HTC Touch 3G Interface
Of the recent tranche of HTC touch screen smartphones to hit the market, the Touch 3G falls somewhere in the middle ground. It does not have the striking jaw line or the massive screen of the Hero. But it is also more powerful than the Touch Viva thanks to its beefy CPU which helps improve the HTC Touch 3G interface. What the HTC Touch 3G interface does offer is the TouchFLO capabilities. This is far from simply a piece of marketing jargon that does not mean much in real life. It is a type of touch sensitive interface which makes the Touch 3G one of the best touch screen phones that HTC have released in recent years.
The Touch 3G uses the Windows Mobile operating system which in previous phones this has proved to be clunky and confusing to use. Thankfully the TouchFLO interface completely overhauls and replaces many of the interactive menus and functions with a far better system crafted by HTC themselves. This is only the 2D version of the TouchFLO, with the higher spec interface being reserved for the more expensive handsets although this adds little but flashier visuals.
You can use a single finger to access all that the HTC Touch 3G interface has to offer. This is useful when you are navigating the menus, adding widgets to the home screen or searching your contacts. The interface really comes into its own when you are browsing the web using the pre-installed Opera browser program. Whilst older HTC handsets using a touch interface and the Windows Mobile operating platform were slightly sluggish and unresponsive when it came to web browsing, the Touch 3G benefits from a much improved interface. It is also a huge benefit to have the HSDPA connection allowing up to 7.2Mbps download speeds when reception is good.
The HTC Touch 3G interface benefits from the high speed Qualcomm processor which resides at the heart of the phone. Other touch screen phones, even those from a higher price bracket, can suffer from a degree of lag when you use the screens, particularly when switching between menus and the home screen or dragging items around. The LG Arena proves to be a particularly potent illustrator of this point. However, the HTC Touch 3G never suffers from sluggish controls. Everything feels natural and smooth and even when multitasking the Touch 3G does not seem to be too taxed by your incessant tapping.
The one aspect of the HTC Touch 3G interface that could benefit from slight improvement is the touch screen technology itself. Whilst people with delicate and dexterous control over their fingers will find themselves utilising most of the functions without issue, those who are somewhat less light of touch will be left floundering. Conveniently there is a stylus housed in the main body of the phone which you can pull out at any time. In an ideal world a stylus would not be needed at all, but that is perhaps wishful thinking.
The other slight problem with the feel of the HTC Touch 3G is that, at times, you can almost sense the complexity and idiocy of the Windows Mobile standard interface twitching away just below the surface. This is not really the fault of the manufacturer and they have done an admirable job in papering over the cracks in what is a slightly broken system. However, since HTC has also had success with other mobile operating platforms such as Google Android it is slightly confusing that they still continue to produce handsets like the Touch 3G which use Windows Mobile to their detriment. However, the Touch 3G manages to provide an interface and user experience that is, in general, excellent.
Tags: htc, htc touch 3g, interface