HTC TyTN II review

HTC's TyTN II is the follow-up to the TyTN (pronounced 'Titan'), which was also branded as the T-Mobile Vario II, Orange SPV M3100 and O2 Xda Trion.

Like the TyTN, it's a Windows Mobile smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but HTC has made some significant changes to the original design.

The first difference is the keyboard. We liked the TyTN's slide-out keyboard, which let you type messages and emails at a considerable rate, and the TyTN II's is even better. Once you've slid the screen up you can tilt it to a 45 angle over the keyboard, making the TyTN II look like a miniature notebook. In this position, it's much more comfortable to hold when typing, and you can also put it on a desk and type with your fingers.

The phone also has a built-in GPS receiver. There's no navigation software supplied, but you can install a third-party navigation package such as CoPilot Live and navigate without a separate Bluetooth GPS receiver. You also get a 3-megapixel camera, but it isn't as good as the Sony Ericsson K800i's. That's partly because there's no light, but also because it's slow to focus and photos lack contrast.

The TyTN II runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional, which is Microsoft's latest operating system for touchscreen phones. HTC has customised the home screen, and it's a significant improvement over the standard version. The icons are large enough to operate with your finger, so you don't have to reach for the stylus to check your messages or missed calls. The home screen also has buttons for your favourite contacts, the weather, common applications and phone profiles, so everything's in one place. A problem with Windows Mobile 6 is that when you close a program, it keeps running in the background; you have to use the memory application in the Settings menu to close it. The TyTN II gets around this with a menu on the home screen to shut programs down.

Getting online is easy thanks to wireless networking that supports WEP and WPA encryption. When you're not near a hot spot you can use the fast HSDPA mobile data connection, if your mobile contract supports it. Refreshingly, the TyTN II grabs the necessary data connection settings from your SIM card, so you don't have to key in obscure access point names to get online.

The standard Windows Mobile web browser runs fairly smoothly, but we'd recommend installing the superior Opera browser. Like all Windows Mobile 6 Professional phones, it can connect to POP3, IMAP and Microsoft Exchange servers, and supports Push Email with a Direct-Push enabled Exchange server. You can also edit Word and Excel documents with the built-in Office Mobile applications.

HTC's TyTN II is a powerful smartphone with a superb keyboard. If you want to stay in touch on the move but don't want to carry a notebook around, it's a good choice. We'd wait until the price drops before taking out a contract, though.