There isn’t much at the HTC Booth here in Las Vegas. In fact, there isn’t even much of an HTC booth to speak of. Our favorite Windows Mobile smartphone manufacturer has gone the decidedly conservative route at CTIA Las Vegas 2008 and set up shop on a small piece of Las Vegas Convention Center floorspace.
HTC is showing off their HTC Touch Dual for the US market. The Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone has been floating around Europe with the Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional OS for a few months already, but this is the first time we’re seeing it with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and available for US consumption. Fans of the HTC Touch that want quick access to a keypad for no-eye dialing will want to check out the HTC Touch Dual. The Touch Dual takes the tried and true formula of the Touch, and bumps up the OS and hardware.
The HTC Touch Dual rocks a 400Mhz processor, 2.6 inch touchscreen display, 256MB ROM/128MB RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, and microSD card slot – all powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.
Of course, HTC’s TouchFLO interface is overlaid on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional homescreen, which is a bit of a disappointment, given the sleek look of the new WM6.1 sliding panel homescreen layout. The smartphone is slightly thicker than the HTC Touch that has done so well around the world – the addition of a vertical sliding 20-key, SureType-esque keypad will do that.
We’re looking for T-Mobile USA to offer the HTC Touch Dual as the MDA Touch Plus in the near future – most likely with a numeric 16-key keypad in favor of the 20-key setup that HTC is showing off at CTIA Las Vegas 2008. Pricing is not yet known.
