When the specifications for the HTC Elf, the platform the HTC Touch is based on, were released some time ago it was met with little enthusiasm. Even the photos that followed showing its diminutive form factor went largely unnoticed by a community craving devices with high speed data access, on board GPS and fancy sliding hardware keyboards. So it did come as somewhat of a surprise when the usually clandestine HTC hyped up a press release for June 5th with teasers all over the web showing a little green man. It had do be the Elf didn't it? So what was so special about it? Labelled the HTC Touch, for now obvious reasons, many wondered if the June 5th ad campaign was simply an attempt to steal Apple's I-Phone thunder. Is the Touch's new finger friendly input mechanism merely a publicity stunt or are we witnessing the dawn of a new age for Pocket PC's? Read on to find out.....
Many thanks to Chris Love at Clove Technology for providing us with a review sample.
| Supplier | Clove Technology |
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All photographs can be clicked for full size images.
Specification
| Brand | HTC |
| Manufacturer | High Tech Computer |
| Project Codename | HTC Elf |
| Model ID | ELF100 |
| Release Date | June, 2007 |
| Size (width x height x depth) | 58 x 99.9 x 13.9 millimetres |
| | 2.3 x 3.9 x 0.5 inches |
| Bounding Volume | 80.5 cubic centimetres |
| Mass | 112 grams (battery included) |
| Embedded Operating System | Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional |
| Operating System Kernel | Windows CE 5.2 |
| CPU | Texas Instruments OMAP 850 |
| CPU Clock | 201 MHz |
| CPU Core | ARM926EJ-S |
| Level 1 cache | 8KB data cache / 16 KB instruction cache |
| Instruction Set | ARM v5 |
| ROM type | Flash ROM |
| ROM capacity | 128 MB |
| RAM type | SDRAM |
| RAM capacity | 64 MB |
| Display Type | colour transreflective TFT |
| Display Colour Depth | 16 bit/pixel (65536 scales) |
| Display Resolution | 240 x 320 (76800 pixel) |
| Display Diagonal | 2.8 " (72 millimetres) |
| Viewable Area | 1.7" x 2.3" (43.2 x 57.6 millimetres) |
| Dot Pitch | 0.18 millimetre/pixel |
| Digital/Analogue Converter | stereo , 16bit audio sampling |
| Microphone | mono |
| Speaker | 1 loudspeaker (mono) |
| Audio Output | HTC Proprietary jack |
| Cellular Networks | GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900 |
| Cellular Data Link | CSD, GPRS, EDGE |
| Cellular Antenna | Internal |
| Call Alert | 64 -chord melody (polyphonic) |
| Vibrating Alert | Supported |
| Speakerphone | Supported |
| Phone Controller (DSP) | TI TMS320C54x |
| Positioning Device | Touch screen |
| Directional Pad | 5 -way directional block (including action button) |
| Expansion Slots | SDIO, MicroSD |
| Serial (UART) | RS-232 , 115200bit/s |
| USB | USB 1.1 client, 12Mbit/s USB Series Mini-B (mini-USB) connector |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 2.0 , Internal antenna |
| Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) | 802.11b, 802.11g (54Mbit/s) |
| Main Camera | CMOS sensor, 1600x1200 (1.92 million pixels) |
| Optical Zoom | 1 x |
| Recordable Image Formats | JPG, BMP |
| Camcorder | 176x144pixel , 15frame/sec |
| Recordable Video Formats | 3GPP, MPEG4, MJPG |
| Battery | Lithium-ion polymer , removable |
| Battery Capacity | 1100 mAh |
| Average Current | 100 mAh |
In the box
If I had to sum up the packaging on most HTC branded products I think I'd call it functional. The boxes aren't ugly, but they're not exactly velvet covered silk cushioned jewellery boxes either. The Touch however comes in a nicely designed matt black box that flips open to display the device and headphones nicely. Rather than the familiar white box and plastic bags inside there is a really nice foamed backed card which the device itself set into it. It gives the Touch an impressive sense of majesty, which the similarly inset headphones framing it seem only to heighten. If I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to suggest this is the first HTC device really aimed at Joe Public, as opposed to the business or early adopter markets.
