HTC Touch Dual Review

For those that want pocketable messaging device

I'll begin with the aesthetics. The device maintains the look of the HTC Touch. It's slightly more narrow, making for a slighty smaller screen. The resolution is QVGA which was acceptable at the time, but would be quite outdated nowadays. The entire body has a non-slippery rubber finish, making it feel quite nice in hand. The sildeout keyboard is spring-assisted which is nice.

Depending on which version you purchased, you have 1 of 2 variations of keypad layout. One is the traditional 16-key with the T9 layout and the other is the 20-key suretype-style layout. I had the 20-key layout and it was a joy to type on. I could go almost as fast as I could on my desktop.

On the software side, it runs Windows Mobile 6.1. Among the things that HTC added were the Today-screen plugin (HTC Home), the TouchFlo cube, finger scrolling and panning, custom photo album, and custom music player.

The included Internet Explorer browser is utterly horrible. This will be the source of all your device's freezing. Nowadays, you should be able to ditch it for Opera Mobile.

The TouchFlo cube makes it easy to access some of Windows Mobile's applications without drilling into the Start Menu, but that's really all. You can't customize it without going into the registry and editing image files.

The photo album is quite nice. But the zooming gestures are unnecessarily difficult.
The HTC music player is easy to use and provides large buttons.

If the device is used as a messaging phone, then it's really excellent. Making calls is extremely easy. All you have to do is slide out the keyboard and start typing the persons name. Typing SMS or emails is easy because of the keyboard.

But if you want to use it as a smartphone, it may get frustrating. The calendar, notes, and tasks applications all look outdated. You will need the stylus to navigate the OS. The browser, as mentioned, is unimpressive.

Note: By this time, ROMs with TouchFlo2D can be flashed onto the device which makes it seem like something entirely new and definitely adds to the usability.

Positives:
-Good build quality
-Excellent keypad
-Compact formfactor
-HTC Home plugin is useful

Negatives:
-No WiFi & GPS
-Camera is fixed focus
-No flash on Camera
-Small screen
-OS not optimized for finger friendliness
-Photo album zooming is difficult

Conclusion: Buy this device for it's phone and messaging capabilities. It falls flat when it comes to multimedia. Web browsing is quite frustrating with the small low res screen.