HTC Touch 2 Review

A year and a half after the release of the HTC Touch first name, the Taiwanese manufacturer decides to give a second youth to his favorite Smartphone. At the time, the dean of the line of "Touch" distinguished himself by incorporating a menu Cube 3D, "which allow instant access to the main functions of the phone. This time, the Touch 2 intends to seduce its audience by offering natively (Windows Mobile 6.5) and a leading version of TouchFLO. This was achieved? This is what we will see in dissecting the new Smartphone from HTC.

The HTC Touch 2 is the first Smartphone brand natively integrate Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest mobile operating system from Microsoft. As we said during our test, it is clearly not a major overhaul. Finally, at little importance since HTC did not expect Microsoft to enter the ground floor (or almost) in the era of all touch. In effect, an overlay optimized to be handled without stylus called TouchFLO is integrated on all devices of the mark for over a year. Small surprise, more or less fortunate are not lacking, see more closely what the device holds.

The lines of the device are rather successful, the mobile is small and does not spoil, its lightness is such that we can consider without problems casually drop it into the pocket of his shirt. Furthermore, with the Touch 2 HTC proves that the reduced form factor does not necessarily resonate with the poor battery life. As you can see the end of the article, the Touch 2 is sufficiently durable.

 

The Touch 2: clean lines associated with a particularly low form factor.

On the slices: (too?) Little touches which, moreover, does not always work ...

USB standard keyed HTC and 3.5 mm headphone jack: the Taiwanese embraces standards, which is a good thing.

Kit wired stereo with excellent bill affects stall / entrails of the beast with a soft reset button behind the hull.

The HTC Touch 2 is equipped with a digital camera with 3.2 Mega pixels devoid of flash. Worse yet, when we thought that now, the presence of an autofocus was acquired on models of entry-level Touch 2 disappointed by the stalemate on this basic feature yet, but decisive. Ultimately, the accumulation of weak (low resolution, no autofocus, average target) gives us snapshots passable. Finally, the Touch 2 can troubleshoot to make "pictures memo" outdoors, but we should not ask him more. Indoors, the result is simply devastating. Unsurprisingly, the result of the videos is just as bad.

The software layer that manages the photo part is just like the rest. While usual, HTC spoils us by integrating a small module photo editor offering fancy frames, the Touch 2 is limited to a minimum. After completion of shooting, the program proposes to send the photo by mail or MMS, throwing the shot, or browse the photo directory. However, the photo manager is also practical as well designed. Not only the viewer is optimized to be controlled using the index, but in addition it benefits from the touch zoom bar is located on the bottom of the screen.

Surf the Internet with the Touch 2

Windows Mobile 6.5 requires, the Touch 2 is the first Smartphone brand natively integrate Internet Explorer 6.5. For those who have not gone through the test we have spent the last nomadic system from Microsoft, remember that this browser has been optimized for touch, it is now the Flash support, a full screen mode is part ... but the performance is still far from the rendezvous. On the other hand, on the Flash, he must curb his enthusiasm. While compatibility is quite good, it will not be expected to make the same actions on a computer classic. This technology is particularly resource-intensive, it is logical that it is not very comfortable on mobile environments.

Multimedia (audio and video)
 
The musical part of Touch 2 contains several positive points and others are not. Start with the strengths of the device. Firstly, users need not fenced with disastrous usability of Windows Media Player Mobile. Indeed, the Touch's TouchFLO interface 2 includes a small reading program that gives complete satisfaction. The grip is very good touch, the main file formats are supported and the sound quality is simply excellent. Better yet, if the tone curve was not appropriate, users would still be able to finely adjust the different frequencies using the program aptly named "audio amplifier. To avoid spoiling anything, the small intra ear headphones supplied by HTC offers made very correct. Note that this time, HTC has not made the mistake of forgetting the jack standard 3.5 mm. It is therefore possible to replace the original helmet using any other wired headphones (not an old wired headset HTC USB format, the latter not recognized). On the other hand, if necessary, it is always possible to replace this device by a wireless Bluetooth headphones (the device supports A2DP and AVRCP).

