T-Mobile myTouch Review

Name: T-Mobile myTouch 2
Brand: T-Mobile

By John Velasco

Published: Jul 31, 2012, 8:56 AM

9comments

T-Mobile Android

Introduction:

Once regarded as a showcase for its high-end smartphones, T-Mobile’s long standing myTouch line of Android smartphones are now being helmed by Chinese manufacturer Huawei. Considering that Huawei is known for producing mostly budget friendly devices, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see them bring T-Mobile’s myTouch line into the entry-level segment. Rightfully so, that’s exactly what we find with the upcoming T-Mobile myTouch by Huawei, as it’s aiming to expand the beloved line to a broader audience – so let’s find out how it fares.

The package contains:

microUSB cable
Wall charger
Start Guide
Safety and Warranty Information

Design:

Call it a shocker, we’re somewhat taken off guard by the design of Huawei’s T-Mobile myTouch – and that’s a good thing actually! Normally, we associate Huawei as producing flimsy devices, but with this, they’ve managed to concoct something that’s surprisingly solid. Not only it is compact enough to hold comfortably in the hand, but we’re also digging its clean appearance thanks to the soft touch casing. Beyond that, its build quality is remarkably sturdy to convince us that it’ll withstand normal wear and tear with few blemishes along the way. So yeah, we have to give a hand to Huawei for delivering something that’s deceptively well-rounded.

You can compare the T-Mobile myTouch with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

With sufficient spacing between its capacitive Android buttons and the bottom edge of the handset, accidental presses are few and in between. Meanwhile, above the display, it’s sporting an ornate looking earpiece and a front-facing 0.3-megapixel VGA camera.

Thanks to their distinct feel and springy responses, our fingers take a liking to its volume control, power button, and single-level shutter key. Rounding things out for the handset, it also features a microUSB port for charging/data connectivity, 3.5mm headset port, and microphone.

Raised from the surrounding area, its 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash stands prominently in the rear – while the notches next to it comprise its speaker grill. Prying off its rear cover, we’re granted access to its 1,500 mAh battery, SIM slot, and microSD card slot.

Display:

Quickly gazing over its 4” WVGA 480 x 800 LCD display, details are clearly defined to enable us to distinguish most things with few issues – but for things like fine text in the web browser, it looks garbled in a zoomed out view. Looking straight at the display, it manages to capture our attention with its natural color production, but it suffers from poor viewing angles and a low-contrast to make it nearly unusable in outdoor conditions with the sun present. With its viewing angles, the problem is so widespread that distortion is evident the moment it’s slightly tilted.

T-Mobile myTouch 360-degrees View:

Interface and Functionality:

Unfortunately, we’re extremely bummed by the fact that it’s running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread – as opposed to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich like a good majority of new devices nowadays. Worst yet, we’re not entirely sold on the heavily customized myTouch skin it’s flaunting, as it seems too antiquated. Well, the Genius button makes another appearance with this one, but it doesn’t pack the same inventive and enhanced functions that are seen with other newer services out there – like Google Now. Indeed, it’s nice being able to accomplish some things via voice, but that’s about the extent of its functionality. Lastly, who knows when it’ll get the ICS treatment.

With its 4-inch display, the layout of its on-screen keyboard is a bit cramped in portrait to effectively type with little slowdown. And despite exuding a responsive performance, it tends to slow down a bit with its predictive text offering – albeit, it’s not too bad.

Uncovering its core set of organizer apps, there’s nothing entirely too different with its functionality, as it falls in line to what we see with any other Android smartphone. Furthermore, we can say the same for the email experience with the Gmail app on board with the handset.

Being a T-Mobile device and all, it’s stuffed full with the carrier’s usual suspect of apps – these include 411 & More, Game Base, MobileLife Organizer, More for Me, Music Hub, T-Mobile Mall, T-Mobile My Account, T-Mobile Name ID, T-Mobile TV, and Visual Voicemail. As for preloaded third party apps, it consists of Amazon, Documents To Go, DLNA, Lookout, Monopoly Classic, Slacker Radio, TeleNav GPS Navigator, WildTangent, Words Free, and Zinio.

