HTC Touch HD review roundup

The HTC Touch HD may be somewhat hard to come by 'round these parts, but it certainly hasn't been making itself shy overseas, where it has been unboxed, examined, and given the early review treatment. Now that it's readily available in the UK, there's even more reviews of the phone cropping up, which seem to mostly agree that while it's not a phone for everyone, it definitely impresses. Among those completely blowing things out is Phone Arena, which, as you might expect, was especially impressed by the phone's screen, and describe it as "the phone for document viewing." Pocket Now was equally impressed by that "HD" display, as well as its overall performance and battery life, which they were pleased to find was about on par with the HD-less Touch Pro. CNET was even more effusive in its praise, saying that, despite its drawbacks, it is "HTC's best Windows Mobile phone yet." Windows Mobile, and HTC's GUI, proved to be a point of contention for the folks at Slash Gear, however, who say the phone would be even better running a next-gen version of the OS, or possibly even Android (a sentiment also echoed by Phone Arena). Other drawbacks include the phone's sheer size, some poor performance from TouchFLO 3D (despite an update) and, of course, it's lack of US 3G bands, which presents a bit of a problem for folks considering importing one. Still undecided? Then dive into the links below and watch the time slip away.

Read - Phone Arena
Read - Pocket Now
Read - CNET
Read - Slash Gear

[rock99rock @ Nov 13th 2008 3:24PM]

Please, just stop. I want it. I want it now. I want today. I want tomorrow.

[StalematE @ Nov 13th 2008 3:34PM]

I want it to have my man-babies...

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 13th 2008 3:37PM]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1927640.ece

[rock99rock @ Nov 13th 2008 3:50PM]

I rescind my previous comment after seeing this.

http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/image.php?m=Reviews.Images&f=name&id=43585&caption=iPhone%20and%20Touch%20HD&title=Image%20from%20`HTC%20Touch%20HD%20Review`


What a freakin shame.

I was all about that screen. The nookie. What? so you can take that screen, and stick it up your

[fred @ Nov 13th 2008 4:02PM]

@iEye

I almost want to see one of your comments get a highest rank just to see if that causes a localized rip in the fabric of space to appear and suck you in never to be seen again.

[Craig @ Nov 13th 2008 4:05PM]

Your fanboyism is weak; I want it yesterday.

[Chewedtoothpick @ Nov 13th 2008 4:26PM]

@Rock for your picture comment...

Judging by the angles and shadows on the screens of the phones, those two pictures were obviously taken in entirely different lighting and angle conditions. The HTC obviously has MUCH more lighting on it when it's picture was taken.

[mphayvanh @ Nov 13th 2008 4:51PM]

@rock99rock

You should rescind your last rescind. THE REVIEWER FORGOT TO MAX THE BRIGHTNESS. All WinMo devices defaults to 45% brightness.

Take a look at the beautiful camera picture comparison and see which one you prefer: http://www.cellphones.ca/news/post003992/

This would be at full brightness.

[rock99rock @ Nov 13th 2008 5:30PM]

@mphayvanh

Thank you for that, but i wasnt as worried about the brightness as i was the color quality. If i could find a comparison shot with those 2 side by side with the original colorbar test screen at full brightness, i will rescind the rescind only if the color is comparable. The black looked brown, and the colors were extremely washed out. Brightness should fix some of that, but it wont turn brown to black.

[Billi7 @ Nov 14th 2008 10:34AM]

i dont know where they got they picture that you linked to, but i have a 1st gen ipod touch and the touch hd,
and the screen on the touch hd is way more noticeably better than the ipod, the screen does seem more light reflective but hands down the touch hd wins with the quality of the screen,

only problem....
for some would be the touch screen, where you have to apply some pressure, it takes some getting used to, for windows mobile it is essential to have a stylus, prob the reason for the choice of screen
Opera crashed on me twice when i want to input text on facebook, after a reboot it was fine
and i was reallllllllly disapointed with the video playback, theres lagging and skipping, the ipod takes it on that one

the UI of touchflow seems alot faster and better than the diamond

over all im happy, apart from the video issue

[Kirk @ Nov 13th 2008 3:26PM]

is it just me or does this look a lot like the BB Storm?

[bob sakamano @ Nov 13th 2008 3:32PM]

yeah i was thinking the same thing... the bottom keys look identical?

[Sarig @ Nov 13th 2008 3:52PM]

Touchscreen phones appear rather similiar, news at 11.

[Samboini @ Nov 13th 2008 5:23PM]

My what fat hands you have Grandma.

[andy @ Nov 13th 2008 3:26PM]

lets talk about the slowness and ugliness under the pretty HTC UI... lack of US 3G is just lame

[Surur @ Nov 13th 2008 3:52PM]

Not half as bad as the Blackberry storm, which I had a play with at Heathrow airport vodafone store. The fonts are just plain ugly, and the menus confusing.

At least for the Touch HD you dont have to dive into Windows Mobile to:
take a picture, view a picture, view your e-mail, change your wallpaper, change your ring tone, check your stocks, launch a program, make a phone call, browse the web, tether the phone, use disk mode, play music, view youtube, switch on wifi, use google maps etc etc.

In fact I cant think of anything which cant be reached via TouchFlo3D

[Anthony @ Nov 13th 2008 4:29PM]

I have the Touch Diamond and will admit it was a bit sluggish at first. After a few tweaks which I am sure most users would be capable of it's now very quick and I love it.

Although I would trade it for the Touch HD..

[Mark Anderson @ Nov 13th 2008 5:29PM]

Yup, there will be new ROMs and I dare say a few custom cooked ones from the chaps at XDA Developers presently.

Of course, not all phone manufacturers make big deals out of firmware releases so I suspect that the tech sites will ignore this fact whilst fawning over the latest bugfix for some other products.

