By Oo Gin Lee

COMPARED to the Acer neoTouch, the HTC Touch2 has less muscle and is easier to slip into the pocket.

The Touch2 runs on a 528 MHz processor (vs 1 GHz on the Acer neoTouch) and the slower 11g Wi-Fi (instead of 11n).

Also not a wow factor is the very limited 384kbps uplink speed for its 3.5G connection (compared to the neoTouch's 5.6 Mbps).

The less powerful specs is a sacrifice that HTC has made to give consumers a smaller screen - just 2.8 inches.

But the scaled down specs is not a bad thing as the phone is one of the smallest Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones around.

The gizmo uses HTC's well-regarded Touch-Flo interface which allows you to easily scroll through different apps on the home screen by simply holding down your thumb on the zoom bar and swiping to the left and right.

However, within each app and at other parts of the interface, I found the touch interface too slow and rather unresponsive, especially when compared with the newer and faster Sense interface found in HTC Hero and HTC HD2, which was launched last week.

You can easily switch between HTC's custom home screen and the standard Windows Mobile 6.5 screen - just press the Home or Windows buttons below the screen.

One nice feature is that both Internet Explorer and Opera browsers are pre-loaded into the phone so you can choose the one you prefer.

Final say

A slim smartphone that gets the job done, but do not expect the bells and whistles.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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