HTC S740 Ballina NSW

HTC has made a real impact with its Touch range of handsets, but the S740 goes back to the days of hardware keyboards and a pleasing Windows Mobile user interface.

Although pretty heavy at 140g, this isn’t actually a negative. In fact, it makes the S740 feel sturdy and well-built; something many mobile phones today lack as devices become disposable and only designed to last the 18 months of a contract.

Its vital statistics - 116.3x43.4x16.6mm make it strangely long, narrow and pretty thick, even when you consider that it conceals a full Qwerty keyboard.

Unusually, the SIM card and memory card slots are under the screen section of the device, so if you wish to add or remove either, you will have to slide out the keyboard, turn the device over and release the microSD/SIM card slot cover. This does make it much easier to swap SIM cards and microSD cards compared to conventional devices where you have to remove the battery to gain access. However there is a disadvantage to this. Because the slot is together with the SIM card slot, you have to remove the SIM before you can get to the microSD card. This means you have to power the S740 down to swap cards, which is a real nuisance to those who like to store different information on several memory cards.

The rear takes the same prism-style textured design from the Touch Diamond, but gratefully fits in the hand better than previous models that had a sliding QWERTY keyboard such as the TyTn. This did however produce issues for us when typing emails. Because it’s not flat, the S740 rocks from side to side when typing if you lay the S740 on a desk. This left us with no option but to hold the handset with both hands and type.

We found the keyboard a little too springy to write lengthy emails on comfortably, although the buttons are large and well placed. In usual HTC style, the right-hand soft key isn’t in line with the text on the screen, at first creating some confusion. Access to the two soft keys on the QWERTY keyboard is limited, and those with larger fingers will struggle to press them without a concerted effort.

Although responsive, the sliding mechanism can sometimes be a little too violent, leaving you with blood blisters if you trap your finger below the keyboard, but at least there’s no chance of it falling apart.

[pb/]

The panel-based home screen is perfectly set out for your business life, although Microsoft hasn’t yet released a feature enabling you to switch between personal and business home screens. This is certainly a useful option on Nokia devices including the Nokia E71, and would be openly welcomed on the Windows Mobile platform.

From the home screen, you move between each option by scrolling up and down with the track pad. You can check the weather, view any missed calls, text messages or new emails, fire up the web, access the music player, control your appointments and change the profile.

Unlike with HTC touch screen models, Opera Mobile is not preinstalled so by default Internet Explorer is your only option, though you can download Opera Mini.

There are however a number of useful shortcuts set up on the Internet Explorer tab which will take you to popular website including Google, the BBC and Wikipedia with one click.

The browser itself is much easier to use in landscape mode, which is activated by sliding the QWERTY keyboard out. Once viewing a web page, you can change the view of the layout to suit the page and your own preferences. You can also zoom in and out of web pages, using the four-way navigation button to pan around the page.

Like all Windows Mobile Standard edition devices, it’s seamless to set up email on the HTC S740. POP, IMAP and web-based email addresses are all supported, and it takes seconds to set up thanks to the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. All emails, contact and calendar entries are instantly synched with your Outlook account if you’re using an Exchange server.

With a high-speed 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, the HTC S740 glides through tasks and manages multiple open applications more than competently. This is pleasing as Windows Mobile devices had previously been viewed as sluggish in comparison to other mobile phone operating systems.

Speed is also the S740’s forte when it comes to web browsing too. In addition to 7.2Mbp/sec HSDPA (where supported), there’s also the option of using Wi-Fi. Both the 802.11b and g profiles are supported, meaning you can hook up to almost any network.

In typical Windows Mobile style, you’ll find Office Mobile preloaded on the device for viewing Word, Excel and PDF documents. Because the HTC S740 operates on Windows Mobile Standard rather than Professional, you can’t edit documents onboard, which is a little disappointing for a business-centric device.

Another problem we found with the HTC S740 was the keypad lock. Although simply closing the handset can lock the QWERTY keyboard, there isn’t a speedy way to lock the alphanumeric keypad on the front. More than once, we forgot to lock the keypad, resulting in mistaken phone calls being made to the last dialled contact. There isn’t a simple button to tap on the side as there is on HTC’s Touch handsets. Instead, you have to press down the power button on the top and select the second ‘Lock’ option.

The HTC S740 is a refreshing break from the countless number of Touch devices out there. The sliding QWERTY keyboard comes up trumps against a virtual one, and even though the S740 operates on the slightly lesser Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard, we were suitably impressed with the simplicity of using the business apps.

Author: Clare Hopping

HTC S740