Can the camera on the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide beat a point-and-shoot compact? Read our full review to find out.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide Report
Most follow-ups to popular phones are usually lackluster sequels that fail to make the same impact as the original. Not the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide (specs), the successor to the wildly popular T-Mobile myTouch 4G. HTC went balls to the wall on the latest myTouch, tacking on a full slideout QWERTY keyboard, 1.2GHz dual-core processing internals that matched the HTC Sensation 4G, and adding Nuance Voice Commands. However, HTC's prized technology on the myTouch 4G Slide comes in the form of an 8-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor with f/2.2 aperture. Did we mention 1080p video recording, super fast Auto Focus, HDR mode, and Panorama Sweep? T-Mobile is touting the Slide as the world's greatest camera phone, but let's see if that claim has any validity in our full review.
Design
The T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide is even more powerful than its predecessor, thanks to the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The 4-row key layout was stocked with useful shortcuts like Menu, Home, Genius, and www/.com buttons while the generous real estate of the panel enabled us to type quickly. HTC retained the optical track button as well, giving BlackBerry lovers an alternative to the 800x 480 3.7-inch SLCD capacitive touchscreen. Although the screen skimped on size compared to the Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D, its quality was right up there with a beautiful 16 million color spectrum.
In addition to the optical button, we liked the fact that HTC carried over the physical Menu, Home, Back, and Genius buttons rather than conform to the haptic feedback control brigade. The phone's façade features a VGA front-facing camera for Qik video chat, which is preloaded on the myTouch 4G Slide, and the bottom edge of the phone is curved to ergonomically prevent the finger from slipping off of the buttons. The magical 8-megapixel f/2.2 aperture camera resides in the back of the phone
For physical dimensions, the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide is about 1/4-inch thicker and 3/8-inch taller than an iPhone 4, though width is nearly identical. Compared to the mammoth monsters of the 4.3-inch screen persuasion, the phone will definitely be more portable. Memory out of the box comes in the form of an 8GB MicroSD card, so the multimedia nuts will have to invest in a higher capacity card. As for external controls and ports, the phone has the standard 3.5mm audio jack, volume rocker, Power/Lock button, open USB terminal, but it adds a nice Camera Shutter button along the side. The myTouch 4G Slide will certainly be one of the hottest mainstream phones based on its design alone.
Software and Interface
If you read our review of the sensational HTC Sensation 4G, the myTouch 4G Slide should be a refresher course, for the phones share the same 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and 768MB of RAM. Needless to say, the QWERTY slider was a rocket ship when it came to speed its performance, matching the likes of the Sensation 4G and EVO 3D. The phone also packs in DLNA for wirelessly streaming media to other compatible devices, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Google Maps with GPS, and 3-axis motion tracking for app interaction. These specs place the myTouch 4G Slide at the top of the smartphone totem pole for 2011.
But it only gets better from here. The phone has Android 2.3 Gingerbread and HTC Sense 3.0. So, we get the standard HTC Ring interface that enables us to drag up to 4 shortcuts into the ring in order to slash time from the Lock screen. The animations are sexier than any other phone's, and HTC's Leap functioned within a split second without any lag. In fact, the myTouch 4G Slide never lagged at all during all of our testing and proved to be a solid performer. We like the tabbed dropdown menu that offered Quick Settings, which was just a Power center for Wi-Fi, Network, GPS, etc. The Contacts and Messages portion of the phone were highly refined with a sliding virtual tab that allowed us to send messages, email, see galleries, updates, and details for a particular contact.
The smartphone also received an advanced Genius button powered by Dragon Dictation from Nuance. What this means is that the phone had a new Hands Free mode, which announced calls, text messages, and other incoming data streams. For instance, when a text came in, the myTouch 4G Slide would announce "New text from so-and-so. Reply?" We would say "yes," and the voice-activated system would take us through the whole process from speaking the text to sending it. Overall, we found that curse words were censored, but the program worked quite accurately otherwise.
