The small details matter

Take screens for instance. On a touch screen device, it’s easier to use the on-screen keyboard if the screen is bigger because the virtual keys are larger and therefore easier to press with your fingers (bigger screen equals bigger on-screen keyboard). The HTC Touch HD has a 3.8-inch screen, making the on-screen keyboard quite easy to use. On the other hand, it means the overall device is a bit bigger than a phone with a smaller screen—say, the elegant HTC Touch Diamond with its 2.8-inch screen. So, which would you prefer? The larger device with the bigger screen or the smaller device with the smaller screen? In the Windows Mobile world, you have the choice of picking the device that best fits your needs.

Are you a fan of physical keyboards like I am? You might not believe how much thought goes into those keyboards. HTC spends a lot of time making sure that the keyboard feels right—and it's about much more than just the shape of the key, although that's an important factor too. Some keyboards are nearly flat—but they still have a slight rise in the center of the key. That rise, although subtle, helps guide your fingers when you're typing on the keyboard. The position of the keys is also critical. If you're used to typing on a QWERTY keyboard, you'll expect the same basic experience on a phone. If a phone maker moves the spacebar off to one side rather than keeping it in the middle, you'll have to re-train yourself to find it without looking. Moving the shift key to the middle row, rather than keeping it on the bottom row or on the second-from-the-bottom row, has the same effect. And let's not forget about the materials the keys are made from—the surface of each key should feel good under your fingers. If your fingers slip off the keys easily, you'll have a hard time typing. And the letters shouldn't wear off, even after you've sent your thousandth text message.

What your fingers feel affects how you use a device; haptic feedback is a relatively new way to bridge the gap between on-screen keyboards and physical keyboards. If you ever use an on-screen keyboard and you feel a little vibration when you press the keys, that's haptic feedback in action. The small vibration helps your fingers feel a connection with the virtual key, which in theory should help you type faster and more accurately. The cost of this added feedback is less battery life: Text input uses the battery every time you press a key. The HTC Touch HD has haptic feedback, but only on the bottom row of buttons—the designers did everything they could to make the vibration as subtle as possible—and as quick as possible—to reduce the impact on battery life.

Besides the feel of the keys when you're using a Windows Mobile smartphone, there's also the sound. The HTC employee in charge of system sounds used to work on the Zune team at Microsoft, and he apparently went through 16,000 or so tiny little sounds for the scrolling click for the Zune until he found the right one. The sounds you hear when you use an HTC Windows Mobile phone are put together with equal care. Whether you tap the screen with the stylus or use your finger, you need to hear some sort of sound that indicates that your tap has been acknowledged by the device. Sounds, along with visual feedback (such as program animation), are the primary ways that this is done.

So, the next time you pick up your Windows Mobile smartphone, look and listen closely—you may have a new appreciation for the attention to detail that manufacturers, such as HTC, give to each device.