Dual SHOCK - is this the best Windows Mobile device ever?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of the original Touch.

Despite it's great form factor, I felt the lack of memory was killer, the screen looked poor and wasn't responsive enough, and the lack of 3G was a show stopper for many people. So, when HTC announced the Touch Dual, I found it hard to get excited :(

That was then, this is now... and i've been using a 12 key Touch Dual for a couple of weeks now. WOW, what a device. Really! OK, so there's no WiFi or GPS and the camera is standard 2 MegaPixel HTC fare... but it is a seriously sorted machine, and probably the best Windows Mobile device ever made - some claim eh?

So, what works? Although the screen is 2.6" (as opposed to the more common 2.8"), it is sharp, responsive to Touch and this coupled with the tweaks and improvements to TouchFlo finally make it a worthy and excellent addition to the base OS. Once you've had a dual with a 12 or 20 key keyboard, you'll probably find it hard to go back... it makes life SOOO much easier! Battery life is pretty decent, it now has 3G and for those of us with flat rate data plans, the lack of WiFi is largely a non issue. Besides, if they gave us GPS, WiFi and a good camera... what could they improve on next time? :D

I'm really interested to hear from other Touch Dual owners, to see if they agree with my assessment! My 12 key unit has been kidnapped by my wife (who swears by T9 anyway, so it was love at first sight), and i've bought a 20 key version, which I unboxed this morning in the video below.

I'll have full reviews of both devices coming up, but in the meantime, if you have any questions about either device - hit me with them :D

P

[Guest tsutton]

Is this the phone where you have 2 ways sliding keyboard?

I'm getting bamboozled with all of the mobile names and I can't remember which's which! :(

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Nah, that's the Pantech Duo Smartphone :(

P

[Guest boyo69]

It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of the original Touch.

Despite it's great form factor, I felt the lack of memory was killer, the screen looked poor and wasn't responsive enough, and the lack of 3G was a show stopper for many people. So, when HTC announced the Touch Dual, I found it hard to get excited :(

That was then, this is now... and i've been using a 12 key Touch Dual for a couple of weeks now. WOW, what a device. Really! OK, so there's no WiFi or GPS and the camera is standard 2 MegaPixel HTC fare... but it is a seriously sorted machine, and probably the best Windows Mobile device ever made - some claim eh?

So, what works? Although the screen is 2.6" (as opposed to the more common 2.8"), it is sharp, responsive to Touch and this coupled with the tweaks and improvements to TouchFlo finally make it a worthy and excellent addition to the base OS. Once you've had a dual with a 12 or 20 key keyboard, you'll probably find it hard to go back... it makes life SOOO much easier! Battery life is pretty decent, it now has 3G and for those of us with flat rate data plans, the lack of WiFi is largely a non issue. Besides, if they gave us GPS, WiFi and a good camera... what could they improve on next time? :D

I'm really interested to hear from other Touch Dual owners, to see if they agree with my assessment! My 12 key unit has been kidnapped by my wife (who swears by T9 anyway, so it was love at first sight), and i've bought a 20 key version, which I unboxed this morning in the video below.

I'll have full reviews of both devices coming up, but in the meantime, if you have any questions about either device - hit me with them :D

P

[Edit: I somehow managed to upload my 4:3 video to YouTube in widescreen, i'm re-uploading now...]

love it love it love it

had the Touch on contract from T-Mobile for a while and just ached for a keyboard..............bought the Dual SIM FREE and unlocked and boy what an improvement on the Touch in virtually every way............... i have the 12key, Paul, where did you get your 20key version??

i now run a TyTn II for work and a Dual for my private social mobile - best thing i can say is that a small, thin, sexy slider that is really a Pocket PC with no compromises is available...............and Wifi is not much of a miss really................

Mark

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

eBay from Hong Kong!

P

[Guest derosnec]

I picked up my 20 Key dual on a layover in Hong-Kong last week. Wow, wow, wow. I was giving up my HTC Excalibur (which was an awesome device in its own right!) but the touch simply blows it out of the water. Its the 'funny' little things which really sell the Dual:

It looks nice - it's plain and small, and very pocketable

It feels nice - Numerous people have commented how nice it is to the touch (ha!)

