Major features...
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PDA form factor
The Touch is your typical PDA – a rectangular block with a large screen and single nav-pad at the bottom. There’s no moving parts such as a slide-out keyboard; text input is performed on screen. The antenna is internal (located at the top of the phone) while the phone is only available in a black colour with chrome lining. It’s encased in that rubbery plastic that is very resistant to scratches. Measurements are 99.9 x 58 x 13.9 millimetres, while weight is 112 grams with the battery equipped. It’s quite thin at first sight and feels comfortable in the palm of one’s hand.
Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional
Windows Mobile 6 Professional replaces Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition, and at first glance you’ll be hard pressed to find any difference between the two versions. Apart from a slight visual makeover there aren’t many differences at all. In a nutshell, the email system has been updated with several minor changes, with the major one being HTML email support. Internet connection sharing to other devices is greatly improved, while the Windows Live networking service (Messenger, Spaces etc.) is now built into the OS. Windows Update makes a handheld appearance in the form of ‘Windows Mobile Update’, and finally, Office Mobile has received a major upgrade allowing document files to now be created on a PDA, in addition to being viewed/edited. There are also several other minor changes, which you can learn about at Wikipedia.
Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 with GPRS, EDGE
The Touch is limited in its long-range connectivity options. It only has a GSM radio that can tune the 900, 1800 and 1900 bands, meaning it can be used throughout Europe and Asia, as well as certain parts of the USA and Canada. It uses GPRS and EDGE packet data access for internet connectivity. EDGE has a maximum connection speed of between 150-250 kilobits per second, while GPRS manages at up to only 48 Kbps.
2.8 inch 65,536 colour TFT 240 x 320 pixel touch-screen display
The Touch makes use of a large 2.8 inch touch-screen LCD. In true Windows Mobile fashion it only displays 65,536 colours, although its resolution is the current standard of 240x320 pixels. The screen’s brightness is adjustable through four different levels, with the brightest setting allowing the screen to be easily read under direct sunlight. Much lower settings can be used indoors, saving on battery life. Backlight timeout can also be specified. The screen is protected by a hard sheet of plastic which makes touch input difficult and distorts the backlight, giving the screen a grainy look.
2.0 megapixel digital camera, QCIF video
The camera takes 3.5 seconds to start and can take pictures ranging from 120x160 to 1200x1600 pixels. Four picture quality options – Basic, Normal, Fine and Super Fine – allow adjustment of the picture’s final size and compression. Digital zoom is available at up to 10x, but most resolutions allow you only 2 – 4x while the highest one disables it completely. There’s a self-portrait mirror next to the camera, which helps for such pictures. Burst mode allows you to take up to 30 shots in rapid succession, and you can also set how fast you want to take those pictures (Slow, Moderate or Fast). Other features include colouring effects (monochrome, negative, cool and sepia), and the appending of frames (on 480x640 images only). White balance adjustment is also available.
The Touch can also record videos at QCIF (176x144) resolution at 10 frames a second. Files are saved with the MP4 extension using the MPEG4 codec for video and AMR for audio. An MMS shooting mode can be used to limit videos so they fit within MMS size restrictions. The microphone can also be turned off in the settings screen.
40 tone polyphonics, MP3, AAC and other sound support
Certain pre-set tones are now only selectable for certain tasks. There are dedicated ring and alert tones which can only be used with message alerts and incoming calls respectively. There are 17 dedicated ring tones as well as three alert tones, while my test handset had several other various types of songs and tunes. There was a large variety, although some tones played with very soft volume, even at maximum setting. Incoming calls can also be adjusted so that a ringtone plays on its own, with vibration, or you can set it to vibrate then ring as well. I couldn’t find any profile system, but you can adjust ring volume to silent or vibrate settings by clicking on the speaker icon in the top status bar and selecting ‘Off’ or ‘Vibrate’ respectively.
Windows Media Player for music, video and streaming
The Touch comes with Microsoft’s Windows Media 10 Player Mobile. Media Player supports a number of music formats including MP3, AAC and WMA files. You can search for music when the program is first run and create your own playlists. Functions such as repeat and random play are supported. Video files can also be played as long they have the 3GP or WMV extensions. If Media Player isn’t your software of choice, HTC includes another option – its own proprietary music playback software called Audio Manager. Audio Manager is a bit limited in its functionality, but it does allow you to set the currently playing file directly as a ringtone.
