Shootouts

Getting the Right Touch - A Touch Screen Phone Feature

By Seow Tein Hee - 3 May 2009

HTC Dream

HTC Dream - Sheepish Dreams

Borne out of the Open Handset Alliance, the first commercial Google Android phone, the HTC Dream, bears with it a lot of hope and expectations for the open source community when it comes to mobile phone development.


We guess you've heard enough jokes and headlines of the word Dream associated with the first Google Android phone, so we'll spare you from it this time round. What we won't spare, however, are the details and assessment of the HTC Dream and its offerings to the consumers out there. Our full review can be found here, but below is an extraction of the key areas of consideration.


User Interface

As the first of its kind, the Android UI is still new to everyone out there. So what are we essentially looking out for here? Ease of usage. First time users of the Dream will find its UI to be intuitive in less than a few seconds, and that definitely bodes well. Similar to the iPhone 3G, the Dream utilizes a capacitive touch screen, hence you'll be more inclined to use your thumbs and fingers. Icons will be the flavor of the day, though it does have fewer pages to accommodate the various icons within.


Multimedia

Sadly, the Dream doesn't come off as a strong contender in the multimedia segment. With no native video player within the device, you have to head on over to the Android Marketplace to obtain a decent video player. Other related pointers to note here is that the phone doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack and its battery life is much lower than expected as we detail more in the performance section below. In short, the Dream isn't going to win any brownie points from us with its lack of multimedia prowess out of the box. But once you get the necessary application downloaded, the capacitive screen makes for a good movie display, and it's definitely one up for the movie buffs out there.


Productivity

As usual, when we look at the productivity category, the considerations are as follow: email, document viewing/creation and input support. Email support, as you might have guessed, focuses on Google's Gmail. But for some reason if you aren't a Google mail user, there's still POP3 access and web-based email accounts via the web browser within.

Text savvy users will either love, or hate the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. While the keys are quite a challenge to get used to, it's the lesser of two evils as compared to the less than responsive virtual QWERTY keyboard that was often prone to mistypes. Documentation, unfortunately, is somewhat similar to the iPhone. While you can preview attachments via your Google Gmail account, that's also as far as you can go. Document editing is still a no-go for the Dream.


Connectivity

The thing with mobile devices, or smartphones nowadays, is the fact that they are a well-connected bunch. Well-connected in the sense that they come with a myriad of connectivity options such as Wi-Fi, HSDPA, GPS and Bluetooth with stereo A2DP. The Dream is one of these typical devices, but it actually goes beyond the call of duty in a few aspects.

Knowing that this is a device powered by the Android (read: Google) OS, it's of no surprise that you can get synchronize your Gmail account on the Dream. This is true for Google Calendar and Google Contacts, which synchronizes your contacts on both your device and your Google account on-the-go. If you were a Microsoft Outlook user though, hindrances are abound - not that it can't be solved though. Firstly, you are still able to synchronize your calendar with the help of Google Sync that links up your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook calendar. Google Contacts, however, tends to get a little bit tricky, which we won't go into the details here.

In short, if you're a Google fan and have been using Google's services for the past few years, the Dream will be, well, the dream device for you.


Performance

Leniency cannot be shown here when it comes to the Dream's battery life. Though stated to be using a 1050mAh battery, the Dream has one of the lowest usage uptime for a smartphone of its category. Imagine finding out that the battery indicator drops to less than 50% in a mere half day of usage and you will feel our pain. But looking beyond the lackluster battery mileage on the Dream, it does feel snappy and fast with minimal lag. This is evidently shown on the web browser's smooth flowing interface and the speed at which we were able to access applications.

HTC Dream Ratings
User interface:
Multimedia:
 Productivity
Connectivity:
Performance:
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