HTC Touch
Battery
Carry Pouch
Wired Headset (Sponge earpiece covers)
Spare Stylus
Screen Protector
Chunky Colour Manual
Quick Start Guide
Software CD
- Sprite Backup
- GPRS Monitor
Getting Started CD
- MS Outlook 2007 Trial
There's nothing drastically different accessory wise to normal here, although the inclusion of an Outlook 2007 trial CD is interesting. In the old days Outlook XP (2002) was supplied, but not as a trial. I wonder if many people will upgrade to the full version? The documentation pack includes a handy quick start guide and comprehensive manual as you'd expect, along with 2 CD's. The first holds the obligatory Outlook/Active sync software with the second containing Sprite Backup and GPRS Monitor. This is a goodly set of free extra tools with Sprite and GPRS monitor being on most peoples must have app list.
The wired headphones and carry pouch both continue the feeling that HTC are making a bit of an effort here, as both are of a higher quality than the examples we've seen with previous devices. Not especially from a performance perspective, but definitely aesthetically.
Convergence
It goes without saying that today's mobile telephones and PDA's are much more than the terms telephone and PDA infer. Today’s devices are becoming ever more complex to meet the demands of the modern lifestyle. No longer are users happy to carry around a PDA, phone, etc; more functionality is demanded from the market and in ever more pocketable and slight devices. The HTC Touch strives to meet these needs boasting a truly spectacular specification considering its tiny frame and therefore contains the following areas of functionality within the device:
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
Mobile (cell) Phone
Camera
Push Email
Portable media player
Aesthetics
I'm not going to mince my words; the HTC Touch is a truly lovely looking device. Apparently black IS the new black as we saw with the Trinity, although the Touch has a finger print repelling matt finish as opposed to the gloss of the Trinity. The matt finish of the device contrasts beautifully with the chrome plated centre strip spanning around its circumference and the d-pad. There are also very few ports and buttons too, which keeps the lines of the device nice and simple. There's definitely an air of stealth about the Touch. Even the Green and Red phone buttons are dulled down and blend in with black of the device until lit. In fact the only really sign of colour is tiny green triangle of the HTC logo on the back. It's not the most original looking machine, but as I said earlier, it really works aesthetically and looks very smart. We like, very much.
Size
For those of you who think big is beautiful, look away now. There's nothing for you here. One of the major selling points of the Touch has to be the form factor. The device is tiny, easily the smallest Pocket PC available. The real bonus for me though is the weight. When you have a device this thin and so lightweight it barely makes a bulge in your pocket. I doubt you'd even notice it on a belt clip, but then why would you need one? It's begs to be put in a pocket. I had to keep having a feel (steady on, this is a family site!) to make sure it was still there! From a pocket perspective the Touch is half the size and weight of my wallet, and I'm married! Awesome stuff.
Ergonomics
Being such a small Pocket PC the Touch fits beautifully into the palm of your hand. The edges taper in too, adding to a nice feel of security as you grip it. I have reasonably sized hands and I found that with the device sitting in my left palm I could access the whole of the screen, just about including the x button in the top right hand corner of the screen, with my thumb. The new screen type set flush into the case rather than a couple of millimetres down make using the device one handed a breeze. The screen itself feels much spongier too and has obviously been optimised for finger and not stylus use. In fact, while operating the device with your thumb it feels very responsive, while the stylus has become less so. I found you had to apply much more pressure with the stylus to get the desired effect, certainly more than I'd like to apply. The detection on the screen also seems different. Whereas with devices like the Hermes and the Trinity the first point you make contact with the screen is recorded the Touch screen seems to detect the centre point. This may be the extra travel from the "spongier" screen or maybe software driven. Again this makes finger navigation much better than Stylus navigation. In the couple of weeks I've been using it I've very rarely felt the need to use the stylus at all. I've been trying to edge away from stylus use by carefully selecting "finger compatible" third party software but now HTC looks to have completed the job for me. Excellent! I also like the implementation of the Dpad on the Touch too. The button in the centre is for action and the silver bezel up, down, left and right. It's quite sensitive but works well.
