HD Touch are you happy?

[Guest Bewdy]

Hi there, I'm looking for some insight into living with the HD Touch. As is probably quite common I am trying to choose between one and an iphone3g.

Now I must say, that I'm not a big fan of apple products generally speaking, I don't get on with my ipod and itunes, and I find that personally they are often over hyped and more focused on style rather than content, but yesterday having tried an iphone in the shop again compared to the HD touch, it did feel very slick and responsive to use in the short time I was with it, but that display on the HD touch is gorgeous.

I'm coming from a HTC s620, which has been a terrific phone, and one of my main worries going to a touch interface is the keypad functionality and responsiveness and ease of typing, as i am lightning fast on my S620. The other thing that bothers me a little is that I used to own an XDA mini, and I don't want to keep reverting back to a stylus to do simple operations. Essentially I want my touch phone to be 'touch' operated really.

How do you guys find the Touch HD to use, do you find yourselves reaching for the stylus?

And does the resolution of the display really make a difference, compare to the same size (almost) display of the iphone. PS i really like the browsing experience on the iphone, shame HTC haven't got multi touch going yet.

The HTC is going to cost me a little more to buy £5 extra a month, which is another consideration, i guess I'm wondering if the improvements in the HTC hardware justify the extra cost in the long run, and out weigh the slick software on the iphone?

Opinions would be appreciated. cheers

[Guest dr_nick]

i am enjoying mine, and would never have an iphone becasue i disagree with their exclusive development strategy. The Touch Hd has all the latest technology and a massive, wonderfully rich screen, in a very slim body and is the form factor i have been looking for for years. having not wanted a keyboard when i got my kaiser, i now miss it a bit, but its just a case of getting used to the onscreen keypad - and it is plenty big enough and very responsive, if i'm honest. I do, however, miss the customisable hardware buttons - the touch hd only has start/end/home/back/volume/power, and i haven't found a way to customise them (which makes voice commander difficult to use).

i enjoy WM for how many 3rd party aplications and customisations there are available, on the whole either free or reasonably priced. My faveourite applications are not available on the iphone. touchflow 3d interferes with today plugin-based programs (including my faveourite app: phonealarm, so ui haven't yet been able to get my location-based profile switching to work - but i am told this IS possible).

the iphone can't even manage simple cut and paste functions, and certainly the one i played with couldn't do stereo over bluetooth (a2dp).

yes they are slick, and the UI is better than WM. but WM is only limited by the brains of the 3rd party application developers rather than Apple agreeing to license stuff and make it avialable through appstore (slow and laborious process). and there are several interface-type applications now available for WM that are very similar to the iphone UI...

my advice would be the touch HD (but i guess i am a little biased in that i would never buy an ipod/iphone).

Edited December 2, 2008 by dr_nick

[Guest bazc]

Overall I am very pleased with my HTC HD, it is certainly the best WinMo device I have had. I have had several XDA's / SPV's and PDA's. The touch screen takes a little getting used too, it certainly isn't as good as the iPhones screen, there also isn't many applications that make the most of the screen at the moment. If I had the choice between an iPhone and the HTC HD I would have choose the iPhone. But as it is a work phone I am more than happy with the HD.

Baz

[Guest thulsadoom]

I've got the Touch HD, and my best mate has the iPhone. Personally, I'd go for the Touch without a second's thought. Sure, the iphone has slight marginal advantages in some areas. The whole 'ooh, look, I've got an iphone' thing, and the touch screen is very responsive, and interface possibly a little more intuitive.

However, once you get past the initial 'ooh' factor, experimenting with my mate's iphone seems very limited. With the Touch, you've got very easy copy/paste options, can install customizable things like the touchpal keyboard for improving texting/writing/etc. and the coreplayer for video, and you're not limited with itunes and so-forth. It just seems more versatile. Also, the added stylus makes some things much faster and easier, and it's nice to have the option between using that or fingers(Rather than being limited to one or the other). The Touch HD just seems far more utilitarian. Also, I'm not sure if it's just his phone, but bluetooth just wouldn't do jack on it, whereas my touch HD has no problems at all. (we were testing them in our local pub, and my phone was picking up everyone and his dog's phone, the iphone just sat there and kept searching), and I've had no problems sending pics/files to other peoples phones over bluetooth with the Touch. Not to mention the Touch HDs bigger screen/higher resolution/better camera. Possibly the iphone can only use bluetooth with other iphones?

I'd say it falls into two categories. If you're looking to impress mates and colleagues, get an iphone. If you're looking for an impressive but ALSO useful touch screen phone, get the HD.

[Guest Kaaeed]

Hi Bewdy

I have a Touch HD so I declare my preference up front.

However, before I purchased my HD I purchased an 3G iPhone in Sept.

Positives were

Great screen

Great UI

Internet was a real joy for the first time on a mobile device.

Negatives were

The UI was restrictive in terms of phones you cannot type in the name of the individual to get their contact which was a real pain for me as I have over 1,000 contacts on mine and no copy and paste.

The aps store is awful as there was no trial period it was a case of buy and try out which seemed expensive and time consuming

I returned my iPhone the following day and I am now satisfied that it was not for me.

Now to the HD

Yes I do find it slick and fast compared to the HTC Touch Enhanced which I had before. I do not use the stylus on a daily basis. I have installed Touchpal which I find an incredible program and can type pretty quickly on it. The one thing that does get some getting used to is the lack of a D Pad which I had on my Touch Enhanced but again after a few days you dont miss it and learn the new tricks.

The screen size and resolution has been everything I hoped for and more!

Using Pocket Informant has been a joy being able to see the whole day on the screen (and read it) plus I can see a whole load more information on my weekly views and my daily task screens.

Opera is great I find that I can pan across the screen using my fingers and also double tap to zoom in and out so once again there are no problems there. I have even done internet business banking using a 3G connection.

GPS works great but of course whilst it shows you the route on a map it does not shout out instructions so again I will invest in TomTom6 probably to get the most of my phone.

Where the HD is lacking is that I find the 3d Touchflo in itself clunky. For example I find that switching on bluetooth and wifi and the different sound setting to take too many steps so I am looking to install back Spb mobile or some other launcher back in there to make these more simple steps direct from the home screen.

I dont really use the phone for multi-media so cannot give insight on this.

Overall I am very happy with the phone and believe that it is a major step forward in (WM )Mobile phone / PDA computing.

I hope that this helps.

Best of luck in your decision.

I hope that this helps.

[Guest theroadwarrior]

Came from a T-mob hermes, i was initially worried that i'd miss the KB but the onscreen kb works really well with the big screen; which is fantastic. Still wish videos played back more smoothly, cant really make the best use of the screen when you have to compress the video so much so it runs smoothly.

[Guest gibson99]

Hi folks, does anyone use the Touch HD as their MP3 player? How does it fare?......are there clicks/other strange noises frequently during song playing, or is it really like using any MP3 player? Thanks B)