TouchFLO technology
HTC’s proprietary TouchFLO technology tries to make it easier to operate various menus using your fingers instead of a stylus. The Touch Cube menu system allows you to slide your thumb upwards from the bottom of the screen to bring up a rotating cube menu. There are three different sides – one holds shortcuts to the device’s music, photos and videos, while another is a visual speed dial menu – nine icons that can dial specific people. The last menu has links to Email, SMS/MMS, Internet Explorer, Tasks, the Calendar and the centralised Comm Manager connections interface. The Touch Cube is closed by sliding your thumb downwards off the edge of the screen.
TouchFLO is also visible in scrolling menus. You can swipe your thumb up or down to send a large list scrolling in a single direction for several seconds. You can also pan your thumb up or down to scroll a menu or webpage a short distance. If you drag your thumb to the edge of the screen and hold it there, the display will keep panning until you remove it. TouchFLO is limited to these operations, for other more complex tasks such as writing text or selecting tiny menu options, the included stylus helps you get it done a lot quicker.
TI OMAP 850 201MHz CPU, 64MB RAM/128MB flash memory
The Touch’s TI OMAP 850 is somewhat slow for a modern PDA. Running at only 201MHz, it’s definitely noticed when you open an application for the first time – the PDA takes several seconds to open it. I also noticed that scrolling the TouchFLO way could cause a lot of stutter, resulting in blocky scrolling that took nearly half a minute to stop. A faster processor would have been a great idea.
MicroSD card slot (1GB card included)
A microSD card can be used to expand the Touch’s available memory capacity, and thankfully a huge one gigabyte card is included in the retail package. This is great for storing large amounts of music or several pictures and video taken from the camera. The card slot is mounted on the side of the phone, but you need to remove the battery cover to open the slot. Still, this does mean you can swap the card without turning the Touch off first.
USB, Bluetooth and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi local connectivity
The Touch supports the use of USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless for close-range connectivity. Wi-Fi wireless allows access to the internet at up to 54 Mbps in wireless hotspots. USB cables allow for connection to a PC for synchronising data and recharging the battery, while Bluetooth allows interaction with other devices in close-range. The Touch comes with a Microsoft ActiveSync CD for data synchronisation between it and a PC. The software installed for me without any stress and operated flawlessly with the Touch.
SMS, MMS and POP3/IMAP4 email messaging
Windows Mobile 6’s messaging system is slightly reorganised. SMS and MMS are now combined into one section, with email comprising the other. SMS composition hasn’t changed, with support for long SMS included. MMS can be input using three preset templates, or you can create your own MMS using pictures, sound and/or video. Extra slides can be created to make a slideshow or simply attach extra files of the same type. Maximum message size is 100 kilobytes. For email the Touch will attempt to download configuration settings depending on your email address’ ISP. Direct push email from an IMAP4 Exchange mail server is also supported. Files can be attached to email, with no file size limit applied. Text entry is limited to on-screen methods, including handwriting and virtual keyboard. If you use the virtual keyboard a word prediction system will attempt to finish off the word you’re trying to type.
Internet Explorer Mobile HTML browser
Internet Explorer Mobile is the Touch’s preset browser, supporting advanced HTML and other technology such as Javascript and ActiveX. There’s also WAP 2.0 support, which means WML and xHTML sites can be loaded by the browser. Once your connection is up and running, IE is rather smooth in page loading and displays most PC webpages without problems. Pages are scrolled both vertically and horizontally by default, but you can change it to resize and display them in one column like WAP pages.
MIDP 2.0 Java games and applications
The Touch can handle applications coded in Java or for Windows Mobile directly. In the case of Java it can only handle 2D applications because the 3D extension isn’t supported by the Java virtual machine software. The handset performs well running MIDP 1.0 applications and not too badly with MIDP 2.0 ones as well. There’s no preset Java games or applications, but Microsoft’s two favourite Windows Mobile games, Solitaire and Bubble Breaker are included.
Office Mobile for working with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files
The viewing and creation of office data files is supported by Microsoft’s official Office Mobile software suite. You can create Word and Excel files, but PowerPoint ones can still only be viewed. Adobe Viewer LE 2.0 is also on hand to handle PDF files.
PIM and other organiser functions
The well known calendar allows you to set appointments on different days and includes a reminder function to alert you in case you forget about one. The tasks list is a simplified version of this, letting you set a list of tasks to perform and reminders for each one. There’s also a simple calculator for basic arithmetic, while the SIM toolkit allows access to certain operator services. The Voice Commander voice recognition program allows you to load up programs and perform other operations using only your voice, and it’s quite accurate without needing any training.
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