Anyone got an HTC Touch 3G - How is it?

I’m looking to get a cheap 3G phone before CNY so that I can stay connected in Hualien (fingers crossed on signal) and it looks like the HTC Touch 3G from Chunghwa is probably the best bet.

Anyone used it for a prolonged period of time? How is it?

I’ve played with other HTC Touch phones which I found not terribly responsive (but that could very well be because they are touched all day in the shops), so I’m interested to know about this one.

Also, does anyone know if I’d be able to hook this phone up via USB to my Mac in order to access the 3G connection?

Cheers,

Alex

[quote=“ALT83”]I’m looking to get a cheap 3G phone before CNY so that I can stay connected in Hualian (fingers crossed on signal) and it looks like the HTC Touch 3G from Zhonghua is probably the best bet.

Anyone used it for a prolonged period of time? How is it?

I’ve played with other HTC Touch phones which I found not terribly responsive (but that could very well be because they are touched all day in the shops), so I’m interested to know about this one.

Also, does anyone know if I’d be able to hook this phone up via USB to my Mac in order to access the 3G connection?

Cheers,

Alex[/quote]I find the Touch 3G very nicely responsive. You know that you’ll only get a Chinese OS one from Zhonghua, though, right? As for USB tethering to a Mac, I don’t know whether you can just plug and play or whether you need to use a third party driver/software solution.

I still hate my Touch. :frowning:
Tried to establish a Bluetooth tether… almost had it. Think you’ll be able to get it to work.

Glad to know it’s responsive, why do you hate it Jaboney? I’ll give tethering a go for sure, but I may just invest in a USB 3G dongle and put the SIM card in to keep it simple…

Chinese OS isn’t too much of a problem for me - does it have Pinyin input or just Taiwanese ones (Bopomofo etc.)?

I originally waited for the Touch Pro but wasn’t thrilled with the keyboard in comparison to my current HTC TyTn (Touch Pro’s is too cramped although full numeric keyboard is good). I just need a 3G connection for CNY to hopefully do my work while visiting my girlfriend’s family in Hualien County (anyone tried 3G out in the sticks there?) and this phone will do me until hopefully a new iPhone (ideally with keyboard) comes out around summer time.

Cheers,

Alex

[quote=“ALT83”]Glad to know it’s responsive, why do you hate it Jaboney?[/quote]I think Jaboney’s talking about the original Touch, which was quite different.

[quote=“ALT83”]I’ll give tethering a go for sure, but I may just invest in a USB 3G dongle and put the SIM card in to keep it simple…[/quote]When you connect the Touch 3G to a PC, you get a popup, on which one of the choices is to use it as a 3G USB modem. I’m not sure but I think that if you choose that option, it looks to the PC like any other USB modem. So it could be simple to use for the Mac too. Worth a try, anyway.

[quote=“ALT83”]Chinese OS isn’t too much of a problem for me - does it have Pinyin input or just Taiwanese ones (Bopomofo etc.)?[/quote]No idea, I’m afraid. I haven’t used it.

Mine may be different. I don’t know, it’s an HTC Touch, and a right pain in the ass. Nothing works consistently. Probably the software.

If they’ve improved on it, great. But too late for me. Like Windows, HTC has lost me as a customer.

It may very well be different. I think the Touch was likely their first rendition - htc.com/asia/product/touch3g/overview.html (Looks like the easy way to tell the difference is that the 1st generation one has a silver button in the middle where the Touch 3G’s button is body-coloured).

If you still use it, perhaps you should look online for firmware updates or something that may improve stability or usability for you…

I love the build quality of HTC phones on the whole and if you ever buy a network carrier’s own brand, typically it will be manufactured by HTC - like my TyTn is actually a UK T-Mobile MDA Vario II.

I certainly agree with avoiding Windows as much as you can though :wink:

I have the HTC Touch Cruise. Shit’s mad awesome.

I’ve just seen the Touch Dual which is the same price from Chunghwa - htc.com/www/product/touchdua … ation.html

It seems pretty cool and has a Blackberry like slide out keyboard (i.e. 2 letters to a key laid out in QWERTY fashion)!

Interested to know how good at realising which letter you want it is…

It also has a front facing camera - I guess for video calls? Does Chunghwa support this?

The only downsides I can tell is that main back camera is down to 2 megapixel from 3.2 (but I reckon it’s probably the same lense anyway, so it’s not like it would make much difference) and also no GPS :frowning: - but am I going to miss that? I believe some services (maybe Google maps?) can do some quite good triangulation based on your wifi signal or something?

Aargh confused what to get…

Alex

Touch Dual is a bit old now. The Touch Viva and 3G are the new generation, the Dual is IIRC about a year old. My wife just bought a Viva and is very happy with it. 3G has the same interface (Manilla 2D) but more features / performance. The best thing with these phones is that there are so many people hacking it or writing 3rd party applications etc.

Probably the best resource for this phone: forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=462

<-- uses a Touch Cruise

I’m a fan of Joikuspot which I use on my Nokia to share my 3G connection when we are away from wifi. Works well most of the time.

I believe they have released a Windows Mobile version, so it might be worth looking into.

Thanks for the tips guys - yeah looks like I went a little gaga over the compact QWERTY keyboard for a minute before really looking at the specs.

Going for the Touch 3G then I guess :slight_smile:

OK I took the plunge - got an HTC Touch 3G - pretty sweet I have to say - even though it is in Chinese… (which even with my mid-level Chinese is a bit of a stretch at times)

Now, can anyone tell me how to tether my Mac to it? I have managed to pair them via Bluetooth and in my Bluetooth drop down menu on the Mac it has “Connect to network” popping out of my phone name (I set up a Bluetooth PAN), but when I click that, my Mac gives the warning:

Bluetooth network failed.
Failed to open a connection to the network service.
Your Device may have reached its maximum number of supported network connections.

The little Bluetooth icon on my phone is on, and assume that means it is discoverable…

The technical language of the Chinese phone as well as the TouchFlo interface is throwing me off figuring out what other steps I need to do to get this pairing sorted.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex