Having been working hard on a new version of the website, I thought I would wait with producing new articles a couple more days. However, new HTC Touch landed on my desk for a few hours, I could not resist trying it out and sharing my impressions with you in this preview. HTC Touch offers something that other Windows Mobile devices lack - a special touch layer and a software application for easy control with fingers. Read on to find out how this works and if it is a step forward.
Seasoned mobile device users will spot two main differences between HTC Touch and most other pocket PCs. The first one is a minimalist design and extremely small form factor. The other is elevation of the display to the level of the frame, so that you finger can glide smoothly across the whole front panel. This is nothing unusual in smart phones that lack a touch layer but the vast majority of touch-screen devices have a more or less submerged display. Here, though, it is necessary for comfortable finger control around he whole display area.
Dimensions of 58 x 99.9 x 13.9 millimetres and 112 grams of weight rank the HTC Touch among the smallest and lightest Windows Mobile devices. The black version in particular must look extremely appealing (mine was white). Minimalist design means, besides other things, that there are very few controls. They include: a five-way control with a separate white-lit central button and a pair of phone buttons on the front panel, a volume slider on the left side, a power switch on the top side, and a camera button on the right side. A door on the side hides slots for a microSD and a SIM card. The door was initially pretty tough but after a few open/close cycles it loosened up a bit and got friendlier.
The most interesting feature is the screen with a special touch-sensitive layer called HTC TouchFLO, which is designed for finger control. The display offers a standard QVGA resolution and parameters (240 x 320 pixels, 65 thousand colours, 2.8 inch in diagonal), only its readability seemed worse than in other devices. To see how the TouchFLO works, you can check the HTC Touch website. The logic is as follows: for instance, if you want to call someone, you start at the bottom of the display and "draw up" a special application comprising three screens that you can toggle between by sliding to the left or right to find the desired contact and dial it. When you are done, you can hide the application again by dragging down. Obviously, similarity to the upcoming king of the season, Apple iPhone, must be purely accidental:)
If you like viewing web pages on a PDA without optimisation for a smaller display, you will appreciate seamless panning just by sliding your finger across the screen. This applies to other applications as well, such as the Contacts. However, that's about all the new technology can offer, unfortunately.
Previews like this are usually on an enthusiastic note but I cannot avoid being rather sceptical this time. I did not spend enough time with the device to condemn the TouchFLO technology, yet it feels like a half-hearted attempt. It may not be entirely HTC's fault, as it must swim against the current. Since Windows Mobile 5, Microsoft has been looking for ways to diminish the role of the stylus and make it easier to control pocket devices with the keyboard/keypad. WM5 soft keys, keyboard shortcuts and other innovations were meant to unify control of devices with and without a touch screen. This has put serious limitations on HTC's effort to introduce a button-less, touch-controlled device to challenge the iPhone.
There is nothing wrong about it. The application is fast, reliable and efficient in the few tasks it can handle. However, when you need more than those pre-defined actions, the familiar little cross is back in the top right corner, to say nothing about text input (I can't understand why the device lacks a full-size on-screen keyboard). This is where TouchFLO fails and you need to take out the stylus - the finger effect is gone. A solution would be a more substantial change to the GUI but this in turn could be incompatible with third-party applications.
I wonder what the reaction will be - I expect two contrary ones: people will either love it or despise it. We shall wait till it is available in more geographies to see.
In summary, HTC definitely deserves praise for constant innovations. The special display aside, the HTC Touch is a slick little gem that can carry out common tasks you would expect from a phone-enabled PDA. The cool design is underlined by a blackish theme and a new HTC plug-in for the Today screen with a digital clock, weather forecast, and a simple application launcher. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how much popularity this device can gain, especially in a showdown with iPhone due in a couple of days
By : Pavel Koza
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