Associated Press Review of HTC Touch -- I think this guy is on Apple's payroll

rbmehta

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Take a look at this review from Associated Press writer PETER SVENSSON.

I work with multiple smart phones and regularly use as my primary phone the Treo 700wx (use to be on Palm) and my wife uses the HTC Touch. I can say most of the items he talks about are non-sense.

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A Tale of 2 HTC Smart Phones

NEW YORK - If you reach too far, you can lose your balance and fall on your face.

That's what happened with the design process for the "Touch by HTC," one of the smart phones fighting for our attention this holiday season in a field that has been both energized and shaken up by Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

The $249 Touch, carried by Sprint Nextel Corp., overreaches badly in trying to be a touch-screen phone - controlled by the user's fingers on the screen - just like the iPhone. The resulting mess is the worst phone I've tried in the last few years.

Oddly enough, T-Mobile USA just introduced another phone made by High Tech Computer Corp., the Taiwanese company that makes the Touch, and it's a diametrically different approach. The $149 Shadow is conservative and restrained. It's a good phone, if not a home run.

The difference in results is even stranger when you consider that both phones run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile software, though somewhat different versions.

The version in the Touch is designed to be used with a stylus. HTC has tried to make it finger-friendly, but it just doesn't work. Scroll bars and menu items are too narrow to hit with a finger. You're supposed to be able to scroll with a flick of the finger across the screen instead of the scroll bar, but it doesn't work in all windows. The finger-typing keyboard that pops up obscures the fields you're trying to type in.

Luckily, the Touch has a stylus, though it's a stubby little thing. Once I stopped trying to use the touch features and went with the stylus, my experience improved. For a moment, I considered retracting my "worst phone" judgment.

The Touch crams a lot of features in a light and small package. The 2.8-inch screen isn't as big as the iPhone's but it's big enough to enjoy movies. It isn't cluttered with buttons, yet it does e-mail and Web browsing on a fast data network. It synchronizes calendar and contact data with Microsoft Outlook. You can watch Sprint's mobile TV on it.

But even with a stylus, the Touch is full of problems. When I turned the screen on, I often found it cluttered with inscrutable Windows error messages that I sometimes had to perform a reset to get rid of. The Windows Media music player would skip while playing MP3s, making it useless. For every digit of a phone number you tap, there's delay before it appears on the screen. Cellular reception and call audio quality were not as good as a Palm Treo on the same network. The "worst phone" tag sticks.

HTC's chief executive, Peter Chou, denied that the Touch was an iPhone wannabe, pointing out that it's been in development for years. But I still detect some iPhone envy behind the phone's launch - it's hard to see that Sprint would have agreed to market the phone if it weren't for the iPhone's success. AT&T Inc. is the exclusive carrier for Apple's phone, and all the other major carriers appear to be scrambling to provide something that's as cool.

The Shadow may be T-Mobile's answer, but it doesn't have a touch screen at all - it's a "slider." Pushing up the screen reveals 20 keys, with two letters to a key rather than the three on a regular phone. That speeds up typing a bit, but can be difficult to get used to.

Like the Touch, the Shadow is light, handsome and has a relatively large, 2.6-inch screen. Its main control is a wheel that rotates to scroll and can be clicked four ways too. The interface is relatively simple and uncluttered. It's more responsive than the Touch but can be sluggish now and then.

T-Mobile lacks a fast data network, but the Shadow makes up for it in part by having built-in Wi-Fi. That means you can surf the Web without springing for a $20-a-month data plan, at least if you're in a hotspot.

Two things turn me off: It can't be set to lock the keys just by sliding in the keypad. The exposed keys and the scroll wheel will still be active. You can lock the keys by pushing one of them, but if you've ended a call by sliding in the keypad, as is natural, you don't get that option.

