Rarely do we receive so many questions, so many comments and demands over an upcoming review.  In the few days since our HTC Touch HD unboxing and hands-on video demo, the messages have been flooding in.  Today, we’ll try to answer those questions – and, of course, the biggest question of them all: have HTC managed the unthinkable and tugged the must-have crown from the head of the iPhone 3G?  In the first half of our two-part review, we’ll be looking at the touchscreen, OS, GUI and keyboard entry, as well as the Touch HD’s internet abilities and more.

For first-impressions we’ll point you at our unboxing post.  We’re still waiting to hear back exactly what will and will not be included in the retail packaging.  Someone at HTC has obviously given no small amount of thought to the perceived quality of what’s included – the USB cable, for instance, is finished with a soft-touch, rubberized coating; a small point, perhaps, but you notice it – but I wish they’d given equal thought to the AC adapter.  A universal design, with slot-in country-specific pin sections, with a UK plug it protrudes down from the socket not up and, as such, if your power point is in a low skirting-board, it won’t fit.  Just as with the USB cable, it’s a small point but, yes, you notice it.

Put a 3.8-inch 480 x 800 display into your smartphone and you’re making a statement; you’re also taking on some impressive competition.  The iPhone 3G is just one of HTC’s key rivals with the Touch HD; there’s also RIM’s BlackBerry Storm, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and the Samsung Omnia i900.  Each has their advantages, certainly, but with the exception of the Storm – which we’re yet to spend time with in person – the Touch HD bests them all.  Picture the crispness of the HTC Touch Diamond’s screen, stretched to take up the fullness of this new, broader sibling; image quality is something we’ll not tire of.

It’s that fact which makes the resistive touchscreen all the more frustrating.  Like with the rest of its Windows Mobile range, HTC have selected a standard, non-capacitive touch panel; the benefit is that it responds both to the stylus and to a finger, making it suitable for both general prodding and the sort of handwriting input we’re told the Asian markets prefer.  The downside is that, while good for a resistive screen, it feels less precise and responsive than the display on, say, the iPhone.  A slightly-flexible plastic front is necessary, rather than glass, and the fact that it responds to finger pressure means scrolling isn’t as smooth as on the Apple handset.

Nonetheless, it’s certainly no slouch.  For once HTC’s custom Windows Mobile GUI, TouchFLO 3D, has room to really spread out.  The bottom tab icons are large and finger-sized, and swiping from side to side quickly flicks through the panes.  Everything has been spread out, some aspects more successfully than others.  The weather pane, for instance, now incorporates both the large day’s forecast with the next four days along the bottom, rather than on different pages; however on the main home pane the clock has become oversized and squandered space that could have been used to display more calendar entries.  Only three will fit without scrolling, just one more compared to the Touch Diamond’s 1-inch smaller display.

Still, there’s more customization on offer, with the new found ability to remove and reorder the different panes (although the home tab is locked in place and you can’t switch it, the settings or the program launcher panes off).  A new Stocks display has been included, too.  It makes it all the more disappointing when you drop out of TouchFLO 3D and into standard Windows Mobile, which is pretty much a given unless you’re only making calls and taking photos.  Microsoft’s smartphone OS might support high-resolution displays, but it certainly doesn’t take advantage of them: font options are basically large & clunky or small & stylus-demanding, with none of the finesse seen on rival OSes.  Contrast any of the standard settings pages with HTC’s communications manager, and tell us which you’d prefer to have more of.  This isn’t HTC’s fault, as such, but it undoubtedly takes away from the user experience; Windows Mobile 7 can’t come soon enough, frankly.

HTC Touch HD