Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/04/review_htc_touch_dual_windows_smartphone/
HTC Touch Dual smartphone
Good to see HTC back on track
4th April 2008 15:59 GMT
Review The folks at HTC must still wonder how they got the original HTC Touch (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/11/review_htc_touch_smart_phone/) so wrong. Luckily since then they've staged a comeback. The TyTn II (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/08/review_htc_tytn_ii_smartphone/) was nothing short of superb and now we have the Touch Dual.
In the hand the Dual is similar but not identical to the original Touch. At 107 x 55 x 16 it is just a shade taller, narrower and thicker, while at 120g including battery it is also some 8g heavier.
HTC's Touch Dual: similar to the original in look and feel
The main body of the phone is again covered in a smart-looking black rubberised plastic that provides plenty of grip in the hand and is stylishly offset by a highly polished chrome strip that runs around the handset. Centre stage sits a 2.6in, 65,536-colour, 240 x 320 TFT touchscreen, some 0.2 of an inch smaller than the screen on the original Touch.
On the whole it is a very fine looking device, and feels well bolted together in the traditional HTC manner. The 3mm reduction in width makes a greater improvement on how the phone feels in the hand than you might expect.
The major difference between the Touch and the Dual becomes clear when you push the top half of the phone 'up' with your thumb and a 16 (or on some versions 20) button keypad is revealed. Not only does this allow you to input numbers and text without recourse to the touchscreen and virtual keyboard but it also serves to extend the phone, putting the earpiece and microphone closer to the places they should be when you are talking into a phone; your mouth and your ear.
The slide mechanism is perfectly weighted, and opening and closing the handset with the thumb of either hand is supremely easy thanks to that rubber-style coating.
Hardware changes continue inside with the Touch's 201MHz chip replaced with a 400MHz unit, while on-board flash memory has been upped from 128MB to 256MB. All this combines to make the Windows Mobile 6 OS and HTC add-ons run considerably more smoothly than on the Touch. Storage memory has also been doubled on the new handset, from 64 to 128MB.
The final major change from the Touch is the loss of Wi-Fi along with the addition of 3.6MB/s HSDPA 3G. The argument as to whether or not this is a good or a bad thing could go on forever. Yes, Wi-Fi is always good to have, especially if you are using Skype or the like, but it sucks the battery dry in no time at all and could be argued to be just a little superfluous in this day and age of ever-increasing 3G HSDPA coverage and speeds. Give a choice between the two we would take 3G any day - but equally we are at a loss as to why HTC decided to remove the wi-fi when it is still available on the original Touch.
Wi-Fi has been dropped in favour of 3.6MB/s HSDPA 3G
Otherwise the specifications, for good or ill, of the two handsets are pretty much the same. You get the same two-megapixel camera on the Dual as on the Touch; a pretty horrid example of the breed that is about as much use as a glass cricket bat (though in all fairness the iPhone's camera is if anything worse). Both handsets lack a dedicated headphones jack, something that is really starting to get right up our nose, especially when the supplied mini USB phones are pretty poor fare. Again as per the Touch you get a Micro SD slot good for cards up to 8GB, though on the Dual the slot has been repositioned and access much improved. You also get the same decent little non-extending metal stylus that slots away nicely into the top right of the handset.
The slide mechanism is a two trick pony; as well as accepting any incoming calls the slide also launches a rather handy list of seven commonplace 'new' functions you may like to perform. Just touch the relevant icon to create a new sms, mms or email message or add a new contact, appointment, note or task.
Under the hood the Touch Dual uses Windows Mobile 6 Professional, about which enough has already been written elsewhere. Grafted onto the Windows OS is HTC's own TouchFLO touchscreen interface, and rather nice it is too.
Sweep your finger up the screen from the HTC logo and the TouchFLO cube opens up. The cube has three sides, accessed by 'spinning' the cube with a left or right finger sweep. One side allows direct access to your music, photos and video via the HTC Media Manager, which for those of you not paying attention at the back means you never, ever, have to use the wretched little Windows Mobile Media Player.
The 'next' face gives direct access to nine pre-set contact phone numbers, just tap to dial, while the final face offers direct links to your messages, the internet browser, file explorer, communication manager, calender, tasks and games.
All in all the touchscreen UI is reliable, quick and nice to look at, and benefits from the the fact that the screen itself doesn't show up fingerprints too badly - nor is it cursed with a dubious haptic feedback system. More importantly, it allows you to access what we would guess to be the most regularly used 80 or so per cent of the Dual's functionality without having to get too up close and personal with the basic Windows OS.
Same two megapixel camera on the Dual as on the Touch
Having said that, getting up close and personal with Windows 6 is not quite the pain in the behind some would have you believe. Sure, Windows Mobile 6 sub-menus are not really designed for stylus-free use, but with just a modicum of care most can be accessed readily enough by using the thumb or finger. The only real exception to successful Fingerbobs usage is the Windows Media Player, but we have already crossed that bridge.
HTC's virtual Touch Keyboard deserves a mention in dispatches. It takes a little getting used to, but you can text at a fair old clip once you have got the hang of it. The separate icon to toggle between T9, ABC and numeric input is a simple but welcome touch.
HTC's own bespoke home or 'today' page is another attractive and useful UI feature. The big if pointlessly LCD-looking time display is a great touch, as are the four direct links to the home page, the local weather, the phone's sound settings and a launcher that allows you access to ten lesser settings and functions including screen brightness, screen orientation and screen lock. Three smaller icons allow direct access to your e-mail, sms messages and phone log.
The touchscreen has also been employed to aid navigation of the photo album. Swipe up and down to move from one picture to the next, swipe a semi-circle left or right to rotate a picture, circle left or right to zoom in and out. The system does what you intend about 75 per cent of the time, so not quite up to iPhone standards.
Of course one thing the TouchFLO party dress can't disguise is how crummy the Windows Mobile web browser is. In a web browsing competition the iPhone has the Dual beat like a red-headed stepson.
One small design oddity is the need to remove the back cover to access the soft-reset button; perhaps not such a great idea when you have Windows 6 as your OS. Having said that though you can of course just switch the thing on and off, which most of the time amounts to the same thing.
Battery life still remains adequate, much like its predecessor
Battery life has not been extended over that of the Touch, which could only ever be described as adequate. HTC claim five hours of talk time and 200 of standby, but in the real world even with Bluetooth switched off we only got a full day's (admittedly heavy) use from a charge. Leave it on charge overnight would be our advice - that way it should last a full 18 hours.
Signal strength was sometimes not all it could be either. Placed side by side with a Sony Ericsson K850i (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/23/review_se_k850i/), the Dual often showed a weaker signal and had more trouble locking onto a 3G signal in areas where coverage was less than perfect. The Touch Dual is available as the MDA Touch Plus from T-Mobile or with HTC branding from Orange.
Verdict
The phone the Touch should always have been. The faster chip, addition of a slider keypad and HSDPA 3G along with various minor tweaks here and there have resulted in a handset that is easy to use, versatile, smart and robust. Good to see HTC back on track.
HTC Touch Dual
A fine effort and one of the very few touchscreen phones that does not leave you thinking "pointless gimmick!"
- Suggested Price:
- Contract: free; pre-pay: N/A; handset only: £359.95
- More info:
- HTC's UK site (http://www.htc.com/uk/default.aspx)
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