HTC Pure review – Redefined Touch

For:

HTC Pure has Windows Mobile 6.5 that offers improved Internet Explorer Web browser, new services and a user-friendly interface. The smartphone also has 5-megapixel camera, 3G and Wi-Fi support.

Against:

HTC Pure does not have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Touch screen is not capacitive. Windows Marketplace is slow to load and Internet Explorer Mobile edition still needs improvement.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HTC Pure is based on WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM and supports quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900. It has a candy-bar design. The operating system is Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional. The Pure is powered by 528 MHz MSM7201A processor, 512MB ROM and 288MB RAM.

3.2-inch LCD display has a resolution of 800×480 pixels. It has a feature of ambient light sensor. HTC Pure has 5-megapixels camera that works both as digital camera and camcorder. The Pure has accelerometer, TouchFLO 3D touch-screen and Windows Mobile Today screen.

The pre-installed software are Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Media Player Mobile, Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft ActiveSync, File Explorer, Opera Web browser, Adobe Reader LE, Microsoft MyPhone Backup, MSN Money, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Marketplace and search.

The additional features are Class 12 EDGE, GPRS, HSDPA, Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint support, GPS receiver, Macromedia Flash support, Zip Manager support, PDF support and RSS feeds. The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 EDR and IEEE 802.11b/g. Supported digital audio format is MP3.

HTC Pure has 1100mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 336 minutes talk time in GSM and 300 minutes of talk time in WCDMA. Accessories supplied inside the package are software disc, reference material, 3.5mm audio adapter, extra stylus, USB cable, AC adapter and headphone.

Razzle Dazzle:

HTC Pure is 4.3 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide and 0.6 inch deep and it weighs around 4.1 ounces. We liked the design of HTC Touch Diamond2. Still, the Pure has a compact and nice design and it easily fits in pants pocket.

Inside Dope:

Every major carriers has used the HTC Touch Pro2, whereas, its sibling HTC Touch Diamond2 stayed in shadows as it was available unlocked. Now, the company has launched new HTC Pure for AT&T that comes with new Windows Mobile 6.5. HTC Pure costs around $149.99 with two-year AT&T’s contract with $50 mail-in rebate. The Pure serves better user-friendly experience and much simpler interface than previous Windows Mobile phones. It has revamped Internet Explore Mobile Web browser that offers fine navigation and browsing experience. Microsoft has also added its services in an Application Store and a My Phone Backup service. HTC Pure and LG Incite are two touch-screen alternatives for AT&T from Apple iPhone. As a result, the Pure will get a tough competition from both iPhone and the Incite. Still, we are with the Apple iPhone for better features and user-experience than HTC Pure. However, if you need good balance of entertainment and business features then you can consider the new HTC Pure.

Design

For coming with the Pure, AT&T had done some modifications in the original design of HTC Touch Diamond2 just like the T-Mobile had changed the Touch Pro 2. The Touch Diamond2 had more wow and attractive factor with its metal brushed finish and ultra-slim body. However, the HTC Pure looks like ordinary smartphone and gives a plastic and slick feel.

It is good that AT&T has not altered the display. You will find a volume rocker at the right spine and power button on the top. Power connector/mini-USB port/headset jack is sits on the bottom. As there is no 3.5mm standard headset jack the phone, so 3.5mm audio adapter is also provided inside the package. You can plug this audio adapter at the headset jack and then use your standard 3.5mm headphone.

Display

HTC Pure has a 3.2-inch WVGA touch-screen display that has a resolution of 800×480 pixels. It shows the text and images clearly and accurately. The touch-screen worked perfect to browse the phone and menus while testing. There is an inbuilt accelerometer that changes the screen orientation when you tilt the phone. The accelerometer works only in video, photos, e-mail and Web pages. However, it does not work in other applications.

Navigation Array and Keyboard

HTC Pure has touch-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard, which rotates in both portrait and landscape mode on tilting the phone. You need to do some practice to type accurately. We also made some mistakes while testing. The phone will give a haptic feedback on pressing keys. The virtual keyboard is fine only for checking and quickly replying to the emails and messages. However, the heavy message or email users might think of a physical keyboard for better accuracy.

Personalization and User Interface

HTC Pure has TouchFlo 3D interface being a part of Touch series. In addition, you can select either HTC touch-interface or Windows Mobile’s Today screen inside the Settings option. You can personalize the smartphone by adding an application to Home Screen and by changing the wallpapers and display themes. You will get five different designer themes from Vera Wang, Ron Arad, Rock and Republic, Issac Mizrahi and Diane von Furstenberg.

You will get a new Microsoft Zune type layout on the main page. There is a slide bar that allows you to scroll upward and downward to view and access the different applications via their icons. You can swipe the finger from left to right to view sub-categories and files in some applications like photos, Calendar and messages. This is a good improvement on previous versions. However, we still prefer to use HTC TouchFlo user interface.

