HTC Touch2 review: Beyond the basics

Gsmarena have posted a review of the HTC Touch2. Here are the phone's key features, main disadvantages and final impression.

Key features:
2.8" 65K-color QVGA display
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS with TouchFLO
Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz CPU and 256MB RAM
Quad-band GSM support
3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps
Wi-Fi connectivity
Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
Stereo FM radio with RDS
3 MP fixed focus camera
microSD card slot
Touch-sensitive zoom bar
Standard miniUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Great audio quality
MS Office Mobile document editor
Opera 9.5 web browser
YouTube client, Facebook integration
Excellent video playback performance

Main disadvantages:
Low-end display resolution
Camera lacks auto focus, flash, geotagging or a dedicated camera key
No accelerometer sensor
Poor screen sunlight legibility
Preloaded CoPilot Live navigation software is a trial version
No secondary video-call camera
No handwriting recognition

The HTC Touch2 makes a small point but makes it right for the most part. To begin with, it looks sharp enough to get you interested but won't intimidate first-time PocketPC users. It has a solid enough spec sheet with a few nice bonuses like a 3.5 mm audio jack and the zoom bar.

However, some of the things it lacks cannot go unnoticed. The essentials are well covered of course - and in PocketPC terms essentials imply quite an all-round set of connectivity and office features. But the Touch2 tries to be a budget balancer which makes compromises inevitable.

It becomes all too obvious in direct comparison with the most important rival - Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE. Between the two, the Touch2 looks by far the more credible PocketPC but that impression won't hold upon closer inspection. Screen size and resolution, autofocus camera and the accelerometer are the key points in favor of the Samsung - not to mention the multimedia capabilities (losing on 3.5mm audio connectivity but gaining back on DivX and XviD video support). And what is even more important, the OmniaLITE keeps the asking price lower than the Touch2.

And that's hardly the only source of pressure on the Touch2. The Symbian powered Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a year old already but packs a good enough punch and costs way less. The recent HTC Tattoo and the Samsung I5700 Galaxy Spica go around at nearly the same price as the Touch2. They offer similar capabilities but have one major advantage (well, some would call it a disadvantage - a matter of taste): Android OS.

It looks like the HTC Touch2 has more responsibility than its rank suggests. While the whole place is abuzz with Android, HTC are quite reasonably trying to update their midrange and respond to the competition, while in the same time reshaping the company and brand image from the ground up.

The Touch2 has another important role as the first HTC handset running the updated Windows Mobile 6.5. For a company that does PocketPC for a living, it's quite an important role. But then, WinMo 6.5 turned out not much of a big deal - so that's why the Touch2 is just another sequel - quite in line with the company's recent naming pattern. Maybe it will take Windows 7 for HTC to display the depth of their vocabulary.