No remote is supplied remote, but that figure is almost fully in light of major bug which severely handicaps the party. Indeed, the key volume setting proved ineffective for much of our use ... To better understand the audio portion of Touch 2, try to imagine an excellent audio player which you pull the volume knob. On the video, the Taiwanese manufacturer has not made specific efforts (outside of the integration of YouTube Mobile). The device is not compatible with the Divx format, it will always pass through the excellent tandem TCPMP / PocketDivXEncoder to transform the device into a cinema pocket.

The office

The new version of Windows Mobile that comes with the Touch 2 contains no new significant for the Office suite. Despite this, Microsoft remains a leader in office programs pocket. As with all Windows Phone, found pleasure with mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Compatibility is certainly relative, but in most cases, the files smaller or medium sized open without difficulty. In addition, HTC has had the good idea to preload the official version of the Adobe PDF reader. All these programs will be valued at fair value through advanced users (which is when most Bluetooth keyboard is available).

HTC Touch 2: TouchFLO interface bonus

HTC did not expect Microsoft to dust off the aging interface system through optimization for all touch. Given the limited progress of Windows Mobile 6.5, it would seem that the Taiwanese manufacturer was right to take lead. Unsurprisingly, the HTC Touch 2 is again accompanied by the famous TouchFLO interface that was introduced with the first Touch Diamond. At the time, touch the menu was not really convincing, but he has finally matured. When the module has been launched (after a boot or a soft reset) shows that the flow is perfect, and perfectly follows the ring index.



HTC Touch 2: Performance

Even if the HTC Touch 2 is not a lightning war, we must admit that his power is sufficient to run most applications without problems. That being said, to locate the mobile device relative to competitors, we conducted a series of technical tests. To begin, we tested the main processor. Recall that the Touch 2 is equipped with a Qualcomm MSM7225 chip running at 528 MHz. In the second part, we situate the autonomy of Touch 2 by comparing the results we obtained with other Windows Mobile Smartphones. Finally, we will see if the speed measurement of the GPS chip is up to the expectation of users of location-based applications.

The speed of the GPS sensor is important. Good news on this (at least), the HTC Touch works wonders (it's the least we can say). In the first test, we left the circuit GSM enabled. Result: in GPS positioning is simply instantaneous. The performance is excellent, but one would think it results from a pre-positioning imprecise location based on GSM. The GSM layer has been disabled for the second test.

Conclusion

With our test model, we found a number of bugs more or less troublesome. Information taken from the manufacturer, we have many of the ROM that will power mobile market. For example, sometimes the preview screen keyboard does not work properly (missing characters). Worse still, sometimes, with the compact QWERTY keyboard, pressing 'a' valid a "q" (francization part, when you hold us)! The worries do not stop there unfortunately. Even after a soft reset, we often found that the only physical buttons side management did not work its just not! To top it off, it is not possible to access the volume management through the tray, HTC has slightly changed interface. Clearly, when the volume keys are inoperative, it is impossible to change the volume with ease. These problems may disappear with the arrival of any update (which is absolutely guaranteed by). In the meantime, we preferred to go back this information.

Touch 2 is not a monster of technology. Is it necessarily sulk? After a brief period of use, one is tempted to answer this question in the negative. The final evaluation also depends on prices in this area, we can say that the Touch 2 defends himself quite well. For a little over 300 euros free subscription (at the time of this writing), the HTC phone offers an excellent price / features. Only problem, when the investigation grows, it becomes clear that the appliance is accompanied by a series of bugs that we would be well spent. All this is unfortunate: although some technologies are missing (accelerometer and high resolution screen), the phone was not too ashamed of the competition. All wireless interfaces of last generation are well represented (with the exception of Wi-Fi n which is almost never used on Smartphone) and GPS applications will benefit from additional 's excellent chip integrated geolocation. On the other hand, compared to the behemoths of mobility, small size is a factor for some users. Like its predecessor, the Touch is part 2 of the smallest Smartphones on the market. Finally, even if Windows Mobile 6.5 does not convince the overlay HTC Touch (TouchFLO) has proven long ago. In conclusion, given the bugs, pending a possible update of the manufacturer, it is strongly recommended to move on.