HTC Touch Cell Phone Review - Organizer
Synchronization (7.0)
The HTC Touch uses Windows Mobile Device Manager to synchronize with a Windows Vista computer, or ActiveSync if you are using an older Windows XP machine. There are some slight differences in support between the two pieces of software, but setup is equally easy for each. Just install the software, connect your device via USB cable, and follow the wizard to set up your synchronization. From that point forward synchronization starts automatically whenever you connect your device. Although there have been reported issues with both ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Manager, most users will find setup and use to be straightforward.
The HTC Touch can synchronize your contacts (including contact photos), tasks, calendar appointments, and notes with a Windows PC. Initial setup needs to be done via USB, but once that is complete you can set up your device to synchronize wirelessly via Bluetooth. Out of the box the Touch is only able to synchronize with Outlook or Windows Vista's PIM applications. If you want to synchronize with a Mac you will need to invest in third-party software, like
Mark Space's The Missing Sync.
Alerts (8.0)
Alerts can be set on the HTC Touch for calendar appointments and tasks. We have been big fans of the Windows Mobile's alert capabilities, and this doesn't change with the Touch. You can set an alert to go off at any time before the appointment, and recurrence patterns are very customizable. When an alert sounds you get an on-screen indicator with information about the appointment. You can dismiss the alert, view the appointment, or choose to snooze it. We are particularly impressed by the ability to snooze the appointment for a variety of time periods, so if you don't want it to sound again until the next day you can do that, or you can snooze it for just a few minutes.
Over the Air PIM Sync (2.0)
Windows Mobile supports synchronization of your contacts, calendar appointments, and tasks over the air with an Exchange Server. Exchange support on Windows Mobile 6 has been significantly improved, giving you access to corporate address books and allowing you to browse e-mail folders on the Exchange server. Anyone working in an Exchange environment will greatly appreciate these features.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (3.40)
To see how easy it is to add contacts to the HTC Touch we timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we added five test contacts. Each contact had a first and last name, along with a phone number. We took the average time for our final score. The HTC Touch took an average of 29.42 seconds to add a new contact. This is the slowest time of any of our comparison phones. HTC has attempted to improve text entry on the Touch by including a specially-formatted QWERTY keyboard with two letters per button so that buttons are large enough to use with finger tips. Unfortunately, even with this improvement entering text on the Touch is very slow.
Looking/Sorting/Search (7.5)
Contacts is one area where HTC has provided upgrades to the typical interface. The most obvious involves finding contacts by letter. In the typical Windows Mobile Professional device you have a bar at the top with the alphabet that allows you to jump to a specific letter. Unfortunately the bar is small enough that you have to use a stylus with it. By contrast, on the Touch the alphabet bar has been moved to the right side of the screen, very similar to the alphabet you find in long lists on the iPhone. Just like the iPhone, you can run your finger up/down this bar and quickly jump to the currently selected letter. In practice it works almost as well as the iPhone's implementation and should make moving through your contacts easy. You can also use run your finger up and down the actual contact list to move it, just as you would in other areas where there are lists on the Touch.
Aside from these enhancements, the contacts are similar to those you'll find on any other Windows Mobile device. You can search for a contact name by just beginning to type the name out. You can sort your contacts by first, last, or business name and filter them by group. All of these features are very useful when you're dealing with a large number of contacts, although we are still annoyed by the fact that you can't search for a business when you're viewing your contacts by name or vice versa.
Fields (8.2)
When you create a new contact on the HTC Touch you are given the same extensive set of fields we've become accustomed to on Windows Mobile devices. There are 41 contact fields available, including notes, categories, and esoteric items like Government ID and Account. About the only thing we miss is the ability to create our own custom fields.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (4.67)
Like other Windows Mobile devices you can assign up to 99 contacts to speed dials. This should be sufficient for anyone, as we can't imagine someone who can remember more than 99 speed dials. The Touch also comes with preloaded voice tag software that allows you to train the phone to recognize contact names for voice dialing. This is different than true voice command where the phone tries to guess the name you speak without any training. Some people love voice command systems, but we've found they are rarely effective. This voice tag function should be sufficient for a few contacts you want to easily dial by voice.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (12.59)
To see how easy it is to add a calendar appointment we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added a lunch appointment for the following day with a reminder 15 minutes beforehand. We repeated this test five times and take the average time for our score. The HTC Touch took an average of 7.94 seconds to add a new appointment. As you can see below this is a fairly good time, which may be a little confusing since many of our other timed tests have shown poorer performance. In this case we were helped out significantly by the fact that a 15-minute reminder for the appointment is added automatically, and all we had to type on the touch keyboard was the word "Lunch." Almost everything else could be handled via the d-pad, which sped things up tremendously. This is an example of how quick items on the Touch can be when you don't have to interact too much with the touch screen, which makes us wonder why things like the Start and OK buttons were left out.