Hardware Layout
There's not a huge amount to say hardware wise about the Touch. The external controls and ports have been kept to the minimum. I'll run through them quickly anyway. The front of the device above the screen houses a small grill under which sits the speaker and the two standard indicator LED’s. Underneath the screen are the two call buttons, one green and one red either side of the Dpad. The edges of the device are quite sparse with the top only containing the power button and Stylus silo. The left and right sides just house the volume slider and camera button respectively. The right edge also contains a cunningly disguised and frustratingly difficult to access cover for the SIM and MicroSD card slots. I really like the way it seems part of the trim, but I found the only way I could prize it open was with the battery cover off. This seemed to somewhat negate the advantage gained from not having it under the battery in the first place. The bottom edge of the Touch has a lanyard loop, Mic, reset button and the now obligatory HTC proprietary USB/Audio socket. On the back of the machine is the 2 mage pixel camera and self portrait mirror along with the another grill housing the loud speaker.
A lot has been made about the lack of buttons on the Touch, and although the new UI and bundled HTC apps go a good way in removing the need for extra hardware I can't help wishing they'd included an ok button. The TouchFLO scrolling works well enough to do without a scroll wheel and the flush screen removes the requirement for soft keys if only because you can push them directly on the screen. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a replacement for the Ok button though and find it a little difficult to keep going to the top right hand side of the screen to close apps down.
Screen
As we've come to expect from HTC the 2.8" TFT screen on the Touch is sharp and bright. In strong daylight I found the screen could have been a little brighter, but it's certainly usable in most conditions. I thought the viewing angle may not have been as wide as other devices when being viewed from a vertical angle. This could be due to the different Touch screen implementation, but isn't a major issue. The screen itself occupies a good percentage of the surface area of the device, more so than previous devices. One good by product of the flush screen is that it makes it so much easier to clean. Gone are the days of toiling away with a lint free cloth trying to scrape small bits of grime and dust from the edges of the screen. Now, I just wipe and go!
Camera
This most recent generation of HTC devices seem to be being released with a mix of 2 and 3 mega pixel cameras. The Athena and Kaiser have 3MP cameras and the Touch, Wings etc 2MP. We've already seen good quality images coming from the 3MP on the Athena, but the question is can the new 2MP hardware compare. The short answer is yes. The Touch, like the Athena uses the new version of HTC's camera application which is much better than on the older devices. Coupled with the newer hardware the results are actually quite good. Sure, it will not win any awards, but from the images below you can clearly see the images are getting better and better as the devices evolve. I think the Athena is actually reaching the quality you could print out a 8 x 5 image and frame. The Touch is close; you'd have to decide for yourself if you'd frame something of the quality the image below shows. The low light images are still a bit weak and there's no flash on the Touch, not even of the standard high powered LED masquerading as a flash. Maybe for the next generation of devices HTC will give us a real flash? Perhaps. Until then progress is still progress and I do feel the still camera is a good addition to the device.
The order of the photos from left to right is:
HTC Magician, HTC Wizard, HTC Strtrk, HTC Hermes, Ameo (HTC Athena) and finally the HTC Touch.
