The Touch by HTC, which will be offered by Sprint on November 4, is hands down one of the best devices I’ve used in the past two years. That says a lot considering the number of devices that roll through the CrunchGear offices. But to each his own, I say. The Touch has been an integral part of my stay in the Bay Area and has saved me on more than one occasion.
When I first saw the GSM version of the Touch months ago, I wasn’t that impressed. I usually snub any device that runs Windows Mobile and I thought TouchFLO was just a gimmick, but I can admit when I’m wrong. I like the Touch and I don’t want to send it back! We’ll gloss over the specs and then move onto HTC’s unique UI that is better than the other phone with a touchscreen interface, which shall remain nameless in case there are fanboys or haters that feel like spouting off. These are two entirely different devices aimed at different groups.
The Touch features a microSD slot with support up to 4GB and includes a 512MB card. The 2-megapixel camera has 5x zoom with video capabilities. Stereo Bluetooth, which should be a norm with all phones! The Touch also has voice-activated dialing, which comes in handy while driving and something the other thing doesn’t have. It’s also one of the tiniest, 4.0x 2.4x 0.6-inch and weighs 4oz, and most powerful devices out on the market. Not to mention a 3-inch screen that’s nice and bright.
Does the phone work? Yes. Is voice quality sacrificed for smart phone features? Nope. Perfect. Moving on.
So how does Windows Mobile 6 look on the Touch? I never really knew it existed since TouchFLO masks the ugly beast. Everything about the UI is based on natural movements and I found it easier to use then the other phone with touch capabilities. The Touch served as my modem while scouring the aisles at CTIA and was simple to tether to the ole MacBook via Bluetooth (life saver #1). Sprint’s 3G network is wicked fast and got the job done. I think I tapped ‘Start’ once during my two weeks with the phone. I tend to forget about WinMo and I like that. That’s how it should be. The Touch didn’t have any noticeable lag time switching from app to app or when starting up the camera. I was pleasantly surprised. I found myself leaving the Ocean and Sidekick at home while bouncing around the Bay.
The main menu is effortless to read and only takes a few minutes to figure out what’s what. Need the current temperature and future forecast? Tap the sun and there you go. Everything is adjusted so that you only need to tap an icon once and it pulls up whatever you need without having to dive down through sub-menus. The neat part about TouchFLO is activated when you swipe from the bottom of the screen to the top. It’s here that you’ll find three different menus to flow through with a simple swipe. Rather than a “top 5” you can have nine contacts with their own picture or picture of your choice. You can also access Sprint’s Music, TV and On Demand stores with a tap of the finger. The last menu gives you six options that include an IM client, software store, IE (which kicks much ass since it’s a full Web browsing experience and this was life saver #2, I couldn’t find the suite where my meeting was and all my other devices couldn’t access my CG e-mail), SMS, Comm Manager and mailbox.
When viewing images you can draw a quick circle around a certain section of a photo and have it enlarged for you to inspect. Need to rotate the photo? Slide your finger across and it’s done. Well, let’s say you’ve got a long list of contacts or messages that you want to gloss over pretty quickly. You’re sort of unsure what or who you’re looking for, but you’ll recognize it when you see it type of thing. Jump into your contact list or message list and swipe down or up, which sends everything into motion and once you see what you want just tap the screen and it automatically stops. No need to continuously scroll or tap buttons to scroll through lists.
Sounds simple, right? That’s because it is!
What do I hate about the Touch? I like keyboards and I don’t use a stylus. But there is a Touch slider coming so that may be sufficient enough. Wi-Fi would be nice, but isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. That’s pretty much it. If you’re a Sprint customer then I highly suggest you pick this up. If you’re not a Sprint customer then I suggest you switch. The Touch by HTC on Sprint is only $249.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. Get it, you’ll love it.
