HTC P4350 Smartphone review

Can HTC impress with its latest handset?

16 April 2007 11:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

There seems to be no stopping HTC and its massive roll out of new handsets. One of the latest is the HTC P4350, a follow on from its TyTN handsets (pronounced titan) but without the HSDPA connectivity. So should you bother?

Roughly the same size as the TyTN and most of the other HTC handsets for that matter the P4350 sports a 2.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen with the usual array of pick-up and hang-up buttons along the bottom. Like the TyTN the phone splits in two and the underside reveals a 41 key QWERTY keyboard. Because the keyboard runs parallel length ways down the phone there is plenty of space for the keys are they aren't bunched as they would be on a BlackBerry handset.

That's not to say its anything more than a two thumbed affair, but at least it's useable no matter how big your thumbs are. When typing, the responsiveness is good, and overall we found that you can happily type an email without too much issue.

No 3G means only the need for one camera and like the TyTN the P4350 sports a 2 megapixel camera

Having just been announced before Microsoft's Mobile 6 operating system, the P4350 does have drawback of not featuring Microsoft's latest OS for the mobile platform, it's not a deal breaker, it just would have been nice for the company to have included the new software on the models its shipping out today, just as desktop manufacturers are doing following the launch of Microsoft's Windows Vista.

Inside and the speed of the unit is fairly zippy (it runs the Texas Instruments OMAP 850 processor for those interested) and like the TyTN should be fast enough for most users to get there day to day job done.

The TyTN offers 128MB ROM and 64MB RAM and you can expand it further via a Micro SD card. It's a shame a standard SD Card slot wasn't available - for viewing images straight out of a camera for example, but then the TyTN packs so much into such a small unit that this omission can be forgiven.

Verdict

For those not looking for the all singing all dancing capabilities of the TyTN the P4350 will fit the bill, however given the choice on a Smartphone of having 3G and HSDPA built in or just regular GSM we know that we, and any self requesting business man would do the same.

Of course if you aren't playing any web surfing, or worried about the speed you can get your emails then the faster online access speed won't be an issue and you can opt for this and save yourself a few bob.

Overall, like the TyTN a good strong performer, but for us we would opt for the TyTN or, although yet to be reviewed the Ameo, but then that's a different proposition all together.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: HTC
Price as reviewed: £Price dependent on contract
The good: Qwerty keyboard, screen size
The bad: Still running Windows Mobile 5, no 3G connectivity
Quick verdict: Overall, like the TyTN the P4350 is a good strong performer, but for us we would opt for the HSDPA touting TyTN instead
Score