Telephony
As I've already indicated, I feel this device is aimed far more at the public sector than any other HTC PPC's. Historically HTC have won very few friends for the telephony implementation in its devices. Usually suffering from volume and clarity issues the handsets struggled to compete with dedicated telephones, and often as not had difficulty even maintaining marginal signals. Although the recent phone edition (now called "Professional") devices have improved over recent generations I was hoping the Touch would contain a phone strong enough to live with the Nokias and Sony Ericssons. Unfortunately this is not the case. While no worse than the average telephony manifestation of the Trinity and Vox, it's difficult to see any major progress. There may be an ever so slight improvement in voice quality, but certainly the signal strength is nearly identical to the Trinity. A bit of a disappointment unfortunately.
Hardware Interfaces.
As seems to be the current trend, there is no IR port on the HTC Touch.
Wireless
The Touch comes equipped with both cellular data (CSD, GPRS, EDGE) and Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) supporting the 802.11b, 802.11e (54Mbit/s) protocols. If you're used to connecting your WM5 device to the web there's very little to differ with the way it is executed on the Touch. I found the WiFi signal strong and sturdy, not having any issues connecting to the 3 WAPs I tried it on.
Bluetooth
The Touch has Bluetooth version 2 as is standard with the latest HTC devices and supports many BT profiles. The regular features of Bluetooth are still up to scratch too, and even better than before. Using my Bluetooth Headphones the signal was the strongest of any HTC device I've used, including recently the Vox and as with most of the HTC devices the A2DP wireless headphones profile has by default been set to JointStereo only. Joint Stereo is a technique used that when the two stereo streams are playing the same or very similar sounds it combines them to save space. This helps to reduce the data transfer rates. If you wish to enable True Stereo you can use a registry change to "unJoin" them.
Storage
The Touch comes with a fairly miserly 128MB ROM and 64MB RAM. In reality this equates to Storage Memory total of 32.46MB and Program Memory total of 47.90MB.As with many of the smaller HTC devices the Touch comes with a built in MicroSD card slot. Currently, MicroSD cards come in sizes up to 2GB. It has not yet been determined as to whether the HTC Touch will be able to use the new 4GB SDHC MicroSD cards.
Battery
The battery life on the HTC Touch is superb. An average day’s use for me consists of up to 20 minutes of calls, 30 minutes of browsing in a mediocre 3G area and about 100 push emails. I'm not much of a texter but there's usually a couple of SMS in there too. I also use my device as an MP3 player while I'm cycling to work, so there's also an extra 30 minutes of music, over a set of Bluetooth headphones. I found with the Hermes and Trinity devices running WM6 that at the end of the day I've had about 40% charge left over. This essentially means you have to charge your device everyday. I found with the Touch I was only using approximately 40% in 24 hours, meaning I could get a good couple of days running from a single fully juiced battery. It's quite surprising if you examine the battery specifications for the three devices. The Hermes and Trinity have 1350mAh and 1500mAh respectively whereas the Touch device only has a tiny 1100MAh power cell.
The two day charging cycle is a welcome return for me. Not since the days of the Wizard have I seen this lower power usage. I think it's primarily down to the lack of 3G. I know the processor comes into it too. If I examine the battery usage rates against the wireless data protocols supported by the device you can see a direct correlation between 3G and low battery life. Devices like the Touch, Wizard and Vox all boast 2 day charging cycles, but only offer GPRS and EDGE. The Hermes, Trinity and Ameo have the much higher speed UMTS and HSDPA functionality but will need recharging daily. With 3G signals still hit and miss outside of the major cities it's an interesting trade off.
There's a little bonus with the battery function on the Touch that has been a personal annoyance for me for a while now. The battery status indicator is back to increments of 1 again (hoorah!), rather than the frustrating increments of 10 we've seen on the Hermes etc. It'll be interesting to see if the faster CPU machines that follow the Touch will also return to increments of one or not.
Operating System
The Touch is the first Pocket PC from HTC to be shipped with Windows Mobile 6 Professional. The main functionality differences between WM5 and WM6 are aimed mainly at the business user running MS Exchange 2007. There are however many small improvements that generally make things that bit quicker and easier.
