HTC Touch HD
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The HTC Touch HD is a device that comes packed with state-of-the
art technologies and is pretty much one of the most expensive phones
we ever tested, as you might expect this phone is the flagship of
the company and it's competing with devices like Apple's iPhone
and Samsung Omnia.
The design is similar to other HTC devices and has the same layout
as previous handsets : a big display and few buttons.
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The sales package contains :
• HTC Touch HD
• 8GB microSDHC card
• AC Adapter (UK)
• USB Cable
• Stereo earphones with mic
• Pouch Case
• Battery (1350mAh)
• Additional Stylus
• Screen Protector
• Getting Started CD
• User Manual CD
As we earlier mentioned the HTC Touch HD has the same layout as other
HD devices , so on the Touch HD's face is a huge 3.8 inch display with
a navigation cluster below.
The HTC Touch HD has a CPU that runs at 528 MHz. The phone has 288 Mb of
RAM, out of which around 190-200 Mb is available for applications and OS
needs, though the system files and TouchFLO 3D interface occupy some space
too, so you only have around 100 Mb.With this memory the Touch HD can run
around ten applications at one time. The HTC Touch HD runs on Windows Mobile
6.1 , that has an improved edition of TouchFLO 3D user interface.
On the top we have a 3.5mm headphone socket an on/off button and a tiny
green led which flashes when you have a missed call etc. A new feature
is the 3.5 mm headphone jack , we must not forget that this one of the
very few Windows Mobile devices with a 3.5 mm Jack , and for the first
time we can choose earphones to use.
The bottom has the ExtUSB socket for plugging in a charger or data
cable and next to this is the small circular opening for the microphone.The
left side of the phone has the volume rocker.The right side has no controls
what so ever, but at the bottom of the side is the access for the stylus,
this is similar to the HTC Diamond as it is magnetically drawn into position
with a satisfying click when your done. Again when you remove the stylus
the device is intelligent enough to know that you need the screen to come
on, and come on it does. Surprisingly, the stylus itself is quite tiny,
especially given how big the Touch HD is.
The rear is a two tone black with a raised brushed chrome effect
camera lense housing a 5.0 mega pixel auto focus camera.Under the cover
is the battery compartment, SIM Card slot and MicroSD card slot. The soft
reset button is the small red button. The memory expansion slot is located
under the battery cover, on the right - this setup allows swapping memory
cards on the go without having to turn the phone off.
In terms of materials the HTC Touch HD is one of the best devices
available which is pretty much to be expected if you take in account the
price.As for size , the HD is remarkably similar to Apple's iPhone , the
HD measures 115x62.8x12 mm and weights 147 g , and the iPhone 115.5x62.1x12.3
mm and 133 g.In real life , the Touch HD feels and looks a bit larger
than the iPhone.
The HTC Touch HD doesn't have a conventional keypad , the only mechanical
buttons are the volume rocker and power key, besides those the only buttons
that can be found on the phone are Call , End , Home and Back and the
only button that can be set by the user is the "Call key" ,
you can assign any function if long-pressed.
For text entry HTC , fitted this handset with various onscreen
keyboard configurations like : Phone Keypad, Compact QWERTY, Full QWERTY
and the usual Windows Mobile Transcriber, Block Recognizers etc
Display
The device has a touch-sensitive 3.8 inch TFT screen , that measures
83x50 mm and can show up to 65.000 colors and has a resolution of 800x600
pixels(WVGA).This display is one of the best available on the market at
this time.The picture quality is great and the only phone that comes close
to it is the HTC Touch Diamond.
Being a touch-sensitive display the display is made for finger based
navigation so any swipes or gestures are quickly picked up by the phone's
interface , even if you use your finger or the stylus.
Battery
The HTC Touch HD has a 1350 mAh Li-Ion battery that , according to
HTC can last oup to 8 hours of talk time (GSM) and 440 hours of standby.
In real life the HTC Touch HD won't have such a long battery
life , but considering it's performances I would say it's pretty decent.
Camera
The Touch HD the first HTC device to have a 5 Mpix CMOS camera with
autofocus.The camera's interface is the same as the one in the Touch Diamond.Visible
on the Touch HD's viewfinder screen are only menu shortcuts, current zoom
level and number of shots left.
There are five resolutions available:
· 5M - 2592x1944
· 3M - 2048x1536
· 2M - 1600x1200
· 1M - 1280x960
· L - 640x480
· M - 320x240
The HD records video in MP4 or H.263 (codecs: mp4v or h.263) at 30
frames per second. Sound is recorded with the sAMR codec at 128 kbps (sample
rate - 8000 Hz, mono).The quality of the video is acceptable.
The following video resolutions are available with the communicator:
· CIF - 352x288
· L - 320x240
· M - 176x144
· S - 128x96
Here are a couple of photos taken with HTC Touch HD:
Connectivity
The handset can work in GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and UMTS (2100) networks
, also it supports EDGE and HSDPA high speed data protocols , and as for
wireless connectivity the HTC Touch HD has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR with
all the important profiles being supported.The Touch HD can be synchronized
with your PC via the miniUSB data cable that you may find in the sales package
, and you can choose between two options : "ActiveSync" or "Portable
Drive".The HD has USB 2.0 , and the speed is around 2800 Kb/s .For
managing the wireless connections , the HTC Touch HD uses an application
that you can find preinstalled in the device named Comm Manager
HTC Touch HD has an internal chip for navigation , and it uses Google
Maps for getting you around.It took around a minute for the device to
get a GPS signal which is pretty ok , but the lack of a specialized navigation
software , means that you won't be able to use this device for in car
navigation , thought it might prove useful in some situations.Even thought
HTC didn't install on the HD any navigation software , you can install
any navigation package you want and with the help of the huge 3.8 inch
display you
can find your way almost anywhere.
The communicator also has FM-radio application, but the quality is very
poor.The applications interface is almost the same with the Touch Diamond
or Pro.Another feature found in the Touch HD , is that it allows the sending
of documents to printers with the help of the JETCET Print application.
Conclusions
The HTC Touch HD was a great device overall, and it's
one of the best Windows Mobile phones of all time.For a price around 600
Euro , the HTC Touch HD is a device that you can't just pass through ,
and it's just 100-150 Euro more expensive than the Touch Diamond but has
more features like a 5 Megapixel camera or 3.5 mm audio jack.
Below you can watch a couple of videos about HTC Touch HD:
