Reviews and tests | HTC P3470 (Pharos) Review

At present HTC isn’t a technological leader of the Windows Mobile platform, yielding to the same E-TEN, for the former lacks VGA-models, fast CPU units and so on. Beginning in May however, the situation cardinally changes; very interesting products are going to be released. They will get high-resolution screens and CPUs operating at 520 MHz (Qualcomm). Besides, a powerful graphics processing unit will at last get widespread in the industry (before that OpenGL was individually supported by Dell, Gigabyte with 2700G). This part of the new platform is planned to exceed even Sony PSP. All the new HTC models released after the Pharos will feature this very configuration. The rumours about competition between SE and HTC seem quite ridiculous taking into account that it’s the latter that produces the XPERIA X1. Not later than in May we’ll see their own counterpart belonging to the Touch series with a keypad and other interesting features which will allow the company to retain their leadership. As regards the priorities, the Touch sequel based off the new platform and with the second version of the TouchFLO interface will become the key product of HTC in the year 2008. But the especially pleasant thing is that the price policy will be at last corrected. At present the new product is planned to be more affordable than the V900 that’s why E-TEN will most likely adjust the announced price of $850 to it, the company having nothing else to do. Preview: glofiish V900, M810/M750 is already available on the site.

The HTC P3470 sales package is typical of PDA phones; there are no nice extras like a memory card that came with the original Touch. The sales package includes a USB/HTC ExtUSB data cable, a wire stereo headset (suited to fit the ExtUSB standard), a battery, a software disk, a printed manual and a case to carry the phone in.

Design, ergonomics

HTC P3470 utilizes the classical candy bar form factor. The casing is made out of plastic with a soft-touch coating. The glossy insert is employed as a side edging. The front panel has a gummed coating that completely spares it from fingerprinting. The design pleases with its black colouring. Let’s remember that the Touch used to be glossy white initially, but they decided to provide some regions with a black gummed variant. And because of its good sales some other colour schemes appeared at retail later on.

The Pharos really looks very solid and impressive, especially taking into consideration a high quality implementation. The casing doesn’t creak at squeezing, the back panel doesn’t play. The coating also left the most positive impression – it’s maximally wear-resistant and for a month of testing it got neither worn nor scratched (in contrast to Gigabyte GSmart MW700, for example, which began to lose the soft touch over the same period of the similar intensity usage). The handset design in general endows the middle class with a powerful ‘image charge’ earlier available only in higher price segments. Even in comparison with a quite nice E-TEN glofiish X600 the HTC model looks way more advantageous.

The ergonomics is also brilliant, especially against the background of bricky E-TEN and Gigabyte. At the same time the thickness of P3450 yields to both X600 and MW700, but its dimensions sport a better balance on the whole, that’s why the device sits in hand perfectly. Beveled edges of the handset contribute to the effect. The track-wheel is available, which is a kind of reincarnation of the similar element with P3300 and the fact is pleasant. It’s a multipurpose one and is utilized not only for navigating around the lists. For example, the element is used to control the zoom ratio while in the firmware gallery, providing smooth and precise zoom management - it’s very convenient.

Scrolling the track-wheel doesn’t exclude a four-position feature habitual for WM and a central OK button. The controls possess a fine feedback when pressed; the nearby keys have a sufficient stroke too. By illustrations one can think that the navigation block is touch-sensitive, but it is not so – the stylization deceives. The call buttons stick out a bit and have a relatively small size, though no problems arise with them. The set of two soft-keys and two habitual OK and Start keys is available.

By default the soft-keys are assigned to reminders and contacts on the Today screen, but they traditionally change their assignment depending on the running application.

One of the nice things of the updated HTC platform (even in comparison with the latest Touch series, including P3650) is a phone dialogue – as well as with the Samsung phones you can reject a call and send a text template like “Unfortunately I’m unable to talk at the time, please call later” to the person automatically after the call is rejected. This function is in charge of the right soft-key, while the left one just mutes the ringtone.

The side edges aren’t quite abundant in control elements - the sound volume rocker on the left edge and the camera button on the right one; the power button on the upper edge and the interface slot at the bottom. The latter is of the firmware ExtUSB standard and is also used as a headset audio output, which isn’t too convenient. The stylus port and the ‘oar’ used to fasten the wrist band are put on each side of it.

