I didn't think too highly of this phone when it was my main phone, but funnily enough, although also a HTC, I am tempted to go back to using it instead of my current phone, which I recently reviewed.

Appearance/Aesthetics

Compared to my current phone, this one is lighter, a little smaller in length and width, thicker and has a smaller screen space. I prefer that this phone is a little lighter, even if this implies a lower quality. Though more chunky, I still think it looks nicer and I do prefer its surface materials. The back is softer and more rubbery, rather than the metal finish of my current phone and much nicer to the touch. The whole phone remained scratch free during my use of it, but one of the problems I did find was that it got a lot dirtier than my current phone and the surface you hold to your ear often requires cleaning. For protection, a screen protector and a pouch are provided, though when I was using it I did not keep the protector on for that long. The pouch gave me a better sense of security putting the phone in my bag, where my current just goes in loose. Unlike my current phone, this one comes with a neatly tucked away stylus, which is meant to be used rather than fingers on the touchscreen.

The 'on button is located at the top, and must be pressed and held to actually switch on and off, otherwise it operates to switch off the screen and lock the phone. The headphones port is also on top, which makes sense to me. The charging/connecting port is located appropriately at the bottom. As with my current phone, the volume button is on the side, awkwardly where I hold the phone normally, so that I often accidentally adjust it. On the back I can see where the camera point is located, with its main features mentioned.

The front of the phone is not a bad design, with the htc logo and symbols for connecting and ending calls, home and go back clearly shown at the bottom. There is a light indicator at the top for charging.

The casing is nice and easy to remove, once you know how to, and the SIM, memory card and battery storage are very easy to find, and just a little fiddly to use.

Interface

The background was quite plain when I first bought the phone, but you can customise this to make it nice and lively. I chose one of the background options that came with the phone and this was nice enough for me. To unlock the phone you press the on button, and I actually bothered to set a PIN for this phone, which can be annoying as everytime you unlock it you have to enter it, but it was a comfort when I lost my phone briefly!

The time, date and alarm status are shown clearly, as well as a line of icons to indicate different statuses, like battery level and notifications. There is also a Start button, as this phone operates on Windows Mobile.

It is possible to scroll along a bar at the bottom of the screen to look at different items, like Messages, Internet, Weather, Stocks etc. This is fairly simple, but I preferred the windows style programs icons, which, this being a Windows Mobile phone, can be accessed from a Start Menu.

The features are not as elaborate as my current phone, a little simpler and tend not to be animated (like the weather is just simple symbols). On the other hand it is very functional and depending on what you want you can choose and easily access information.

Touch Screen

Although to some extent you can technically use your fingers, the touch screen requires the attached stylus, which can be frustrating when you are out and about and want to quickly write a message but don't have both hands free. Also there is the risk of losing it, although it is fairly secure in its place, it's easy to forget to put it back.

On the good side, I find the precision a real comfort. It is much easier to get it right first time with the stylus and so messaging is easier for me, whereas with my current phone I'm constantly pressing the wrong buttons.

You can use sliding motions to switch from screen to screen, or tapping to select items. It is quite user friendly and when I'm sat comfortably and not in a hurry it is a pleasure to use. It's just not so enjoyable when you are trying to do more than one thing.

Telephone Calls

I preferred making calls on this phone. Although if you need to use the keypad you would have to take the phone away, unlock it and enter your PIN first, at least you could sit comfortably with the phone against your ear secure in the knowledge that nothing weird would occur while you are talking! Of course if you use those annoying automated telephone services a lot, this phone could add to your frustration, as the voice on the other end of the line starts to nag at you to enter your choice or could well just put you straight through to the 'sorry I can't help you' operator.

The call clarity is not bad but not great either, and at times a little quiet, with volume settings being limited. It is possible to use speakerphone but obviously you would not then have the phone held to your ear and on occasion I have had people tell me that they can hear themselves while using it.

Internet

With this phone, my data plan was not unlimited, so perhaps this is why I barely persevered with using the mobile Internet. I found it to be extremely slow, and my boyfriend, using a different phone to mine, would often have already run a search and found the information I was looking for before my page had even loaded. Part of this could be blamed on my network, but I do think the actual pages loading were slow because of the system too.

Operating System

Unlike my current phone, which is an Android, this HTC phone uses Windows Mobile. This proved to be a particular annoyance on upgrading, because of course the two cannot be easily synchronised. In fact, in spite of being Windows, same as my computer, a lot of data like text messages cannot just be transferred to another location at all. This was something of a problem when messages needed for legal reasons could not be copied or saved anywhere because that means keeping the whole phone just for those messages.

The phone was always very slow, and that I partly blame on Windows too, though of course I don't know for sure and can't prove it. For example, entering the PIN, it can take ages for the little stars to show up indicating you've entered a digit. This means I often re-enter them by mistake.

Programs/Features

I was really keen that this phone has the Microsoft Office software for mobiles installed on it, although if I'm honest, I barely used them. Nonetheless I can see how they would be handy, at least for accessing documents, for professionals and some students. For editing, I still think working on a small phone would quickly get uncomfortable, but the fact it is possible has to be a bonus.

There are just three games on the phone, Teeter, which is like a labyrinth type game, Solitaire the card game and Bubble breaker, another simple game that I find rather addictive. This for me is enough, but it's not much for someone that wants really up to date gaming on their phone.

There are other standard features, like a calendar, calculator, music player, messenger, task list and so on. Another feature that might be important is the camera in the phone, which has a decent, though not great 5 megapixels and is not too bad. In the dark, it is not so great, however, as it does not have a flash. It is also a little bit slow, and has a loud clicking sound to indicate a photo is being taken, so you might want to change this setting before using on certain occasions!

Memory

The phone has an external 8Gb memory stick, although you can buy a 16Gb stick if you want. The phone also has a very small amount of internal memory, so it can somewhat function without the memory stick and before I briefly lost my phone I had not even bothered to install it and had used the phone fine (a small number of songs were stored on it at that point).

Battery/Charging

The battery life is not too bad considering the number of functions this phone can perform. It can last several days without too much use and a good few hours of talk-time. Also, there are options to save power and keeping the screen switched off helps to conserve power. The charger uses an older HTC style connection (before they started making them universal), which is a bit of a pain, as it looks terribly similar to that of my current charger and so I get them confused and have accidentally packed the wrong one! It is relatively easy to connect however, and the wire has a USB connection that goes into the plug or your computer for synchronising etc.

Manual

I did actually read the guidance information for this phone when I first bought it, as this was my first proper smartphone. As a new user, I found it clear and fairly helpful, but I quickly got to a point where I no longer needed to look at any of the information provided, which is even better really.

Conclusion

As a smartphone, this is now very out of date and lacks many of the fancy features of newer phones. However, it also is easier to use and a little simpler than some of them. I'm not happy about having to use a stylus and this was my biggest complaint, although as I admit, I just don't have the thumb technique or small enough fingers for finger touch screens!