HTC Touch Dual (US version)

Keyboard

The 20 key keyboard is similar to the BlackBerry Pearl's, where most keys are assigned 2 letters. The phone uses XT9 rather than SureType for predictive text and it works quite well for notes and documents. When entering URLs and contacts, the phone defaults to multi-press since dictionary prediction doesn't work well in those contexts. For multi-press, hit the "QW" key once to get a Q and twice to get a W. For predictive text, type "normally" as if each letter were really on a separate key and the software figures out what you mean. You can switch between input methods by pressing holding the *XT9/SYM key until the on-screen input selector appears. The keys are backlit in white and the number keys have white blocks behind the black numbers to make them stand for easier dialing. The import Touch Dual was first available with a number pad, and a 20 key version followed, but there is no number pad version for the US.

I'd personally never been a fan of SureType style keyboards, and this is a matter of personal preference and habit. But I found that the Dual's larger keys relative to the standard QWERTY keys on the AT&T Tilt and BlackBerry Curve were easier targets, making typing simpler. And once I learned to "forget" that each letter didn't actually have it's own key and I learned to trust XT9, I found myself typing as quickly as on a full keyboard within a day. That said, URLs, names and other non-dictionary items aren't as quick and easy to enter since they require multi-press input.

As with all WinMo devices there are on-screen input methods too: handwriting recognition, on-screen QWERTY and HTC's 12 and 20 key software keyboards. Handwriting recognition, both print and cursive, works well as always under Windows Mobile, but the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is small and requires a stylus (or load a 3rd party software keyboard).

Speed Racer

This little phone rocks. It's running Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 on a 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7201 CPU. Gone is the laggy behavior we saw at times on the original GSM Touch (note that both the Verizon Touch XV6900 and Sprint HTC Touch CDMA versions also have more memory and a faster CPU and so are faster than the original GSM Touch too). TouchFLO has grown up and and it's a definite pleasure on the US Touch Dual.

With double the memory, we didn't find ourselves constantly using HTC's handy task manager to kill programs. There's 128 megs of RAM on-board and 256 megs of flash storage. That's more than enough memory to leave several large programs running and quite a lot of room to install programs and store data. For more storage space there's an SDHC microSD card slot located on the Touch Dual's lower left edge with its very own dedicated door. No need to slide the back cover off just to access the slot.

The Touch Dual can open a 50 page PDF in 5 seconds or less using the included Adobe Acrobat Reader for Windows Mobile. Windows Media Player Mobile played 450 kbps MPEG4 files easily with no dropped frames or loss of sync and can handle the demands of Skype. Windows Mobile's typical lag opening menus and windows is minimal.

Phone and 3G, North American Style

We enjoyed fast HSDPA connections on AT&T's network and web pages load relatively quickly thanks to 3.5G, the fast CPU and speed improvements in IE Mobile under WinMo 6.1. We suggest you download the free technical preview of the NetFront 3.5 web browser that runs superbly on the Touch Dual and supports touch-- just drag the page around with your finger. The Touch Dual got a healthy 765 kbit/sec average download speed rating on DSL Reports mobile speed test with 2 out of 4 bars reception, making it one of the faster 3G phones on the market in the US. The Tilt can be used as a high speed wireless modem for a notebook over Bluetooth using the PAN profile.

The usual Windows Mobile Internet Explorer is included, but new for version 6.1 are speed improvements that make IE Mobile less of a pig and more of a pleasure. We'll still take NetFront or Opera Mobile for the prettiest desktop-style rendering and fuller feature set, but based on speed, IE is a good choice, though not as fast as Opera Mini (which relies on server-side caching and other tricks to speed things up). Esmertec's Java runtime is on-board so you can load Opera Mini and other Java-based applications without the usual carrier-locked phone nagging every time that app pulls down data.

Messaging handles POP3 and IMAP email along with MS Exchange and push email if your company runs Exchange 2003 SP1 or newer. You'll get HTML email support and other goodies if your company runs Exchange Server 2007. There's also a threaded SMS text message client and MMS support.

Like most HTC smartphones, the Touch Dual has solid reception on GSM and 3G. Here in our office, 50% AT&T HSDPA signal strength is slightly above average, and that's what the Dual manages. The signal doesn't fluctuate and the phone makes clear calls and maintains solid data connections at that signal level. The only phones with consistently stronger 3G reception in our tests are high-end Nokia phones like the N95-3 and the Moto Q9 Global. Voice is clear on both incoming and outgoing ends and incoming volume is above average for a GSM phone.

