Despite the baffling number of models currently available, no manufacturer has so far succeeded in producing the perfect smartphone. HTC, however, seems hell-bent on trying and its two newest models approach the problem in two very different ways. You can read about the S710 opposite, but it's the Touch that HTC is really pushing as the next big thing -- and you can see why. Or rather, you probably can't -- photos really don't do this smartphone justice.

The Touch is by far the slimmest Windows Mobile device we've ever seen. It's about the same size as a closed Motorola V3 mobile phone (just a little wider) and feels remarkably solid in the hand. And in the hand is probably where the Touch will spend most of its time, thanks to its lovely rubberised finish that just begs to be fondled.

A satisfyingly tactile design isn't the only reason for HTC's decision to abandon its numeric naming convention, though. Windows Mobile has never been much fun to use on a small handheld device and to coincide with its first Windows Mobile 6 smartphone, HTC has come up with its own user interface. It's called TouchFLO and is a combination of touch-screen technology and software that changes the way in which you interact with a handheld device.

The first you'll see of TouchFLO Touch is on the Touch's customised Today screen. Along with the usual upcoming events, this now shows the number of unread emails, text messages and missed phone calls. Tap another icon and you can see a weather report, updated automatically every hour over any available data connection. There's no way to disable this short of switching to a standard Today screen though, so watch out if you're not on an unlimited data tariff.

You can access functions from the Today screen either with the control pad or by pressing the screen with a thumb, but TouchFLO takes things a step further. Swipe your thumb up the screen and up pops another interface, this time showing six (non-customisable) application quick-launch buttons. Swipe your thumb left or right and yet more screens appear - one for quick access to the handheld's media playback functions and another for photo-based quick-dialling.

There are clear parallels here with the way the iPhone interface seems to work, but while Apple's smartphone has been designed from the ground up to work this way, the Touch has not - and that's a problem.
TouchFLO is really little more than a fancy program launcher and once you've used it to launch your program, you're dumped straight into Windows Mobile. Not only does this look nothing like the TouchFLO interface, but it works nothing like it too. You can still swipe your thumb around to scroll through documents, but you're stuck as soon as you want to do more than just look at something.

Most Windows Mobile smartphones have buttons for opening the Start menu, clicking the OK button and to control the two soft menus that appear at the bottom of the screen - the Touch just has two buttons for showing the Today screen and switching to the phone application. So, when you want to close a Window or start a program not on the quick-launch list, you have to pick at the screen with a fingernail or resort to the stumpy stylus. And as revolutionary as HTC claims TouchFLO to be, it's completely useless when it comes to entering information and again, it's back to the stylus.

To be fair, after a week with the Touch we found it less fiddly than we first feared, but its lovely design does have a way of winning you over. Tapping out an SMS or email on a tiny on-screen keyboard is just no joke though, so if you need more from your smartphone than just good looks, the Touch probably isn't for you.  

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Dave   |17/12/07 3:20 AM Actually, the auto update on the Weather can be changed, I have it set to manually connect. It really saves on bandwidth. Also, there is a full screen keypad that really makes it easy to enter data. I've had this phone 3 weeks and easily it rates not only as one of the best PDA's I've owned, but also the finest Cell Phone. 9/10 Reply | Quote

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