HTC reveals S740 - another supremely stylish smartphone handset
Ξ August 26th, 2008 | → | ∇ Gadgets |
Phone manufacturer HTC is keeping up its style offensive with the announcement of its latest smartphone handset, the S740.
The recent Touch Diamond was certainly a looker, but was sorely let down by its less than stellar touchscreen performance, so HTC has returned to its roots and dropped touchscreen altogether, opting instead for a traditional 12-key keypad on the front of the S740, along with a full set of QWERTY keys hidden underneath.
However, it has sensibly decided to keep on the aesthetic values of the Touch, and the sleek, shiny black form factor looks superb. Naturally, this is all backed up by the highly customised Windows Mobile 6 OS, that at least is reasonably easy on the eye, even if it is getting a little creaky underneath.
Internally the S740 ticks all the right boxes for a smartphone but doesn’t bring any real surprises with it; connectivity includes the faster HSDPA 3G variety along with GPS, 802.11g WiFi and Bluetooth. There’s also a 3.2 megapixel camera on board, which isn’t too bad considering the weak cameras that show up on *cough* some smartphones, but nothing like those appearing on more serious multimedia handsets.
The dimensions do compare pretty well to other smartphones on the market though - the S740 measures in at 116.3 x 43.4 x 16.3 mm and weighs 140g. The display is 2.4″ LCD QVGA. The battery life is extremely impressive too and is reckoned to be in the 5-6 hour mark for talk time, or 400 hours standby time
The HTC S740 lands in Europe in September. Prices, we’re guessing, will be subject to whatever kind of punishing mobile contract you end up with.
