HTC Touch2 review: Beyond the basics

TouchFLO (continued)

Now that the Calendar is readily available on the Home tab, we move on to Photos and Video. This is the entrance to the gallery of images and videos and you also get shortcuts to the still camera and camcorder.

The Photos and Video tab

The Music tab has barely changed. It displays albums with their covers and they are smoothly thumbable. By the way, the Images and Music is where the lack of 3D in TouchFLO is most obvious. Album art and thumbs are flat on the screen and don't get anywhere near the spatial view of other TouchFLO handsets.

The Music tab with album art

The Weather tab continues to amaze with its beautiful graphics. You can check the weather in up to 7 locations and you can flip through them with a finger sweep. You can also get a 5-day forecast for these locations via the first context key.

The Weather tab is quite elaborate

There is also a Map Search tab which does what it says and is quite convenient. It can be used as a shortcut to the Google Maps (which it uses).

TheMap Search tab

The next tab is Settings and it lets you control various system options and replaces the old and confusing Windows Mobile Settings page. You can control the syncing and location settings, personalize phone profiles, change wallpaper, enter the communication settings menu, and setup an email account. As for the new Windows Mobile Settings page, it is perhaps better than before but you still get the familiar white screens with text.

The Settings tab • the standard WinMo options

The Settings tab allows you to set the ringing profile, volume level and ringtone all from one central place, which is really handy. Even pressing the volume rocker brings up a fancy custom-made fullscreen slider instead of the usual WinMo mini-sliders.

You also have access to the HTC custom Communications manager, which handles all on-board transceivers.

The Comm manager • the user-friendly sound settings

The last tab on the homescreen is Programs. There are shortcuts to favorite apps, but you can also access all the programs that are available using the left "soft key".

The Programs tab

HTC have replaced the System status screen, too. When you touch the icons on the top of the Home screen, the notifications area will appear where you can check missed events, operator messages, etc. This idea is most probably borrowed from the Android notifications, which do the same.

The Communications manager for quick toggling of connectivity options is also accessible by touching those icons.

Notification screen