Update: Well, I seemed to have failed to mention one of the most important things about the Touch. I’m not fond of the other phone’s touch keypad, but the HTC touch keypad is easier to use. With the other phone I found that you had to tap to the left of the desired key. You don’t have to worry about that with the Touch. The touch keys are significantly smaller, but the software running the touch input seems to work fairly well. It knows the difference between the stylus, finger nails and finger pads (is that right?). It’s responsive enough to touch and taps that I very rarely found myself having to re-tap anything. The XT9 predictive text sucks, but that’s only because I hate all predictive text since I’ve been using a full QWERTY keyboard for the last couple years. Walking and inputting text isn’t much fun, but it can be done. When I found myself in a hurry I whipped out the stylus, but the rest of the time I remained in its slot. Hope this helps.
Sorry im typing in the dark its kinda hard. LOL
i really enjoyed your review, i’ve read up on a few bad reviews about the phone, like it was hard to navigate through, it wouldn’t flip screens when you wanted it too, so it was nice to see something positive about it! =]
YES U CAN ENLARGE THE TEXT FONT, BUT I WAS WONDER IF THE PHONE DIDNT COME WITH WIFI HOW CAN IT BE UNLOCK IF THAT POSSIBLE.
I just bought the Touch and I LOVE IT! I do take issue with one thing in this review. You mentioned that the card reader was compatable for up to 4 GB. Well, I just put a 6GB card in mine, and it is doing great. Don’t know if it will work with the new 8GB Micro coming out next year, but we’ll have to wait and see. My goodness! 6GB on something the size of my fingernail. I love technology, and I love the HTC.
to get to the regular keyboard, you click the lower middle icon (which switches from 20 to keyboard icon to all variations), select the touch keypad option for full qwerty mode. if you go to horizontal mode the keyboard will adjust as well.
This thing is too cool! Got phone last week from Kiosk in major warehouse club store under Bell plan for basically free. Hoping to see GPS enabled up here in western Canada, if anyone knows Bells plans let us know!
Get a proper plan and who cares about “no wifi”. I get unlimited internet and the 1x/Ev network is FAST on this phone – WOW. The sales rep sold both this CDMA and a GSM (Rogers) version of the Touch that has WiFi but said it is a MUCH slower phone. I played with both and have to agree. The rep felt speed issues were due to slower hardware in the GSM version.
I also get unlimited Text/Pic/Video/Sirius Radio. BUT – Bell says phone does not yet support Sirius, but may in the future. Anyone have any insight into Bells plans to have the touch support Sirius radio and when?
After a week I can say, i am totally satisfied. With the many (5) soft keyboard options available, you will find ne that works for you. the interface is amazing and addictive. it just begs to be touched!
Oh one dislike – the mini USB headphone jack, standard headphones will not work. I guess its time for Stereo blutooth!
Also need to know if any cool hack sites for phone exist yet?
I love my touch, but I have a couple of questions that I don’t really know where to ask so I’m hoping someone will see/answer them…
1) I downloaded Opera Mini but I CAN’T FIND IT ANYWHERE IN MY PHONE. I don’t know what to doooo; I want to use it, but I can’t find it. So I figured I’d just delete it rather than having it take up space when I’m note even using it, but I can’t even find it to delete it! Help :o(
2) Is there any way to use the full qwerty touch keyboard for texting/writing in word/anything at all? The only time I ever see it pop up is when I am on a screen that I can’t even type on (like a text message I am reading) and as soon as I’m somewhere I CANT type (like replying to a text message) it goes back to the 20 key that I hate. If there is no way to use it, where could I find a third party touch keyboard that is a full qwerty and is easy to use?
Thanks to antone who can help!
You can find the opera mini in the prorams folder under java!
Hey Brenda,I was reading ur comment and I think I have a keyboard that might interest u.The website is cootek.com and the download is free.Check out that website and let me know if that helps u at all….Good luck!
Gregory
I am about to purchase the HTC through Sprint and was wondering if there was anyway to unlock the wifi, I know how Sprint loves to charge.
Thanks
Hey can anyone help me decide which phone to purchase from Sprint. im stuck between the touch and the palm centro? im just not too sure which would be best to have. ideally id like the HTC but is it worth it? any hassles?
thanks a bunch!
hey, i am ABOUT to get the phone but i am still unsure. I have heard that the phone lags a lot and has many bugs, which in turn makes the phone freeze. I am not willing to pay all that money for a phone that has not been completely perfected yet. So can you email me and let me know if these comments about the phone are true.
do you know when the touch slider is coming out?