The stylus of P3470 is most usual (non-telescopic), fairly nice and convenient. We may only guess what made the designers place its port at the bottom. The model is not equipped with Wi-Fi that’s why there is no abundance of wireless unit antennae in the upper part on the body. The location must be convenient for a technological process. In any case it doesn’t cause any serious discomfort, you’ll get used to it in a couple of days. And the biggest disappointment is the memory expansion slot placed under the battery - one more family feature of P3300. It goes without saying that the hot swapping support is out of the question.

The camera lens resides on the back panel and has no protective cover. For some reason it is sunken into the casing and so tends to gather dust – one has to regularly wipe it for preventing degradation in image quality, which is rather impractical. The hardware toggle switch is available right here that allows for selecting the shooting mode - macro or customary; it is quite convenient. The element has no special use as our photo samples prove below. The self-portrait mirror moves aside if necessary so that you could connect an external GPS aerial.

Connectivity

Regarding connectivity, many people felt disappointment at the lack of an integrated Wi-Fi module with P3470. As for the rest, the model comes with quite a rich set of connectivity features, the 3G support being of no use in some regions of the world. The device is designed to be used in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks, it supports GPRS/EDGE. The wire communication is achieved through USB2.0 that makes use of the exclusively designed ExtUSB slot (analogous to the common microUSB). The data transfer speed raises no objections. There's no support for the Mass Storage and PictPridge modes. The ExtUSB-to-3.5 mm adaptor is available as an option.

The wireless communication is represented by the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module. It works entirely without problems. A2DP enjoys a perfect implementation - the sound is loud, of a high quality, the signal never gets interrupted. Unfortunately, the audio signal transmission doesn't stop on the release of connection; the integrated speaker is automatically activated. In addition to A2DP, the following profiles are supported:

File Transfer
Generic Access
Generic Object Exchange
Handsfree
Headset
HID
Object Push
Personal Area Networking
Serial Port
A2DP
Audio/Video Remote Control
SAP (SIM card access profile)

Document printing is also possible. There's also the Bluetooth synchronization, you just need to:

1. Install the Windows Mobile Media Control Centre or ActiveSync software to your PC.
2. On the PDA side, run - Start > Programs > ActiveSync.
3. Activate Bluetooth both on the PC and the PDA, than engage the visible mode.
4. On the PDA side, run - Menu > Connection > Bluetooth. 5. Start the Bluetooth Configuration Wizard on the first connection.

The Pharos connectivity software is remarkable for the new management application including lots of small functional improvements - the "Call" item is added.

The GPS support is well done; this aspect of the PDA phone is based off the SiRFstarIII chipset. The device was able to detect eight satellites on a clear day, which is quite in keeping with Mio and E-TEN.

The GPS navigation software supplier is CoPilot, any card (Moscow, Berlin, etc.) one in number is installed free. There are many reprimands for the time being, but the developers promise to improve the product on-the-fly. A more correct version is expected by the time of P3470 release.

No FM-tuner is available and HTC does not offer this sort of optional accessories at present.

Storage

The Pharos has a total of 256 Mb ROM and 128 Mb RAM. The latter will for certain please the fans of enhanced multifunctionality. Unfortunately no memory card comes bundled, so it has to be purchased separately. The memory card slot is the habitual microSD one, the most universal variant for today. You can use memory cards up to the capacity of 4 Gb.

One shouldn’t think that only exacting users need 128 Mb of RAM for "heavy" tasks; pitifully enough, but these are demands of the times. Just remember that the mere IE takes 4-5 Mb a page and many people use expansions for launching up to four tabs simultaneously, which makes as much as 15-20 Mb. WM itself takes no less than 25 Mb without applications. In the upshot it becomes clear that 64 Mb is quite sufficient, provided you pay attention to the list of launched applications – you should promptly shut the "heaviest" of them. You cannot avoid such multitasking compromise without 128 Mb.

Screen

HTC P3470 doesn’t belong to the Touch line that’s why the screen recessed into the body is quite expected. The resolution is also predictable - a standard for the mid-end class 320x240 (QVGA), only Gigabyte GSmart MW998 is a pleasant exception to this rule (it is equipped with a VGA-screen), but it lacks GPS.

The element is powered by the TFT technology and has a 2.8”diagonal. The color depth is 65K colors. The image quality is high, yet it yields in both the view angles and the maximum brightness to the same Gigabyte GSmart MW700 though exceeds E-TEN glofiish X600. The screen info stays well legible in the sunlight; in most cases you won't have any trouble using the phone even under the glaring.

