HTC Touch just not advanced enough

User Rating: / 5
PoorBest 

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Thursday, 07 June 2007

Page 1 of 3 ! Touch screen phones are the latest rage, despite having been around for years, because… duh… someone figured out that fingers are much thicker than the stylus – yet so-called smartphones often just aren’t. Related stories Yahoo!'s Zimbra spiffs up iPhone support MacBook touch - here's hoping it's not a pipe dream Google goes to 'Android Market' in App Store challenge Why iPhone 2.0.2 fixed problems for some users Why Pod when you can Plum? It had to happen in today's Internet-speed world – Apple announces what is almost guaranteed to be a world beating new phone in early January, and almost immediately thereafter the LG Prada goes on sale and now this week the HTC Touch arrives. Both phones have solidly beaten the iPhone to store shelves while looking suspiciously similar in shape and size, and on paper, essentially performing all the same functions. Yet a big criticism of the HTC Touch, with its vaunted new TouchFlo control system that can discern between a fingerprint or a stylus, something the iPhone isn’t designed to do, is that it doesn’t go far enough, only really offering a finger controlled shell atop a regular Windows Mobile 6 interface. Sure, fingertip controls are there, but they look to be nowhere as advanced as the iPhone. And plenty of other features are offered within. But they’re all mostly lame and underpowered, and to some degree, apply to the iPhone as well. Let’s start with the camera. What is it with 2 megapixel camera phones these days? Real digital cameras stopped issuing 2 megapixel versions a few years ago, with 12 megapixel cameras now the ‘new standard’. Sure, Samsung released ‘camera phones’ that were a real digital camera and real phone stuck together with a 5 megapixel camera a few years ago to last year’s 10 megapixel model, complete with 3x optical zoom – but they were never released outside of South Korea. Why not? Didn’t they work properly? Were they not truly practical or was battery life too short? Then there’s the Sony Ericsson K800i with 3.2 megapixel camera and real Xenon flash, giving consumers the best implementation of true digital camera capabilities seamlessly merged with a powerful 3G smartphone when launched last year – but no 5 megapixel or better versions has emerged since. Why not? Even LG’s new Shine, a beautiful and ultra fashionable 3.5G HSDPA slider phone, has a 2 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach autofocus lens. Why wasn’t in 3.2 megapixels or more? Nokia have just released their N95 with a 5 megapixel camera phone with Carl Zeiss autofocus lens, with the kind of advanced features this story’s headline accuses most smartphones of lacking. So why are most camera phones still stuck in an age of 2 lousy megapixels? Is these some deal going on with digital camera manufacturers to hold off on better cameras phones so people don’t stop buying digital cameras? That seems highly unlikely, and there’s no reason why phone manufacturers would be giving the camera manufacturers an even break – it’s a competitive world out there, after all. So, step 1. Wanna make a better smartphone? Then give us at least a 5 megapixel digital camera, and if possible either a really bright LED light as seen on the Nokia N95, a real Xenon flash as on the Sony Ericsson, or heck, even better still, give us both. And that goes for you too, Apple. Why include only a 2 megapixel camera, which we’re not even sure records any video yet? There's plenty more reasons why most of today's smartphones really aren't that smart at all, along with memory issues, keyboards, 3.5G and WiMAX, battery life and much more on missing iPhone features? Please read onto page 2 to find out! << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

< Next story in category		Previous story in the category >