Once again proving the point that smartphones can indeed be consumer friendly, the HTC Touch Dual has the same sleek features like its predecessor. With a sleek rubberised finish that feels as good as it looks, the HTC Touch Dual is a pleasure to have.

Novel TouchFLO design

The unique TouchFLO interface seems to be the most notable improvement in the HTC Touch Dual phone. Unlike the HTC Touch which had all the touch-friendly mechanisms and features but lacked in responsiveness to a certain degree, the HTC Touch Dual is extremely responsive. In spite of having the slide out hardware Keyboard present on it, it is surprisingly the touch functionality that seems to work the best on the phone. The shortcut keys such as the one to the browser etc. are usable and aesthetically pleasing. The sliding keypad doesn’t contribute to the overall weight much and packs in a good ergonomic design as well.

User-centric performance

The speed dial screen in the HTC Touch Dual allows you to tap on a favourite contact’s picture and dial him or her. In addition the call quality is definitely remarkably good. Messaging can pose to be a bit of a problem with the keyboard being rather small and less responsive. However, the plus point is that the phone tends to remember words typed in earlier and autofills them so that you don’t need to repeat typing the word the next time. The fact that the touch screen in the HTC Touch Dual is far more responsive than its predecessor makes web browsing even more pleasant and convenient. With the hardware keys typing in web addresses is that much easier to accomplish. The zoom functionality in the camera is a definite plus point. If you circle in clockwise direction on an image taken via the camera, the zoom features closes in around the place marked. A counterclockwise circle would zoom out. The music player is much better than the HTC Touch as in the Dual model the buttons are much larger. If you were to use the HTC Touch Dual as a tethered modem you are in for a pleasant surprise. Download speeds are more than even 2 Mbps!

Intuitive and attractive features

The HTC Touch Dual comes with a HSPDA 3G connectivity and its major feature seems to be the TouchFLO interface. The home screen has been modified to make it much more user friendly and intuitive in nature. The design is attractive and the numeric keypad makes it possible to type in text easily using just one hand. The phone is devoid of WiFi or GPS which can be a downer for many mobile phone addicts. The screen display size is around 2.6 inches which is great for viewing pictures or videos. The operating system in use is the Windows Mobile Professional version 6 and the processor used is the Qualcomm MSM 7200. The phone also comes with a microSD card and has Bluetooth 2.0 functionality.

Forecast and future outlook

Overall if WiFi isn’t a very big concern for you then the HTC Touch Dual can be a perfect choice for those who love touch screen phones. The improved TouchFLO screen mechanism as well as the sleek design and finish all make for a head turning gadget to walk around with!

The HTC Touch is available for $428.00 at ElephantCellular

The HTC Touch Dual is available for $579.89 at ElephantCellular

tagged: 3G, GPS, Keyboard, Touch Dual, Touchscreen, Keypad, TouchFLO, Windows Mobile Professional

Posted by Elin | No Comments »

The HTC Touch seems to be one of the series of touch friendly devices in the market today. Unlike the iPhone which responds to a human touch for proper operation, the HTC Touch is also responsive to a stylus. This makes operability that much easier on the whole.

Chic design
The design of the HTC Touch is extremely sleek while also being very lightweight. Using various The phone comes in two colours currently wasabi green and black. Encased in a heavy black elegant gift box, the phone is extremely elegant and chic looking. The grip and ergonomics of the phone are fairly comfortable what with the unique soft rubbery finish as is typically found in the T-Mobile Dash. With a matte black coating the phone also has a neat looking chrome strip encased on the sides, thereby further adding to its elegance.

The chrome trim as well as the encasing on the phone is made of plastic. With no sharp edges and a curvy design to it, the HTC Touch feels naturally comfortable in the hand. Measuring just around 13.9 mm and weighing just 112 grams this phone is definitely the most lightweight and small phone amongst the Windows Mobile compatible phones today. Below the display unit you would find a directional pad that operates in 5 directions. There’s also a neat volume slider as well as two softkey buttons on the directional pad. Without any voice command activation button or OK keys, the HTC Touch manages to pack in a very minimalist design.

Innovative and slick features

The HTC Touch promises a brand new swipe action mechanism. When you move your finger from below to the top you bring up a cube that is 3 sided. You can navigate from left to the right or vice versa. The first cube face allows you to assign images to your contact list which makes it easy to bring out pictures of your favourite people and just select whichever option you choose – either call or send an SMS. The Keyboard is still rather small and sending SMS by typing can be rather difficult so the stylus comes in handy while entering textual messages. The second face is actually an application launcher while the last face is dedicated to multimedia functionality.

It contains a music player, videos as well as photo storage features. Currently if you wish to bring the screen into landscape mode you would need to manually edit the settings instead of using a swiping gesture to change it. The phone also comes with 3G capability that brings in a broadband speed in the range of 300 to 600 kbps. The operating system being used in the HTC Touch is the Windows Mobile Professional version 6 and comes with GSM/EDGE functionality. Inspite of being so small in size the HTC Touch manages to pack in Bluetooth, WiFi, QVGA resolution facility, as well as a camera with 2 megapixel capacity.

Fantastic call performance

The overall call quality of the HTC Touch is truly remarkable and the Voice Speed Dial employs usage of voice tags instead of voice recognition systems. This is fairly accurate and works in conjunction with Bluetooth headsets as well as car kits.

Final verdict and outlook

Unlike the feature rich PDA phones in the market today which are fairly bulky and heavy, the HTC Touch promises a lightweight, chic finish. While the small keyboard maybe a bit of a disappointment, the phone compensates for it with a handy stylus and handwriting recognition mechanism. On the whole this is a great phone to have if you are looking for style and functionality in one package.

The HTC Touch is available for $428.00 at ElephantCellular

tagged: 3G, Keyboard, Touch, HTC Touch, Touchscreen, Windows Mobile Professional, PDA

Posted by Elin | No Comments »