Any update on the GPS unlock time frame?
I was wondering if you need to have a seperate data plan with this phone aside from my sprint service, in order to do basic web browsing.
I just purchased my Htc from sprint, and all it is is $15.00 more a month for full internet access. I upgraded to the $25.00 a month which is full internet, sprint tv and photo sharing.
Nice review,
One thing I’d like to add, even though there is no qwerty keyboard option for the Touch, you can buy a 3rd party program called SPB Full Screen Keyboard which gives you a similar keyboard interface as the I phone with a fairly good predictive text system. See the site below it only costs about $10 or something.
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/fsk/?en
Sprint relayed this to me regarding the GPS. – At this point in time, the update that will unlock the GPS on the Touch is scheduled to be released in the 1st quarter of 2008 by HTC.
is this htc touch windows mobile can be used for trading on BSE n NSE. please reply me
Hey I just got my touch a few weeks ago and I have been pretty happy with it, but I notice that my phone has been working slower then I when i first got it. I tryed closing all active programs to see if that worked and it didn’t.
Is there any rotine maintainace that should be done to the touch?
did you get an answer to your 2 questions I’ve seen a couple responses about lag time that I am concerned about. do you like the actual phone part – is dialing difficult?
One more questions… I haven’t been able to watch a video from websit on the Touch. For example I am unable to watch a video on youtube, is there a reason why I can’t access video on a website?
Thanks,sara
Well, I know this is for Sprint, I am with Alltel; I went in to pay my bill the other day and while I was waiting for the clerk to process my payment I asked her if there were any new phones coming out or any new ones that came out and she brought one out. That was this HTC Touch. Right when I saw this phone it made me fall in love with it. I played with it for about 5 minutes and couldn’t figure some of the things out with it but, I figured i’m just going to have to buy it to figure more of it out. I have a Motorolla Razor right now and am considering the upgrade means I graduate in May 2008 being a business and Marketing student.
My only questions that I have for you Peter, were: Does this have mp3 on it, can I listen to music? Can you talk on the phone and be on the internet?
Please let me know about these things before I purchase this phone. I will hopefully be buying it when I get my tax return back which is in a month or month and a half. Thanks so much for having this review. It was really the only one I could find out there!!
Thanks Peter,
Andrew Hoff
will the Sprint Touch sync with an Apple Macbook??
for some reason, I’m not able to open mail icon on my sprint. I worked initially for 3 days and could not open emails any more. All other applications like tv, live search, photo, camera and etc are working fine.
Any thoughts what could be the issue.
I recently won this phone and Im starting to play with it but my only qiestin is where can I get upgrades for this phone? I can’t download any ringers into it I have a lot of songs on my player but I can’t use tehm as ringers. It olnly comes with very little ringers.
Yeah BOB you can say that again!
I recently purchased the HTC touch for sprint and initially I was completely ecstactic with the phone. As time went on I became a little frustrated with this GPS feature. It just doesn’t work. I tried to download the Sprint Navigation application per the instructions listed online, and suprisingly my phone was not supported by sprint navigation! The best phone they have to offer is not supported!! Sprint service people are clueless to make things worse, and everyone said the update was coming in January, then I read it was coming in February, now I hear in the first quarter of 08 which ends in March. Will this update ever come, because I am paying for the use of this feature and not being allowed to enjoy it. The phone is great but, that ticks me off just a tad.
I bought the touch last Saturday with all the features believing that is was going to have GPS on it. The personnel from the store told me that the phone was with an integrated GPS. This GPS is external and not the internal one that the I-Phone has. I’ve been herding about this update but when is really coming?
That is exactly what happened when I bought my phone from the Sprint store. major selling feature was how great the GPS was.
1) vTAP (www.vtap.com) is a video search engine that performs on the fly conversion and works great on my Bell HTC allowing me to watch videos. it provides a consolidated search engine for you tube, wikipedia, TV Shows, How To etc. Can even set up customized feeds. make certain you have unlimited downloads!
