LABS GALLERY: MyTouch 3G with Google and Touch Pro2 Bolster T-Mobile’s Stable of Smartphones

The MyTouch measures a compact 2.2 by 4.5 by 0.6 inches, and weighs 4.1 ounces. The device is available now from T-Mobile in Merlot (shown), black and white.

By most metrics, the HTC Touch Pro2 is not actually much bigger than the MyTouch, although it seems like it. Measuring 2.4 by 4.6 by 0.7 inches, and weighing a very hefty 6.6 ounces, T-Mobile’s Touch Pro2 is available only in mocha.

The Touch Pro2 has an absolutely outstanding slide-out keyboard (and a tilt screen).

With its resistive touch-screen and haptic feedback, the Touch Pro2 provides a clunky and unforgiving typing experience. Stick with the slide-out keyboard on this device.

Like the iPhone, the MyTouch 3G offers no physical keyboard, relying instead on an on-screen keyboard on the device’s capacitive display. On the other hand, the MyTouch offers a handful of physical keys and a track ball for easier navigation.

Leveraging the device’s capacitive touch-screen, the MyTouch on-screen keyboard is responsive and fairly forgiving in either portrait or landscape mode.

On the back of the MyTouch is a 3.2-megapixel still and video camera, and a rather tinny-sounding speakerphone.

The Touch Pro2 also has a 3.2-megapixel still and video camera, along with a mute button. Under certain circumstances, the speakerphone sound quality is outstanding, but if your hand covers the speakers even slightly, sound quality rapidly muffles or begins to rattle.

The edges of the MyTouch are barely marred by buttons or ports. On the side is a volume control. On the bottom is a single ExtUSB connector for power, data link or headset. To support 3.5-mm headsets, the MyTouch comes with an adapter (lower right).

The MyTouch 3G comes with a 1,340 mAh lithium-ion battery, rated for 7 hours of talk time or 16 days on standby with a GSM connection. Estimates are not provided in the literature for a 3G connection.

The Touch Pro2 has a 1,500 mAh battery, rated for 6.5 hours of talk time or 31 days standby with a 3G connection. With a GSM connection, estimates bump up to about 8.5 hours of talk time or almost 21 days standby.

The home screens of the two devices show the different philosophies behind the different operating systems. At left, HTC’s TouchFlo interface on the Touch Pro2 steers users to recent and forthcoming calls or appointments. On the right, Android on the MyTouch 3G makes it easy to search the Internet, right away.

At left, the Touch Pro2 dialer relies on menus to access some, but not all, features. At right, the Android dialer is finger-friendly and well laid out.

At left, the Touch Pro2 has one e-mail application for all e-mail accounts—whether IMAP, POP3 or ActiveSync/Outlook. At right, the MyTouch 3G has two—one for Gmail and one for POP3/IMAP (but again, no integrated ActiveSync support).

From the settings menu, MyTouch 3G users can easily attach to 802.11b/g Wi-Fi networks using standards-based encryption.

Wi-Fi controls are a mess on the Touch Pro2. There are TouchFlo controls, and there are WinMo controls (lower left) that do the same thing. Somehow, I found one tool would disable the Wi-Fi radio as I tried to enable it in the other.

The built-in Web browser displays full Websites that can be hard to read at the default display size. On-screen zoom controls, finger manipulation of the view, on-screen search functions and a magnifier make it easier to find the content you want.

The default browser (Internet Explorer) uses sites’ mobile editions by default, obviating an immediate need for zoom controls. For zoom controls, go to menu. The Touch Pro2 also comes preconfigured with Opera Mini.