For a more in depth look at the changes between WM5 and WM6 there is this pdf available over at Jason Langridge's blog.
http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/attachment/1904298.ashx
For a real in depth look at the differences this pdf contains everything you want to know about WM6 as an upgrade but were afraid to ask.
https://partner.microsoft.com/download/global/40037645
The list of programs on the HTC Touch is:
| Games | Bubble Breaker & Solitaire. |
| ActiveSync | The WM client component of ActiveSync 4.xx. |
| Adobe Reader LE | PDF Viewer. |
| Audio Manager | Skinned front end to Windows Media Player. |
| Bluetooth Explorer | Bluetooth File manager. |
| Calculator | Calculator application. |
| Camera | HTC Camera control application. |
| Comm Manager | HTC client application for managing the phone / Bluetooth and WiFi (HTC application). |
| File Explorer | WM 5.0 File Manager. |
| Interactive | Downloadable content access. |
| Internet Sharing | Allows you to use your device as a modem. |
| Java | Esmertec Java Midlet Manager. |
| Messenger | Microsoft Instant Messenger application. |
| Notes | Note taking application. |
| Pictures & Videos | WM 5.0 Video / Picture viewing application. |
| SAP Settings | Remote SIM Access over Bluetooth. |
| Search | WM 5.0 system search applet. |
| SIM Manager | Sim Contact manager. |
| Streaming Media | Streaming images etc over GPRS/3G. |
| Tasks | WM 5.0 To-Do list application. |
| Voice Recorder | Links to Voice recording applet. |
| Voice Speed Dial | Voice activated speed dialling / application launching (HTC application). |
| Windows Live | Windows Live Sign in. |
| Windows Media | Media player. |
| Zip | HTC ZIP client for managing Zipped file archives. |
The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the absence of the Mobile Office suite from the programs list. Bizarrely, this seems only accessible from the Start Menu, and has it's own program group separate from the one above. In this group there is:-
| Excel Mobile - MS Spreadsheet application. |
| PowerPoint Mobile - MS Presentation application. |
| Word Mobile - MS Word Processor. |
After using a few "grey" versions of Windows Mobile 6 and the Smartphone version on the Vox I'd decided for the duration of testing the Touch I was going to "go commando" (from a software perspective obviously) and not install any third party apps on the machine at all. HTC have added two major new applications to the Microsoft suite offered in the WM6 OS; HTC Home and the TouchFLO software that I'll cover later. HTC Home is a Today screen plugin that offers a three tab display. The first tab gives you Service provider information along with the date, a large digital clock display and indicators for SMS, Email and missed calls. The second tab shows your local weather, in a daily or 5 day display. The final tab is a 9 shortcut launcher application. In general HTC Home is a very welcome and very usable addition to WM6. It's a little limited from a configuration perspective and the list of cities available weather wise is quite short. It is however free, and quite easy on the eye. HTC have also updated the Comm Manager aesthetically, which looks good and added Audio Manager, a skinned front end to Windows Media Player that fits visually with the TouchFLO and HTC Home look.
It's testament to the progress Microsoft and HTC have made with WM6 and the Touch that there were only two software holes I found really needed filling by third party applications. The first is a profiler. We don't need something like PhoneAlarm but a simple 3/4 profile app that'll let you select a Normal, Silent and Car etc profile to customise the system volume settings would be most welcome. My other want, and this may seem trivial to some, is that I want a new game. I'm bored of Ballbreaker, and I've been playing Solitaire for twenty years now. So come on Microsoft, give us a new game in Windows Mobile 2007, please, pretty please?