User interface

The interface implementation is typical of Windows Mobile smartphones, similar to that with Touch the TouchFLO technology is available (though it lacks the 3D Touch interface).

The upper line is used for displaying service indicators like the battery life meter or signal quality as well as the wireless protocols availability, Bluetooth, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, the list of launched applications. The lower line contains info about context button functions.

The main part of the desktop can be customized to your liking. By default it shows the date, the carrier info, the owner's personal data, messaging stats, the tasklist and schedule, and the indicator area (battery charge, display angle, wireless unit manager and backlighting level). The user can customize the order in which these fields follow or remove some of them from the screen completely. Today Desktop can feature a custom picture or a photo.

The extended functionality of HTC Home comes in handy. That's the brand Today screen which offers short stats. It shows the time and three sections showing new messages and missed calls, favorite contacts, weather, launcher and ringtone settings. The lower part hosts the instrument panel which allows switching between the two components. Let's view each function separately:

Main menu
The tab shows current day of the week, the date and local time. When you receive messages or calls, the tab also shows the number of unread e-mails, SMS/MMS messages or missed calls. If the reminders are set, a warning symbol is also displayed here.

Favourite contacts
The tab allows you to add 9 frequently dialed contacts to grant quick access to them.

Weather tab
This tab shows info about the current weather (through the AccuWeather sevice) and the weather forecast for the four next days. When you use this function for the first time, you have to choose the city of residence, then the phone will automatically establish an internet connection and downloads the necessary data. The weather info includes current temperature, the extremums and a weather icon (cloudy or rainy, etc.)

Launcher
The tab allows adding shortcuts to favorite applications and set access with a single touch. By default it contains shortcuts for comms manager, program list, brightness adjustment, screen rotation, device blocking and ActiveSync. However everything on this tab is fully customizable.

As we see it, the Home module is surely a winning function for the phone itself and its designers, the HTC Company. The weather forecast is probably the biggest advantage offered here. You can get a detailed weather forecast with a single tap of stylus, which is extremely convenient. In earlier models this function was only available through 3rd party software. Another nice feature of HTC Touch is a better support for text scrolling - you can just move you finger along the screen to do this, tapping the scrollbars with the stylus is no longer obligatory. This could be critical to people who often use public transport.

Another addition to the functionality is the Task Manager that sits in the right upper part of the screen and displays a list of running applications so that to switch between them quickly or shut any running task. The thing is useful; unfortunately it’s available only in the Today screen.

There are two kinds of menus in this phone: the quick access menu and the main menu. The former is activated on pressing the Start button and essentially is a vertical list that contains 7 items, info about the 5 recently launched applications as well as grants access to the main menu and settings. The main menu is a list of applications very much similar to a regular Windows-styled window with icons and application names below them. A maximum of 12 icons per screen is allowed.

Preinstalled Software

The following applications are either preinstalled on the Pharos or come bundled on a disk...

The Office Mobile software packet includes:

Excel Mobile for creating, viewing and editing Excel files
PowerPoint Mobile for playing PowerPoint files
Word Mobile for creating, viewing and editing Word files

Calendar for sending propositions and arranging meetings
Tasks for scheduling events
Contacts for storing business contact information of your colleagues and friends
Notes for putting down short handwritten or typed reminders and images as well as making voice records

An application for photo and video files management
An audio manager that helps you find, sort and play audio files.
A voice recorder/player that also lets your records be sent by e-mail, MMS and misc protocols (Bluetooth etc.)
A voice dialing application that lets you record voice tags for quick dialing and program launching.
Windows Live, Messenger
Windows Media Player Mobile for playing audio and video files.
A streaming multimedia player for watching streaming video in real-time mode or on demand.
Two preinstalled games: Bubble Breaker and Solitaire.
A camera applications for taking pictures and shooting video clips.

Internet Explorer Mobile is the Web and WAP browser that also allows downloading files from the Internet.
An Internet connection manager for connecting to the Web.

Comm Manager for handling GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth and ActiveSync connections, switching the phone on and off, swap between the ringtone and vibro mode, activate and deactivate the Direct Push function.
ActiveSync for Phone/PC or Phone/Exchange server synchronization.
A Bluetooth network browser that enables searching for other Bluetooth devices that allow file exchange. Also this application grants access to Bluetooth-shared folders.
SAP adjustment for remote access via Bluetooth or SIM card.