Secondly, it has no standard headphone jack. The only audio output is through the mini-USB connector. The included headphones plug in there, but they're no better than any other cheap earbuds. If you want to use better headphones you'll have to get a separate adapter. Wireless stereo Bluetooth headphones are also an option, but I find it a hassle to deal with their cryptic indicators and controls. (The Touch also lacks a headphone jack. The package includes a clumsy adapter for regular headphones with the slim stereo connector.)

If you can overlook those things, the Shadow is a decent smart phone of the "lite" variety. It doesn't have a full keyboard or a touch screen, nor is there a wide range of third-party software available for it. The $99 Palm Centro is a more capable phone, and the $399 iPhone beats them both for ease of use and media-playing functions.

About the Touch ... well, let's just say it makes the iPhone look even better. With its first phone, Apple got it right, while the combined efforts of two veterans in the business, HTC and Microsoft, couldn't make a decent touch-screen phone.
 

surur

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Its funny, but the Sprint Touch has gotten pretty good reviews by users. Sometimes with all the anti-MS hostility we have amongst the blogs (e.g. engadget etc) I am surprised Windows Mobile is selling at all, and doubling sales each year.

Surur
 

mikec#IM

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Take a look at this review from Associated Press writer PETER SVENSSON.

I work with multiple smart phones and regularly use as my primary phone the Treo 700wx (use to be on Palm) and my wife uses the HTC Touch. I can say most of the items he talks about are non-sense.

-------------

A Tale of 2 HTC Smart Phones

NEW YORK - If you reach too far, you can lose your balance and fall on your face.

That's what happened with the design process for the "Touch by HTC," one of the smart phones fighting for our attention this holiday season in a field that has been both energized and shaken up by Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

The $249 Touch, carried by Sprint Nextel Corp., overreaches badly in trying to be a touch-screen phone - controlled by the user's fingers on the screen - just like the iPhone. The resulting mess is the worst phone I've tried in the last few years.

Oddly enough, T-Mobile USA just introduced another phone made by High Tech Computer Corp., the Taiwanese company that makes the Touch, and it's a diametrically different approach. The $149 Shadow is conservative and restrained. It's a good phone, if not a home run.

The difference in results is even stranger when you consider that both phones run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile software, though somewhat different versions.

The version in the Touch is designed to be used with a stylus. HTC has tried to make it finger-friendly, but it just doesn't work. Scroll bars and menu items are too narrow to hit with a finger. You're supposed to be able to scroll with a flick of the finger across the screen instead of the scroll bar, but it doesn't work in all windows. The finger-typing keyboard that pops up obscures the fields you're trying to type in.

Luckily, the Touch has a stylus, though it's a stubby little thing. Once I stopped trying to use the touch features and went with the stylus, my experience improved. For a moment, I considered retracting my "worst phone" judgment.

The Touch crams a lot of features in a light and small package. The 2.8-inch screen isn't as big as the iPhone's but it's big enough to enjoy movies. It isn't cluttered with buttons, yet it does e-mail and Web browsing on a fast data network. It synchronizes calendar and contact data with Microsoft Outlook. You can watch Sprint's mobile TV on it.

But even with a stylus, the Touch is full of problems. When I turned the screen on, I often found it cluttered with inscrutable Windows error messages that I sometimes had to perform a reset to get rid of. The Windows Media music player would skip while playing MP3s, making it useless. For every digit of a phone number you tap, there's delay before it appears on the screen. Cellular reception and call audio quality were not as good as a Palm Treo on the same network. The "worst phone" tag sticks.

HTC's chief executive, Peter Chou, denied that the Touch was an iPhone wannabe, pointing out that it's been in development for years. But I still detect some iPhone envy behind the phone's launch - it's hard to see that Sprint would have agreed to market the phone if it weren't for the iPhone's success. AT&T Inc. is the exclusive carrier for Apple's phone, and all the other major carriers appear to be scrambling to provide something that's as cool.

The Shadow may be T-Mobile's answer, but it doesn't have a touch screen at all - it's a "slider." Pushing up the screen reveals 20 keys, with two letters to a key rather than the three on a regular phone. That speeds up typing a bit, but can be difficult to get used to.