2) This will allow you to customize the weather app http://www.htc-touch-info.com/en/weather/
3) How to speed up active Synch on the Touch http://www.htc-touch-info.com/en/activesync-tutorial/
4) You can speed up your touch by turning off non required sounds and notifications under: Settings-Sounds and notifications-Sounds/Notifications (ie//every time you press a number on the dialpad the touch needs to locate and play the coresponding sound slowing it down)
5) Speed up your touch by turning off non used and/or duplicate today screen items under: Settings-today-items
just order mine cant wait to receive it ,u guys comments have been helpfull with my decison
I got my Touch about two weeks ago and all of the reviews I’ve read said the battery life is supposed to be 5 hrs of talk time and over 5 days of standby. I’m not sure I quite believed the 5+ days of standby but I can’t get my battery to last any longer than 6-7 hours without much usage. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can increase my battery life?
yes –
1) adjust your power save settings,
2) if you are using your device to pull in email, adjust the settings so you are only pulling in new emails every 5 mintues or so. I believe the default setting has active sync pulling in email as it arrives. this will definitely drain your battery faster.
3) if those two options don’t resolve your issue (you use several media apps such as SprinTV, Sprint Music, Web browsing – you should defintely consider purchasing an extended life battery. I recently purchased one from Seidio. They include a new battery cover with the same finish as the factory one from HTC. it maintains the original device profile (no extended life battery “hump”..the only thing you may or may not miss will be the metal ring around the camera.
the link to the seidio shop for the HTC is: http://www.seidioonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=927
the battery is $50 and well worth it.
Thanks for the great review. I just returned from sprint. I checked out the Touch, Mogul and centro. I mainly went in to look at the centro b/c I have a macbook and want something that will easily work with it. I then looked at the Mogul and gave it back to the clerk and was on my way out of the door when she suggested I check out the Touch. I love the small size of it but my biggest drawback was the lack of a slide out keyboard. The news of a possible sliding touch has given me new hope. Again, thanks for your review. I’m so tired of seeing simple people who are consumed by “the other touch phone.”
Would you happen to know when the touch slider supposed to come out?And does slider mean there wil be a qwerty keyboard on it? Thanks
touch “dual” doesnt not have a qwerty keyboard. check out http://www.htctouch.com/ for more info.
I really liked this phone for JUST over the 1 month period. Now the phone will not ring on incoming calls when the screen goes blank. The forums are filled with this same issue. Sprint will not do ANYTHING to try to resolve the issue, simply saying the I have to deal with HTC directly. Sprint CS/TS sucks. They simply say that it is in need of a firmware upgrade and that HTC will release one. In the meantime, I have to guess when I have an incoming call – totally unacceptable – BUYER BEWHERE!!!
I love that I have the simple $15/month data package and I can still connect to the internet with my laptops through my phone and USB/Bluetooth at no extra charge.
Also for those of you who hate the keyboard, try downloading and installing the full screen keyboards for windows mobile. Here’s one for ya that I love.
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-free-pda-keyboard-v-1-0-light-edition.html
and heck, you can even change the colors of it. :P
Here’s the sites home for those of you who would want to download more stuff. I’ve got a ton of junk installed on here and they’re great.
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/
Also, try the PointUI Home app. IT’S FRIGGIN AMAZING!
http://pointui.com/
they offer it in blue and black. I like the black version a lot more.
I think this phone a great in so many ways but I think in order to really beat the other phone, the touch has to have at least a 400 MHZ processor that’s the best way to multi-task and process smooth video. The size is perfect but 200 MHZ is not enough. I hope they have something similar with processing power and reasonable price. This HTC Touch is not “the other phone killer” for me.
i think you are comparing the non sprint version of the touch. it is a 400mhz
Reading this review of the HTC Touch was very helpful and the comments following the review lead me to buy one. Thank you all for your great input on the phone and to help point out the great features this phone as to offer.
Does this phone use anytype of “graffiti” or “jot” input?
If this phone is so great, then Sprint would make a lot more money if they would just keep the Wi-fi enabled like that other phone. But Sprint will just keep losing hundreds of thousands of customers each quarter.
So much for the GPS unlock during the first quarter. Any one hear the new theory on the update that will unlock the GPS?
I heard on another PPC chat site that the gps update is canceled after how much trouble they had getting the update out for the mogul.
