HTC Touch HD

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Remember the term "iPod killer"? That moniker was given to many MP3 players over the last few years whenever someone felt they had found a portable media player capable of unseating the iPod's dominance. Well, Apple never did get bested in that category, and as we move into an age where the mobile phone is fast replacing the MP3 player, Cupertino still has its bases covered with the iPhone. Needless to say, the focus is on finding an "iPhone killer" and it doesn't take a genius to see that the HTC Touch HD has been made to compete with Apple's.

Design

The first thing you'll notice about the Touch HD is its screen. This is absolutely massive at 3.8 inches, larger even than the iPhone's 3.5-inch display. Its resolution is also very high, at 800 x 480, similar to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1's. Since the LCD's aspect ratio is almost identical to 16:9, most videos originally formatted for widescreen TVs will display well on the Touch HD. We found the screen very sharp and bright, good for watching videos and browsing the Internet using the Opera Mobile 9.5 browser.

Even with the large screen, the handset itself is not very large. At 115 x 62.8 x 12mm and 146g, it's almost the same size and just slightly heavier than the iPhone 3G. The Touch HD may not be the smallest of devices but it sure is compact enough not to be a bother to most users. It comes in only black and, unlike the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, doesn't sport a prism motif on its back though it has a simple soft-touch finish there.

Physical buttons are limited to just the power button on the top and volume control on the left edge. Below the screen, there are four touch-sensitive keys--Call and Hangup on the extreme left and right, a Home key for bringing you back to the default screen and a Back button for getting out of sub-menus. These work pretty well and vibrate slightly when pressed to let you know you have successfully made contact with the buttons.

The most surprising omission of all is the directional pad (D-pad). HTC decided to do away with that altogether, so making any selection will require you to tap on the screen with your finger or a stylus. Now, this works for the iPhone because Apple made the operating system (OS) on that device, so everything works assuming there's no D-pad. Unfortunately, because the Touch HD is based on Windows Mobile (WM), leaving out a D-pad is simply not going to cut it. For example, even though HTC made its own applications suitable for finger tapping with large icons and text, there are parts of the OS where it goes back to the default WM interface, like in the Settings page. These are areas where using the D-pad to move between fields is easier because of small tabs and drop-down menus. Also, third-party applications, especially games, may require a D-pad for proper use, something we found out while playing a racing simulator and ending up having to tap on the screen with a stylus to navigate a car.

HTC itself also realizes that the lack of a D-pad can be crippling in some areas, especially for text input. On its custom onscreen keyboards, the software comes with four directional buttons for you to move the cursor in case you need to edit parts of your text. This takes up screen estate and we felt a real D-pad would have worked better, and such a modification to the text input method would have been unnecessary.

Aside from the single mini-USB connector usually found on HTC devices, the Touch HD comes with a 3.5mm audio jack on the top. This is good news for those who will use the handset as a media player as you no longer need to use an adapter to connect a regular pair of headphones.

Tags: HTC Touch, Apple iPhone, Screen, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone 3G

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