The first version of TyTN was released in June 2006, symbolizing HTC's move from OEM/ODM business to own brand distribution. There was much discussion over that step, many people claimed to have predicted the inevitable bankruptcy or irrecoverable profit losses. By now, it has been already more than a year since that day so we can judge on the consequences more or less impartially. And the situation seems to be way more optimistic than the would-be experts used to say. HTC have kept their leading positions in the market segment associated with the platform and also due to the product range expansion which now looks like a winner in comparison to that of the closest competitors and even such giants as Samsung and Motorola. This makes HTC's positions totally unique. The company seems to have done away with any competition for the time being. Well, there could be a little as the Korean company's initiative is gaining momentum of late, but Samsung is still far from challenging Windows Mobile. Of course this coudnot have come real without Microsoft's blessings, so we congratulate HTC on their successful influence upon the Americans.

About a year later, on August 2008 the HTC company continues their triumphant debut on the smartphone market, presenting the brand new TyTN II in London. Interesting to note, there was much dispute within HTC's inner circles about the model's design and name, the phone used to be known under the codenames P4450, Kaiser, etc. The final decision was that to take after the route of sequels, mimicking a similar policy of Motorola (by the way, the RAZR2 advertising campaign is just about to get started). So if people used to compare P4350 (Herald) to Nokia E90, then TyTN II wages a full-scale back strike. If we set aside the fandom quarrels over the Windows versus Symbian dilemma and get down to the problem in a more reasonable way, we'd really see a lot in common. For example, a 3 Mpix auto-focus camera, GPS and Wi-Fi support and a QWERTY keyboard, a possibility to handle both products laptop-style among a lot of minor similarities. We'll show a more detailed comparison a bit later in this article in spite of the easily predicted criticism for being not politically correct. Well, let's say the comparison with possible Nokia products based off Windows Mobile or supplied with a touchscreen is just a mere speculation until we see some of those actually appear on the market.

The HTC TyTN II is a very interesting product, being among the few combined solutions found on the market. The novelty is a top model, the flagship of the product line. The user gets maximum possibilities, many of them being unique within the device class and to the market on the whole. The development of this functionality will have a noticeable impact on future Samsung products like F700 which is going to offer a 5 Mpix camera, making a rival to Nokia N95 8 Gb - the pricec of both are going to be quite comparable. What goes to HTC, their next product is going to be Polaris model (a TyTN II stuff encased within a housing designed after the P3300) and Nike (the slider incarnation of Touch). Let's get down to the inside of TyTN II then.

Main specs of HTC TyTN II

Comminication:	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100, HSDPA, GPRS/EDGE
Operating System:	Windows Mobile 6 Professional
CPU:	Qualcomm MSM 7200, 400 Mhz
Memory:	256 Mbs of hard disk storage, 128 Mbs of RAM microSD slot, no memory card bundled
Display:	touchscreen, 2,8", QVGA (240x320), 262K
Communication:	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, supports A2DP, Wi-Fi
Camera:	3.2 Mp (up to 2592 x 1944), auto-focusing
Battery:	capacity - 1350 mAh up to 420 min of talktime up to 365 hrs of standby
GPS:	+
Keyboard:	+
FM tuner:	-
Size:	112 x 59 x 19 mm
Weight:	190 g
Recommended Price:	$1200

The sales package contents of HTC TyTN II are typical for most PDA phones though there are no bonuses like a memory card that came bundled with Touch. There's a USB/HTC ExtUSB cable, a wire stereo headset (also designed after the ExtUSB interface standard), a battery, a manual, a software disk and a case. Somewhat scarce for a leading product.

Design, Ergonomics

The side-slider form factor is native to HTC, utilized both in PDA phones and smartphones of the brand (we could recall the above-mentioned S710). The handset is very wieldly built, keeping a solid style and producing a nice impressions. The casing employs a combination of materials - the back of the handset has a soft-touch cover, the side edges have glossy surfaces and the front panel is made out of metal. Combined with glossy control keys of the navblock, the whole composition looks both stylish and solid, so the phone enjoys a vast popularity. The design of TyTN II is remarkably successful due to the fact that it caters to people of all tastes.

The model enjoys moderately small dimensions. The handset could seem a bit bulky to some, but upon a closer look that appears to be justified by the extended functionality comparable to that of E90, so it's a golden mean of sorts. But we have to admit that the phone is a bit to heavy, just like its Finnish competitor. TyTN II sits in hand rather comfortably, it's easy to handle even with one hand. The cascade orientation of the casing is also a great possibility - reminds of E90 employed in the same way. It's unclear whether the phone is durably enough - that'll surface no sooner than the first service centre calls. By the way, this mechanism is exclusive to HTC and is a patent-protected technology. Looks much like ordinary static hinges. The parts move both tightly and smoothly.

