The Snap is the return of the non-touchscreen QWERTY messaging phone. HTC last dipped it's foot into this marketplace with the HTC Excalibur and it's still a handset that's being used on BT with their Office Anywhere solution. The Snap brings WinMo 6.1, a faster CPU, uprated camera, GPS and more. But is there still room for a non-touchscreen device in a world that's gone touchscreen crazy?


Video Introduction

If  you want to see the HTC Snap being unboxed and thoroughly fiddled with (for nearly 25 minutes!) have a looksie at the video below or click here.


Specs

Processor - Qualcomm® MSM 7225™, 528 MHz
Operating System - Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
Memory - ROM: 256 MB / RAM: 192 MB
Dimensions - 116.5 X 61.5 X 12.0 mm (4.59 X 2.42 X 0.47 inches)
Weight - 120 grams (4.23 ounces) with battery
Display - 2.4-inch TFT-LCD with LED back light and QVGA resolution
Network - HSDPA/WCDMA:

    * Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
    * Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link speed

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

    * Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Device Control - Trackball with Enter button
Keyboard = 4-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS - Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity - Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi® - IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera - 2.0 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
Battery - Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery (1500 mAh)
Talk time -

    * Up to 300 minutes for WCDMA
    * Up to 510 minutes for GSM

Standby time -

    * Up to 480 hours for WCDMA
    * Up to 380 hours for GSM

Expansion Slot - microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)


Initial feelings aren't teriffic unfortunately. Placed next to the "default" messaging handset that many large companies choose, the HTC Snap lacks the designer flair with the extra space above and below the keyboard making it look a little gangly.


The keyboard arrangement is done well with a decent space between each row and each key is domed for easy location. The brown symbols and numbers are accessed by holding the FN key and there's a dedicated "Inner Circle" button which lets you filter people easily from your contacts list - a bit like a VIP list. Using the keyboard itself took me a bit of getting used to, especially as I've had to use a Blackberry Curve for some time. The "TAB" button is right next to the "A" key and I did find that I would press this instead of the letter "A", but this was only a minor gripe.


Above the main QWERTY keyboard are the rounded softkeys which overlap the "Home" and "Back" keys. The softkeys activate the two tabs at the bottom of the screen and will change function according to the app or menu you're looking at. To the left is the Call Answer / begin call key and on the right there's the call drop key which doubles and the power button. Press and hold the call drop key to power off. To lock the device you'll need to press and hold the lock button which is on the letter "Q". To unlock you'll need to hit the left softkey and then "Q" again, because it's actually the "*" character you need to press after the left soft-key, and that's on the letter Q again. You actually find that this works quite well because the two keys are right next to each other.


The trackball makes a welcome return on here and, being a reluctant Blackberry user, it's very familiar to me already. I found that the initial speed of this was a little slow when browsing, but the good news is that this can be adjusted, and there's two different adjustment methods - a sensitivity setting for within the browser and another for everything else. You can adjust the rate too.


To the left of the device is the volume up / down. This is on one long bar..


There's nothing on the top or the bottom (apart from a small slot for popping the battery cover off) and, on the right side, we've got the return of the "rubber flap". This is anchored with a small hinge and you open it by sliding your nail to the bottom and popping it off.


On the back there's a large slot for the external speaker and a metallic section housing the 2 megapixel camera which, as you'll see later, is actually not bad even though it's a relatively low amount of pixels compared to the 5 and 8 megapixel handsets on the market.


Also known as the HTC S521 the Inner Circle system will slice your contacts list down and only show messages and info from selected favourites. This, as I mentioned in the video, is a lot like the Sky+ "Favourites" feature. Let's face it, when you've got stacks of people on your phone there's a very good chance that you only really regularly keep in touch with a few, and the feature does that simply and easily. I have to confess that this perhaps simple-sounding question is rather fantastic.


The camera is a 2 megapixel shooter and, as we've come to expect, works well in outdoor light but struggles a little indoors without the help of a flash. I must give it credit though, it handled low-light conditions a lot better than a lot of HTC kit I've tested, and there's examples of that below. Accessing the camera isn't done through a dedicated button but you can press the "FN" key to access the little camera symbol right next to it - a nice shortcut which I appreciated. You may have noticed in earlier shots that this key also accessing MSN Messenger - one button to get direct into Messenger. Great.


Camera

Here's the camera album app, which is a HTC addition. It's smooth in operation and lets you zoom in on shots using the trackball. Just select a picture and zoom in..


The second and third pictures below pictures were taken in a room with only one solitary 40W lamp on. The zoom function works straight off - even on the highest resolution. Owners of other HTC phones may be familiar with the fact that usually it won't zoom in when you're on the highest resolution, you have to instead knock it down to a lower resolution and then zoom in. Here you don't, and that's a great bonus.

Click each picture to get the original un-tampered version...