I hope not, I’m loving the sprint touch I just got, GPS would make it better, decent battery life would make it perfect!
ive had my touch for a few months and anytime i talk for more then a few min my phone heats up alot is there anything i can do about it is it a manufacturers defect or do i just have to deal with it
I have the touch and it is ok. Since the guy up top gives you the pros I am going to give you the cons…
I was really ticked off about the GPS navigation not being an option. I was told by both the sprint store that I purchased it from as well as sprint customer service that it had GPS but they were both wrong.
Good luck dialing a number in the day light cause you can’t see the screen.
Sprint’s scrolling music not available on this phone, again contrary to what the store and sprint them selves said.
And the camera is about useless if you are not in a very well lit atmosphere
It is a pain to send a picture msg. you have to have the other persons MMS email address for their phone.
HEY, I LOVE THIS PHONE. IT DOES (ALMOST) EVERYTHING I NEED IT TO DO. IF ANYONE CAN FIND A WAY FOR ME TO MAKE THIS PHONE STREAM INTERNET RADIO AND WATCH YOU TUBE VIDEO’S PLEASE LET ME KNOW THOSE ARE THE ONLY 2 THINGS I NEED IT TO DO , CAUSE OTHER THAN THAT THE PHONE I GREAT …THE EXCEL WORKS PERFECT FOR ME AND ALL THE OTHER FEATURES I DO LOVE THIS PHONE. SO IF ANYONE OUT THAN CAN HELP ME WITH THIS .. I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT.. THANKS..OH ONE MORE THING NEEDS A LONGER LASTING BATTERY AND A FLASH TO MAKE IT PERFECT..
hi there,
Currently using o2 Zinc XDA its always hang ,very frurstrating thought of switching to HTC TOUCH .Pls advise
I have this phone and all I can say is it was a waste of my money. Its slow and freezes. It shuts off and all I want now is an IPhone. I am done with Microsoft.
I’m not sure how much sprint paid you to do this review, but I had this phone and it was such a disappointment. The keyboard is cramped. The battery-life is very low. I only had the phone for about 6 months before switching to a new phone. The battery wouldn’t even last a full day. Also there were lots of glitches. I had to exchange my first Touch within the first week. The second Touch I had froze up and wouldn’t receive phone calls. I called Sprint and a rep said this phone has to be reset often because it is more of a computer. She said I would have to turn off the phone and remove the battery when I noticed I wasn’t receiving calls. Sounds like Sprint needs to get the kinks worked out before it tries to compete with the iPhone. Overall, I was very disappointed, and I don’t recommed this phone at all.
I have to agree with Ashley. I am both frustrated and disappointed with this phone. Everything you said happened to me as well. I am glad to see that you were able to change phones. I have had mine for only 2 months and I am going into the sprint office tommorrow to get a different phone.
does this htc touch need a data plan like internet and other stuff like tv and navigation? or can i just have a simple plan with talk and text?
Sprint HTC touch’s new firmware update adds GPS to the bundle.
This phone can be versatile but the durability is poor.Everytime it is dropped the back falls off and battery comes out. Much of the silver color has already come off.The battery life is very poor mine never lasts a day with full usage and I keep my screen on the lowest brightness.It also calls people when I leave it in my purse I guess do to the touch screen.The internet on it is very good though and the “cube” can be handy but I will probably never purchase a touch screen phone again.
i am on the ntelos network(local wireless company, $40 for u limited everything and works great) i have recently purchased the lg 260…AKA the lg rumor. the lg has bugs and viruses, and im interested in purchasing this, but the customer support say that its only touch screen so if it were to break i couldnt use it, but i would get the insurance…anyways, since it has windows media player, which is great, is it worth selling my ipod touch to purchase this? how long does the battery last? oh and i have read that it has wifi!? ive heard mixed answers…so i want the real one! anyways…is it difficult to use, like texting, adding contact, calling/dialing?thanx so much for your review!im deffinenlty shelling out $250 for it!
Alright well right now I have the rumor and there’s nothing wrong with it but since the Touch is only 20$ I’m kinds looking at it. But the problem is I don’t have Internet and I don’t think I will be getting it, should I still get this phone even though I won’t have Internet ?