Let's compare the device to Nokia E90. Both examples are finalized commercial ones:

As seen, the TyTN II enjoys a slimmer build which tells good on ergonomics. But E90 appears to be the winner on the keypad side. While HTC only has 41 keys, the Nokia PDA phone has a total of 57. So controls arrangement of TyTN is a bit awkward. For example, E90 has a number of numerical keys like a common keyboard while HTC forces the user to use a special caps lock button. The navigation button of the Finnish model is better positioned, it fits the thumb perfectly. Even judging on the most primitive mechanics, the buttons are easier to push and better arranged. The backlighting is equally good for both handsets. The sliding mechanism of the Finnish is a bit jerky which is definitely not good.

The camera is definitely better in Nokia E90:

HTC TyTN II / Nokia E90

HTC TyTN II / Nokia E90

HTC TyTN II / Nokia E90

HTC TyTN II / Nokia E90

A huge advantage of HTC is the touchscreen, though it has an inferior quality in comparison to that of E90. Only the exterior screen can be used as a viewfinder for E90 which is notably smaller than that of TyTN II. It's interesting to note that the pre-sale samples of E90 could do that with the inner screen as well. The performance of Java applications willbe discussed further, however talking in advance we can assert Nokia's victory there as well.

It's hard to come to a final judgement because of the difference that lies between the two platforms, but still the E90 does better on most fronts. However HTC TyTN II could be a better option to people who prefer a good touchscreen or are just Windows Mobile fans and don't pay much respect to the Symbian Platform.

Let's compare HTC TyTN and HTC P4350 (Herald):

As we see, TyTN II is quite compact as compared to the amount of the details inside. Its less functional precursors used to be significantly larger. The keyboard is similar to that of P4350, but is uncomfortably smaller due to unknown reasons.

Getting back to TyTN II, let's have a look at the very basic elements layout. It's interesting to note how the SIM card slot is constructed. It's placed at the back of the upper part of the casing. It's much like the S710, but the realisation is obviously better. The cover lock is rather tight, so there's no chance for the cover to unlock accidentally. Moreover, the element stays between the to halves of the casing while it's folded. Of course, there's the support for hot swapping. The phone switches off immediatley, but you don't have to remove the battery. Unfortunately, the camera is left unprotected so the lens gets greasy in almost no time.

The bottom edge of the casing hosts the memory card slot (also with hot swap support) and the ExtUSB interface slot. The latter server for plugging the headset as well, which is definitely not the most ergonomical solution. The stylus pocket is at the bottom. That's less convenient than an upper position, but there's no way round due to the extensive amount of details already placed at the top. However such location of the stylus doesn't cause really much inconvenience. The stylus is rather plain. The two-position camera button is found nearby, its upper neighbor being the power on button.

A full-fledged scroll wheel is on the left, it's a true blessing for those who enjoy reading books from their PDA phones. Unfortunately, the music lovers are left without satisfaction - there's no blocking slider (though the screen switches off when you press the power button and the keypad gets blocked). Two more convenient control elements might serve as a compensation of sorts, namely the voice control key and the OK button. The mobile aerial connector is found on the back, which can be used for improving the GPS sensibility. It's protected by a plug so there's no harm to the ergonomical aspect here. On the whole, the handset design is quite reasonable and appealing, displaying no glaring flows.

Communication

HTC TyTN II is designed to be used in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100 networks, it supports GPRS and EDGE, as well as HSDPA and HSUPA. 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 will be available as an option since the beginning of October.

The wireless communication of TyTN is represented by the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module and Wi-Fi. Both work quite well and give raise to no reprimands. AD2P enjoys a perfect support - the sound is of high quality and rather loud, the communication is almost never interrupted. It's a pity though that should the connection be lost, the sound doesn't stop automatically, the built-in speaker is instantly activated. Besides of it, the following profiles are supported:

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

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

No support for such features is provided in the Wi-Fi mode due to security reasons, though it was possible in earlier versions of AKU (until 2.0) which are incompatible with TyTN II.

The GPS support is well done for TyTN II, this aspect of the PDA phone is based off the Quallcomm 7200 chipset. The device was able to detect some seven sattelites on a clear day, which is quite in keeping with the Gygabite standarts and is slightly worse than Mio and E-Ten devices do. There's no FM tuner in TyTN II. Quite an unexpected nuisance for a top model.

