Sprint to put out new touch-screen phone
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).
The people on switched.com 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 they also didn’t have all the apps a carrier can provide, so they are 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 they 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).
They are anxious to try out the spiffy new Sprint-enabled HTC Touch to see if it lives up to the hype. They will report back later.
source: switched.com
