HTC Touch HD

“The HTC Touch HD is guaranteed to change the way people think of Windows Mobile. It is a bold and confident step, taking full advantage of all the hardware and software strengths and a worthy effort of addressing the weaknesses.There are still quite a number of performance issues but the problems of Windows OS are far too deep to disappear overnight. Still, if modding and tweaking is your game, you can fix quite a lot of the issues that come out of the box.But while this certainly isn't a flawless phone, the results are impressive indeed. The multimedia power of the HD is immense, and only a touch away on that huge screen. The high-resolution camera and the tons of software available, make the HD a truly attractive package. And with looks like those - what more can you possibly want in a phone.The great response and sweet thumb-optimized handling are remarkable (in WinMo terms) but that's hardly an achievement of the Touch HD alone. The company's headliner is the cutting edge of a consistent effort that started back with the HTC Touch and went sky-high with the Diamond.The crown of that effort, HTC Touch HD, is now set on a path pretty much signposted by iPhone. Its driving inspiration has brought to the scene a capable candidate for a hefty bite at the apple.”

“We were excited when we started testing the phone, hoping that we’ll see something great and revolutionary. Sadly, the reality is different. Hardware-wise, the Touch HD is impressive with a large display and excellent build quality. As a phone, it offers many functions and a very good sound during a call, but the software is not innovative at all. TouchFLO 3D, which we’ve seen in Diamond and Pro is the best for a WM smartphone, but not for a multimedia device what we wanted to discover in the HD. The music player is good, we can live with the mediocre camera, but why the bad video capabilities and not the multiple codec/format support like seen in the rivals? This would have made it possible for the users to really enjoy HD clips. So far, the Touch HD is a good smartphone but doesn’t have what it takes to be a good multimedia phone. As we’ve said before, we hope this will be fixed by future software updates, making the HD the best Windows Mobile device available. What we would really love to see is Android on that beautiful screen, but that’s not expected officially.”

“HTC has a history of making serious-looking business phones that don't always inspire us, but the HTC Touch HD is beautiful. Everything we expected the HTC Touch to be but didn't quite see is encapsulated in the Touch HD - it feels and looks superb.”

“Overall, the HTC Touch HD is a great device. I'm not usually a fan of touchscreen devices, but I got on surprisingly well with the Touch HD because of the screen's favorable size. There were still times when I accidentally hit one of the touch sensitive keys when trying to tap items at the bottom of the screen, and times when the device didn't respond as desired, but overall it was pretty easy to live with.It's a shame that the Touch HD's camera didn't have a flash, as it otherwise asserts itself as a very capable multimedia device. I'd also have preferred a glass panel to cover the screen, rather than the soft plastic that is actually used. Aside from these minor imperfections there isn't much to complain about with the HTC Touch HD, and I'd say it's probably the best iPhone rival out there. In many ways it surpasses the iPhone's capabilities and is more business-friendly, although the iPhone's interface is slicker. Bearing this in mind, I give the HTC Touch HD a Highly Recommended rating.”