HTC Touch hands-on at Engadget Mobile

We've got a bit of hands-on and photo gallery love of the new HTC Touch over at Engadget Mobile. If you're the type who's at all interested in thin, sexy, large-touchscreen smartphones that launch in June of 2007, you owe it to yourself to check this sucker out.

[Nando @ Jun 6th 2007 12:08AM]

This phone looks so sexy...

[Fatima @ Jun 6th 2007 12:11AM]

Its a straight rip off of the iPhone design.
One button on the bottom...etc. Apple should sue HTC.
@1, r u kidding, this HTC looks like a fat piece of lard.
iPhone is way more sexy.

[Lee Roy Brandon III @ Jun 6th 2007 12:24AM]

@ Fatima: Slow down there, this is just an evolution on the traditional PPC design (ever heard of iPaq?).

I like the dark matte color, and the slider makes is practical for word processing. My 1945 was a trooper, but once I wear out my Drift, I'm coming back to a Windows Mobile platform for sure...

[Owen V @ Jun 6th 2007 12:31AM]

This has a removable battery so its not on my list of "would never buy" like the iphone is.

And this has 3 "buttons" on the bottom. Send, End and the 4 way navigation button

[Nando @ Jun 6th 2007 12:34AM]

LOL @ Fatima!!

[jaysins @ Jun 6th 2007 12:22AM]

Wonder which will come out first, iphone or the touch. The interface reminds me more of beryl on linux than the iphone. Looks cool but the processor in it is ancient. Put that interface on the kaiser and you got yourself a sale HTC.

[Fatima @ Jun 6th 2007 12:37AM]

I had my iPod mini since launch, and it still has a good battery. I guess it depends on how much you use it. If you use it a lot, why does it matter if battery is replaceable? Due to wear and tear you would need to replace the device every year or two anyways.

[Fatima @ Jun 6th 2007 12:40AM]

LOL @ Nando!!!

[Owen V @ Jun 6th 2007 12:48AM]

replaceable battery on a cell phone/music player is more important to me not because of battery longevity but so I can carry a charged spare with me in case the battery dies while I am not near an outlet.

[Dudleylau @ Jun 6th 2007 12:56AM]

Nando is the perfect Apple consumer.... =) no offense, though Apple have some great products, I think iPhone is just for kids and is a bit superficial. I prefer the reliable Htc products. Wish this had a slide out keyboard though.

[Dudleylau @ Jun 6th 2007 12:59AM]

haha that comment was meant for Fatima =P sorri nando

[Nando @ Jun 6th 2007 1:13AM]

No biggie...and I agree.

The only thing that sucks is that under the pretty UI, it still uses Windows Mobile 6's ugly UI for its apps.

[wsjchoi @ Jun 6th 2007 12:59AM]

I had my iPod mini since launch, and it still has a good battery. I guess it depends on how much you use it. If you use it a lot, why does it matter if battery is replaceable? Due to wear and tear you would need to replace the device every year or two anyways.

Fatima, I guess you turn your phone on every time you want to call someone, I can tell how many friends you have.

moron, you have your phone on most of the time, therefore, you charge more often, and the battery dies that much often.

I question your age, i'm guessing you are a grade school student whose parents will buy you candy every time you behave.

[t-bone @ Jun 6th 2007 1:14AM]

I don't really understand the hype. 64MB RAM, 2MP camera, tri-band? Big deal!

From CNet: "TouchFlo works well and looks great but there's a huge problem -- try clicking on any of the applications or options in it and you end up going straight back to Windows. For all its fanciness, TouchFlo is just a well-designed Windows Mobile 6 skin."
"No, it's not an iPhone killer, it's not even the best Windows Mobile handset out there. There's no 3G or HSDPA connectivity and HTC only put in 64MB of RAM, so don't expect it to run smoothly all the time."

It has a 200MHz processor, for crying out loud! How is that for pitiful?

People are touting this as the iPhone killer and it is just a sheep in wolf's clothing.

[natef @ Jun 6th 2007 2:07AM]

Yeah I'm still waiting for a WinMo6 phone that has a good touch interface AND a slide-out keyboard. This is moving in the right direction but the hardware is out-dated and the UI doesn't seem to be any better than just pressing a button to change screens.

I'll wait for the inevitible slew of cheap iPhone immitators of which I'm sure one or two will stand out as real gems (if not the most original gems).

[Kai Cherry @ Jun 6th 2007 2:46AM]

Just want to chime in here for a wee moment about all this phone replaceable battery nonsense...

You people realize that it, erm, has like, a standard 30 pin iPod dock connector port on the bottom, right?

[BrianC @ Jun 6th 2007 4:59AM]

I still wait patiently for the HTC Kaiser. It is the phone that I want most.

[Rynth @ Jun 6th 2007 5:12AM]

Fatima - you sad, sad, sad little apple fanboy..

[John @ Jun 6th 2007 8:52AM]

YAWN.... Wake me when the iPhone fad is over.

[byungsohn @ Jun 6th 2007 10:05AM]

am i the only one thats thinking that if they put the touch "interface", which seems like it is only a software based skin for WM6, with existing WM phones (or even the kaiser, nice) then that will essentially offer everything that the iphone has and then some? *GASP* yes, i said it. ooooooo...

[t-bone @ Jun 6th 2007 12:28PM]

You said it but that doesn't make it correct. The one thing this has that the iPhone may or may not have is a replaceable battery. I can't think of anything this does that the iPhone doesn't do better.

You should hear the HTC fans: "The Elf is going to be so freaking awesome!" etc.
Now: "That's it? At leaat it has kind of a neat touch screen."

