HTC Touch HD. How’s that for the FIE?
Posted by: Chippy
WVGA, even at this 3.5″ screen size, requires zooming to click links with a finger (as it does on the Nokia tablet devices,) there’s no mention of the browser so if it’s not Opera Mobile 9.5 then it falls flat on its face, its going to be extremely expensive and with the single-core ARM11-based CPU it won’t be noticeably faster than a Nokia N800 which, in my opinion, is way too slow to use for any serious Internet work.
The HD Touch Pro looks very nice and will satisfy many people but it really is a styling exercise that won’t reach the standards that many of us need in our mobile Internet experience. Windows 6.1 core won’t impress anyone expecting a fluid interface to run through the whole system as it does on the iPhone either. The screen will look impressive but experience tells me that 800×480 on such a small screen doesn’t work well for Internet use or even for videos so you might as well take a cheaper, smaller VGA device and use Opera Mini for quick Internet bites and a larger mid for more serious internet and video experiences.
[FIE = Full Internet Experience. Our definition of productivity/professional-level Internet requirements]
Thanks to Vakeros for prompting me to take a closer look at the HTC Touch HD. HTC Press release here.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
[...] my thoughts on smartphones today, I wanted to highlight the Nokia N96 that I checked out in Amsterdam yesterday. Now there’s a [...]
September 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
yeah…this is suddenly one of those on my top list!!!
amazing device, considering the screen size…
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September 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
oh i forgot… how many HTCs have been sold? how many iphones have been sold?
i still don’t see so many umpc/mid on the market which could steal the show to those smartphones! and apparently people do like them. so if they have advantages or disadvantages…doesn’t matter, apparently the majority likes them and they are being sold. so no matter how good a product is..bring it on!!! i’m tired of waiting for the uber-mega-mid-umpc which is the perfect device and it’s….just a hype!
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September 16th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
what is actually the difference between a MID and a PDA-Phone… I’d say that it’s instant on and OS, meaning that the PDA-Phone has instant-on and the MID has an OS.
I’d classify this one as a PDA-Phone and as such it’s just fantastic… though I imagine that the price is going to be a bit overwhelming… does anybody know about the price?
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September 16th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Hi Rev,
On Clove Technology’s website they have a price £495. This compares to £429 for the Touch Pro. Availability is slated for November (Q4 on HTC’s site).
The only thing missing is the keyboard, but a BT one should do.
About your point in difference between PDA/phone and MID, there was a load of discussion on a previous item. I know I prefer instant-on. And being able to make voice calls + data on the same SIM is bonus.
Now if only this had the Nvidia Tegra chip for GPU.
But actually this ticks all the boxes for me. Anything more is just making it better.
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September 16th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I certainly prefer instant-on on this kind of device. I was looking for a substitute for my Palm TX with phone ability… this looks like at last I’ve found it, since I really need the larger screen size (bigger than Touch Diamond or similar).
This will pair perfectly with my P1610…
thanks for the info
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September 16th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Hi,
I’m a amateur of those PDA-phone. I own a lot of them (HTC devices). My last gadget is the HTC Touch Diamond. It is the same device but with less rom and a VGA res instead of WVGA. I can guarranty you that Opera 9.5 will be the default browser in the HTC Touch HD like it is in their current models like HTC Touch PRO, Diamond and Advantage X7510. It is a 528 MHz processor + 3D shipset (OpenGL es 1.0 compliant)… It is far from slow for a Smartphone… It is in the same range than the iPhone… So if for you an iPhone is a MID then the HTC Touch HD will be a MID…
My 2 cents
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September 16th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Totally agree. We have a HTC Diamond in our lab right now and Opera 9.5 flies on it. Very very good browser experience.
Also keep in mind that these devices are the “seeds” for WM7 hardware.
Remember the video showcasing the hidden multi-touch capabilities in the Diamond? How the multi-touch extends along the entire front face of the device, including button locations? It’s not just a touch screen device, its a multi-touch front face.
I fully expect the HD to contain the exact same thing. It is the beginnings of the WM7 hardware platform (minus the Nvidia chip).
There is much more hardware in these devices than what WM5/WM6 platform supports.
I doubt they will offer WM7 upgrades, but the fact they have the platform already developed to an extend means that HTC is most likely ahead of schedule on many WM7 requirements.
That’s as far as I can say at the moment.
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September 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Well, my boss owns an HTC Touch Pro and we made a little hands-on comparison with my iPhone 1G, since I was going to buy a Pro, too, for size and compatibility reasons (WinMobile).
Unfortunately, there was no way to compare the fluidity in controlling these devices - where my iPhone swiftly browsed through menus and pics, the Touch Pro kept lagging throughout the test. On top of that, the icons aren’t quite optimized for touch control which means you need to use the stylus every other minute.
No, I’m not a fanboy either - actually, given an alternative I would gladly move away from the iPhone, since Apple’s restrictions (AppStore e.g.) creep me out really.
Hence, I’ve been looking ever since for a replacement - to no avail. I’d love to go for the Touch Pro / HD, BB Bold or Nokia 71, but, just surfing on the iPhone w/ easily zooming in and out gets me right back on the Apple track…
Hopefully the competitors get it done some day, a little bit of variety would be nice…
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September 16th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Speed will be the pitfall of this phone. If it’s fluid, it will be a winner.
But then again, I’ve decided to give Android a try this year with the HTC G1, until WM7 hits with NVidia’s Tegra processor.
No need to stick to a WM6.1 device so close to the end of its lifetime.
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September 16th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Double check to make sure your HTC Diamond/Pro is on the latest rom released from HTC.
The latest ROM improves the devices response quite a lot. I haven’t fealt like Opera is that slugish.
Aside from the iPhone’s additional animations and such, it feels just a tad bit slower and that is an accomplishment considering its all rendering via cpu, and the iPhone is rendering via gpu.
Also announced recently is Opera has created a hardware accelerated api hook in for the browser, which they are partnering with Nvidia on.
Which means hardware rendering acceleration of Opera.
If the WM7 requirements to manufacturers is a gpu chipset compatible with WM7 apis, much like how they should of done with Vista & DX9 then it will be in great shape.
IMO comparing speed is a bit of apples vs oranges as far as how the hardware is setup.
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September 17th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Don’t take me wrong, but as a consumer, not a developer or hardcore insider I compare speed with speed, which is not quite apples and oranges.
You may know as to why and how things work slower on a certain device, but in the end I need a fluidly working user interface - not reasons why it doesn’t work as expected. As I said, maybe they’ll get it right with the HD, I’ll be more than happy to give it a shot.
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September 17th, 2008 at 10:42 am
That’s exactly what NVidia’s Tegra will be all about. That is why I expect umpcs to die out, once WM7 and Tegra emerge on smartphones.
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September 16th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I’d prefer a PowerVR GPU
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September 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am
how finger-clickable a link is would really depend on how big it is and how much else clickable is near to it, at least on the nokia tablets.
but then that comes from using a less precise pointing device then the mouse is (given that while the grahpics of a mouse pointer is large, it only have a couple of pixels that are really reactive).
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September 19th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Doesn’t look too shabby…
http://www.mytodayscreen.com/for-your-viewing-pleasure-the-htc-touch-hd/
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