Like the Touch, the Shadow is light, handsome and has a relatively large, 2.6-inch screen. Its main control is a wheel that rotates to scroll and can be clicked four ways too. The interface is relatively simple and uncluttered. It's more responsive than the Touch but can be sluggish now and then.

T-Mobile lacks a fast data network, but the Shadow makes up for it in part by having built-in Wi-Fi. That means you can surf the Web without springing for a $20-a-month data plan, at least if you're in a hotspot.

Two things turn me off: It can't be set to lock the keys just by sliding in the keypad. The exposed keys and the scroll wheel will still be active. You can lock the keys by pushing one of them, but if you've ended a call by sliding in the keypad, as is natural, you don't get that option.

Secondly, it has no standard headphone jack. The only audio output is through the mini-USB connector. The included headphones plug in there, but they're no better than any other cheap earbuds. If you want to use better headphones you'll have to get a separate adapter. Wireless stereo Bluetooth headphones are also an option, but I find it a hassle to deal with their cryptic indicators and controls. (The Touch also lacks a headphone jack. The package includes a clumsy adapter for regular headphones with the slim stereo connector.)

If you can overlook those things, the Shadow is a decent smart phone of the "lite" variety. It doesn't have a full keyboard or a touch screen, nor is there a wide range of third-party software available for it. The $99 Palm Centro is a more capable phone, and the $399 iPhone beats them both for ease of use and media-playing functions.

About the Touch ... well, let's just say it makes the iPhone look even better. With its first phone, Apple got it right, while the combined efforts of two veterans in the business, HTC and Microsoft, couldn't make a decent touch-screen phone.

This is why I do not trust anyone in mainstream media for a tech review. The bias is so evident. I don't even trust Uncle Walt.

Simple formula: Apple = all good, anything else = bad. This is a paid slam job.

And, of course, they show off their lack of tech experience/expertise.

Granted I don't think the Touch is the greatest thing ever, but by comparison to what has been offered thus far on a.) WM6, b.) Sprint, it is pretty sharp. (And it has cut and paste.)

Comparing a touch-screen and non-touch-screen device? Apples to Oranges, in my opinion.

Saying the Centro is better? The Centro is a shrunken 700p. It's nice, and the best Palm OS Treo out there, but come on.

Point by point:

"Worst phone I've used in a couple years". What they tells me is he has not used a lot of phone at all, esp. smartphones.

"The Shadow is a good phone if not a home run". So the difference of have a 20 key slider keyboard (ug), no touch screen, no 3G, wi-fi, makes this a winner? I'm missing something, for sure. Not saying the Shadow is a bad phone, but Shadow=home run and Touch = worst doesn't add up.

"Windows error messages". Maybe this is the updates for Sprint TV, OnDemand, etc. You know, those crappy apps no one actually uses that require big updates. Most WM5/6 users know the need to do "resets" is pretty rare.

"Shadow is more responsive than the Touch". Um, the CPU of the Shadow is 200mhx, and the Touch is 400mhz. Have you seen the Youtube videos of each (Phonescoop)? If anything, The Shadow as a little lag (but not too bad).

Headset jack - I agree with him there; I wish there was a standard jack. But then again, the iPhone has the recessesd plug, which requires a dongle (less obtrusive), to use your headset. And unlike the iPhone, you can use BT headsets with the Touch, so no need for wires.

I have no issue if a phone is not your cup of tea, but c'mon at least be a little fair.

I'm glad to hear that the "worst" phone in the past few years sold nearly 1M units this year (GSM Touch; I know they said 800K a few months back).

If this is the "worst", I'll take it every day and twice on Sunday.
 

m3rcury

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I completley agree with the guy..the touch is the worst phone ever...ive had it since it came out and i would rather be using a ppc-6700 with a broken screen than this piece...ive been fighting with sprint ever since i got it and i finally got them to send me out the touch pro which is the best phone ive ever had
 

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