Review of HTC's Imagio - mobile TV on a big touchscreen for Verizon

HTC Imagio

HTC Imagio

HTC Imagio

HTC Imagio

The HTC Imagio for Verizon was one of the very first Windows Mobile 6.5 powered smartphones to be launched when the OS first became available earlier this month. The Imagio features support for Verizon's V CAST Mobile TV service, and also offers the finger friendly user interface of HTC's well known TouchFLO 3D system. The question is, what does Windows Mobile 6.5 add to the HTC/TouchFLO 3D recipe, and how does the Imagio perform in the real world.

Physical Aspects

The HTC Imagio follows the same basic touchscreen slab form factor as the company's popular Touch HD, though the design of the Imagio is far more stylish thanks to the use of some interesting mesh-like trim that surrounds the front face of the phone and the mixed gloss and matte finishes on the back cover. The phone's massive 3.6-inch resistive touchscreen^(INFO) display features an impressive 800 x 480 pixel resolution, which makes it ideal for web browsing and multimedia viewing. That large display means the phone itself is large, coming in at 118.5mm x 62mm x 14mm (4.7in x 2.4in x .6in) and weighing a significant 155.8g (5.5oz).

There are few controls on the Imagio other than those that sit beneath the display. There is a touch sensitive zoom bar area that works in many applications, and there is a set of hardware buttons below that. Call send and end buttons are obvious, thanks to their colors, and they straddle three other buttons: back, Windows Start menu, and a user-configurable multimedia button that loads the TV app by default.

The right edge of the Imagio is where the volume control can be found, and there is no dedicated power/standby key, as is found on most all other Windows Mobile Professional devices. This means that the call end button has to serve double duty for power and standby, something it doesn't do so well. On the back of the device can be found the 5 megapixel autofocus camera and the flip-out TV antenna that can also be used as a kickstand. A rarely needed stylus sits in a silo near the bottom of the device, where the 3.5mm headphone jack and miniUSB port reside.

The rear cover, which is almost dangerously difficult to remove, provides access to the user changeable battery as well as the SIM card slot (for world roaming) and the microSD memory card slot.

Overall the design of the Imagio is very good, with the exception of the rear cover. The display is bright and easy to use, and the look of the phone is stylish and yet still reserved at the same time.