The HTC Fuze, offered by AT&T, is a serious, very capable touch screen smartphone that ranks among the best. It has all of the features that make a smartphone indispensible to busy multi-taskers like executive, mobile professionals and working parents. It also includes all the popular consumer oriented functions that have become virtually standard equipment for cutting edge mobile devices.

Standout features

• Push-to-Talk
• 640 x 480 Resolution Touch Screen
• Slide Out Full QWERTY Keyboard
• 3G Broadband Data Speed

Features

Bright Touch Screen
The most noticeable feature of the HTC Fuze is the bright, clear touch screen. The 2.8-inch diagonal measure makes is notably smaller than those of the Apple iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Storm, or Samsung Omnia, the devices with which it competes. Still, its 640 x 480 pixel display is clear and easy to use. It has a smooth interface called HTC TouchFlo which gives the illusion of being 3D. It allows for scrolling through and launching programs with one finger as well as some handy navigation features within several applications. The display orientation changes automatically from portrait to landscape when rotated by virtue of the integrated accelerometer.

Push-to-Talk

A relatively small but important segment of the smartphone market relies on iDEN, or Push-to-Talk, technology and the Fuze is one of only a few smartphones that has this feature. It’s a make or break attribute for many in public safety and heavy industry and construction roles who often need its immediate voice contact with an individual or group.

Full QWERTY Keyboard

As great as touch screens are for many uses, most agree that a physical keyboard is an advantage for people who compose lots of email or do other writing. The keyboard of the Fuze is particularly handy due to the top row of keys holding most of the frequently used symbol keys. The trade off is that there are no dedicated number keys so numbers must be typed by holding Alt and pressing the corresponding key. Among the rather standard physical talk, end, back and home buttons, there is a touch sensitive control that allows for zooming in and out in some applications.

High Speed Data Transfer

The Fuze operates on AT&T’s high speed 3G network. That is supplemented by Wi-Fi which can be even faster, especially in areas with poor cellular service. Use of 3G and Wi-Fi together allows for simultaneous voice and data communication. The device also has an integrated GPS receiver which, when combined with AT&T Navigator, provides turn-by-turn directions.

Multimedia Suite

Though this device has a serious business slant, it still offers an excellent array of multimedia features. There is a 3.2 megapixel camera which will also record video. Windows Media Player 10 is installed and supports most popular audio and video formats. It doesn’t have a standard headphone jack but does support Bluetooth stereo wireless headsets.

Battery Life

The Fuze’s talk time is rated at 396 minutes when 3G is available or 444 minutes on EDGE. Expected standby time is about 360 hours.

Design

Typical of touch screen phones, the screen is the dominant design component of the Fuze. Though generally sleek for a device with such a large array of features, it’s a bit bulky in large measure due to the addition of the physical keyboard. Its shiny, piano black finish is attractive but is a smudge magnet.

Summary

The HTC Fuze is among the elite touch screen smartphones. It possesses a feature set that will distinguish it from the pack for many users.

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