[Mark Anderson @ Nov 13th 2008 5:30PM]

Oh and, andy, it doesn't have US 3G because it's not being sold there.

Shocking I know.

[collegekid13 @ Nov 13th 2008 3:26PM]

stop teasing us. (i'm going to write to rogers to get this thing imported)

[Peter @ Nov 13th 2008 3:46PM]

...good luck with that!

[Ruben @ Nov 13th 2008 7:40PM]

Rogers has pretty much abandoned WM.

Im still waiting for a Rogers Diamond, let alone a Pro, Omnia, X1, ...

[Ruben @ Nov 13th 2008 7:40PM]

Rogers has pretty much abandoned WM.

Im still waiting for a Rogers Diamond, let alone a Pro, Omnia, X1, ...

[Ruben @ Nov 13th 2008 7:40PM]

Rogers has pretty much abandoned WM.

Im still waiting for a Rogers Diamond, let alone a Pro, Omnia, X1, ...

[Game_playa @ Nov 13th 2008 10:42PM]

Rogers has pretty much abandoned WM.

Im still waiting for a Rogers Diamond, let alone a Pro, Omnia, X1, ...

[kjb434 @ Nov 13th 2008 3:28PM]

I'm ok with this one not coming to the US. The implementation of the HD technology is what is nice here. HTC will eventually put this to good use in devices in the future anyway. I'm happy to let early users find the pros and cons to the device.

[Josh @ Nov 13th 2008 3:29PM]

apparently they are available in philadelphia...bah whats this??? clouds???!?! it's always sunny there!!

[Timmy P. @ Nov 13th 2008 10:48PM]

WOOOO PHILLY. I'm glad I had not to be the first to address that.

[csnoke @ Nov 13th 2008 3:30PM]

Anyone know if one of these can be bought in Korea? And if so.. where? I have two coworkers over there right now.. and I want!

[George @ Nov 13th 2008 3:33PM]

Definitely not a hand model.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Nov 13th 2008 3:36PM]

Dude has fat hands.

[happy_penguin @ Nov 13th 2008 3:41PM]

This thing made me drop my iPhone and scream "ooh shiny!!".

[bill cant fart @ Nov 13th 2008 4:27PM]

That must have looked funny.

[JonZ @ Nov 13th 2008 3:43PM]

hmm, Stay Puff?

[nick @ Nov 13th 2008 3:44PM]

It's a cool phone for sure, takes a bit of the luster off of the phone I want, the X1. I just hope somebody subsidizes the $799 price tag down to maybe $300? Anyways, this will have to do until I can buy laser rifles in post apocalyptic D.C. metro region.

[Game_playa @ Nov 13th 2008 10:44PM]

But you can already do that in Fallout 3

[keland44 @ Nov 13th 2008 3:46PM]

now just add a keyboard and usa 3g radio's and i'll pay whatever for it
in the cnet review they started the screen as vga i was under the impression that this and the sony x1 were the only ones currently using the wvga resolution (800 x480)

[ANDROiD_DREaM @ Nov 13th 2008 4:05PM]

Mmmmmm, tasty. I'm right there with you. My hope is that HTC has this phone with keyboard US 3G and be the first with WM7. I'll be first in line, or right behind you. Other niceness would be the new Qualcomm snapdragon, at least 8GB storage with Zune software, and my usual cry for the ultimate, an optical touchscreen ala WM surface... Mmmmmm

[Peter @ Nov 13th 2008 3:50PM]

I'd prefer if the buttons on the bottom were tactile, but I don't care, because it's got a 800x480 px screen resolution!

[Darkwolfbc @ Nov 13th 2008 4:01PM]

Am I the only one who has noticed how similar the HTC Touch HD and the BlackBerry Storm look?

[Mike C @ Nov 13th 2008 4:12PM]

I think you might just be the only one who cares?

[o29 @ Nov 13th 2008 5:28PM]

Yes, judging from the other 2 comments saying the exact same thing, it seems you are.

[Sizer @ Nov 13th 2008 4:09PM]

I got mine, I love it to death. The touch screen PLUS real keyboard makes it a perfect remote desktop/vnc client, I've got Pocket PuTTY on it so I can control stuff via ssh, the browsing is great, all my old Windows Mobile software (like JWPce or ListPro) just works.

I did find the TouchFlo 3D to be a bit sluggish (and gimmicky), so just went to the Today screen setup and disabled it, and now the phone's a real screamer.

I'm know some people are complaining about how big this is, but my last PPC phone was a huge beast of an iPaq (remember those days?) so I just marvel at how tiny it is considering what it does.

[Phoenix @ Nov 13th 2008 5:15PM]

...what real keyboard?

[grull27 @ Nov 13th 2008 5:24PM]

lol, real keyboards are so last year ;)

Seriously, what real keyboard?! :S

[jeff allan @ Nov 13th 2008 5:23PM]

When looking at the picture, I am not drawn to the phone, but to the very chubby, chunky hand holding it. Its disturbing and distracting.

[MikeWard1701 @ Nov 13th 2008 5:57PM]

Hey! We can't all have hands like Rachmaninoff!

[Neeko @ Nov 13th 2008 5:39PM]

this is the 1st phone i would switch carriers for. Leave sprint and go to Tmo even if i didnt have 3G. Its worth it since not even eveyrone who uses a iphone or G1 gets 2 use 3G 100% of the time. 3G wod only benefit web browsing theres only 3 sites id visit on my phone anyway. Hmmm ill play the waiting game and see wat gets announced by end of year.

[wud_e @ Nov 13th 2008 5:52PM]

Still Want.

[Elkin @ Nov 13th 2008 6:21PM]

Why, engadget WHY?
why, you keep rubbing to my face that I'll not be able to get one of this beauties in the US! ;(

XO