The HTC Touch HD as an entertainment device

The HTC Touch HD

In order for a device to provide the best mobile entertainment possible, it needs to have a well-rounded hardware and software combination. As the iPhone has proved, it isn’t a matter of breaking the bank on hardware and the software market can really make a device.

In this article, I’ll be breaking down the HTC Touch HD with respect to its entertainment potential. The theory, is that processor strength, video resolution, camera, user interface and software will make a device entertaining. Let’s see how the HTC Touch HD does.

The first thing worth looking at is the processor.

The HTC Touch HD uses a Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528 MHz processor. I’m not an engineer so I’m not sure how great of a processor that is, but I do know that it’s less MHz than the iPhone and the same processor as the HTC Dream G1.

Another important feature to look at is the display.

The HTC Touch HD uses a 3.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 480 x 800 WVGA resolution. Once again, I’ll use the iPhone as a comparison. The HTC Touch HD likely gets its name from the superior screen quality. The HD has a better resolution and bigger screen size. This will be a great device for watching video!

A final and important part of a good mobile entertainment device is the software.

HTC devices are pure WinMo and this one is no exception. The HTC Touch HD uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. Windows Mobile is a funny OS when it comes to entertainment. It has some key advantages, such as its great ability to serve as an emulator. Playing Nintendo and old console games on a WinMo device is fairly simple. On the other hand, the market is a little lackluster when it comes to great mobile games. Like BlackBerry, it seems to be a tertiary market for game developers after Java and BREW.

The HTC Touch HD

By no means will the HTC Touch HD be an iPhone killer, but it will surely captivate a certain market. I’m envisioning the demographic who doesn’t care for mobile games, but wants a great consumer device with a superior screen.

8 Responses to “The HTC Touch HD as an entertainment device”

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1 Kristina
September 22, 2008 at 2:49 pm

So basically other than the big screen, it’s mediocre at best. I’m not seeing anything new being presented here. The big screen is worth checking out but at what price? I’m not an engineer either, but it seems to me that a higher processing speed would be more advantageous to me.
2 Jeff
September 22, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Haha, what a terrible review! Certainly not an iPhone killer? Is it not just a tad early to make that kind of statement? You covered three aspects of the phone and that enabled you to determine that this phone will be zero competition to the iPhone? Have you ever considered a career in market analysis. With hunches like these you’d be worth your weight in gold. Better yet, stick with what you’re currently doing, but do it right.
3 Bah
September 22, 2008 at 4:51 pm

It is an iphone killer
4 yo
September 24, 2008 at 1:56 pm

So, does it not run or handle Java?
5 Clem
September 24, 2008 at 4:23 pm

It is not an iphone killer. Being much better than iphone will have no impact on the Apple fan boys who pay no attention to any device not handed down from on high by Jobs and the gang. You don’t hear them complain about the iphone’s poor camera, lack of video calling, rubbish display reolution or lack of propper GPS navigation software so they will not care that this device has all four. You can keep your iphone mate, and I hope your O2 contract is really, really long
6 David
September 26, 2008 at 3:31 pm

I know that I will be selling my iPhone 3g because of this.
There are so many advantages over the iphone, and the main reason I got the iphone was because of the screen, and this phone even has a bigger screen and a lot better resolution, while having the same size.

Software:
So many problems with the iPhone software, solved in HTC HD. no Java! no flash! I cant synch with windows while keeping the contacts i want to have just on my iphone. i can’t share the internet from my iphone, no copy and paste, and in general very limited functions. The iPhone can just singel task! no multitasking at all! that limits software possibilities a lot and will use extra battery. I can’t download from the internet!

Hardware improvements over (iphone):

800/480 pixels (480/320)
3.8 inch screen (3.5)
video-recording (no video-recording)
288 MB RAM (probably 128, or less)
TV -Out (no)
micro sd support (no)
removable battery (no)
5 mp kamera with autofocus (2 mp, without autofocus)
7 Kyle
September 29, 2008 at 10:00 am

Great comments folks! I’ve addressed the comments in a post that can be found here:

http://www.quicklybored.com/2008/09/htc-touch-hd-community-discussion/
8 James
March 3, 2009 at 4:24 am

Just my comment on the hardware side of things.

The CPU in the iPhone IS faster, with a max capability of 600Mhz, but when you run an app that detects the speed, it always reveals 400Mhz, turns out that Apple clock-down the speed to save battery. Also, if you do some research on the CPU’s, the HTC Touch HD’S, cpu IS infact the superior model, despite the slower speed it also has built in multimedia extentions which will accelerate things which the CPU in the iPhone does not. The HTC’s cpu has the ability to play DVD format video through hardware decoding - the iPhones does not.