HTC has enjoyed relative success recently with several of its Touch series handhelds, but it has been almost a year since we had a new smart phone from the Taiwan-based company. The previous offering was the S730 which came with both a numeric keypad and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
The edges of the S740 are generally not as rounded, following more closely to the design philosophy of the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. To put it into perspective, the S740 occupies almost the same footprint as the Nokia E51 as you can see from the picture on the right, but comes with a thicker 16.3mm profile, which is inevitable due to the QWERTY keyboard.
Ergonomics-wise, the numeric keypad and the QWERTY provides a decent tactile feel, though our thumbs felt a little stretched when typing on the elongated four-row keyboard. The screen is also flush with the surface of the phone. That actually helps to give the S740 a more streamlined feel consistent with the Touch series. Our beef with the glossy, mirror-like front is that it's a huge fingerprint magnet, from the 2.4-inch QVGA screen right down to the keypad. The only time you'll see it free from smudges is when you first remove it from its box.
When we reviewed the Touch Pro, we commented on the increase in number of keys on the QWERTY which made certain actions more convenient. One of these was the Ctrl button which allows the user to cut, copy and paste text the same way they would do on a PC. We are glad to see this implemented on the S740, too. We also like the numerous shortcut buttons on the keyboard for quick access to the messaging functions.
The navigation cluster comes with the usual left/right softkeys, Home, Back, Call and End buttons. The circular directional pad pulsates in white when there's a new text message in your inbox or when it's plugged in to the charger. These buttons work fine generally, though we did find the more important Call and Hang up controls a little too tiny.
The back cover on the earlier prototype unit that we had came with a glossy surface. That has been replaced with a soft-touch matte finish, something which we like. Like the Diamond and the Touch Pro, the back has a prism-like motif. The SIM card and microSD expansion card slots are found directly behind the screen. The problem here is that the microSD media goes under the SIM card, so you'll need to remove the latter to get to the flash media.
Elsewhere on the device, you'll find the camera shutter on the right edge, volume keys on the left, power button at the top and a mini-USB port for syncing, charging and connecting to a wired headset at the bottom.
Tags: SIM Card, Nokia Corp., Keyboard, Camera, High Tech Computer Corp.
Design
Aside from improved technical specifications, the new S740 sports several distinct design changes from the S730, one of which is a shorter width (43.4mm on the S740 compared with 51mm on the S730). This makes the new S740 look more like a remote control than a phone. The S740's screen also slides out to the right (instead of left as seen in the S730), similar to the Touch Pro, to expose the full QWERTY keyboard.The edges of the S740 are generally not as rounded, following more closely to the design philosophy of the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. To put it into perspective, the S740 occupies almost the same footprint as the Nokia E51 as you can see from the picture on the right, but comes with a thicker 16.3mm profile, which is inevitable due to the QWERTY keyboard.
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Ergonomics-wise, the numeric keypad and the QWERTY provides a decent tactile feel, though our thumbs felt a little stretched when typing on the elongated four-row keyboard. The screen is also flush with the surface of the phone. That actually helps to give the S740 a more streamlined feel consistent with the Touch series. Our beef with the glossy, mirror-like front is that it's a huge fingerprint magnet, from the 2.4-inch QVGA screen right down to the keypad. The only time you'll see it free from smudges is when you first remove it from its box.
When we reviewed the Touch Pro, we commented on the increase in number of keys on the QWERTY which made certain actions more convenient. One of these was the Ctrl button which allows the user to cut, copy and paste text the same way they would do on a PC. We are glad to see this implemented on the S740, too. We also like the numerous shortcut buttons on the keyboard for quick access to the messaging functions.
The navigation cluster comes with the usual left/right softkeys, Home, Back, Call and End buttons. The circular directional pad pulsates in white when there's a new text message in your inbox or when it's plugged in to the charger. These buttons work fine generally, though we did find the more important Call and Hang up controls a little too tiny.
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The back cover on the earlier prototype unit that we had came with a glossy surface. That has been replaced with a soft-touch matte finish, something which we like. Like the Diamond and the Touch Pro, the back has a prism-like motif. The SIM card and microSD expansion card slots are found directly behind the screen. The problem here is that the microSD media goes under the SIM card, so you'll need to remove the latter to get to the flash media.
Elsewhere on the device, you'll find the camera shutter on the right edge, volume keys on the left, power button at the top and a mini-USB port for syncing, charging and connecting to a wired headset at the bottom.
Tags: SIM Card, Nokia Corp., Keyboard, Camera, High Tech Computer Corp.
User Discussion
maggary:
The HTC S740 smartphone is probably the the sleekest & cool looking smartphone to date. However, I understand from ...
ferdiei:
no, its smaller (slender) than the pro but wider when KB slides out. but renders the wlan useful only ...
junkiat85@yahoo.com.sg:
It looks alot like touch pro with num pad
ferdiei:
sure it looks sharper than the previous model while borrowing its skin from the 'diamond' but with a screen ...
