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HTC Touch ReviewAugust 31, 2007
Without question the most prolific Windows Mobile device manufacture today is HTC, producer of well over half of all of the devices on the market today. This foothold in the market place has allowed HTC to be innovative - although sometimes stagnant as well - and one of their latest devices proves that innovation and forward thinking is still alive and well. The Touch is a small, sleek new Windows Mobile Professional device that sports TouchFLO, a new finger sensitive touch screen that responds to gestures, not just stylus input. While it is not multi-touch like the Apple iPhone, the Touch ushers in a new way of manipulating information on your device. To be sure though, TouchFLO has areas where it can improve and the Touch device itself has a few drawbacks despite it's great shape, size, and new input options. The Touch comes in a stylish box that is sleek and black like the device itself. It includes an AC Charger, USB cable, battery, extra stylus, small nylon slip case and stereo headphones. In addition, HTC includes a 1GB Kingston MicroSD card, something that is nice to see for sure!
The Touch itself is slim and small, measuring a mere 58x99.9x13.9 millimeters (2.3x3.9x0.5 inches) and weights a light 112 grams (3.95 ounces). The shape of the Touch square with smooth corners with the body coated with an easy-to-hold finish that is comfortable and pleasing to the touch. The front of the device is dominated by the 230x320 Transflective TFT QVGA display which is completely covered by glass for the TouchFLO system. The D-Pad and Action button are located below the display in the lower center of the device while the phone answer and disconnect buttons are on the left and right of the Action button respectively. Above the display is the speaker for the phone which also has a green LED behind it to indicate the device is on, an Amber light to let you know it is charging or you have a new email, MMS or SMS message and a blue LED when Bluetooth is enabled. The lack of softkeys on the Touch is a drawback as it limits your ability to do things without stylus input. Still, given the idea behind the Touch is to use the TouchFLO system, it is understandable while these would be omitted.
The back of the Touch is smooth with only the 2MP camera in the upper left of the back. Along the edge of the Touch is a plastic chrome band that encircles the device which is only interrupted on the top by the power button and the bottom by the mini-USB connector and soft reset inset button.
The battery on the Touch is user replaceable and accessible by sliding the back of the device up towards the camera. The 1300MhA battery is slim and easy to remove. In order to insert a SIM card or MicroSD card into the Touch, you have to have the battery back off, the battery removed and slide out the left-side plastic chrome piece to access the ports. From an aesthetic perspective this works fantastically well but from a practical perspective it makes the Touch a challenge. If you are traveling and use pre-paid SIM cards - or have multiple accounts with multiple SIM cards - changing them is an involved process. If however you do not use more than one SIM or storage card on your current device, this aspect of the Touch is likely not to be impactful.
Because of the TouchFLO system on the Touch, the screen of the device is completely covered by glass. It is on this glass that the system recognized both stylus inputs and finger inputs. If you use the stylus with the Touch it will take a little getting use too. With other devices the touch screen "gives" slightly when you press on it, giving you a physical indicator that you have pressed something. With the Touch you get no such indicator. From my perspective this is not an issue but simply something that takes getting use to versus other devices. The size and shape of the Touch are terrific and easy to hold for any sized hands. The thinness of the device makes it easy to slip into a hip pocket or in a breast pocket. Interestingly enough, I found the size and shape of the device to lend itself to better ability to hear calls. Because of its small size, I tended to cup my hand over the device when talking on the phone. This provided a bit of "sound proofing" around the speaker.
Under the hood of the HTC Touch you will find the Texas Instruments 805 OMAP processor running at 201MHz, a tried-and-true processor but one that is lagging by today's standards. While most users will not have a problem with this processor selection by HTC, power users will likely find it to be slow. From a memory perspective the Touch has 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM. While these figures are somewhat standard, the user access levels of the ROM in particular are very low at only 35MB. The radio stack in the HTC Touch is solid, providing support for 850/1800/1900MHz GSM. Unfortunately it only supports EDGE for data connectivity and not 3G. As a T-Mobile user this is not an issue for me - T-Mobile only has EDGE in the United States - but for AT&T or Sprint users, these slower speeds may be an issue. In my testing I averaged 85Kbps on downloads on the T-Mobile network. With AT&T I did slightly better at 98Kbps. Still, reception and voice quality are outstanding on the Touch with no issues with dropped calls or missed calls. In addition to the radio stack the Touch has built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support as well as 802.11G Wireless support. The Touch has a built-in 2.0MP digital camera which performs quite well compared to other HTC devices. As with most cameras built into devices, the photos tends to be slightly over saturated but color wise are good. Also, the edges of the photos tend to be blurry while the center of the image is clear. The camera can shoot up to 1600x1200 sized photos and can shoot 320x240 video as well. Unfortunately the camera does not have a flash built-in so low light shots are difficult.