HTC TyTN II has a total of 256 Mb of hard disk storage and some 128 Mb of RAM at its disposal. That's quite sufficient for basic functionality but not more than that. Unfortunately no memory card comes bundled, so it has to be purchased separately. The memory card slot is the standard microSD one, the most universal variant for the time being. You can use memory cards up to the capacity of 4 Gb.

Display

The display utilizes the TFT technology, has a diagonal of 2,8" and sports a QVGA resolution of 320x240. Its color depth is 262,000 of colours. The image quality is high, though the display is slightly dimmer than that of E90.

The view angles are relatively wide, the color rendering is brilliant. The info can be easily read from the screen even in broad daylight:

The interface is typical of Windows Mobile phones, similar to the Touch there's the TouchFL0 technology, though lacking a 3D interface. As compared to the Touch:

The upper line is used for displaying service indicators like the battery life meter or signal quality, the clock and the telecom protocols availability, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth visibility, GPRS/EDGE availability in the area, a 3G list of launched application. The lower line contains info about context button functions.

The main part of the desktop can be varied to your liking. By default it shows current day, the service provider info, the owner personal data, messaging stats, the tasklist and schedule, and the indicator area (battery charge, display angle, wireles module 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 for switching between the two components. Let's have a look at each function separately:

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. 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 novelty exclusive to TyTN II is the Task Manager, displaying a list of running applications that allows to switch between them quickly or shut any running task. Unfortunately this is only available in the Home 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 TyTN II or come bundled on a disk:

The Office Mobile software packet includes:

The Phone application 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 three tabs - Calls, Quick Dial and Phone Settings.

TyTN II 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 three types of contacts:

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. This saves a bit of time while searching for some person's name in the phonebook.

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 the call length.

The only limit to the size of the contact book is the amount 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 adress and a plenty of other details like Assistant's Phone Number can be associated with every contact. It's needless to say 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.

E-mail can be set to be delivered automatically where you specify the interval before each message is received or sent automatically. Sorting by date is possible. You can activate simultaneous sending and recieving of mail, set a mailing schedule to spend less money by sending the mail when the GPRS traffic is the cheapest and sort incoming messages by size prior to downloading them to the phone.

If you use a Microsoft Exchange 2007 server the message will be delivered instantly and not on the next synchronization. Full HTML support is present. If the message contains several attachments, all of them are downloaded, but you can activate delayed downloading mode. 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. Any outgoing message can be digitally signed and encrypted automatically prior to sending, an IRM (Information Rights Management) capability allows you to limit access to messages in the way you like.

PIM

The Calendar application is used for planning events and meetings, this day's schedule can be displayed on the Home screen. If your PC has a copy of Outlook installed on it, you can synchronize the schedules. Reminders can be set in the form of sound signals or screen flickers.

The Calendar can also be used for arranging meetings via e-mail with the users of Outlook or Outlook Mobile. If the recepient accepts the proposition, the meeting is automatically added to their schedule. When the person affirms to participate, your schedule is automatically updated with an acknowledgement. The Windows Mobile platform has long been known for its strong points in the corporate sphere, so we observe the same once again in HTC TyTN II.

The standard vCalendar file format is supported for exchanging information about scheduled events, the corresponding files can be exported to the PC version of Outlook.

The Tasks application is used for scheduling events which can either be set to be one-time or recurring. You can set up reminders and sort them by categories. There's a tasklist which automatically highlights in red expired tasks. You can set a reminder that will be automatically activated on every occasion when open your schedule to add a new event.

The Notebook helps you to store quick notes. You can input the text from the keyboard, put it down in handwriting or use voice-to-text processing as well as convert handwritten notes into digital text or send your notes to other people. If a letter traverses more than three marking lines, it's processed as an image, otherwise - as text. To select an image for further removal or copying just hold you stylus pressed to the screen where the image is for a few moments.

Office Mobile comprises three applications used to view and edit Microsoft Office documents - Word Mobile (viewing and editing of *.doc, *.rtf, *.txt and *.dot files), Excel Mobile (viewing and editing of *.xls files), PowerPoint Mobile (playing *.ppt and *.pps files)

The traditional PDF-viewer Adober Reader LE is used to view *.pdf files, including those protected by a password with maximum key length of 128 bit.

Explorer is a basic file manager that serves for browsing media folders. Also a .zip archiver is included as well. A back-up functionality is provided by the Sprite Backup software.

HTC TyTN II is compatible with the following graphic file formats: *.bmp, *.jpg, *.gif, *.png. A simple Photo Manager is preinstalled to help the user make simple changes to the files, like rotation or trimming.