[byungsohn @ Jun 6th 2007 12:43PM]

please let me reiterate.

what i meant to say is, as it appears, the "touch" feature looks software based (as the elf has already been in production for a few months). With that being said, can that not be cooked into a ROM for, say the Hermes (8525 and variants)?

while the 8525 doesnt have multitouch, (and im not sure how its 400 mhz processor stacks up against the iphones), it pretty much does everything else and then some.

i used to be pumped for the iphone until i realized that besides the looks, my htc does pretty much everything that i want it to. (and i have a herald, the ditz of the htc family).

[Rachel @ Jun 6th 2007 10:12AM]

I am a dirty fucking spammer: [e-mail]

[jsanders4484 @ Jun 6th 2007 1:22PM]

Seriously guys, stop trying to compare the iphone to htc products. I'm not bashing the iphone or the people that are pretty much excited about it, but seriously, it doesn't compete with a pda running WM. The iphone has edge, wifi, a web browser, has a camera, and functions as an ipod. That's great. Really. I think it's a great phone for people who don't require something a bit more functional. The HTC touch is capable of playing games, playing any format of movie or audio (I use tcpmp on my apache and it works great), use third party applications, web browsers (minimo, opera, or pie), has a camera, removable battery, able to switch out memory cards, and etc. The iphone just doesn't have this stuff, nor the ability to do it. (Even though Jobs has said that they're going to support third party apps in the future...I'll believe it when I see it.)

[Bittermormon @ Jun 6th 2007 1:30PM]

I can think of a few things it does better. How about editing office docs, how about running a NES emulator, or how about running any of the slew of windoze mobile apps out there.

If your idea of a good device is an ipod/phone and thats it...then the iPhone is your pony. If you use a device for work, or any type of PIM functions, then I think you gotta stick with WM or symbian.

[doctorSpoc @ Jun 6th 2007 12:40PM]

i think it looks really good (at least the 1st 1-2 of non WinMobile layers)... 1-2 clicks and you are into WinMobile 6 which has controls not mean for touch (too small) so get your stylus out... this is just a case of a manufacture using a cheap effect.. putting window dressing on to try to fool unwitting consumers into thinking this product is something that it is not...

plus check out this video of how well the touch screen works from a hands on over at ZdNet.. and this guy is very anti-Apple so you know he wanted this thing to work... and in the end even he had to admit that this is not an iPhone by any stretch of the imagination.. human machine interface counts for a lot... as far as the GUI goes (i.e. not talking the feature of the OS) it's a case of lipstick on a pig!

http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=392

[Chrisphillers @ Jun 6th 2007 2:09PM]

I agree with Nando:

The only thing that sucks is that under the pretty UI, it still uses Windows Mobile 6's ugly UI for its apps.

[doctorSpoc @ Jun 6th 2007 2:28PM]

@ jsanders4484..

no one is actually talking about OS features in this comparison.. this is comparing the iPhone touch interface to this supposed 'touch' interface... and i think it's valid because, remember this thing is called the HTC "Touch"...

but it's a farce because 1 or 2 click in and boom no more interface designed for touch... it's not a touch interface from top to bottom.. the only reason for this phone is to try to ride on the coat tail of iPhone and hopefully get some press and sales... the only thing is that it's going to back fire because as far as the 'touch' interface goes, it's not bad and looks quite good actually, but the abrupt bump you get when you reach winMobile is quite abrupt and you realize that the supposed 'touch' interface was just a cheap gimic... window dressing... you've been hoodwinked.

[doctorSpoc @ Jun 6th 2007 2:35PM]

...they got a graphic designer to come up with some funky graphics and provided shortcuts to winMobile apps with some nice animations ... that's not a touch interface.. that a joke! that didn't require that much time to come up with it.. some animated shortcuts.. c'mon.

[J @ Jun 6th 2007 6:19PM]

The Meizu M8 looks more promising and does actually looks like an Windows Mobile based iPhone contender.

[Ike @ Jun 6th 2007 9:29PM]

3 videos here: http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=2&Id=3426
Looks quite good IMO. More responsive than the other videos posted. Dunnno why , newer rom version on this device maybe? I mean scrolling is defenitaly smoother etc..

[Sting @ Jun 13th 2007 8:43AM]

I just bought one of these phones after having a pda2k for over almost 3 years. I must say the phone has a great form factor, very crisp clear screen, feels quite solid and appears to have good battery life.

My priority is size, email, web, and phone. In my view this phone scores extremely high in all these areas.

HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however.. This is my 2nd day with the phone and the WINDOWS LIVE MAIL does synchronise properly. Also, MSN messenger does show your contacts online most of the time when it should do. Basically, the whole Windows Live thing doesn't work properly. :( HTC's official word to me on the phone was "Sorry, maybe a bug in the firmware and we don’t know of any release soon, bye!" Even HTC themselves had problems with Live Mail when they were trying to help me.

This phone would have been ideal for me if it worked as it should but im now filling in the RMA form to return it to the store. BE WARNED.

[sting @ Jun 13th 2007 8:46AM]

CORRECTION: i meant to say the Live Mail & MSN DOESNT work as it should. But you probably guess that by now?!

[AirTimeManager @ Jun 15th 2007 8:18AM]

We have been testing the latest version of Microsoft’s new mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6, this week on what we believe is an excellent new mobile device called the Touch from HTC. The Touch is an innovation in touch screen PDA’s with a new front end user interface for the Windows Mobile platform. First of all, a look at the physical device.

http://www.airtimemanager.co.uk/activesync/HTC_Touch.aspx

[Merrick @ Jul 3rd 2007 1:25AM]

Can anyone please tell me what carrier these phones are on? I'm desperate to find a phone I like and cingular/at&t isn't coughing up much to help that.

[David @ Nov 16th 2007 11:35AM]

Stunning! Thumbs up. Our review panel overwhelmingly likes and approves of the HTC Touch