HTC S710

The HTC S710 is a real design innovation, something you don't usually see in the handset market. The device is an unlocked GSM smartphone that works on both AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Like all unlocked phones, you won't find it in carrier outlets. Instead, look to reputable third-party dealers such as Dynamism, which sells the S710 (sans contract) for just $449. That's a steal for a device of this caliber, though in order to meet this price, I noticed some spots where HTC cut corners.

Numerous smartphones over the past few years have sported slide-out QWERTY keyboards. Most of the successful designs, including the T-Mobile Wing and the Sprint Mogul, open on the long side. Traditionally, this allows for a wider keyboard and larger keys, while the screen rotates 90 degrees to line up with the keyboard whenever it's opened. But this design usually calls for a wider and taller handset, one that resembles a standalone PDA with a touch screen for dialing numbers. After all, when that type of keyboard is closed it's hidden, unlike the keyboard on a Treo or a BlackBerry.

The HTC S710 has a similar orientation to the Wing. But unlike all the others, the S710 skips the touch screen and adds a second, front-panel numeric keypad. With this configuration, the entire handset ends up being much smaller—about the size of a small candy-bar phone. In fact, it measures just 4 inches tall and 2 inches wide, although it's slightly thicker and heavier than usual, at 0.7 inches and 4.9 ounces, respectively. The handset's 2.4-inch, 320-by-240 screen is big, bright, and colorful. And you still get the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which is backlit and has a pleasant, if somewhat clicky key response. I can't rave enough about the dual-keyboard design—having the extra numeric keypad makes all the difference for making regular calls.

Moving beyond the form factor, the HTC S710 is your garden-variety Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone. Windows Mobile 6 Standard includes Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile with Direct Push technology and enhanced Exchange Server 2007 support. The OS also features built-in document editing, although not document creating—a bizarre omission that continues to puzzle me. You can, however, view PDFs out of the box. The S710 sports the same sluggish TI OMAP 850 200 MHz CPU I've complained about in other Windows Mobile handset reviews. Even something as simple as switching between landscape and portrait views is enough to freeze the handset for several seconds and also cause the "rotating-display" sound effect to stutter. I suggest you keep your third-party app demands light.

The HTC S710 is a quad-band world phone that supports GPRS and EDGE networks. It lacks 3G support, but compensates with built-in Wi-Fi (just like the Wing and Apple's iPhone). When used as a regular cell phone, the S710 loses some of its luster. Voice calls sounded fine in both directions, though incoming speech through the earpiece had a tendency to become harsh at higher volumes. Reception was rock solid, and on one occasion the other party could hear me quite clearly despite some fairly high winds blowing while I was talking outside. Calls made with a Sound ID SM100 Bluetooth headset, however, were a bit tinnier-sounding than I was used to. Also, music played through a set of Etymotic Ety8s stereo Bluetooth earbuds sounded flat and lacked detail; stick with wired stereo earbuds for better fidelity.

The handset's 2-megapixel camera took reddish, noisy photos in low light but performed fine otherwise. The S710 includes a microSD card slot to the right of the numeric keypad for storing extra memory for your photos, music, and videos. It's a bit tough to slide the card in, and it goes in upside down for some reason, but at least it's not under the battery. Speaking of which, you don't have to pull out the battery to install a SIM card, either. Instead, the card fits in a secret-ninja slot hidden underneath the sliding QWERTY keyboard—very cool. Battery life was great for such a small smartphone: 10 hours 15 minutes of talk time.

The S710 is a small marvel in smartphone design. Getting both QWERTY and numeric keyboards in such a diminutive device is a rare treat and recalls the (non-smartphone) Helio Ocean. That makes the S710's tepid performance as a phone and media device all that much harder to swallow. Even with those flaws, though, it's a pretty sweet handset.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 10 hours 15 minutes

Compare the HTC S710 with several other mobile phones side by side.

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