SlashGear Japan
Good things, they say, come to those who wait, and it certainly feels like we’ve been waiting long enough for the HTC Touch HD. From the first early leaks, official reveal and through to the disappointment that HTC wouldn’t be releasing the smartphone in the US, this 3.8-inch WVGA touchscreen has managed to grab attention away from the best Apple, Sony Ericsson and the rest have to offer. Now, finally, the HTC Touch HD has landed in the UK, and SlashGear have one of the first.
Full gallery and first-impressions of the HTC Touch HD after the cut
First-impressions are good. The packaging is slick and minimal, with a solid matte black box and magnetic clasp. Inside there’s the Touch HD itself, the AC adapter with UK and Euro plugs, a wired stereo headset and USB sync/charge cable. This isn’t the final bundle – there are no manuals or guides, for example – so expect slightly different contents in retail versions.
In the hand, the Touch HD feels solid and expensive. Unlike the Touch Diamond, with its fingerprint-magnet plastic back panel, the Touch HD is matte-finished and, with the exception of the touchscreen, resistant to finger dirt. A gloss plastic panel at the rear on the bottom hides the wireless radios as well as bordering HTC’s multi-function USB and headset port; thankfully, there’s also a standard 3.5mm headset socket on the top of the handset too, meaning no frustrating adapter dongle. Hardware controls are minimal, and limited to the power/device lock button along the top (which is surprisingly stiff) and a single-piece volume control on the top left-hand side.
Turn on, and prepare to be dazzled by the HTC Touch HD’s display. WVGA resolution means 800 x 480, but it doesn’t say how bright it is: photos don’t do the touchscreen justice, frankly. Underneath there are touch-sensitive call, home, back and end keys, which vibrate slightly when you press them. HTC’s familiar TouchPRO 3D interface loads automatically when you power on, and the extra screen real-estate makes it truly finger-friendly. Although not as responsive as a capacitive display, early impressions suggest it’s better than just about any other resistive touchscreen we’ve tried; it also gives a small haptic vibrate, which is just light enough to be useful but not annoying.
As we’ve only had the Touch HD in for a couple of hours so far, it’s still far too early to make any lasting judgements. A few stand out improvements are the larger QWERTY keyboard, which now means you can use your finger rather than the stylus and still expect decent accuracy, and the giddymaking space there is to play with in the preloaded Opera web browser. System speed is good, and there’s none of the touchscreen lag that the Touch Diamond sometimes suffers from.
We’ll have a full review soon, as well as video demos, hands-on feedback and other coverage of the HTC Touch HD. If there’s anything you particularly want to know about HTC’s wunderkind, let me know in the comments.
26 Responses to “HTC Touch HD: SlashGear First Impressions & Gallery”
kel October 30, 2008
Could you tell me a bit more indepth about the calendar on the HD? I want to upgrade from the HTC touch – which had kind of a crappy calendar to be honest!
Cheers!
+2Kel
Chris Davies October 30, 2008
Kel, the short answer is that the calendar on the Touch HD is the same, stock Windows Mobile 6.1 calendar – just like on previous smartphones. No change, I’m afraid.
+1coffeevictim October 30, 2008
I would like to know more about the calendar as well. On the Touch Diamond there is only room to show a single all day event and a single apppointment on the home screen. None of the photos on the web show the device sync’ed with a busy calendar but I would gues that the extra vertical screen space will allow for more calendar events to display on the home screen. Can you confirm this?
-1Daniel Grant October 30, 2008
I know this phone has an installed YouTube client which is pretty impressive. But is this device able to play video of the BBC iPlayer website.
Noone has confirmed this as of yet.
Can you?
getting mine on Wednesday…… YAAAAAY !!!
NeutralDavid Lucas-Smith October 31, 2008
[quote comment="53110"]I know this phone has an installed YouTube client which is pretty impressive. But is this device able to play video of the BBC iPlayer website.
Noone has confirmed this as of yet.
Can you?
getting mine on Wednesday…… YAAAAAY !!![/quote]
Hi Daniel,
NeutralAre you a VIP or can anybody get one on wednesday?!
Zahir October 31, 2008
Is the sound quality from the music player, is it as good as an ipod or worse?
NeutralDerrick October 31, 2008
All I want to know is will this baby work on AT&T (US) and what would I be loosing (besides a lot of money) by putting it on the AT&T network?
I assume I lose 3G?
Visual Voicemail?
AT&T really missed the boat on this one. They could have really stomped on other carries by bringing this baby to their network, but I guess they didn’t want to compete too much with their beloved iPhone.
I also wonder why Apple is the only one using capacitive touch? Is it related to other devices running WM?
NeutralGustavo October 31, 2008
Is there anything that can prove that there is a TV-out function?
[]’s
NeutralBig Mo October 31, 2008
This is the thing that i want to know. Is there a tv-out on this monster machine? Can you check by putting the Touch pro’s tv-out cable in the Touch HD’s USB Slot? would that confirm if it has tv-out or not.
SLASH GEAR WILL YOU CHECK IF ITS GOT TV-OUT BY PUTTING THE PRO’s CABLE IN THE HD’s USB?
THANK YOU
+1Steve B October 31, 2008
The clincher for me is whether the GPS works properly without lag!
NeutralBoth the Diamond and the Touch Pro seem to attract criticism for poor GPS performance. I’m wondering if the HD will be the same, as it uses the same Qualcomm chipset.
