HTC has launched the innovative Touch, a half-inch-thick touchscreen phone that responds to the swipe of a finger. The device, powered by Windows Mobile 6, isn't scheduled to be released stateside until the fourth quarter of this year, but since you can order it now from sites like MobilePlanet (for a sky-high $594), we decided to test a European model to find out if HTC's TouchFLO technology lives up to the hype.
With a look that better resembles a super-skinny PDA than a traditional mobile phone, the 3.9 x 2.2 x 0.5-inch HTC Touch, which is slightly smaller than the 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.5-inch iPhone, weighs just four ounces and can be tucked into a shirt or jacket pocket without adding unneeded bulk. The soft, black rubberized body (also available in Wasabi Green), partnered with the device's contoured edges, made for a solid, comfortable grip. The phone doesn't have many buttons--just a five-way navigator and a Send and End button for calls--so the large, bright, 2.8-inch LCD takes up most of the surface area. The left side houses a sliding volume control and the right side has a small camera button and a narrow piece of silver plastic you can peel back to insert a SIM card and microSD card.
While the forthcoming iPhone relies strictly on finger input, HTC presents users with the option of using a digit or one of the two included styli. While both input methods offer excellent navigation, it's not until you ditch the stylus for a finger that you'll get the full Touch experience. Swiping a thumb upward from the HTC logo to the top of the display reveals a screen that grants you access to music, photo, and video content. Here you can listen to songs, view slideshows, or watch video clips saved to the handset or to the included 1GB microSD Card. You can't zoom in on maps and pictures, as you can with Apple's Multi-touch technology, but otherwise we like HTC's implementation.
A swipe from the left or right (which rotates the screen using a cool 3D effect) lets you quickly jump into your contacts and applications. The screen flip is silky smooth, but the swiping motion may require a small mental adjustment: the Touch requires its users to apply a firm amount of pressure when executing the motion, which may feel odd to those accustomed to treating their screens delicately. Navigating with your finger feels much more natural than using a stylus, and depending on how fast you swipe, you can whiz through contacts and messages or methodically scroll through them.
The new HTC-designed homescreen sits on top of
Windows Mobile 6 and provides one-touch access to weather forecasts, appointments, and other essential data. When you need to respond to an e-mail or enter a Web address, you can pull up a virtual keyboard by tapping an icon. This is most definitely not a messaging device, as you'll need the stylus to peck out e-mails, but the Touch gets the job done.
A triband (900/1800/1900-MHz)
unlocked phone, the Touch uses a GPRS/EDGE connection for surfing the Web when you're out of hotspot range, which made visiting image-heavy sites like CNN.com a patience test. It took just over three minutes to load the page completely, although we could start reading text within the first 30 seconds. Fortunately, an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi radio is built into the handset, which cut CNN.com's load time to 58 seconds.
The Touch also supports stereo Bluetooth for jamming to your favorite MP3, AAC, and WMA files, but it took several pairing attempts with a variety of headsets before we were able to listen to Aerosmith and RUN-DMC's "Walk This Way" through the iLuv i202. The two-megapixel camera delivered adequate still-image and video quality, and we easily navigated the camera's various settings, which include white balance, resolution, and up to 10X zoom, depending on the photo size. Our only gripe is the lack of flash.
Since the Touch is powered by the Professional Edition of Windows Mobile 6, it supports not only Direct Push e-mail but also the full version of Office Mobile. That means you can view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. The 201-MHz OMAP 850 proved to be a bit sluggish; opening a program or navigating drop-down menus sometimes caused the Touch to hang. On the plus side, we experienced good call quality with our Cingular SIM card, despite a few dropped calls (yes, using Cingular). Voices were clear and loud, and people on the other end of our calls didn't have any complaints. The Touch is rated to deliver up to 5 hours of talk time and up to 8.3 days of standby.
While we would've liked to see a snappier processor under the hood, the HTC Touch delivers on its promise of an innovative interface. The TouchFLO navigation is far from a gimmick; it's an extremely useful technology that's smooth and effortless to use. Although it's difficult to say how well the Touch will stack up against the iPhone--given that we haven't tested the latter and that we don't yet know what the subsidized price of the Touch will be--it has the makings of being a formidable low-cost iPhone competitor. Power users and messaging addicts should look elsewhere, but the Touch is the perfect little phone for people who want on-the-go Outlook and multimedia access with a little flash.
