With the announcement that it would offer the
HTC Touch come November 4th, Sprint proved that it's still capable of releasing first-to-the-gate, innovative phones for its network. The touch-screen enabled handheld is definitely designed to be the hands-on iPhone-killer for the
Windows Mobile 6 set, not only because of its smart phone features (seamless integration with your e-mail, full office document editing and viewing, Windows Media Player) but also because its touch screen is almost as innovative as the iPhone's -- almost.
The HTC Touch's big claim to fame is "
TouchFLO Technology," which is really just a fancy name for a 3D cube interface that users maneuver around by swiping their finger. It's basically the iPhone with different visuals, and a more powerful and versatile, though sometimes glitchier, operating system (OS).
We played around with the
unlocked GSM version of the HTC Touch a few months back, but didn't see what all the fuss was about beyond a gee-whizzy touch screen with different animations than the iPhone. But we also didn't have all the apps a carrier can provide, so we're excited to check out the official Sprint Touch, which will have access to the Sprint Music Store (for direct-to-phone downloads), Sprint TV, streaming Sirius satellite radio, and on-demand news and sports information.
Now, before we complain too much, let's mention the many ways this phone is better than the iPhone Surprisingly, most of these have less to do with the touted touchscreen and more with the overall specs, such as the 2.0-megapixel camera (versus the iPhone's 1.3 megapixel), high-speed 3G EV-DO capability for fast downloading and Web surfing (versus the iPhone's slower EDGE network), stereo
Bluetooth capability (for wireless headphones and speakers), and expandable/removeable memory (MicroSD cards).
And let's not forget that
it's only $249.99 (with a two-year contract).
We're anxious to try out the spiffy new Sprint-enabled HTC Touch to see if it lives up to the hype. We'll report back later.
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