Performance:We are not pleased with the operating speed of HTC Touch, the fault for which lies with the 200 MHz processor used in most 2G other manufacturer’s phones. Yet it has been optimized for the device and there are no serious delays, but you often have to wait a little when moving trough the menus and applications. Symbian S60 OS which is much faster in the new smart-phone models of N76, 6120, N95 has a serious advantage here.
We are happy that the Touch can use
Skype application for VoIP calls. The processor is not very fast and the system lag when you are during a call, but still you will be able to switch to different tabs and send a chat message for example, while you talk. The Voice is not lagging if you are using fast internet connection. For Skype calls, Touch uses the loudspeakers and you will not be impressed by its quality, but it is still usable. The other party hears you clear, but some echo also appears.
For the test, we used WiFi connection.
We also installed
Fring application, which connects to both Skype and Google Talk, but strangely, we weren't able to do a call. The application said that the phone has to restart in order to do a voice call, but after a few restarts nothing changed.
In order to get installation file for Fring, we had to choose the phone model from the Fring's webpage. The Touch was not listed, so we selected an another HTC smartphone with touch-sensitive display.
We used Spb Benchmark to compare the Touch system performance with other PocketPC Phones. We are pleasantly surprised by the results, showing way better performance than the Wizard, although the two have similar system resources.
During our
typical test with decreasing signal Touch did not perform very well and the grade mark we give it is 3.75/10, which places it in the category of Poor, below the standard level. The manufacturer claims 5 hours of talk time, but we are surprised that in our test it scored 6 hours of continues talk time. This is just an excellent result!
We are disappointed by the
incoming sound during conversation and particularly by its volume: the loudspeaker is not heard very strongly and as the one for music snuffles at ‘max’ position and has to be turned down. On the other hand, voices through it sound very close to reality, clear and distinct.
Not so however in the opposite direction – you are heard just perfectly, very strongly, clearly and realistically. We have no remarks in this respect.
Conclusion:We remain with mixed feelings about Touch – the Touch Flo technology is a good idea, but poorly realized and its actual functionality is quite limited opening only one shortcut menu and scrolling through long pages. To be competitive to what iPhone will be, a number of new extras should probably be added, such as a new way of imputing text with fingers, a more innovative display locking/unlocking, menus handling (back/forward), photos handling (zoom in/out, previous/next), etc.
On the other hand, Touch is a small and beautiful WM6 phone with the full functionality of the operating system and with all personalization possibilities, which, on functional level, places it to some extent above iPhone, PRADA and Samsung F700 which are not smart phones. Unlike them, Touch is very flexible thanks to a heap of 3rd party applications. Its interface may be not as interesting and beautiful as that of the competitors – the fashionable PRADA and the innovative iPhone, but if you want a really good-looking small phone using Windows Mobile 6 Professional, Touch is your perfect choice.