The gallery is fantastic - for fobbing off those snobby iPhone users ;-)

The sliding action is satisfying - a nice sold movement

The build quality is fantastic - no creaks, everything is solid

I've found myself using touch-flo much more often than I had expected. While I was at first dubious about going from a QWERTY smartphone to a 20 key device, I'm starting to train my fingers and have not doubt that given another week I'll be fairly close to my old speed. The only slight annoyance is that you can never quite tell if text entry is going to start in XT9 or ABC mode

EDIT: Typo

Edited December 12, 2007 by derosnec

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Ditto TouchFlo, I use it loads now!

P

[Guest adicken]

Love mine to bits too. It's so easy to live wit hand is pretty quick too. Battery life is acceptable but would welcome an improvemnt if possible.

Ps: Are you going to do a debrand pack now that you have a device Paul? :(

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Mine is already debranded :(

If I get hold of an Orange device (unlikely), then I will!

P

[Guest ptamblin]

I Love it,

Used to have a C500 on orange and got on ok with it, loved the idea but the dust issue just meant it was terrible in sunlight.

I have been using a E61 for the last 15 months on a twelve month contract as i was finding it very difficult to leave, i think one of the best nokia phones for a long time.

The Touch Dual is something else. went on a Twelve month contract with orange and so far I am extremely impressed. A friend bought the TYTN II a few weeks ago, and yes it is the business! but darn does it look big and cumbersome,

The onscreen keyboards are great, i'm finding I am using them alot more for entering longer text, and using the keypad for quick texts.

the memory runs the phone so well, and i'm almost suprised to see that theres 10 programmes open when I go to close them.

I will be installing TOMTOM on it when i get round to it tonight, and after it working so well on the E61 i will be hoping for simular performance.

I am so glad I came back to Windows Mobile.

Oh and the touch flo system works amazing, surprising how quickly you just get used to it. Opera works a treat for scanning round massive desktop websites too.

Well done HTC, can't wait to show my device off.

[Guest xorangefirex]

Any chance on this phone coming to the other side of the pond? I would really like to have a "backup" to my kaiser, and I am really looking hard for a relatively compact suretype WM device. Perhaps the Shadow would suit me better, although I despise having a carrier branded phone. Just curious if you may have heard anything for those of us that need a quad band here in America. Thanks Paul.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Not heard anything about an official release there?

P

[Guest Rob.P]

I'm not lucky enough to own one yet, but I got my brother-in-law to bring one home from work for me to play with for a weekend. I love the form factor and was worried I wouldn't like the data entry coming from a Vario II, so wrong was I, 2 days just wasn't enough, I think my brain found the Touch Dual way of doing things a lot easier, especially when I let it do it's predicting stuff.

Screen and TouchFLO turned out a lot better than my expectations. Not bothered about losing WiFi as it's got 3G and since using 3G I've sort of forgotten about it. GPS, got a BT TomTom mouse so not missing out there either, plus it means it won't gather dust when I upgrade as it still has a use.

So blown away I definitely know what I'm getting in the new year, I'd be getting one now but I'm in the middle of selling and moving house, which as you all know ain't cheap.

[Guest nickcornaglia]

423 EMAILS!!!!! :(

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Yeah, i'm pretty well on top of them atm :(

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[Guest Disco Stu]

I've got a Dual on Orange contract and there's not that much branding that it bothers me.

What has impressed me the most is that this is a proper PPC with the ease-of-use of a Smartphone. Since GPS / WiFi is only of marginal interest at the moment I'm thinking of this as the ultimate WinMo device.

[Guest madferret]

All this talk of not needing WiFi because you have 3G is ok if you are in a coverage area. Which I'm not, at home :(.

So the S730 wins - I've switched from a Vario, wanting something smaller, so having the keyboard helps the transition away from touchscreen. And it's 60 quid cheaper, though Orange had some tempting deals on the Dual that so nearly dragged me away from T-Mobile!

