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HTC Touch 3G - Leveling Up

By Seow Tein Hee - 15 Nov 2008

Performance

Fast Swiper

As usual, we pushed the test device to its limits in a few areas, namely its battery performance, memory handling with multiple applications, and took a look at its multimedia aspect. To get a better gauge of how the Touch 3G performs, we compared its battery life against two other devices that comes close to its performance and features: the HTC Touch Diamond and the ASUS P552w. Here's a look at each device's specifications that relates to the battery life before we take a more detailed look at its battery performance.

Specifications/Device HTC Touch 3G ASUS P552w HTC Touch Diamond
Processor
  • Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz
  • Marvell Tavor 624MHz
  • Qualcomm MSM7201A 528MHz
Memory
  • 192MB RAM
  • 256MB ROM
  • 128MB RAM
  • 256MB ROM
  • 192MB RAM
  • 256MB ROM
Connectivity
  • Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
  • HSDPA
  • GPS
  • Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
  • HSDPA
  • GPS with A-GPS
  • Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
  • HSDPA
  • GPS with A-GPS
Dimensions
  • 102 x 53.6 x 14.5 mm
  • 102 x 60.5 x 14.5 mm
  • 102 x 51 x 11.35 mm
Weight
  • 96g
  • 105g
  • 110g
Screen size
  • 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution
  • 2.8-inch TFT, Touch Screen 65K color, QVGA 240 x 320 pixels
  • 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
Battery
  • Li-Ion 1100 mAh
  • Li-Ion 1100 mAh
  • Li-Ion 900 mAh

The results as seen from the chart above should give you a clear idea of how both the Touch 3G and the P552w fared with its 1100mAh battery against the Diamond's smaller capacity battery rated at 900mAh. Clearly, the Touch 3G is the winner in the battery life department due to the more power hungry 624MHz processor utilized on the P552w whereas the Diamond is churning out less juice with its lower battery capacity.

Our results from the power consumption tests threw up no surprises either. With both the P552w and Touch 3G sporting similar battery capacities and specifications, it's no surprise that the P552w's power consumption is slightly higher due to the 624MHz processor utilized that drains more power than usual. Surprisingly, the Diamond managed to score better in the power consumption results than both other devices.

At a glance, it would seem as though the Diamond would be the more portable option amongst all three devices. Our portability index, however, gave us a different conclusion. Even with its thinner dimensions, the Diamond's lower power delivery affected its power efficiency for a device of its size. One must remember that when we analyze the portability index, we also consider the mileage of the device based on the power consumption too. The Touch 3G's victory was in fact contributed by its power efficiency.

Focusing once more on the Touch 3G, we went ballistic with it and applied numerous applications simultaneously. This included the full suite of Office Mobile, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth being activated whilst we surfed the net using the bundled Opera web browser on the Touch 3G with Google Maps activated. With 192MB of RAM for utilization, we noticed that there's still more than 50% of memory available for further applications to be loaded. Furthermore, there was no discernible slowing down of the TouchFlo interface, unlike the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro's more memory intensive TouchFlo 3D.

Memory management on the Touch 3G is pretty good. However, do not go overboard and actually overload it with multiple applications, be sure of what you'll need and keep its application handling to the minimum.

Turning towards its GPS feature, we tested out the satellite lock time on Google Maps once more using the bundled QuickGPS program. It definitely contributed to the swift one and a half minute satellite lock, though as usual, weather conditions like an overcast sky will increase the time taken.

GPS satellite lock time was moderately good, and is made all the more faster with the bundled QuickGPS program within the Touch 3G that downloads satellite location data for faster lock.

For the record, the Touch 3G is not the all-in-one device. It has the necessary features for simple audio and video playback, but don't expect any stellar audio fidelity on the Touch 3G. Its 2.8-inch QVGA screen and screen brightness was adequate for strong sunlight glare even when we set the backlight to auto-adjust.

Imaging functions on the Touch 3G is confined to an upgraded CMOS sensor at 3.2-megapixels. However, the lack of an auto-focus and LED flash contributed to the Touch 3G's fall from grace as a device that does it all. Furthermore, though video calls are not that popular, they are still part and parcel of a 3G capable device. Here, the Touch 3G has the same issue as the good old iPhone: an absent secondary camera on the front for video calling.

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