Processor and Memory:

Hardly going to raise any eyebrows nowadays, the T-Mobile myTouch is powered by a single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor with 1GB of RAM. Interestingly enough, it handles navigating around the homescreen with a live wallpaper with few nagging issues – though, we do notice some choppy performance with other basic tasks. Thankfully, the noticeable performance issues don’t adversely affect its overall performance, but then again, its benchmark scores are nearly laughable by today’s stringent standards.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
*T-Mobile myTouch*	1749	3642	30
*HTC One S*	4867	7012	60,7
*Samsung Galaxy S III*	5335	12016	58,6

Packing only 1.98GB of internal storage and another 579MB reserved for apps, you might want to invest in a microSD card to supplement its paltry capacity.

Internet and Connectivity:

Page loads aren’t that much a problem for the myTouch, seeing that its HSPA+ connection is able to load our site to its entirety in a short amount of time. However, the experience is diminished by an extravagant amount of choppiness with its performance. In fact, it’s made even worse when heavy Flash content is encountered.

Global travelers will be able to take this one abroad while retaining a data connection with most networks. As for other connectivity goodies, it features aGPS, Bluetooth, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and mobile hotspot functionality.

Camera:

Ouch! Call it a bummer for this device, but it’s seriously not an ideal device to snap photos. With its 5-megapixel camera, the results are obviously predictable with its muddy details, bland colors, and grainy looks. Yes, there’s an LED flash on board to light things up, but it’s seemingly ineffective beyond 3 feet.

Aside from its 29 frames per second capture rate, there’s nothing particularly exciting about its 720p video recording quality. Yet again, it suffers from some serious soft visuals that are made worse with the amount of artifacting that’s evident throughout its capture. Certainly, some people might be desperate to use it in a worst case scenario, but don’t give much hope in its quality.

T-Mobile myTouch Sample Video:

Multimedia:

Relying on the good old Android music player, we’re not entirely jumping out from our seat with its presentation or layout. However, its volume output is definitely up there, but it’s attached with a hint of sharpness at the loudest setting. Of course, it could be remedied by some kind of equalizer setting, but it’s lacking any.

Mainly due to its poor display, watching videos on the handset can be a bit of a challenge. In addition to only supporting MPEG-4 videos out of the box, its maximum resolution support is 720p. Sure, it’s able to move swiftly at a reasonable rate, but the washed out appearance of the display doesn’t make for the best experience.

Calling Quality:

Aside from the weak volume output of its earpiece, we’re quite content of its calling quality, as we’re greeted with clear, distortion-free, and audible voices heard on both ends of the line. Switching to the speakerphone, we’re able to carry on conversations thanks partly to its powerful volume.

Maintaining a solid connection to the network, it seems to hover around the -85 dBm mark in high coverage areas. Moreover, we didn’t experience any dropped calls during our testing.

Battery:

In this day and age, a 1,500 mAh battery won’t get that much attention, but we’re able to get by at least a solid day with normal usage nevertheless. Still, it’s something that requires nightly charges in order to retain a sufficient level in the morning.

Conclusion:

We all know the target demographic that T-Mobile myTouch is attempting to attract, and surely enough, it’s not those who are looking for the latest and greatest. Naturally, we can complain about its outdated Android 2.3 Gingerbread experience, and various performance hiccups but for those who can tolerate them, they’ll still be presented with all the rich features attached with Android. Factoring its attractive $49.99 on-contract price point, there’s enough value found in the Huawei-made myTouch to make it a decent entry-level offering – just don’t expect to find it as gracious with its performance over other offerings. Did we mention that we’re impressed with its build quality, considering this is something from Huawei?

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android Version: 2.3.6
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.7-perf
Build Number: U8680V100R001C85B837SP01

T-Mobile myTouch Video Review: