HTC Snap Review

Introduction and Design:

With their famous Touch series, HTC seem to have cut down on the production of less sophisticated devices, running Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard, which are by far, not to be underestimated, especially when equipped with decent QWERTY keyboards. For an instance, the HTC S740 turned out to be a viable alternative to the Touch Pro, which is a side-sliding, hefty cell phone, not really comfortable to carry around in your pocket. The Snap is the first full QWERTY keyboard candy-bar handset that HTC have made since 2007 and the form factor has allowed the manufacturer to make the phone quite thin (12 mm), so you will not end up with your pocket bulging out too much, plus its black color makes the phone look even slimmer than it actually is. Aside from the handset, what you will also find in the box are: USB cable to connect the device to a PC that comes with adapter to quickly turn the cable into a charger, software CD, user guide and quite nicely looking earphones.






You can compare the HTC Snap with many other phones using ourSize Visualizatoin Tool.

The phone display has the typical of such devices landscape orientation, measures 2.4 inches and delivers QVGA resolution and 65k color support. As a whole, the image quality is rather unappealing and direct sunlight renders screen unusable.



Send and end buttons are below the screen, along with two functional buttons to call up the phone screen or navigate back in menus. These four are prominent enough and easy to press. We found ourselves mistakenly using the right functional key instead of the other, because they cling close and have the same shape. The trackball is located between the buttons and is not enough sensitive to touch even if you change the relevant settings. Scrolling downwards is OK, but moving in the opposite direction is rather hard.

The keyboard has four rows with all keys having the same shape (except for the space button), convexity and they all lack enough travel. On the overall, we didn’t have any troubles typing things away, even with one hand, although we had to keep an eye on what we were punching in all the time, because we couldn’t make out what was the button we had just pressed. Keyboard might become a serious, vexing issue to people with thicker fingers, unlike the one the BlackBerry Bold comes equipped with. Still, we are pleased many keys sport pre-assigned shortcuts that allow fast access to, say, your messages or camera interface. The button that bears a small, green circle marking calls up your “Inner Circle” on screen, but we will tell you about this a bit later.



Left hand side houses large and comfortable two-directional button that controls sound volume. miniUSB connector is on the opposite side, hidden under a small protective flap. As a whole, the HTC Snap feels rubber-like when in your hand and will not exactly make people to look twice in your direction, unless they take the phone for a BlackBerry.

Software and Functions:

The HTC Snap runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard edition that comes with almost no personalization. The major, extra add-on is the Inner Circle function that is meant for people who receive many emails and therefore, need to follow only the most important ones. To get yourself all set, you first need to choose people for your priority list. Pressing the green keyboard button (lower right-corner) calls up a screen showing all emails, received from the select group of people, which allows you to instantaneously see only information you consider important. The function comes in really handy and can make your life substantially easier. Our only gripe is that Inner Circle works with all your email accounts at the same time, meaning there is just no way to separate personal letters from work-related correspondence. Well, a simple filter option by relevant email account would have fixed the issue. If you happen to have more spare time like when, say, you boss has just left for some exotic country (and no one wants you to urgently mow the lawn), you can easily switch over from Inner Circle to the general inbox, that shows all received emails (including spam messages).



All that can be expected from a device running Windows Mobile Standard is right here – straightforward contacts (with direct keyboard searches from the home screen) and good functionality in terms of keeping your daily routine in order or working with messages. And there is the built-in Internet Explorer, of course. We do recommend that you install another browser the minute you get the phone, because we don’t really think IE is good to browse web pages on. The HTC Snap delivers internet connectivity through HSDPA 3.6Mbit/s and Wi-Fi.




This is a business oriented device and it seems logical multimedia capabilities have not been of primary concern to the manufacturer. The phone sports 2-megapixel camera and the best we can say about it is that pictures are taken quickly and videos are captured at QVGA resolution and 20 frames per second. The overall quality of both snapshots and videos is rather low with blurry details and unrealistic colors. You can listen to music using Windows Media Player or HTC Audio Manager. The latter allows you to switch between songs by slightly turning the trackball, shows large sized album art and as a whole, is convenient to use. Sound is not loud enough through either the loudspeaker or the earphones, but its quality is OK. Video playback support is limited to MPEG44/H.263 and H.264 content and stuttering becomes pronounced if the resolution width of your video exceeds 320 pixels.

Performance:

The HTC Snap comes with capable hardware components (Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz processor, 192MB RAM and 256MB ROM) and operates without noticeable or irritating lagging. In-call quality has left us with good impressions – voices through the earpiece are really loud and easy to catch onto. Things are even better on the other end – people will definitely enjoy your realistic and clear sounding voice.

The device comes equipped with a robust (1500 mAh) battery that, according to the manufacturer, provides 8.5 hrs of continuous talk time and no less than 16 days in standby – awesome performance for a smartphone.

Conclusion:

As a whole, we are more pleased than displeased with the HTC Snap. Its keyboard is OK and even if not the best on the market, it does a good stroke of business. The device itself is suitable for being carried around in your pocket, its Windows Mobile operating system delivers good organizer and email functions and Inner Circle will be of good use to people who need to deal with staggering number of emails every day. If you are looking for WM 6.1 Standard cell phone with similar design, the HTC Snap is a very good option indeed. Other suchlike handsets, but with better keyboards are the HTC S740 and Samsung Jack i637 that we have already reviewed. The latter is available in the US on AT&T only.