Microsoft has added more spacious and eye-pleasing icons to improve the user interface. There are new shortcuts for Microsoft MyPhone, MSN Money, Windows Marketplace and search. You can swipe the finger to move up and down for viewing all the applications.

Operating System

HTC Pure is using the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5. It has added improved Internet Explorer, new MyPhone Backup service and Windows Marketplace Mobile edition. Microsoft has also included Application Store like its competitors Symbian, Google Android, Palm and Apple. It has a catalog that offers free and paid applications.

Browser

HTC Pure has new improved Internet Explorer that has inbuilt Flash Lite support. You can select a mobile or desktop view of the Web pages. It also provides the ability to pan and scroll through Web pages.  Internet Explorer also has toolbar and sliding bar with HTC zoom bar. The Web searches are powered by Bing mobile. Still, the Microsoft Internet Explorer is not at the level of Palm Pre’s and iPhone’s browsers.

Applications

HTC Pure comes with pre-installed Microsoft Office Mobile edition to view/edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Microsoft DirectPush Technology provides real-time delivery of emails and automatic sync with Outlook contacts, tasks and calendars.

HTC Pure also has pre-loaded calculator, voice-recorder, note pad, task list, Opera Web browser and Adobe Reader LE. MyPhone Backup service will backup your downloaded applications, emails, contacts, photos and text messages to a Microsoft Web site. You have to login at MyPhone Web site with Windows Live ID and password. The backup will be password protected. If your phone crashed or damaged or stolen, then you can use the My Backup service to restore all your data including contacts, emails, messages and photos.

Phonebook and PIM features

HTC Pure can store contacts up to available memory. Each contact can store multiple phone numbers, email address, birthday, spouse name, IM screen name, home address, work address and more. You divide the contacts into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.

You can view status updates, new emails or messages and call history of your contacts like HTC Touch Pro2. You can also use Search Phone widget to search your phone and various applications like documents, tasks, messages, contacts, calendar and emails.

The features of HTC Pure are three-way calling, voice commands, multimedia and text messaging, smart dialing, speed dial, speakerphone and quad-band world roaming. Bluetooth 2.0 is onboard that has features of dial-up networking, personal area networking, file transfer, object push, stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, and more. The Pure supports 3G and it also has inbuilt Wi-Fi.

Services

AT&T provides services like AT&T Navigator for GPS voice-guided navigation, AT&T Video and AT&T Music. Some of the AT&T applications are bundled inside AT&T Tab such as WikiMobile, Weather Channel and MobiTV.

Media Player and Camera

HTC Pure has a similar media player like that of HTC Touch Diamond. It also has a 5-megapixel camera that works as both camcorder and digital camera. It has various settings for ISO levels, white-balance, brightness control, image quality options, resolution options and flicker adjustment.

We captured some still photographs indoor and outdoor for testing. The overall picture quality was good. The colors and image sharpness are good in both outdoor and indoor shots. The sunlight was enough bright to blow out images and flash helped for low-light. The video quality was passable, but the videos were little blurry.

Call Quality

We made some calls through quad-band based HTC Pure via AT&T service. The overall call quality was good. Like HTC Touch Diamond2, We received the clear sound with little background hiss at our end. The callers received our sound with background noise and little echo at their end. The speakerphone call quality was passable. We received some crackling sound on both the ends. However, we were able to carry on with the conversation as the crackling sound was acceptable. We did not get any problem pairing Bluetooth Headsets from Motorola S9 and Logitech Mobile Traveller with the HTC Pure.

Performance Testing

HTC Pure was quick responsive during our testing. We loaded the Microsoft website in 30 seconds on Internet Explorer and performed a Google search in just 10 seconds. Moreover, the inbuilt search option was good to search quickly. Newly added toolbar on the Internet Explorer is a better improvement in navigation. We also tested the Opera browser for Flash Lite and tabbed browsing. YouTube.com loaded in few seconds, but the videos took sometime to buffer. The streaming video quality was not good and sometimes, we had to re-buffer the them. The music quality was also good with the included headset.

We also tested Windows Marketplace. It was slow to load the titles, but we downloaded some applications without any problem. As soon as you download the titles, they will be added to Home Screen.

Battery Life

HTC Pure has 1100mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 5.6 hours of talk time and 15 days of idle standby time in GSM. In 3G connection, the battery has a life of 5 hours talk time and 20 days of idle standby time. The digital SAR rating of HTC Pure is 1.27 watts per kg in FCC radiation tests.

Verdict:

HTC Pure for AT&T has latest Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system and offers good features. If you need good balance of entertainment and business features, then you can consider the new HTC Pure. However, still we recommend you to go for the Apple iPhone.