HTC S740 demonstration video

HTC announced their new candy-bar style Smartphone, the HTC S740, a few weeks ago and since then I’ve been pestering just about everyone to get my hands on one to review.

Thanks to our friends over at Devicewire I got an early PR unit to play with for a couple of days. I Haven’t had time to put together a full review but I’ve got  some early comments and a nice video demonstration for you.

The HTC S740

I have to be honest and say that I didn’t think I was going to like the S740 – it looked to me more like a cordless home phone than a Windows Mobile device and although I am a fan of Smartphones (Windows Mobile Standard) it’s been such a long time since I used one, having had the TyTN II and the Diamond recently, I wondered how I would cope without a touchscreen!

It took less than two minutes for the S740 to grow on me, going from "Hmm it’s OK" to really quite liking it in a very short time.

The QVGA screen is crisp and clear and the keypad buttons are really well placed on the front and I like the way that the numeric keys go all the way to the edge. I also found that the raised send and end phone keys were a good idea and made finding those buttons nice and easy!

HTC S740 keypad

The QWERTY keyboard slides open from the back and is similar to that found on the HTC Touch Pro but the S740 has only 4 rows of keys, mainly because the S740 is that much narrower than the Pro. Keys are nice and easy to type with though and there’s the standard Caps Lock and Function LED indicators.

HTC S740 keyboard

The worst thing about the S740 in my opinion is the SIM and MicroSD card arrangement. Not only can you not hot-swap the MicroSD card, which I can just about accept, but you have to remove the SIM card to gain access to the MicroSD. Opening the cover over the SIM and MicroSD card slot kills the power to the device, this is annoying enough but removing the SIM card all the time is a pain. If you are a frequent memory card swapper this this probably going to get on your nerves and runs the risk of damaging the SIM card.

HTC S740 SIM and MicroSD card slots

I think I cover most of this stuff in the video which you’ll find below. It’ll be a few more weeks before I get my hands on another HTC S740 for a full review but I’ll definitely make sure that we do!

Overall the HTC S740 is a nice device and it’s great to see a new Candy-Bar Smartphone hit the scene, I know that many people have been waiting for one!

HTC S740 Specification:

• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
• 116.3 mm (L) X 43.4 mm (W) X 16.3 mm (T)
• 140g with battery
• Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528MHz
• RAM: 256MB SDRAM
• ROM: 256MB
• 2.4 inch TFT-LCD and QVGA resolution screen
• HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz for Europe.
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Quad-band 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• 802.11 b/g WiFi
• Bluetooth® 2.0
• 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
• 1000 mAh Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery
• Battery Standby: Up to 280 hours
• Battery Talk Time: Up to 380 minutes 
• HTC ExtUSB™
• GPS / AGPS
• microSD

EDIT: Our HTC S740 review is now online.

Posted by: Matt