Calendar Views (7.13)
The Touch provides the same set of calendar views found on other Windows Mobile devices. Probably the easiest to use is the agenda view, which provides a simple chronological list of appointments. An update with Windows Mobile 6 is the addition of a free/busy time bar to the top of this view, which is a nice touch that improves an already solid calendar view. The daily view shows you the current day in hour blocks, with appointments blocked out in the appropriate time slot.
The weekly view also saw an update in Windows Mobile 6. You still get a grid with days along the top and hours on the left, but left and right on the d-pad will now jump automatically to the next appointment, which means getting around this view is a lot easier. Information about the currently-selected appointment is shown at the bottom of the screen, which also improves this view's functionality.
The monthly view has, unfortunately, not been upgraded, so you still get six weeks with the current month highlighted. Days with appointments have a small triangle, while days with an all-day event have a hollow square. We wish an indicator showing you a list of that day's events were here, like on the weekly view. The yearly view just shows you the current year with no indicators, except that the current day is highlighted. In all views you can filter your appointments by category.
Overall we found the agenda and weekly view to be very usable, while the rest are much less so. Still, these two excellent views will be more than sufficient for most users, and if you decide you need a better calendar you can pick up third-party software to fulfill this function.
Fields (11.0)
Creating a new appointment on the HTC Touch is no different than any other Windows Mobile Professional device. All the basics are there, as are nice advanced features like an excellent recurrence option, status, attendees, and categories. You can also add a note to any appointment with any miscellaneous information you might need.
To Do/Tasks
Adding To Do/Task (5.19)
To find out how quickly we can add a new task to the HTC Touch we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added a new task reminding us to get groceries. We repeat this test five times and take the average time for our score. The HTC Touch took an average of 19.28 seconds to complete this test. That's pretty slow, and once again we have to say it was the text input options on the Touch that slowed us down the most. You can see that the HTC Mogul, running the same software but with much better hardware controls and a real QWERTY keyboard, completed this test almost eight seconds faster.
ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
The tasks program built into Windows Mobile Professional provides excellent options for sorting and prioritizing your tasks. Each task can be assigned one of three priority levels, and you can sort your tasks by priority as well as subject, start, or due date. You can also filter your tasks by category. This makes the tasks program on Windows Mobile Professional devices like the HTC Touch a powerful tool for those who use tasks a lot.
Fields (9.0)
When you create a new task on the HTC Touch you have a good set of fields to choose from. The basics like title, start/due date, and reminders are there. More advanced features are also supported, like recurrence, status, priority, and categories. Just like appointments, there's also a notes area where you can type any text you need.
Notes
Adding Notes (2.83)
We timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we had added a test note to see how easy it is to create notes on the HTC Touch. We did this timed test five times and took the average time for our score. The HTC Touch took an average of 17.64 seconds to add our test note. This time is not very good, and once again the primary blame lies with the input method. You can see all of our comparison phones performed better on this test than the Touch, and once again the Mogul, with its real keyboard and better hardware controls, did significantly better than the Touch.
Note Interface (3.0)
The notes interface on Windows Mobile Professional devices is fairly straightforward. You have a list of notes that can be sorted by name, date, size, or type. The left soft key takes you to a new note interface, while the right soft key opens a menu to access additional functions. There is no search functionality like on BlackBerry devices, nor can you categorize or filter notes. It's sufficient for jotting down quick notes, but if you want a more powerful notes program you'll need to get third-party software
Note Formatting (2.0)
There are few formatting options available for notes on the HTC Touch. You can't change font size or type, although you can set a zoom setting to make text larger or smaller. Thankfully hand drawn notes are supported and you can add voice notes within a text note, however you cannot add other media items, nor can you format text.
Voice Memo (6.0)
Voice memos on the HTC Touch are built into the standard notes application. The implementation is a little clunky, however. To create a voice note you will need to go into the left soft key menu and choose "view recording toolbar." This pops up a small bar at the bottom of the screen which controls recording functions. We've never been a big fan of this implementation, and thankfully it seems like either Sprint or HTC isn't, as well, since they also include a stand-alone voice recorder that does a significantly better job.