The Touch Dual comes with MS Voice Command 1.6 which works with Bluetooth headsets and directly with the phone (press and hold the volume up key to start voice command or press and hold the dial button on a Bluetooth headset).The Jawbone and the Plantronics Discovery 655 worked fine with voice dialing but not the Jawbone II. Beyond voice dialing, MS Voice Command can launch programs, announce upcoming appointments and tell you the time all using true speech recognition (no voice tags required).

Windows Mobile PDA and smartphones sync with Outlook on the desktop over USB or Bluetooth using Microsoft ActiveSync under Windows XP and Windows Mobile Device Center under Vista. There is no Mac syncing software in the box, but 3rd party sync applications are available for less than $50 such as Missing Sync for Windows Mobile and PocketMac Pro. ActiveSync and a trial of Outlook are included on the companion CD.

Camera The camera is a 2 megapixel model with an autofocus lens. Focus speeds are decent by camera phone standards and images are slightly above average. The autofocus significantly improves portraits and close object shots but does little for landscapes and there's noticeable over-sharpening at fine and superfine quality settings that makes tree leaves and water ripples distracting. There are plenty of settings to tweak images including white balance, brightness, contrast, sharpness and these do help. There's a self-timer and pre-sets for action shots, multi-frame shots and more. The Touch Dual can save directly to a microSD card or internal memory and it can send these files via Bluetooth. The camcorder records up to QVGA resolution in MP4 format with mono audio. Videos are again, average by recent 2MP camera phone standards and audio is clear. We like HTC's Camera Album application-- it's finger friendly with support for scrolling through photos with a swipe, zoom (using a circular motion on-screen) and orientation switch. The app is is also fast and has a slideshow mode with adjustable transitions.

Multimedia Fun

The Touch Dual, like all WinMo phones, has Windows Media Player Mobile for music and video playback. It supports MP3, AAC, WMA and Windows Media DRM files. It also handles a variety of video formats including ASF, WMW and MP4 formats. For additional format support we tested the phone with Core Player Mobile, which worked well. Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) worked well with a variety of stereo Bluetooth headphones and headsets. Music sounds great through the included stereo earbuds with in-line mic and volume control. The Audio Booster application enhances wired stereo headset audio for EQ, 3D sound and treble/bass boost. Overall, like the Touch, we found the Touch Dual one of the better sounding WinMo phones for music playback. With a 4 or 8 gig card, the smartphone makes a viable portable music player.

Battery Life

We tested the Touch Dual in 3G HSDPA mode, which uses more power than GSM/EDGE and were pleased with battery life. PDA phones and 3G often mean short battery life but the Touch Dual lasted us 2 to 3 days with light to moderate use and 1.5 to 2 days with moderate to heavy use including automatic email checks every hour from 9am-6pm, 30 minutes of phone calls per day and an hour of Internet use over AT&T's HSDPA network. The smartphone ships with a 1350 mAh Lithium Ion battery that's user replaceable. Simply slide off the back cover (the entire back cover) to reveal the battery and gain access to the SIM card slot on the phone's side. Battery life is better on the Touch Dual than on our HTC Tilt (HTC TyTN II) and in fact better than the LG Vu feature phone.

Conclusion

I have too many phones on my desk, including a Nokia N95-3, LG Vu, iPhone, HTC Touch Diamond, Treo 750, Samsung BlackJack II and more. Yet I find myself gravitating to the Touch Dual thanks to it's comfortable and pocketable design, fast 3G, Windows Mobile power/tweak-ability and HTC's TouchFLO "classic" which speeds access to common tasks and adds an element of fun without bogging down the device. It's cute more than it's sexy, competent rather than bleeding edge and it's US-friendly. It takes the original Touch design and extends it significantly with a keyboard, faster CPU, better performance and 3G. Not bad. The market challenge among import-loving Americans is that it doesn't offer all the bells and whistles like GPS, FM radio and WiFi. But then it does offer a US warranty and a more friendly return policy than most online imports. With strong 3G service and an AT&T unlimited data plan, I haven't pined for WiFi, though folks in EDGE areas might.

Pro: Fast, TouchFLO is smooth and responsive, good looking, soft-touch finish keeps the device safely in hand and doesn't require constant polishing (though the display might). Stable, very fast 3G HSDPA speeds on AT&T, strong reception, good voice quality and volume. MS Voice Command is a plus as is voice command over Bluetooth and A2DP Bluetooth stereo. Good video playback performance, very good sound quality for music playback. US warranty. Good battery life for a 3G PDA phone.

Con: No WiFi or GPS.

Price: $549 unlocked for use with any GSM provider, no contract required.

Web site: www.htc.com/us (as of this writing, HTC's web site specs are wrong for GSM/3G bands and battery capacity, we're sure they'll update them soon!)

Specs: