Not quite an iPhone
A good number of my colleagues at the FM can’t wait for Apple to launch the iPhone in SA. They keep asking me when the handset will be available here and they look terribly disappointed when I tell them it will probably arrive some time in 2008.
While they’re waiting, they should check out the Touch, a smartphone based on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6, from Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC. The Touch is clearly designed to rival the iPhone. It features a nifty interface called TouchFLO. Slide your thumb up the screen to bring up a list of contacts and from left to right to flip to other menus. It’s a slick interface and works well, though I did begin to wonder after a while if it was really necessary.
On the connectivity front, the Touch comes with Wi-Fi for use at airports and hotels but, like the iPhone, it lacks 3G support. You’ll have to use the slightly slower Edge (a type of GPRS), which, if you’re on Vodacom, is largely unavailable in Gauteng and across the eastern half of SA generally. Vodacom customers in the western provinces and MTN and Cell C users will enjoy the speed boost offered by Edge.
The Touch comes with reasonably good software. I was particularly taken with the e-mail package which integrated seamlessly with the FM’s Microsoft Exchange Server. Setting up push e-mail was a snap, as was downloading my diary over the air. The Internet Explorer Web browser, which comes standard with Windows Mobile, isn’t up to scratch – it didn’t render some websites properly – but installing the free, Java-based Opera Mini browser rectified that problem.
The Touch’s home screen is impressive, with the option of a large, bright digital clock or a weather application that provides the current weather conditions and a five-day forecast, with updates downloaded periodically from the Internet. Unfortunately, reported conditions didn’t always match the actual weather. Early on Monday morning, with an outside air temperature of 0?C, the Touch cheerfully reported that it was 7?C. I wished! Of course, the inaccuracy is not the phone’s fault but rather a problem with the data source.
My only other gripe with the Touch is the tiny on-screen keyboard, which means fingers won’t do for inputting text and it becomes necessary to use the stylus.
Based on the early reviews I’ve read about the iPhone, the Touch is simply not in the same class as the Apple handset. But that doesn’t mean the Touch is a bad phone. On the contrary, it’s one of the best Windows Mobile-based devices I’ve used. But then Apple fans are unlikely to touch a Windows device with a barge pole, no matter how good it is.
Also see Duncan’s review of Apple’s iPhone here
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