HTC P5520 Touch Dual Unlocked GSM Phone
The Touch Dual looks remarkably like the original Touch, with rubbery and grip-friendly black casing that's curved at the edges and a screen that's flush with the surface of the device rather than slightly inset. Although the initial 'wow' factor of the Touch no longer applies, the Touch Dual still looks and feel distinctive.
At 107mm tall and 55mm wide, the Touch Dual is slightly taller and thinner than the original 99mm-by-58mm Touch, making it look a little elongated compared to other Pocket PC devices. This, plus its increased thickness (15.8mm as opposed to 13.9mm) and weight (120g as opposed to 112g), is down to the Touch Dual's slide-out keypad. The outstanding feature of the Touch Dual is probably the TouchFLO interface, which made its debut in the original HTC Touch.
When you're on the Today screen, a single finger swipe from the bottom of the screen upwards causes one of three screens to appear. You can switch between these by swiping left to right, and as you do so the screen animates as if an extruded triangle were rotating. The three screens give access to, respectively, a page of contacts on a 3x3 grid; media (music, photos and videos); and six applications (email, SMS/MMS, Internet Explorer, Tasks, Calendar and Comm Manager). To exit, you simply swipe a finger down the screen.
The slider format is unusual for a Windows Mobile 6 Professional handheld, and the Touch Dual certainly looks distinctive. The TouchFLO system is clever as far as it goes, and we like the HTC Home screen. However, it's all somewhat skin-deep, and you generally end up back in the regular Windows Mobile interface before long.
3G/HSPDA connectivity is welcome, but Wi-Fi is notable by its absence. Ideally we'd like to see both 3G/HSDPA and Wi-Fi in a future Touch device, along with TouchFLO working in landscape mode. We'd also prefer a better text input system.
