HTC S740

Battery life from the 1,000mAh cell isn't much better. In our real-world tests, which involve downloading 50MB of data, making 30 minutes worth of voice calls and then leaving the phone to poll a POP3 email account every 30 minutes until the juice runs out, the phone lasted just short of two days. This is below average result and much less impressive than, say the Nokia E71, or the Touch HD's impressive results of four days and more.

It's well enough equipped elsewhere. You get assisted GPS, Bluetooth 2 with A2DP, 802.11bg Wi-Fi, HSDPA allowing download speeds of up to 7.2Mbits/sec, an FM radio, a 3.2-megapixel camera (which takes washed out shots and has no flash), and the phone is built on the now-familiar HTC hardware platform of 528MHz Qualcomm processor, 256MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM.

HTC has left no technological blade of grass uncovered, and the improvements to Windows Mobile included in the 6.1 version of Windows Mobile Standard are welcome. Its sliding, scrolling panels make it much easier than with previous non-touchscreen Windows Mobile devices to get at the functions you need quickly. We still prefer HTC's TouchFLO 3D enhancement of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional on its Touch family of phones, however.

But though it has a good, solid core, with the S740 we can't help feeling that HTC is trying to walk the smartphone ball into the net. And, while it has succeeded in producing a phone that looks pretty, it just isn't effective enough in front of goal.

Author: Jonathan Bray