Feedback would be most welcome.
David C October 31, 2008
I would also like to know if streaming video direct from the opera browser (e.g. from sites such as 66stage, bbc iplayer, hulu etc) is supported. Also, can you change the default start page to be the program launcher rather than the clock ?
NeutralShy Ted October 31, 2008
I have had a HTC in the form of an SPV M3100 for over two years – it’s been ace but is now past it’s smell-by date.
Have been waiting for the Xperia X1 for about a lifetime… and just as it’s about to come out, we get the choice of the HD!
Please could you tell me how easy it is for a guy’s smallish fingers to operate the virtual keyboard, as I feel concerned about losing that function.
So much so that I wrote last week to HTC and asked if the rumours were true that they would be bringing out an HD ‘Pro’ with a slideout keyboard in the near future and … guess what… THEY SAID THEY WERE!!
Neutral…
…
…
sorry guys, that was a bit of a fib… they haven’t responded…yet….
Chris Davies October 31, 2008
Thanks for the questions! Hopefully you’ll find answers in the new Q&A post:
http://www.slashgear.com/htc-t.....a-3121040/
We’ve got the Touch HD for another week or so, so if you have any other burning queries then ask away!
NeutralBig Mo November 1, 2008
Flash lite 3.1 is out and when you install it, you can go on the bbc iplayer site and start watching. Can you confirm this please?
Thanks
NeutralArthur Norton November 1, 2008
The one thing I want to know about any Smartphone-like device is ‘how does it perform as a ‘phone?’. Does it detect and hold signal easily? Does it drop calls? The Touch Diamond was not as good as the Touch Pro as far as signal-detection and -holding go and neither was as good as a Nokia (the E71 excepted). All the other bells and whistles are irrelevant if it’s not a good ‘phone.
NeutralHoward November 1, 2008
Hi Chris,
Great to see the 1st English preview of the HTC Touch HD! Here’s a couple of questions for your upcoming review.
1) Is the touch screen plastic or glass?
2) Can it display Garmin Mobile XT properly? Would be great if you can test a few NAV softwares on it to see if they render properly on the WVGA screen.
3) Does it REALLY not have TV-Out? I read HTC informed you it didn’t but we know HTC has fib on a few specs before but later found to be available with updated ROM. As requested by a few posts here, can you do us a big favor and plug in the Touch Pro TV cable to put to rest this burning question?
The Touch HD would be such a great media extender connected to a TV paired with a bluetooth keyboard/mouse (BlueInput)…. if only HTC included the TV-Out function!
Looking forward to the review! Please don’t keep us waiting too long ;)
Neutraldiane November 4, 2008
Do you know whether you can use any class of SDHC on it? I.e 4/6 etc… i emailed HTC they never replied and i want to buy one to come with my pre-ordered phone
Thanks.
NeutralFredy November 5, 2008
I read the user manual and found out that the antenna location in the HD is actually in the rear part of the HD instead of the upper part. And there is a warning in the manual not to touch that antenna location while using the phone.
So, how would you hold the phone while talking and not to touch that antenna location?
Second question, about the speaker.
+1It seems to me that the only speaker location is the front (the ear piece).
Is this right? I have a Prophet and it has a small speaker (ear piece) and another one in the back for “speaker” mode. I prefer it just in the front (same design like the old Wallaby etc).
Is this the case with the HD?
diane November 6, 2008
Just read that it actually COMES WITH an 8GB card – although everyone is trying to sell me on – is this true?
NeutralChris Davies November 6, 2008
Diane, we’re just getting confirmation of what’s in the retail box, and yes – an 8GB card is included. Don’t let anybody sell you one, unless you want an extra!
+1DanBurton November 6, 2008
Hi, I have a really interesting question about how the phone as I am going to order one very soon. But I’ve been looking for a way to stream media and live TV to it. The best way I can find is by using Orb either with wmp, coreplayer or orb’s partner software Kinoma (this app looks the most interesting.) aparently there are updates that make it work with the diamond and the x1 better. I would really like to see it tested on the HD if you could be so kind though. What do you think to the software running on it? is it full screen, high quality, smooth playback?
I would be really gratefull if you could answer this please. Thanks.
-Dan
NeutralChris November 7, 2008
I’m quite sure this is the phone for me, I was put off touch screen phones after using a viewty for a year, can you confirm that text input is miles ahead on that device, also I was going to get the x1, but I hear the keyboard is actually not very good, have you had experience with this phone how does it compair with text input on the HD in landscape mode(I will be installing gsen). If its only a little behind the x1 then i see no reason not to get the HD.
many thanks
Neutraldiane November 9, 2008
Thanks for the answer Chris – perhaps unsurprisingly my retailer was more than happy to try and sell me a separate one!
NeutralArthur November 10, 2008
Ok I have a question..why isn’t this phone coming to the US cause I really want one but I dnt wonna have to go through the hassle of ordering oversees
NeutralChris Davies November 10, 2008
Arthur, it’s because of the 3G radios HTC have used. The Touch HD supports the 3G frequencies used in Europe/Asia, rather than the US, and they decided it would take too long to engineer a US version.
More details here: http://www.slashgear.com/htc-t.....e-0718536/
NeutralHarold November 14, 2008
I live in the US and want this phone. Can you tell me if I purchase an unlocked phone will I be able to use it here and if I can, can you tell me what features would be lost.
Thanks,
Harold
Neutral