HTC Touch HD

Discontinued
16th September 2008

One of the best specified handsets we have ever seen, the HTC Touch HD is a very impressive Windows Mobile handset with a large 480 x 800 pixel screen, a 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA and WiFi support plus inbuilt GPS.

Perhaps the most obvious thing about the HTC Touch HD is the display - in this case it is a 3.8" WVGA touchscreen which is certainly one of the best around, and it is definitely more impressive than the iPhone 3G's 3.5" 320 x 480 pixel panel. When used in landscape (wide) mode, the Touch HD's 800 pixel widescreen can comfortable render most web pages without having to scale them down. This is one of only a very small number of handsets with such a display, the Nokia E90 has had an 800 pixel wide display for a while, and the new Sony Ericsson X1 comes even closer to the Touch HD.

Windows Mobile devices usually suffer from pretty poor cameras, but the HTC Touch HD comes with a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus (but no flash), plus a secondary video calling camera. Although there are plenty of non-Windows phones with better cameras, the Touch HD has possibly the best unit for a Windows device.

The Touch HD features GPS support, so it can be used with Google Maps or another application. The large touchscreen is ideal for satellite navigation, although you will probably want to add a vehicle mount kit if using it in the car.

This is a quad-band GSM handset with EDGE and GPRS data, plus support for UMTS 900 / 2100 and HSDPA, giving a maximum download speed of up to 7.2 Mbps. The Touch HD can also support HSUPA (although this is carrier dependent) giving a maximum upload speed of 2 Mbps. It also has 802.11b and g WiFi connectivity.

The standard Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional interface has been enhanced with HTC's excellent TouchFLO 3D add-on. Perhaps this isn't as impressive as the iPhone, but it certainly makes the Windows Mobile experience much more enjoyable. All the usual applications and features are included in Windows Mobile.

The standard multimedia support is enhanced by an FM radio and standard 3.5mm audio socket. The HTC Touch HD can play back various AAC, AMR, MP3 and Windows Media formats, plus widescreen video.

Inside, the processor is a fairly standard Qualcomm MSM7201a running at 528 MHz, but there's a useful 288MB of RAM too which should help with applications. There's also 512MB of Flash memory which can be expanded using microSD or SDHC cards. The large 1350 mAh battery can power the Touch HD for up to 6.5 hours on 3G with a maximum of 18 days standby time, oddly enough the battery life on GSM is just 5 hours talktime and 16 days standby. The whole package measures 115 x 63 x 12mm and weighs 146 grams.

There's no doubt that the HTC Touch HD is a hugely impressive device, and if it had a QWERTY keyboard perhaps it could be a viable laptop substitute. HTC haven't given any guidance on price, but say that it should be available across Europe during Q4 2008, plus other regions later, perhaps with a slightly different cellular configuration.