Of the features of the HTC Touch, TouchFLO is the highlight of the device. TouchFLO recognizes simple inputs which allow you to quickly access and manipulate information. To enable TouchFLO, drag your finger from bottom to top on the front of the device. This will bring up the TouchFLO interface. The system does take a bit of time to get use to and does require a good bit of pressure and speed to access. Once TouchFLO is up and running, you can slide your finger across the front of the device to manipulate the different pages of the application. Essentially TouchFLO has three interfaces: Application Launcher, Speed Dial and Multimedia. Ultimately the idea behind TouchFLO is to allow quick and easy access to items on the device that most users need or use most often. In this regard HTC succeed without question and I would contend they have a serious advantage over competing devices with this system.
The Application Launcher of TouchFLO allows you to launch the most common applications on the device. These applications you can launch included Email, SMS/MMS, Internet Explorer, Tasks, Calendar and the Comm Manager. To launch one of the applications just tap it with your finger. The applications themselves are those that are part of the Windows Mobile 6 load and TouchFLO simply provides a quick, one-touch access to them.
Speed Dial in TouchFLO is similar in that it allows you to have up to nine contacts only a touch away. Adding a contact is done by tapping an empty box on the display and finding the contact in your Contacts you wish to add. Once you are done, the contact name is listed or, if a photo is attached to it, that photo is displayed. From the Speed Dial page you can also open Contacts, see your call logs, place a phone call and delete a speed dial entry.
The Multimedia interface of TouchFLO allows you to view photos or videos and listen to audio with a single tap. When you tap on Music the Touch starts its Audio Manager which allows you to search for songs via Artist, Album, Genre and if it is protected content. You can also search by playlist. Once you select the file(s) you want to play, Windows Media Player is automatically started. If you choose Photos or Videos, the Pictures & Videos application of Windows Mobile 6 is started which shows you a thumbnail of each media file. Tap it and it will either be displayed or start Windows Media Player to play video files. The Audio Manager is quite good - once you get the hang of it. In my testing it was a bit of a challenge to get it to recognize the audio files I had on my storage card. The issue could have been with Windows Mobile Device Center in Vista as I could not replicate the issue on PCs running Windows XP and ActiveSync. The library interface is similar to that of Windows Media Player and you can select a song to play by simply tapping it. If you have a music file playing and navigate back to the Multimedia interface in TouchFLO, a mini player is displayed in addition to the Photo and Video options.
From an application perspective TouchFLO works and works well. It does take a bit of getting use to especially when it comes to the amount of pressure to apply to bring it up on the Touch. Once you get this under control however, it is a breeze and pleasurable to use. It is clear though that TouchFLO, like other applications on the Touch, would benefit from a faster processor. This has been proven by other site owners in the Windows Mobile community who have overclocked the processors in their Touch and have seen a dramatic improvement in performance of TouchFLO. I did not take such steps with the Touch provided to me by HTC as it is not my unit and I did not want to potentially damage it. Another new feature with the HTC Touch is the new Today Screen interface that HTC has developed. This new layout is dominated by a large digital clock with one-touch buttons for email, calendar and contacts directly below it. Below the clock are three buttons which allow you to change betwen the clock, weather information or a quick launch set of keys. The new interface is a departure from the typical Today screen of most Windows Mobile devices and reminds me of Spb Software House's Mobile Shell application. This new Today interface has been well received and HTC is planning on shipping it with future devices including the HTC Kaiser.
Continuing with the software of the HTC Touch, the device itself runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional as it's base Operating System with the device used in this review running 5.2.1238 (Build 17745.0.2.3). Since the purpose of this review is the Touch itself, I will not be covering the Operating System in this review other than to say it comes with all of the applications that are included with it from Microsoft. In addition to the Operating System, HTC includes several applications with the device to further enhance the user experience. Adobe Reader LE is included for PDF viewing as well as a Streaming Media application and support for Zip files. Lastly, the HTC Communication Manager allows you to enable or disable various aspects of the Touch including the phone (great while flying), Push Email, Bluetooth and WiFi.
Overall it is hard not to like the HTC Touch. The device's size and weight are outstanding as well as the call quality and radio function. While power users could easily pick on the device for its slower processor and limited RAM, the majority of users will likely find it fits their needs quite well. The TouchFLO application works well and is a nice change from the traditional stylus based interaction with devices. While it is clear that the application has room to grow it is equally clear that it is a step in the right direction. Having used the Touch for several weeks now I must stay I'm having a hard time adjusting to TouchFLO not being on my regular device! More importantly, my wife has found it to be the perfect sized device for her!
The HTC Touch is available from a variety of online retailers including Mobile Planet. The retail price is approximately $499 (US). Pros: Great size, excellent call quality, TouchFLO Cons: Processor "slowish" and low RAM, No Soft Keys, Audio Manager a bit tricky Rating: 4/5 Clinton Fitch, MVP-Mobile Devices *Photos Courtesy of Clintonfitchdotwife |
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