By JIMMY C. CALAPATI
Last year, HTC, the world’s leading provider of Microsoft
Windows Mobile smart devices, launched Touch Dual.
This new and more powerful member of the Touch family offers
the best of both worlds—3.5G wireless connectivity with highly-sensitive,
full-function touch screen and a sleek and innovative sliding keypad design.
The Touch Dual is the second device to feature HTC’s TouchFLO,
the same gesture-recognition technology as that in the HTC Touch, but now the
new functionality including the ability to view photo slideshows using on-screen
controls and to zoom and rotate images with only a hand.
TouchFLO also allows enhanced finger touch scrolling and
browsing of web pages, documents, messages and contact lists.
Touch Dual is about two inches by four inches so, when
sideways, it can fit in an adult’s palm. It’s just over a half inch thick, a
little meatier than the average smartphone. Plus, the Touch Dual is easy to
grip.
The top portion is taken up by a tall 2.8 inch glass-like
screen, two buttons and a flat control. The two vertical buttons, the equivalent
of traditional stop and go buttons, glow red and green when they are available.
The flat control, which serves as an all-purpose menu
joystick, is a square metal button surrounded by a touch-sensitive border.
For the traditional phone lovers, it may take a while longer
to adjust to the buttons. But once you get the hang of it, there’s no stopping
your fingers from browsing the menus, downloading music or photos, transferring
data or simply playing games.
The bottom portion of the phone, once you slide it up, is
just the keyboard, a flat-surfaced collection of buttons made of a light,
crystal-like material.
The keyboard isn’t as wide as, say, the full-sized Sidekick,
but isn’t as tiny as the average phone.
HTC also kept the ports and quick controls simple. On the
left side are the volume buttons and the mini-USB/power port. On the right is a
well-disguised camera quick key and an equally well-hidden stylus holder (the
instrument can be removed by pulling the small notch on the stylus itself).
The Touch Dual comes in a durable, high-end black rectangular
box that seems more fitting for a Gucci purchase (the lid doesn’t even need to
be removed – it uses magnets to close).
The included accessories are equally impressive: the phone,
wall plug, mini-USB cord, iPhone-quality earphones.
The main menu screen has colorful icons representing ring
preferences, applications, phone brightness, orientation (vertical or
horizontal), security features and so on.
Press the flat control to move along the menu… or use the
stylus to double tap.
In fact, the main challenge with the phone may be thinking
you are missing something when, in fact, HTC is just trying really hard
to satisfy your every whim.
Like a stylus? Use it. Like joysticks? You can use that, too.
HTC even added a skin-sensitive touchscreen to the mix. Use
your thumb to rub up from the bottom of the screen and a touch-controlled "menu
cube" will appear.
Rub left or right to access different menu options, such as
email, SMS, Internet Explorer and phone book. This method seemed fast,
intuitive, fun, and, perhaps, somewhat excessive.
Text messaging and emailing seemed smooth on the device,
primarily because of the smartly-designed keyboard.
But the user will be surprised if he decides to use the touch
screen for sms. Touch Dual actually has several options for text inputing—the
normal QWERTY buttons, the average cellphone buttons, more taps and the numbers
will appear, or the letters will be capitalized.
The Windows Media Player is the HTC Dual Touch multimedia
hub. Once the phone is plugged in, Windows will ask if you want to create a
folder for the phone.
You can then drag and drop music, playlists and videos onto
the HTC icon. The average song, however, took a few seconds to transfer. And
receiving data via the built-in Bluetooth is even longer.
For all the bells and whistles, playing multimedia on the
Dual Touch is simple: play/pause, rewind and fast forward options, along with an
onscreen volume control and music details listing.
The sound is also good, especially if you use the earphone.
The built-in speakers are not that loud as compared to other music phones.
The 2.0 Megapixel camera lacks a flash, a surprisingly
omission for a phone of this caliber, but otherwise the HTC Dual Touch does the
job.
Press the camera button on the side – or go through the menus
– and the screen turns into a viewfinder. You can attach the photo, save it in
memory and so on.
One odd function is what may be described as a rapid-fire
option: the camera will take five photos in rapid succession, allowing you to
save the best ones.
The HTC Dual Touch is a good looking, adaptable phone that is
unlike anything on the market. Practical users will be annoyed with the
overbearing options and abundant functions, but hardcore phone lovers will be
happy to discover all its little tricks.
The price? The unit costs around P36,000.
