HTC Touch 3G Review

Though we were all set to review the HTC Touch 3G, the first hindrance for us was the lack of 3G services in India. And it makes the job pretty difficult as you can't make justice to a 3G phone unless untill you test it in 3G environment.

Neverthless, a job is a job.

It's impossible to fully separate the HTC Touch 3G from its non-identical twin, the Touch Viva. Although they share many of the same features, the 3G is the slightly more grown-up of the pair, adding 3G connection, an improved camera and A-GPS.

The Touch 3G is a shade smaller than the Viva, measuring 102x54x15mm and weighing 96g to the Viva's 105x59x16mm and 110g. The difference is slight, but significant, since it appears noticeably more svelte, in part because the touchscreen is flush with the casing.

This not only looks tidier than the Viva's recessed screen, it also makes it much easier to use with your thumb, since you can easily reach the scroll bars and menu buttons at the bottom and sides, which isn't the case with the Viva. Even so, the screen's relatively small size means you'll often find yourself reaching for the stylus, which slips into a recess in the side. The casing is a slightly rubberised plastic that feels warm to the touch – you're almost tempted to stroke it.

The TouchFLO menu system which sits on top of the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS looks good and is intuitive to use, with some nice little animated graphics, though it lacks the pizzazz of the 3D version to be found on the higher end Touches such as the HD and Diamond.

Though we have heard from our UK colleagues that the 3G connection is as fast as any available, we could not test it here as India still lacks 3G services. Don't know when would we get to see this in our country as the Indian government is just doing circles in and around the 3G spectrum auction.

However, you can get connected faster by hooking up to a broadband connection via Wi-Fi. The browser, Opera by default, is for the most part quick and efficient. The onscreen zoom icon brings up a scroll bar you can adjust with your thumb, and the menu button offers page history, favourites, bookmarks, last page and home as well as various page resolution settings.

The 3G also suffers from the same glaring features omission as the Viva – the lack of a landscape viewing option. There's no accelerometer on board to automatically switch the screen's orientation if you flip it on to its side, and the browser doesn't have a menu option to allow you to view web pages in the most natural format. Landscape would also greatly improve the onscreen keyboard.

The camera is of the 3.2-megapixel variety, and it's a significant step up from the Viva's two-megapixels. Cameras have not traditionally been a strong point on the Touches but this is better than most, offering a superior level of detail than we've seen in the past.

It's still not a Touch strong point though – there's no flash though, or autofocus and it doesn't handle movement particularly well. The rather lovely Touch photo album is in full effect however, allowing you to zoom in on any point of any picture with a twirl of your finger, and brush the screen to bring on the next image. With video the quality drops significantly and it's best avoided unless you plan to have very good light and little movement in your movies.

There are Windows Media Player and Audio Manager systems on board, though this being a Windows Mobile phone, you can of course download lots of others, along with all manner of games and other functions. For music there's a fully customisable ten-band graphic equaliser on board, with 21 presets, which is unusually detailed for a mobile phone and while the supplied headphones are distinctly bass-light, they're certainly not the worst we've heard. Just as well, since the lack of a 3.5mm jack plug or suitable adaptor for the USB port means you're probably stuck with them. There's only 256MB of memory on board, but you can increase this by microSD card, though there's none supplied as standard.

Office Mobile is on board too, allowing you to create and read Word and Excel documents and view PowerPoint docs and PDFs as well as jotting down notes with OneNote Mobile.

The A-GPS uses Google Maps to help you find your way – most of the major SatNav providers offer software versions for Windows Mobile devices but you'll have to pay for the extra features. The size of the screen doesn't make this a good choice for an in-car SatNav in any case, but it's fine for helping you find a restaurant in a new town.

Battery-wise, we managed a clear two days of moderate use, and could probably have coaxed a bit more out of it if we'd been a bit more careful with the screen settings, reducing the brightness and time-out factors.

The 3G adds the features that we most missed on the Viva – that 3G connection, maps and a camera that you might actually want to take some pictures with. It's a shame that the otherwise fine browser is hampered by the lack of a landscape option, and that there's no option to upgrade the headphones, but otherwise, this is a cracking little business handset.