HTC Tytn 2 (II) in review

The Tytn is the big brother of the HTC Touch in my opinion. It’s bulky, sturdy, tough, versatile and has a really short battery life. Ok that last one didn’t really fit in to the list but it’s true.

I fully charged the phone and maybe I got a bum battery or something but it only lasted one day. Fair enough, I used the phone extensively on that day but one day of battery power really doesn’t cut it for me.

Moving on. The Tytn as I have mentioned, is versatile. What I mean by this is it does a whole bunch of stuff.

Firstly it’s a phone that makes phonecalls and sends text messages. Not such a shocker, I know, but one thing to remember when buying a phone like this is sometimes the basics become difficult because too much is trying to be accomplished. This is not the case here, the incredible keypad, a full qwerty, makes writing text messages an absolute dream for a geek like me. My touch typing is lightning fast (obviously) and this phone can keep up. The keys are slightly too small but manageable.

Next up is the “catch” feature intended to catch you in all the adverts and publicity around this phone. The HTC Tytn flips. No it doesn’t do flips, it flips. Sideways. Using this feature allows you to get a horizontal view of things, literally. The part of the phone that houses the screen and all the important stuff slides towards the left hand side of the phone and then tilts, about 45 degrees but don’t quote me on that number. This makes for a completely new and funky way to use your phone.

However there is an actual catch. The flipping and tilting also involves a screen rotation that really isn’t as smooth as one would hope for. Maybe I am just a frantic user tirelessly flipping and twisting and typing so I threw the phone off, but as far as I am concerned the selling point of the phone should be flawless. It’s not. It does, however, do the job reasonably well which allows you to not get too frustrated.

Once the phone is flipped you can whip out the stylus and get tapping. I have stated before and maintain my position that I hate the stylus of almost every phone I’ve ever used and this one is no different. It has nothing to do with the Tytn, I just hate styluses (is that how one would write the plural). The one thing that I commented about the HTC Touch in my last review is that I thought the screen wasn’t sensitive enough. It’s as if HTC read my review and did what I asked. This screen can be used with one finger. This obviously depends on how, um, large your fingers are ofcourse. Mine are reasonably sized and thus I made use of the screen with the finger. It’s sensitive enough to be reactionary and easy to tap. Good work.

On to the features. There are many of them as I have said. This phone is a demon. However one point that really makes this phone lost in our market is the wireless issue. We have none. Well that’s not true, but we don’t have enough wireless cover here in SA to allow for full use of the features of this phone.

Some functions I couldn’t make use of included the GPS programmes, I’ve seen other reviews that show you how easy it is to connect with GPS. For some reason, not so much for me. Another function that was lost to me included the Adobe Reader and streaming video. Not sure why, just didn’t work.

Apparently you can make Skype calls on the Tytn, connect to IM and do a whole lot of other online sort of stuff. Like I said, very functional.

One thing that I have tested on every other review I’ve done and been successful with is my Bluetooth hands-free kit. Unfortunately for some reason the Tytn struggled to connect to the car-kit. After a war with numbers, codes and passwords I got it to work. Something great did come out of that excursion though, I learned that the Tytn has a dynamite speaker phone. I kept it tucked neatly on my lap (radiation I hear you moan) and could make calls while driving in rush-hour traffic. Fantastic.

Something else that I’ve bitched about in the past is Windows Mobile. I’m not going to go in to it again because I have done it in fairly extensively in the past. But I am still not fond of Windows Mobile at all.

My final answer? If you can afford it, get it, use it and remember to charge it.

Price: ± R6 999 - R7 999

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(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Filed Under Cellphones, Featured Reviews, Windows