The spell has been broken. At last we have a Smartphone that runs on
Windows Mobile and manages to leave the iPhone trailing. With near
identical core specifications to both of its predecessors, the Touch
Diamond and Touch Pro, and the addition of an incredible 3.8"
touchscreen and TouchFLO 3D user interface, the HTC Touch HD is the
Taiwanese company's finest Windows Mobile phone yet. Also included are HSDPA connectivity, assisted GPS
with Google Maps, an accelerometer that rotates the screen when you
turn the phone around in your hand, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an FM radio.
With a similar form factor to the 3G iPhone, the HTC Touch screams
minimalism, and at 11.6mm thick is even slimmer than its rival – ideal
for slipping into a pocket or handbag. Its main selling point is, of
course, its 3.8" VWGA screen which takes up the front panel. With a
resolution of 800 x 480 - almost double that of the iPhone's screen –
images and videos are displayed in high definition as if on a PC. The
competent Opera Mobile web browser, which displays full pages, also
benefits from the handset's large screen. The touchscreen is more
responsive than any HTC device to date, with the exception of the G1
phone, and comes with haptic feedback – the phone vibrates in response
to the user pressing an onscreen button. The phone's accelerometer
rotates the screen when you turn the phone around in your hand.
The inclusion of a 5-megapixel camera and autofocus sounds
impressive, but with no flash, shots taken in low light tend to be
blurry and faint. Small to medium size images are fine for uploading to
websites such as Flickr and Facebook, but the picture quality doesn't
really suffice for printing and displaying full-size family snaps. The
camera can also record videos at an impressive 30 frames per second.
With no dedicated shutter button, it is controlled entirely via an
onscreen interface. A second VGA camera is located on the front of the
phone for making video calls.
In terms of entertainment features, the Touch offers a snazzy media
player which can play a vast array of music and video formats,
including AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA and WAV
files. At long last HTC has paid attention to its customer base and has
included a 3.5mm headphone jack in its latest handset, enabling you to
listen to music with a standard set of headphones. On earlier HTC
models, customers had to make do with the poor quality USB headphones
which came with the phone. The equaliser includes a number of settings
such as blues, rock, classical etc, or you can adjust the sound balance
manually to create the optimal playback for your music. The Touch uses
the same music player as the HTC Diamond, with some additional fun
features. You can scroll through your album covers, which look great on
the large flat screen, as well as adapting your tracks to be used as
MP3 ringtones. A good memory capacity of 512MB allows you to store a
large number of tracks and photos, and can be expanded to a whopping
8GB with a MicroSD card.
The HTC touch runs on Window's Mobile 6.1 Professional, offering
Exchange email support, Microsoft Office documents editing and viewing
capabilities, and Windows Mobile media player. On top of the Windows
interface, HTC gas added its TouchFLO 3D menu interface, which is
designed to make finger navigation easier – a marked improvement on
earlier models, but you still need to use the stylus for more accurate
work.
The HTC Touch HD packs in HSDPA connectivity for fast internet access, Wi-Fi and GPS
with Google Maps. Browsing the internet is simple an enjoyable thanks
to the double tap zoom option on Opera Mobile 9.5, and the addition of
a zoom bar along the bottom of the screen.
| Make |
HTC |
 |
GPRS |
 |
| Model |
Touch HD |
|
3G |
|
| Air Interface |
HSDPA / GSM |
|
HSDPA |
|
| Coverage (Band) |
Quad |
|
Wi-Fi |
|
| Handset Type |
Standard |
|
Bluetooth |
|
| Dimensions |
63 x 115 x 12 mm |
|
IrDA |
 |
| Weight |
146 g |
|
USB |
|
| Talk time |
Up to 450 hours |
|
GPS |
|
| Standby time |
Up to 6 hours 30m |
|
Push e-mail |
|
| Camera |
|
|
Predictive Text |
|
| Camera Flash |
|
|
MMS |
|
| Video Camera |
|
|
E-mail |
|
| Audio Player |
|
|
Memory Card |
|
| FM Radio |
|
|
Java |
|
| Ringtones |
|
|
Browser |
|
| Headphone Jack |
|
|
Organiser |
|
| Games |
|
|
Touchscreen |
|
| Internal Memory |
|
|
Vibrate |
|
| Video Calling |
|