The QuickGPS program for downloading files from the Web to boost the GPS positioning.
CoPilot is a GPS navigation software.

Phone communicator - calls, switching between active calls and desktop conference capabilities.
Messaging Manager for sending and receiving e-mail, MMS and SMS messages.
SIM-card Manager for managing contacts stored on the USIM/SIM card.
Spb GPRS Monitor that monitors GPRS traffic and helps you to calculate your GPRS service costs.
SIM Tool Kit that allows you to view SIM info and grants access to operator-specific services.

Adobe Reader LE for viewing PDF files (Portable Document Format)
Sprite Backup for making archived backups of your data
WorldCard Mobile for handling visit cards and export of corresponding data to the contacts book
Calculator for handling the basic math functions.
A file browser/file manager
A ZIP application for compressing your files into .zip archives
Java runtime package for launching Java applications

Settings

Call service

Conversations are in charge of the Phone application, which can be activated either by pressing the Call Button or by activating the corresponding menu item in the Start menu. The main screen of the Phone application hosts the three tabs - Calls, Quick Dial and Contacts.

HTC Pharos stores contacts within the Contacts application. The SIM-card stored contacts share the same list with the user-memory stored contacts. A SIM-stored contact can be transferred to user memory and vice versa. The PDA phone supports the three types of contacts:

MS Outlook contacts can either be created directly on the PDA phone or synchronized with a PC or an Exchange Server contacts database. Each contact stores a few phone numbers, e-mail addresses, instant messaging contacts, home and work addresses and misc info like post, date of birth, etc. Each Outlook contact can be associated with a unique picture and ringtone.
USIM/SIM card contacts. Any of those can only store a name and a phone number.
Windows Live Contacts are used by the Windows Live Messenger (MSN). Likewise the Outlook contacts, Windows Live contacts can contain detailed data about the person.

Only one telephone number is allowed per USIM/SIM-card stored contact. If you copy a user memory contact to SIM/USIM, the SIM Card Manager program splits any multiple phone numbers associated with a single contact into separate contact records for the USIM/SIM card memory. A special suffix is added automatically to the names of such duplicate contacts to tell between them (by default "/M" stands for Mobile, "/W" for Work and "/H" for Home).

To make a phone call, you can equally use the Phone application, the Contacts book, the Quick Dial or the Calls menu as well as the SIM card manager. Traditionally there's support for Smart Dialing which makes dialing easier than before. Once you input the initial symbols of the phone number or the person's name, the phone filters all the contacts automatically to fit the search criteria. This sorting works automatically for contacts stored both in user memory and on the SIM card and is applicable to the contacts book and the call log (among missed, outgoing and incoming calls). Cyrillic isn’t supported. After that you may select a number or a contact for dialing.

By default, the call log displays information about all calls but it's customizable to filter missed, outgoing and incoming calls only, sorting by name is also present. Besides the name and the number each record in the log stores the time, the date and one call or all calls length.

The only limit to the size of the contact book is the volume of free user memory. Up to 12 phone numbers of different types of phone numbers, 3 e-mail addresses, home and work address, web page address and a plenty of other details like Assistant's Phone Number can be associated with every contact. It goes without saying that each contact can enjoy its own ringtone and picture as well as belong to one of the customizable user groups.

Messaging

Traditionally the Messaging application is used for composing, viewing and sending SMS and MMS messages as well as e-mail messages. Once you get a new message, the Today screen displays a special reminder symbol. You can sort your messages in a number of ways, for example you can sort your e-mail messages by topic.

The E-mail options include auto delivery (a certain time interval is set, defining the period of time between automatic mail checks), also you can set the message delivery mode (define how old in days can a message be in order to pass the filter and be downloaded), activate simultaneous sending and receiving of mail, set a mailing schedule when roaming abroad and sort incoming messages by size prior to downloading them to the phone.

If a Microsoft Exchange 2007 server is used, the message will be loaded at once and not on the next synchronization, HTML support is available. If the message contains several attachments, all of them are loaded at once, delayed download is supported. You can use hot key combinations for quick access to the messaging functions like Reply, Forward, etc.

An able security system is in its place. For instance, the ActiveSync application can be set to digital signing of documents and enable encryption for all outgoing messages, the IRM (Information Rights Management) menu allows you to limit access to certain sections like messages and so on.

PIM

Multimedia