OK, I tried my very best, but a PDA is no substitute for a phone. The HTC Touch should have been a ideal converter for me because it is slim, and actually, surprisingly smaller than my favorite HTC Excalibur smartphone.
I have now been able to hone in directly on why it could not convert me away from a smartphone, which was caused by one single catalyzing event. I simply wanted to Shazam a track I heard on the radio, so I pulled out the Touch and tried to unlock it, which took too long. Then I tried calling Shazam, after calling 2 other numbers in error then canceling I finally got Shazam dialed, just as the track ended.
So, what went wrong ? Well here’s my analysis;
- The screen isn’t bright enough to use accurately as input on a sunny day
- My fingers are too big so I have to deploy and use the stylus, which takes time.
- The touch screen isn’t positive enough, I don’t know if I have pushed the button or not (which is compounded because of the slow processor)
- I don’t know if I hit the right button, invariably not!
- I like and need real physical buttons to press
- and lastly, specifically in the case of the Touch, the CPU is just too slow.
As Vicki succinctly put it, how can it be a phone without buttons ?
So, I’m afraid it wasn’t the Touch that could win me over. I’d like to think the iPhone could, but it shares so many of the same issues that I have with the Touch that I think it will be a tall order, but one I am going to take on.
