HTC Touch Dual – Double the excitement

// January 25th, 2008 // General, News, Tech // 17,634 views

HTC Dual Front View - click to enlargeRegular readers may recall that I got a bit Touchy Feely with the HTC Touch last year. Since then I’ve seen quite a number of people walking around with this device, which brings testimony to its style and appeal.

In my review I mentioned that a few niggles surface relating to the overall functionality of the phone as the lack of a slide-out keyboard or even an alpha-numeric keypad made ordinary tasks a tad tricky.

It turns out that HTC was listening. HTC took the market’s feedback into consideration and developed the Touch Dual, which now features either a full 20-key slide-out QWERTY keyboard or 16-key slide-out keypad for added convenience. Now you can type messages or e-mails without the need of a stylus.

According to Leaf International Communications, HTC’s official distributor in South Africa, the Touch-FLO menu has also been updated, which now allows you to flip through emails and SMS messages, as well as being able to rotate and zoom in and out of photos. The overall structure of the TouchFLO menu, allows you to browse through the phone options by rotating it like a cube with your thumb. You can also scroll through web pages plus access your music and video with just a flick of a finger.

After reviewing the HTC Touch last year, I’ve sorely missed the home screen (obviously included in the HTC Touch Dual and dubbed the Live HTC Home) which features quick shortcuts to things like a weather widget, contacts and text messages. Now if only they could build in a traffic report widget or Eskom Load shedding schedules, I’d be extremely happy.

Now for all the technical acronyms…3G, HSDPA and GPRS/Edge/GSM is included in this small body, making it a winner in the connectivity department. Wifi sadly got the boot, but then, how many free/good hotspots are around in any case? The Touch Dual sports a Qualcomm MSM 7200, 400MHz processor, making it a heck of a lot faster than the original 200MHz Texas Instruments CPU found in the Touch. Memory has been bumped up to 256MB ROM and 128MB of SDRAM respectively and additional storage is available in the form of a microSDâ„¢ memory card.

With all the enhancements, this phone could surely provide double the fun, double the excitement and double the functionality.

Oh and if you’re drooling for the HTC Touch Dual yet, reports have it that it’ll be available in South Africa from the beginning of February 2008.

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13 Responses to “HTC Touch Dual – Double the excitement”

  1. Martin says:
    2008/01/27 at 22:06

    The 400Mhz processor is what sold me…

    I’ve heard quite a few people complaining about TouchFLO just running too damn slowly on the old processor, seeing as the interface itself is essentially a third-party app itself (and a pretty resource-intensive one at that).

    The other guys can happily have the TYTN IIs they’ve ordered, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this baby end of Feb, can’t wait!

  2. Aquila says:
    2008/01/28 at 10:32

    Hey Martin – exactly my point – the 400Mhz should rock the pants off anything else. I hear that only the 20-key slide-out QWERTY keyboard version will be available in SA – which is definitely not a bad thing…

    I’m jealous that you’re getting one.

  3. tripeak says:
    2008/01/28 at 14:15

    tsk tsk! Who needs an HTC if you can get the iPhone killer AKA LG KU 990…

  4. Martin says:
    2008/01/30 at 17:17

    Tripeak, the Viewty is nice, but it doesn’t have the bad-ass OS I need (and want)…

    The KS20‘s pretty hot though!

  5. tripeak says:
    2008/02/01 at 13:38

    mmm… it is sexy! LG seems to be doing something right. Not to excited bout the 2MP camera on that one though.

  6. Andrew says:
    2008/02/01 at 15:26

    Does anyone know if the HTC Touch Dual is out yet in SA?

  7. Aquila says:
    2008/02/06 at 09:42

    Andrew, it seems that it is out – but stock is running out at some places.

  8. Martin says:
    2008/02/07 at 09:48

    Apparently, after some research, it appears that the Qualcomm processor and extra RAM only add about 25% performance improvement for the Dual (in outright Mhz, it’s double, which is misleading). Because the Dual’s quite a bit thicker and heavier (even approaching the TYTN II in heft), I’ve decided to change my order and stick with the original Touch :-)

    Time will tell if I’m being silly!

  9. Aquila says:
    2008/02/07 at 20:46

    Interesting news Martin – I’ll check up on that – perhaps get some official word from Leaf on that for you.

    Watch this space.

  10. Charl says:
    2008/02/14 at 22:08

    Sounds awesome! Does anyone have an idea about the price range?

  11. Martin says:
    2008/02/19 at 00:10

    I got my Touch today :-)

    First impressions: Nice. As you said, it’s an amazingly tactile device to hold, the size and shape are something worth writing home about…

    To be honest on the processing power issue, it’s only when seriously multitasking (or forgetting to close things down after you’ve used them) that the lack of oomph really shows. Funnily enough, TouchFLO itself is never slow – it’s surprisingly slick and smooth!

    I think I got one of the newer versions with a gun-metal coloured insert as opposed to the silver I’ve seen in all the screenshots (as in your review). It’s not bad looking, that’s for sure…

    Now if only I had midget-sized paws to type mails with!

  12. angel says:
    2008/03/09 at 11:46

    ooh, my boyfriend has htc… the camera on that thing is incredible!

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