[Guest rav1patel]

absolutely love mine. a debrand kit would be great though. the one for e650 worked a treat Paul so cheers for that. the only thing that really pisses me off is when entering text tapping the 2 key defaults to a "c" and not an "a" in xt9 mode for some stupid reason. otherwise its quality.

[Guest nuttyphilt]

OK, so there's no WiFi or GPS and the ....

So you're telling me you can't release a tweak pack to enable GPS & WiFi?? Very disappointing. :(

So far so good with my 20 key version although it hasn't gone out of the house yet. I managed to lose the included screen protector down the back of the sofa but found it again now!

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

absolutely love mine. a debrand kit would be great though. the one for e650 worked a treat Paul so cheers for that. the only thing that really pisses me off is when entering text tapping the 2 key defaults to a "c" and not an "a" in xt9 mode for some stupid reason. otherwise its quality.

Yeah, that annoys me, and is one of the reasons I went for the 20 key :(

I am gonna try and fix that tho, it must be possible :D

P

[Guest unclelimey]

had a touch, then upgraded to the touch dual on orange.... bloody love it, great handset. now i can text whilst driving.. ooops (*not recommended hehe )

[Guest dan13l]

Seriously tempted to flog my Vario 3 on ebay and get myself one of these. The Vario 3 (Kaiser, TyTn 2, whatever you want to call it) hasn't really lived up to my expectations. I rarely use wi-fi, can't get 3g at home, so make do with GPRS. Not really going to lose much when downgrading.

Given how laggy the keyboard's been on my Vario, I'd rather have a nice responsive 20 key pad, than a full QWERTY.

Any thoughts on the Vario 3 versus the Dual folks?

[Guest bb79]

Seriously tempted to flog my Vario 3 on ebay and get myself one of these. The Vario 3 (Kaiser, TyTn 2, whatever you want to call it) hasn't really lived up to my expectations. I rarely use wi-fi, can't get 3g at home, so make do with GPRS. Not really going to lose much when downgrading.

Given how laggy the keyboard's been on my Vario, I'd rather have a nice responsive 20 key pad, than a full QWERTY.

Any thoughts on the Vario 3 versus the Dual folks?

I'm totally thinking along the same lines myself. I do like my VIII but it's just a bit too big and heavy. I'm not too bothered about wi-fi - I do all I want with HSDPA - and with the new Cell Location thingy with Google maps I don't think I really need GPS. I've not actually used the GPS on the VIII yet and I've had it about 6 weeks.

I went into Inkino on Tottenham Court Road on Tuesday and had a play with their 12 key Touch Dual. It's so much sexier and so much lighter than my VIII. I feel a little sheepish getting out my VIII on the tube but I think I would be proudly showing off a Dual! My main sticking point is about the 20 key pad. I don't think I could go back to a normal keypad after having the qwerty (I didn't find it noticably laggy) but how easy to use is the Suretype-esque key pad? Much easier/quicker than a normal phone keypad or just a gimmick?

I'm hoping that a full review is imminent Paul - I know you're singing it's praises here but I'd really like to see one of your marvellous reviews first before I buy one. I'm especially interested to know what you think of the 20 key pad.

bb79

Edited December 12, 2007 by bb79

[Guest J273]

Ive been using the 12 key model for the past week or so and loved the thing.....Ive returnd it back though as im hoping to replace it with the 20key model from handtec (£330)

Im just hopeing ive made the right decision as i think ill miss the extra keys.

Which do you prefer Paul out of the 12 and 20 key?

Also ive heard on xda-developers that someones managed to get lock to 4 satellites meaning there mst be the hardware in the Dual for wifi and GPS ( well im hopeing so). http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=348978

if you dont mind me asking whos the seller on ebay and how much was it?....is it cheaper than handtecs £330?

Thanks

Edited December 12, 2007 by J273

[Guest Monolithix]

Well i've been sheepishly tending more and more toward a Dual for some time now. Kinda like the Vox too, I was never impressed until i saw it in the flesh and then realised quite what HTC had managed.

Roll on T-Mobile launching the Touch Plus :(