Mobile Tech Reviews

The HTC Touch is the smallest touch-screen phone available on the market measuring 3.9 inches long and 2.8 inches wide by 0.5 inch tall. The design of the phone is pretty neat especially the soft-touch finish and the smooth and rounded corners.

TOUCH FLO:

The heart of the device centers on the innovative Touch Flo interface. The interface is revolutionary in the fact that it allows you to operate the device with finger taps and swipes. This compliments the main OS which happens to be Windows Mobile 6. The Touch Flo operates by giving you easy access to main applications such as contacts, music, messages, email and such.

The features of the phone include GPS, and support for Sprint’s EV-DO network (the nation’s fastest mobile network). Unfortunately it does not support WI-FI access which means you are left with the Sprint network or none at all. On the bright side it’s not as expensive as Blackberry’s media package plan.

The onscreen QWERTY is a little small and it was quite hard for me to enter information by hand. The good thing is you have the option of a 20 button QWERTY keyboard that is bigger but of course loses some of the not so used keys. The phone dialing keyboard is big and specious, about the size of the iPhone and very responsive.

To be expected the phone carries a media player and comes with a 512MD microSD card, protective pouch and USB cable. Since its Windows Mobile operated it supports play-for-sure which means you can download all your Napster or Rhapsody tunes from your computer to your device. Other features include speakerphone, voice commands, dialing, text and multimedia messaging, smart dialing, and contact memory is only limited by the available memory installed and can support up to 12 numbers per contact (as if you’ll ever need that). Photo caller ID is also available as well as 15 polyphonic ringtones. You are also allowed to dial by photo, meaning you can access your address book by pictures of your contacts instead of scrolling through boring text names.

The Touch also supports Bluetooth wireless options such as wireless headsets, object exchange, file sharing, hands-free-kits, dial-up networking and stereo Bluetooth. Also included is a 2.0 megapixel camera with 5x zoom. While the 2.0 megapixel camera is impressive in name I have seen better picture quality from 1.3 and 1.2 megapixel phones. The same thing goes for the camcorder which is also present on the phone. The phone includes a 400MHz processor which has 128MP of ROM and 256 of RAM. According to HTC the Touch has 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 10 days of standby time.

To sum it up the HTC Touch is a revolution in the touch sensitive device world….unfortunately it lacks the matching revolution in the OS world.

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The Q9C is Sprint’s version of the totally redesigned Motorola q Smartphone. The upgraded features include GPS support along with an extended battery life although the extended battery causes the back of the phone to carry a butt.

The QWERTY keyboard is also redesigned and although a little stiff on touch it looks a lot more classic than the older model. Although the keys are closer than the older model it still provides the same ability to enter tech into the phone a lot faster than the newer generation of touch sensitive devices which are still in my opinion development stage.

On the side of the phone is a miniSD slot which supports up to 4GB of additional memory for games, apps, music and of course pictures taken with the 1.3 megapixel camera and camcorder. The phone also features GPS and access to Sprint’s EV-DO network. Also on the list of features is Bluetooth 2.0 along with Sprint power vision for such things as music downloads and wireless TV. Unfortunately Wi-Fi is not supported and a miniSD Wi-Fi card will need to be added to pick up wireless networks.

Motorola says they can the extended battery will last for 7.3 hours of continuous talk time on a single charge. To decrease size you can always purchase a regular battery at any Sprint store although it will set you back 30 dollars.

The only main problems I find with this phone is its need of more memory (a problem that plagues almost all Windows powered phones), built in Wi-Fi support and better clarity in terms of calls and music although it is pretty good for a smart phone.

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The LG Rumor is Sprint’s answer to its messaging fanatic customers who want a phone on par with the likes of T-Mobile, Verizon and Cingular. It seems to be a good shot because the phone is currently sold out and the earliest it will be available is January 10’Th 2008.

The phone comes with a 2 inch diagonal display. Display is average (176×220 pixel resolution) and is quite hard to see when under direct sunlight. Unfortunately this cannot be corrected because the phone has no brightness or contrast settings. The phone comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and while that’s not too bad the picture quality is not all that great either. Also included is a camcorder with a resolution of 176×144 and 128×96.

The phone shines when it comes to messaging and music and GPS. The phone has a hidden QWERTY keyboard that slides out to make texting and messaging easier. When the QWERTY keyboard is out the phone flips its display form portrait to landscape mode so thumb typing can be executed. It also features a five way directional key that also supports quick access to such things as music, content etc. The phone also carries an impressive phone book that is able to hold 500 contacts. It also supports photo caller ID and 35 polyphonic ringtones and 23 tech tones. Other features include clock, currency convertor, unit convertor, notepad, calculator, stopwatch, tip calculator and of course voice recorder.

For all those who have moved from the wired age to the wireless age, the phone supports stereo Bluetooth. Unfortunately the music player is not all that impressive and since Sprint Power Vision is not supported music has to be downloaded from the computer to the phones micro SD card via Sprint’s Music Manager Software. Personalization options include screensavers, wallpapers, text sounds and also a couple games to kill time at the bus stop.

Call Quality is good. Voices are heard loud and clear. Speaker phone is also good though you should expect to hear a little static or echoes once in awhile. Music quality is OK. Those who require Bass though, opt for a headset. Battery Life is 4.5 hours of talk time and FCC radiation tests, the SAR rating is 1.22 watts per kilogram.

All in all the Rumor is a very good phone with some cool features. Not your next Razr but definitely a phone that will keep you happy until next holiday season rolls around.

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