The HTC Touch was the first of what we expect will be many HTC handsets running the TouchFlo interface over Windows Mobile Professional. Sprint is currently the only carrier in the US to pick up the Touch, and we're sure they're positioning the device as a competitor to the iPhone. The first thing you notice about the Touch is how small it is. At 3.9 x 2.3 x .55 inches it's significantly smaller than the iPhone, albeit just a bit thicker. It fits comfortably into the palm of your hand. Above and below you see (from left to right) the AT&T Touch, the iPhone, The Sprint Tilt and the Razr2.
In this pile of phones (from the bottom: the AT&T Tilt, the iPhone, the Razr2 and the Touch), you see that it's not an especially think phone. Anyone used to the plethora of buttons that HTC usually includes in their handsets will also notice the relative dearth of buttons on the Touch. There's a D-Pad, send and end keys, power button and a dedicated key for voice command. This means that you don't have things like the Start and OK keys that are found on so many Windows Mobile handsets. Instead HTC wants you to use the 2.8 inch touch screen to interact with the device, and making this easier is the whole point of the TouchFlo interface.
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Home Screen
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The first of many launchers
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When you turn the Touch on you'll note that the home screen is significantly different from other Windows Mobile phones. In place of the traditional Today screen is an interface that provides large button that can be easily managed with your finger, rather than a stylus. There are four principal tabs that give you a clock, weather, launcher and profile control. Below this is another launcher and finally a list of upcoming appointments at the bottom. What's really different though is what happens when you run your finger from the bottom of the screen to the top.
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| Application launcher 2 |
...and 3 |
and some contacts stuff |
This pulls up a full screen launcher with six large buttons that are easy to hit with a finger. Swiping your finger from left/right or vice versa across the screen will change the view to a quick contact screen with photos of each contact you want and another launcher with access to music, Sprint TV and Sprint's on demand service. We're not sure if this plethora of launchers is quite that necessary, but it does put a lot of features in easy reach, which we're sure was the idea. To go back to the home screen you swipe your finger from the top of the screen to the bottom.
TouchFlo brings more enhancements than just a fancy home screen though. First of all is touch scrolling, which allows you to scroll by moving your finger up and down the screen. This works in several places including the web browser, contacts and program menu. Unfortunately the scrolling action is not nearly as smooth as the home screen interface. We found ourselves having a lot of trouble controlling how quickly the scroll moved and stopping it where we want it. This should improve with time, but when contrasted with the iPhone's touch scrolling system it falls far short.
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The Touch also includes some software upgrades to the video and photo album software. In place of the traditional Windows Mobile picture viewer you get a landscape orientation interface that allows you to do a lot by touching your photos. For example, just like on the iPhone, you can move to the next or previous photo by swiping your finger across the screen. There are also touch zoom controls, just draw a circle around the area of the photo you want to zoom into/out of and off you go. Draw the circle clockwise to zoom in, counter clockwise to zoom out. Drawing an "L" shape will rotate the photo, while tapping on the screen will bring up a menu of options. We certainly like what we see here.
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HTC has also made a lot of small changes in the interface to improve touch control. The start menu has much larger icons to make it easier to hit them with a finger instead of a stylus. In the contacts menu you have an enlarged alphabet along the right side that works like the iPhone, just run your finger along it until you get the letter you want and then let go to jump to that point. They've also included two new text input options, a two-letter to a key interface and a number pad interface, that are easier to use with your finger than the standard Windows Mobile input options. Given that the Touch lacks any kind of keyboard or keypad these are important additions, although nowhere near as good as the iPhone's on screen keyboard. Finally, the camera interface has been updated to make it easier to use with your finger as well.
So, what are our overall first impressions? HTC's gotten a lot right with TouchFlo, but there are still some serious flaws. Scrolling by touch is nowhere near where it ought to be yet. It also hasn't been so completely integrated with the interface that you can eschew more traditional input methods. For example when opening a traditional Windows Mobile menu you're still far better off using the stylus or D-Pad rather than your finger. We also miss dedicated Start and Ok keys, despite all of the touch enhancements and we think that HTC may have gone a little overboard with the number of launchers you can access from the home screen. Those looking for an innovative Windows Mobile handset with better finger input will like what they see, especially given the small and sexy package. Those looking for a phone whose touch interface is as good as the iPhone are going to be disappointed.
The Touch will be available from Sprint on November 4th. Check back soon for our full review.
