At A Glance:

In the box
- HTC Snap
- MicroUSB connector
- MicroUSB headphone
- Charger

The HTC Snap is the latest e-mail centric phone from HTC, we love the design and the simplicity of the phone.

Design
The Snap has a simple candybar form factor that is reminiscent of the Blackberry candybar form factor with the full QWERTY keyboard. Expect a much larger keyboard with a smaller 2.4 inch screen with 65K colour.

The full QWERTY keyboard performance is above average, it’s nice to type and easy to get a hang of.The keys have no spacing between them, making it a bit difficult to sense and feel between the keys especially for those of us with bigger thumbs. The phone is covered in soft plastics, and is very minimalistic, relying on the keyboard for much of the shortcuts throughout the phone.

There are several more shortcut keys on top of the keyboard, with the call/end call button. The left and right select button is side by side the home screen and cancel key. In the tab lies the trackball, which serves as the main navigation option for the HTC Snap. The trackball’s sensitivity can be tweaked, so there should be a setting for everyone.

The left spine of the phone has the volume rocker, it has good tactile feedback, and is easy to operate. The right spine has the microUSB charger port/ headphones. Crack open the back, and you’ll see the (huge) battery, the battery pack secures the SIM card located at the bottom. The microSD card is also located here.

There are two speakers located in the front and back of the phone. The phone is powered by a 528 MHz processor, so there are fairly good speeds when using the phone.

Features
The Windows Mobile 6.1 provides the standard features we are used to from the HTC product. Not much changes there, expect office mobile and PIM functionality. Expect to use Activesync to link up with your PC.

The home screen is reminiscent of the HTC’s TouchFLO, sans the Touch functionality. The home screen has a bunch of shortcuts linking to the other functions in the phone. Expect HTC’s weather support shortcut here as well. We felt that the Home Screen is the main strength of the Snap, due to the fact we didn’t need to delve too deep inside the device, making simpler and intuitive to use.

Email functionality is the Snap’s bread and butter, it has push functionality as well. The new addition to email is the Inner Circle button, which prioritise e-mails based on your personal preferences. This allows a preselected group to reach the top of your mailbox first, before you read emails for the rest of your contact. Press the Inner Circle button and you’ll be presented with a list of all your e-mail contracts where you can go through and check those you want to include in your Inner Circle.

Office mobile here as well, it is peculiar as to why HTC refuses to throw in editing software though. The Snap only has read functionality for the office programs. It is capable of reading Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word documents.

The Snap has the Internet Explorer Mobile 6, the experience is below average, it’s not intuitive and we can barely see the text on webpages when fully zoomed in. Other Internet apps like MSN messenger which will automatically sync with your online profile.

There is a GPS receiver with A-GPS support and it uses Google Maps, which was quick and reliable.

The music player here is strangely built, there isn’t a fast forward and rewind button, so if you have long track you are stuck with listening it all the way through. The sound quality is good however, it’s loud and clear on the speakers, and the headphones perform as expected.

Connectivity
The HTC Snap has a wide array of options, from the quad band connectivity (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz), to HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Camera
The HTC Snap has a 2.0 megapixel which is still accessible by the QWERTY keyboard, by pressing the function key in tandem with the dedicated camera key. There isn’t a camera cover or auto focus. Picture quality is average, it isn’t extremely clear and the lighting isn’t well captured or natural for that matter.

As usual, the device has options to adjust the white balance, resolution, brightness and quality.

Verdict
We are pleased with the Snap, the device has an abundance of features, it is affordable too at RM 1,599. Email functionality is the focal point of the HTC Snap, and in that it does well. However, the lack of office editing software is truly puzzling, as it would make more sense to have Word Mobile work with the extensive email system. The Internet browser is wonky to say the least, which is a downer. The camera is a little underwhelming, but we won’t hold it against HTC.

All in all, if e-mails, SMS and calls are things you can’t live without, the HTC Snap is your phone.

• Tags : HTC Snap