Inside

Inside you'll also find the Internet Explorer browser. This version has been around for quite some time but is usable at least. The WiFi or 3G connectivity helps to make it a nippy experience and, once you do start using it, your trackball suddenly develops an on-screen pointer, which is another thoughtful touch which lets you click links on-screen easier than without.


You can pan around a web page and zoom in on a certain section as shown above. Favourites can be stored and they'll then be accesible from the home panel. It's not quite as slick as Opera etc but it's a decent enough web browser.

The main home interface is shown in the video below and you can also see Internet Explorer in action.


This sliding panels interface is a nice quick way to navigate. Press down or up to flip through the panels and then right or left to choose one of the options on each themed panel. Panels include weather, appointment, music, pictures and more. You can see it in action on the video above or click here to watch it.


You'll also find business tools like Adobe Reader LE, Voice Notes, Zip and the Office Suite (Word, Excel, OneNote, Powerpoint etc). We should mention though that the mobile Office suite on WinMo 6.1 Standard won't let you creat new Office documents, only open existing ones. Bizarre we know, but that's a Microsoft decision. You can get around it by copying a blank document onto the phone via the sync cable and then opening this and saving it as a new filename each time. There's also an improved clock and alarm system for getting you up in the mornings - this will let you set two different alarm times with two different sounds and volumes


Other apps include MSN Messenger (which is welcomed) and a couple of utterly fantastic HTC-built apps like HTC Album (seen earlier) and HTC Audio Manager, both of which should be in every WinMo handset - full stop. There's also Windows Media Player and a streaming player to watch the mobile YouTube clips.


GPS is always welcome and almost expected on handsets now, and the included system here is even quicker thanks to the QuickGPS system which finds your closest satellites. Google Maps can be used with GPS to give you a quick and free way to locate yourself, get directions, view satellite imagery and zoom into your neighbours gardens.


As with all Windows Mobile handsets the Snap will sync all the contacts and their details on your PC Outlook, so all details including phone numbers, email addresses, postal details, pictures and more are instantly sync'd across to your HTC Snap. If someone calls, their photo will appear. No photo? Don't worry, just take a snap of the person and add it to the profile of the person in question. A point to note here, the menus are very smooth. Just taking a photo and tapping the right soft-key to enter "Menu" pushes up a silky menu list which is 4 rows high. It doesn't jus pop up, it slides up and believe me, these small tweaks make a difference. Slide your trackball up or down to choose the relevant option (in my case it was "Save to contact") and you're done. This swish menu system isn't continued throughout though unfortunately. Other handsets from HTC do - like the HTC Touch Diamond2 (which uses the HTC TouchFlo 3D system) but this doesn't integrate throughout, so in HTC apps it's a dreamy world of icy-slick menus, whilst in the Microsoft apps (like contacts etc) it's the standard world of MS menu lists.


So, you've got your contacts sync'd. You've got all the details in each contact plus custom ringtones, pictures, emails, IM details, home / work / mobile numbers, website details, anniversary, spouse details and childrens names. You've also got the HTC Inner Circle app, but hey - there's more. You've also got speed dial. Press and hold a number and it'll dial one of your favourite contacts. This is all about handling a huge amount of contacts and data easily and it works very well indeed.

Now, whilst I'm deep into this review I'd like to mention the keyboard once again. I'm now getting more used to it after using the device for a number of days and it's fantastic. The extra space on the Snap keyboard, when compared to my usual Blackberry workhorse, is deeply appreciated after days of banging in web addresses, text messages, emails and Word documents.


It's also a big tick from me for the Inner Circle system. I can instantly tune out the buckets of less important emails and keep those important people in check. Imagine working on an important project and having to keep in touch with key people - you'll never miss those critical emails in a sea of messages ever again. Think of it like a highlighter pen. Simple idea. Simply works.   

Again I have to take a punch at Windows Mobile. This version, Standard, is the non-touch flavour of Windows Mobile. It's perhaps not had much attention given to it as the rise and rise of touch-based screens and it's starting to show. Sure, everything works well but the odd mention of a "Radio Phone" in the contact tab make you want a newer OS


Conclusion

The Snap is really fast. It's something I always liked about "Smartphones" (i.e. Windows Mobile Standard devices) - the OS was always optimised to be quick. It's nippy and usable but I'd love to see more of HTC's software flavouring added to the WinMo Standard recipe. WiFi works as expected, GPS is great and it's a very functional device. Once you get past the sliding panels interface the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard OS begins to look a little old in the tooth, and the I almost wish that HTC could have spent as much time covering it up as they now do so succesfully on the touch-based handsets.   

As for the handset itself, the connectivity is great, the speed of the handset is great, the battery life is great. The camera, considering it's "only" 2 megapixel, produces great pictures even without a flash and, when combined, it makes for a great messaging phone. The choice of the trackball for navigation is spot on and the Snap shows just how much life is still left in non-touchscreen phones from Windows Mobile. Top stuff.