Multimedia/Productivity/Internet
Obviously, with a super processor and the latest software, the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide was more than capable when it came to movies, games, and music. The phone was optimal for gaming though, courtesy of the Android Market and its stellar 3D gameplay support and graphics, though we wish T-Mobile gave us the full version of Bejeweled 2 rather than a demo. Internet was smoking with Flash support and fantastic speed and response while pinching, zooming, and watching videos, and YouTube rocked on the myTouch 4G Slide. Group Texting by Bobsled allowed us to send texts to multiple recipients and store up to 5 different groups at a time for quick blasts. In addition to the nice slide-out QWERTY, the myTouch Slide 4G had swype technology for the virtual keyboard fans. The phone also gave us Polaris Office for working on documents, TeleNav GPS, T-Mobile TV, Netflix, Adobe Reader, DoubleTwist for allowing Apple to play with Android, and KidZone for kid-friendly phone action. There is not much you can't do on this smartphone when it comes to fun.
Call Quality/Battery Life
The myTouch 4G Slide was the first T-Mobile phone in a while to offer a solid audio quality across the spectrum of our tests. Voices were clear and rarely exhibited any level of compression or muffling. If you live in a T-Mobile 4G area, the phone will be a handy dandy caller.
Battery life relied on the phone's 1520 mAh pack, and it was okay. After a day of pictures and videos captured with the phone's camera, it begged for a charge at 15% capacity. But, the thing lasted a full day, and that's impressive when compared to the HTC EVO 3D, which could not even go for more then 4 hours. Expect a battery performance that's similar to the HTC Sensation 4G on the myTouch 4G Slide.
Camera
Now it's time for the most important question of the entire review: Is the Slide's 8-megapixel camera so good that it's worth ditching your point-and-shoot camera for? The answer: No. However, the phone's camera is probably the best on the market at the moment, thanks to its wide f/2.2 aperture, which soaks up more light than a conventional camera phone lens. It's also got a back-illuminated sensor, which aided in low light. We found the Slide's auto focus to be nearly instantaneous, and the shutter lag was almost non-existent. We could also toggle the video light in video mode, as well as employ touch focus while recording.
The myTouch 4G Slide is equipped with a slew of Scene modes that differentiate it from the typical herd. There's a SweepShot mode that functions as a sweep panorama, ClearShot HDR for exposing shadows and quelling highlights, BurstShot for quick action, Night for low light, Action for more action, Macro for closeups, and Portrait. The thing is Samsung has had a sweep panorama on their high-end phones for over a year and the iPhone 4 was one of the first phones to offer built-in HDR. The rest of the Scene modes can be found on almost any other phone.
Except Face Detection, Smile Capture, and Blink Detection, which worked quite well on the Slide. The phone also had a dedicated Manual mode, which was exciting, though it only gave us access to Exposure, White Balance, and ISO. There was still no Shutter Speed or Aperture, and those are two crucial controls found on nearly all point-and-shoot cameras. We did like the Camera button, which functioned as a Shutter and had the ability to jump start the phone into Camera mode from the Lock screen. As far as camera performance, the myTouch 4G Slide was the best to date.
But what about image quality? In bright light, the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide matched a decent point-and-shoot. Its image quality truly surprised us, though we did notice the occasional backlight haze and pixel smearing within the defocused portions. In low light, it was the best sensitivity we've ever seen from a camera phone, though it had trouble with its Auto White Balance, making everything too warm. 1080p HD videos were definitely weaker than still images when it came to definition, and sound recording was very entry level. Overall, it's the best camera on a phone to date, but it is not a threat in the least bit to a point-and-shoot (check out photo and video samples).
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide – infoSync Diagnosis
The myTouch 4G Slide is one of our top smartphone picks of the year. The phone combines the dual-core power of the HTC Sensation 4G, the slide-out QWERTY keyboard functionality of a texting phone, and the portability of an iPhone. Let's not forget about the Slide's enhanced voice-activated Genius button and group texting via Bobsled.
But the phone's camera was the main event at this show. Although the Slide's camera still cannot match a point-and-shoot, it proved itself as the best camera phone in current existence, and certainly raised the bar for the competition. As an overall versatile phone, the T-Mobile myTouch 4G can be touched by few.
Price and Release Date
The T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide will be available on July 27, selling for $200 with a new two-year contract.
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