Disqus
I was reading a review on Phone Arena the other day for the HTC Touch HD – and it made a couple of very interesting points:
1) what does the ‘HD’ mean in HTC Touch HD
2) the video playback isn’t great, considering the huge (3.8”, 800×480 pixel) screen
As you may have read the other day in my previous post on Mobile HD, I made the point that the “HD” is possibly meaning ‘Higher Definition’, rather than some kind of ratified, official ‘HD for Mobile’
Right now, the standard (of sorts) of a lot of Mobile devices out there is ‘Portrait-QVGA’ (240×320) – many, many devices, from the low-tier to the high-tier, use this screen resolution, on (admittedly) a selection of different physically-sized screens.
But there is a growing trend of device that push out the horizontal (when in landscape format) measurement in pixels, extending either QVGA or VGA into some kind of pseudo-WQVGA or WVGA – and it’s in to this category that the Touch HD falls, with 800 x 480, instead of 640 x 480 pixels.
Now, HD is associated with something specifically in the Home AV space, and that is the playback of high-definition VIDEO. So it would be fair to assume that any device mentioning the term HD would be pretty hot at playing back video – and when that’s Mobile video, it means a LOT of formats!
Not so with the Touch HD – from what I read, the format support of the native Windows Media Player isn’t great, and the actual playback itself isn’t smooth. For the record, current leaders in the playback stakes on Mobile devices are both the Nokia N96, and Apple iPhone 3G – both of which wipe the floor with any other device out there in the ‘Media Smartphone’ class.
And it really comes back to a question of what then HTC were trying to achieve with this device – if it doesn’t do (‘HD’) video well, that means you are left to looking at pictures on a slightly bigger screen that normal. And I have to say, that really doesn’t do it for me on a premium device…
You can read the original Phone Arena review here.
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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