TouchFLO
TouchFLO is the new HTC user interface at the centre of the big June 5th marketing campaign. It consists of a 3 sided virtual cube (virtual triangular prism?) that is wholly controlled by your finger. To start the TouchFLO you sweep across the screen with your selected digit from bottom to top. This activates the TouchFLO and the application springs into life (literally. The animation is lovely). You then sweep across the screen from left to right or right to left to move onto the next page. The three pages can be seen in the images. One is a launcher, one an image dialler and the last a media launcher. When done you sweep your finger from top to bottom and the application closes (again animated nicely). It's a bit of a gimmick, but it is very useful. With the lack of soft buttons it makes getting at the standard features of the operating system a quick, easy and fun process without taking your stylus from its silo. The most useful instance of TouchFLO for me is in the contacts applet. You can use your finger to scroll up and down the contacts list which responds to the speed at which you "sweep" up and down the screen. Whether it was worth the hype of June 5th is a different argument altogether, but I like it.
Performance
There's no doubt about it, the Touch could do with a little more oomph. As I said earlier I've been using the Touch with just WM6, no third party apps and it works well. I didn't experience any particular slowdowns and saw good battery usage. I never had to soft reset the device at all because of lockups or degrading performance either. Unfortunately when you start installing third party applications, especially power hungry applications like SatNav the little OMAP processor starts to struggle. It's not terrible, but you can visibly see the difference between this and the more powerful devices like the Hermes and Trinity, and especially the Athena. The problem is, as we discussed earlier, more oomph means a more powerful processor which means a bigger power plant (battery) which means a bigger device etc. It's a vicious circle that ends with a device you need a rucksack for. i.e. the Athena. It's all about compromise. I think HTC have it just about right. There's a nice balance for the normal user between size, power and battery life.
Value
Cost: £309.02 inc.
Clove are selling the HTC Touch right now for a touch over £300 which makes it, at launch, the cheapest HTC Pocket PC ever. Considering this, you would expect it to have the feature set of a budget device and to a certain extent it has. The fact that it also has the latest touch technology though makes it a bit of a bargain. It's the same price as a new Smartphone, an absolute steal!
Pro's
Awesome looks.
Diminutive form factor.
Excellent TouchFLO UI.
Nice packaging.
Nice bundled software selection.
Flush screen easy to clean.
Screen very easy to use with finger.
Better quality headset and carry pouch.
Excellent battery life.
Strong Bluetooth implementation.
MicroSD slot.
Mature WM6 OS.
Decent camera.
No need to remove the battery for SIM and SD access.
Con's
No 3G.
No GPS.
Telephony functionality still not brilliant.
Can be a little sluggish with hungry third party software.
No OK button.
HTC Headphone socket.
Difficult SIM/MicroSD cover.
Screen less sensitive to stylus use.
Trial version only of MS Outlook 2007.
Tri Band only (no 850MHz support).
4WM Rating
90%
Conclusion
In the old days HTC released a couple of devices a year and they pretty much did the same thing, with a couple of hardware upgrades thrown in for good measure. Now we're seeing HTC produce more a range of devices to suit users with differing feature biases. While the Athena was aimed at the performance business user, the Touch is quite firmly aimed at the public sector. The Touch is unlike any other phone HTC have produced in many ways, the exceptional size and flush screen being the most notable. Sure, it would definitely benefit from 3G, built in GPS and a bigger proc but these features have been sacrificed for its diminutive size and excellent battery life. In fact, the only real issue I have with the Touch is the lack of an ok button. Everything else I can live with or work around. It's designed to be small, compact, easy to use and cheap. The combination of the slight form factor, TouchFLO technology and Windows Mobile 6 means it's exceptionally good at this. I had real trouble scoring this device. If you look at the Pro's and Con's above you'd be forgiven for thinking the score is too high. The fact is this device is excellent at what it does, and while the GPRS is a little slow and the CPU is a little slow it still has all the functionality at half of the size. For that reason alone it is very special. I do hate to harp on, and size isn't everything, but once you've used the Touch those big power demanding features become less of a requirement and more of a preference. I said in my Athena review that the hardest decision you would have to make was what device you were going to use when the Athena was just too big to cart around. I'd suggest you look no further than the Touch. With this Pocket Dynamo I think you'll be finding the bigger devices suddenly seem a whole lot more of a burden.......
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