Review: HTC Touch Viva

HTC’s original Touch was a bit of a watershed. It introduced TouchFLO to us, and from then on everything about PDAs changed. Suddenly everyone wanted to produce PDAs with screens you could sweep and drag around. And the result has been stunning, with lots of exciting devices showing how the concept can be used.

Specs & info

Price: £225
Operating system: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor: TI OMAP 850 201MHz
Memory: 256MB ROM, 128MB SDRAM
Dimensions: 104.5mm x 59mm x 15.75mm
Weight: 110g
Display size: 2.8 diagonal inches
Display resolution: 320 x 240
Expansion slot: 1 x microSD
The touch screen idea has come on in leaps and bounds, but that doesn’t mean the original HTC Touch has to be left to moulder. HTC has resurrected the original design in the new HTC Touch Viva, a mid range PDA designed to bring the benefits of TouchFLO to those with limited budgets. There are, of course, some compromises that have had to be made to keep the price down. This is not a 3G device, languishing instead in the realms of quad band GSM with GPRS and EDGE. So Web browsing over the air is a bit slow at times. It lacks GPS too, which means you can’t get it to double-up as your all in one door to door navigator.

Perhaps the worst sin of all though, comes if you are thinking of doubling up your PDA as a mobile music player. In this case you are going to have to do a bit more work with the Touch Viva than simply getting it out of its box and plugging in the headset. That is because you don’t get a headset. If you now think you can just find one you already have, well, maybe you can. But only if it has a mini USB connector. Yes, HTC has made a major boo-boo by using USB and then not bothering to provide you with a headset.

These are the three major shortcomings of the Touch Viva. And there is a fourth annoyance in that the microSD card slot is located rather awkwardly under the battery. It is quite rare to find the slot here these days. It is widely accepted that you’ll want to get to your miniSD card for manual data transfer and so this is made easy.

But if you don’t need GPS or 3G, and don’t mind finding a USB headset, then you could be onto a winner with this device because in a number of other respects it is very alluring. The TouchFLO interface works smoothly and well. We didn’t find ourselves waiting for the device to respond to screen swipes, which is something we have found in the past with TouchFLO. And the general design is lovely, with a minimalist take on buttons, rounded edges and a relatively slimline shell that is good for the hand and pocket.

Wi-fi is a pleasant addition, and A2DP means you can use a Bluetooth headset instead of faffing about with USB so there is a saving grace on the music front. HTC has added some software to the Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro’s standards, too, which is always welcome. Google Maps makes an appearance, though because it uses mast triangulation to fix your position it isn’t very accurate. It will give you a rough idea of your bearings, but no more.

The Opera browser supplements Internet Explorer and as always it is a joy to use. There is an RSS reader, a YouTube client, Zip manager and PDF reader too.

All in all there is nothing here shouting out ‘I am original!’, but we had a lot of time for the original Touch and this updates nicely, if conservatively. It is a long way from being cutting edge, but is nonetheless a neatly designed, affordable PDA with some good software bundled.

Essential verdict

Performance: 8/10
TouchFLO seems smooth and responsive

Design: 8/10
If you like minimal you’ll love this

Features: 5/10
Without HSDPA and GPS the Touch Viva is not a leading edge PDA

Value for Money: 8/10
The SIM free price is attractive

Overall score: 6/10
A generally good budget range device with an unwelcome compromise on the headset front

Buy HTC devices at DeviceWire

Review originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine. Words by Sandra Vogel.

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