We slide open the newest member of the HTC Touch family, with a real hardware keyboard. Is this what the ailing Touch desparately needed?
Review summary of the HTC Touch Dual:
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 Editor's note: Check out our review of the North American version here.
The most significant improvement in the HTC Touch Dual is surprisingly not the hardware keyboard. Perhaps we would have found it more useful if we had tested the SureType version instead of the numeric keys on our review unit, but to us, the best improvement was in the responsiveness of the phone and the TouchFLO interface. This Touch seemed to work much better than the other two we'd tried, and made the phone much more usable and likable. It still won't match a full-QWERTY phone for productivity, but Windows Mobile fans looking for a mostly-touch device will be happy with the improvments HTC has made. Release: May 2008. Price: $550.
Pros: Fast networking on European HSDPA networks. TouchFLO interface seems to be more responsive.
Cons: Still not as agile as other touchscreen devices. No U.S. 3G support. SureType version more interesting than 12-key numeric.
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Full HTC Touch Dual Review:
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We were given an HTC Touch Dual to try during Microsoft’s Mobius conference in Amsterdam. Along with the phone, we also received a Vodafone SIM card with an unlimited data plan attached, but unfortunately no calling. So, we were able to test the phone’s data handling on Vodafone’s network in the Netherlands, then try the calling functions using an AT&T SIM here in the States.
Design – Good
Surprisingly enough, the greatest influence on our experience with the Touch Dual--having recently reviewed the Touch by HTC on Sprint--was not the slide-out keyboard. Though we appreciated having hardware keys available in a pinch, we found ourselves using them much less than we would have anticipated, thanks to the fact that the TouchFLO interface on the Touch Dual we tested seemed to work better than on any previous review unit we’d seen. When we flicked our finger from bottom to top, the TouchFLO overlay came up just as it was supposed to, about nine times out of ten. When we tried the same on both the GSM and CDMA versions of the original Touch, our success rate was closer to six out of ten, and that's being generous.
So now all those fancy touch buttons that HTC has laid atop the WinMo Today screen actually work, and we found them to be quite useful shortcuts. Of course, we’re not sure why it's useful to have Internet Explorer on one shortcut screen, then make us place the Google Maps icon on a submenu of another shortcut screen. In a way, HTC seems to be recreating the same problem it hoped to avoid, but the TouchFLO shortcuts are still better looking and more usable than Windows Mobile 6 by itself.
Thankfully, the sliding keypad didn’t add much bulk to the device, beefing it up by less than a quarter of an inch. It still maintains its cute simplicity, and while it isn’t as cool or futuristic-looking as the iPhone, in many ways it's more friendly to look at and hold. Our review unit had a slick, shiny numeric keypad, with 12 number keys as well as shortcuts for the Start menu and Messaging. We would have preferred to get our hands on the elusive SureType version--which uses a 20-key SureType keypad, much like the BlackBerry Pearl--to give users a complete alphabet.
Calling – Very good
Calls on the Touch Dual sounded as good as they did on the Sprint version we tested recently, which is to say, very good. We also like some of the call management features HTC has added to Windows Mobile with the Touch, especially the Brady Bunch-style speed dial screen, which gives you a grid of pictures to tap to place a call. Dialing was obviously improved on this version thanks to the hardware keyboard, but this wasn’t a significant problem with the previous model. Entering contacts is still not as easy as it would be if we had a full keyboard to work with, but presumably this would be easier on the SureType model, which has a modified QWERTY pad. Battery life was saved by the fact that our calling tests were performed outside of Europe, where Vodafone’s HSDPA network surely would have drained the battery faster than AT&T’s EDGE. We got about five hours, which is on par with our expectations and HTC’s claims.
Messaging – Mediocre
Going from an onscreen SureType keyboard--albeit one that didn’t seem responsive to our touch--to a 12-key numeric keyboard isn’t much of an improvement, if it can be called an improvement at all. The problem on the Touch Dual isn’t the software keys, as the keyboard on screen seems much more responsive. The problem lies in the horrible predictive input that HTC has implemented. The improved version of T9 on the Touch Dual rarely got our choices correct, and often recommended nonsense words in favor of real English. To its credit, it did a fair job of learning from its mistakes, and we didn’t have to type out “Amsterdam” in its entirety more than twice, since it remembered we had used it before.
Web browsing – Good
With a more responsive screen comes better Web browsing, with easier navigation. Though the Touch Dual didn’t come close to the responsiveness of the Apple iPhone, it was still a better Web browsing device than its predecessors. And, the hardware keys made the most difference here, as they helped us type addresses more reliably (a serious problem with T9 input), and gave us easier shortcuts to use in Google Reader on our mobile browser.
Camera – Good
The lens on the Touch Dual impressed us no more than the lens on the original Touch. Pictures didn’t look great but were passable in good lighting. The photo browser, however, what was noteworthy, HTC has updated its photo gallery to take better advantage of the touch interface, and has added a nifty zoom capability to show off. If you draw a circle around something in an image, the phone zooms in to show you what you circled. Draw a circle counterclockwise and you zoom out. It’s a neat gimmick to show off, and we would have liked to see more fun and useful tricks like this elsewhere in the phone.
Music – Very good
The Touch Dual features an updated music player, and it’s somewhat easier to use with the touch interface. Buttons are larger and more square, and lists are easier to read, now in the Touch’s dark black menu color scheme. HTC bundles a nice pair of earbuds, but gadget aficionados will appreciate the A2DP Bluetooth profile for stereo streaming. The Touch Dual also takes microSDHC cards, and we filled an 8GB microSDHC card with music and pics to test the phone’s capabilities.
Laptop sidekick – Excellent
Envy the Dutch, because their 3G HSDPA network is faster than anything we’ve seen in the U.S. On Vodafone’s network, using the Touch Dual as a tethered modem with our Dell D420, we saw download speeds in excess of 2Mbps. That’s actual speeds downloading large files from RapidShare. The Touch Dual also features the excellent Internet Sharing app, which makes tethered modem support as easy as it should have been all along. Basically, you open Internet Sharing (which we moved to the top of the TouchFLO interface on day 1), click “Connect,” and then plug the phone into your laptop. That’s it, you’re surfing the internet. It beats the connection manager software that American carriers often require by miles. Finally, the Touch Dual charges using a mini-USB cable, so it basically offers everything we look for in a laptop companion.
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