone, except the task of typing. You can, of course, use the included stylus (there's even an extra stylus in the standard box) or your fingers if you have some fingernails worth typing with (the standard virtual keypad can be inconvenient for people with big fingers).
Accessing music and photos with TouchFLO is very enticing. Only a few swipes and taps are involved. This, it must be pointed out, enhances one's multimedia experience in a similar way the iPhone does.
Its home screen, with a conservative default graphite-color theme, features quick shortcuts to
things like a weather widget, your contacts, and SMS or email messages. The home screen also features an oversized but very useful digital clock. On the upper right hand of the screen, one can easily access the utility to shut down apps which are running in the background. Shutting down apps which are no longer needed will speed up overall operations.The HTC Touch has nifty features which are becoming more commonplace on HTC devices. Under the hood of this slim and elegantly-shaped phone (it fits nicely in one's hand), you’ll find a 200MHz TI CPU, 64MB of RAM with 128MB ROM, an included 1GB microSD card, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and bluetooth. On the outside, the HTC Touch features an impressive 2.8-inch QVGA screen with a 320×240 pixel resolution and a 2-megapixel CMOS camera. Like the newer reincarnations of HTC phone models, it runs Windows Mobile 6.0 impressively on its 200MHz TI CPU (the iPhone is not Windows-based, but runs its own beautiful Mac-Based user interface called the OS X). Included in the standard package are USB headphones, a data cable, a three-pronged international charger and a carrying case.
The HTC Touch is now available in Europe and across Asia, whether locked to a specific cellular provider or unlocked (and may carry a bit hefty a price). At last check, the HTC is gradually being introduced in US Mainland, together with the HTC Touch Dual.
For the seasoned traveler, the HTC Touch is a welcome gadget travel companion equipped with GSM Tri-band operating frequencies (900, 1800, 1900) and can be thankfully used in most parts of the world. It is also equipped with GPRS/EDGE for data communication, in addition to 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. For internet browsing, the Wi-Fi is very useful and easy to configure.
Looking for 3G? The HTC Touch, like the iPhone, is not equipped with 3G, but will be available in the HTC Touch Dual which features a slide-out keypad. But who really uses the 3G these days? Unlawyer-At-Large has yet to see widespread use of 3G anywhere on the planet (and this is readily apparent whether mobile phones are Windows-based or not). The lack of 3G in this phone is not a big issue for Unlawyer-At-Large, especially when EDGE is readily available than 3G.
Like most Windows-based mobile phones, the HTC Touch is not perfect. Unlawyer-At-Large notes that the HTC Touch is inconvenient for one-handed operation (especially SMS and email), having been used to the QWERTY-keypad equipped Dopod C720 Windows Smartphone (also made by HTC, otherwise known elsewhere as the "Dash"). The virtual keypad, even if replaced with other commercially available virtual keypad apps, is significantly slower than the real keypad. The handwriting recognition is also a matter of many hits and misses.
TouchFLO, notwithstanding its strong potentials,
also has its own quirks. Even without swiping the screen, the animated TouchFLO screen suddenly pops up and gets in the way. This happens often even if one is using the precision of the stylus. A less frequent quirk is not being able to activate the TouchFLO at all, despite trying many times to swipe the screen properly.As far as the supplied battery is concerned, moderate use yields a mere day-long operation. The good thing about HTC Touch is that a spare battery can be easily swapped, unlike the iPhone's battery compartment which is sealed (much like the iPod) and will constrain you to go to an Apple service center. The bad thing about purchasing a longer-capacity battery is like searching for a holy grail.
While the entire body construction of the HTC Touch feels sturdy, one cannot help but lament the flimsy construction of the plastic lid which covers the SIM and memory card slot. Fresh from the box, the plastic lid had only been opened twice, but it no longer fits the slot evenly and even feels like falling apart.
Using the contacts in Windows Mobile 6.0 leaves much to be desired. There is no native command to allow the phone to display contacts from either SIM only or phone memory only, or both. It necessitated the installation of a 3rd-party app to do this. This is an unaceptable flaw in the basic "contacts" interface. Unlawyer-At-Large used to have a US$100 mobile phone which was able to easily select either the SIM or phone memory for storing and displaying contacts.
Another unacceptable flaw in the "contacts" interface is the absence of multiple mobile phone entries for a single contact name. The multiple mobile-entry is impressively well-implemented in other brand names, like Nokia and Motorola. The HTC Touch only allows the assignment of one mobile phone number per contact. What a sad, frustrating limitation for a business phone! Are HTC and Microsoft both oblivious to the present world where it is commonplace to find a single person owning two or more mobile phones with several discrete mobile numbers?
The most annoying interface flaw happens when one is using "Add Recipient" command when composing an SMS or email message. The interface only shows a list of names, without phone numbers. Say, if you have Contact X added 4 times to the contact list, so that each instance of Contact X has a discrete mobile number (you are constrained to do this because the phone only allows one mobile number per name, not multiples thereof), there is no obvious way to find out which number to use as only the 4 identical names of Contact X show up on the list. So "Add Recipient" becomes a hit or miss. If the "contacts" interface is accessed directly without using the "Add Recipient" command, all of the 4 names of Contact X with corresponding mobile numbers appear. Is this a joke?
HTC Touch appears to crash less often than its predecessors which were based on Windows Mobile 5.0. This is an improvement and must be considered good news for Windows Mobile aficionados. However, HTC Touch is not immune to freezing screens and crashes which happen when installing 3rd-party apps, even if they are designed for Windows Mobile 6.0. On the positive side, the HTC Touch can be easily reverted to factory state if necessary.
Both the earpiece and speakerphone tonal quality of a mobile phone is important. The HTC Touch gets low scores in this area. In a real-world usage of HTC Touch in a busy airport, Unlawyer-At-Large had a very difficult time hearing the other person even if the earpiece volume is pumped up. At its full level, the earpiece volume is not only lacking, but also crappy, like a struggling shattered speaker cranked up beyond its capacity. This was not to be expected, especially for a phone worth more than US$450. Turning on the speakerphone is of no help either with its "tiny" and, again, crappy sound. As far as Unlawyer-At-Large's personal experience with many business mobile phones is concerned, the best earpiece and speakerphone tonal quality to this day belongs to Sony Ericsson P910i and P990i (which are both Symbian UIQ-based), with runners-up positions belonging to Nokia E51 and Nokia E90 (which are both based on Symbian S60 3rd Edition).
Is the HTC Touch an iPhone competitor? Absolutely not, especially with the aforestated quirks and annoying flaws.
However, Unlawyer-At-Large will recommend the HTC Touch for the TouchFLO experience. Remember, it is not perfect, but this is as close as you can get to enjoying the iPhone experience without having to buy an iPhone.
