Review HTC myTouch 4G Slide

The myTouch 4G Slide is a slick handset with a built-in slider keyboard running Android 2.3, an 8MP camera capable of 1080p video, a 3.7” display, and 4G available through T-Mobile. It’s a sleek yet thick handheld – thanks to the full slide-out QWERTY keyboard – and both T-Mobile and HTC pride themselves on the camera’s capabilities, it’s excellent 4G download speeds, and the 1.2GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. And that’s plenty to be proud of, if only it sounds as good as it really is.

The keyboard is unusual, so I’ve devoted a whole section of this review to it. I think if you are going to buy a phone with a physical keyboard, typing performance is the most important aspect of the handheld. Otherwise, there’s no point of having it. Therefore, if the keyboard doesn’t meet expectations the whole phone suffers

That’s why the myTouch 4G Slide is a tragic mess.

HTC is known to make phones that are very square-shaped, though more recent handsets – especially those which have earned the title “Google Phone” – are contoured and rounded. The Slide, thicker because of the keyboard, is surprisingly sleek. In the hand and pocket the Slide feels lighter and smaller than it really is. In fact, the physical design – besides the keyboard – is excellent.

As mentioned above, the menu navigation keys are physical buttons, and uncomfortable compared to touch-sensitive buttons on most Android handsets. The search button has also been replaced with the “Genius” button, which does essentially the same thing (search and voice commands). The Slide is made to be easily accessible with tutorials for all major phone functions.

The 3.7” display is sharp and clear, but not bright enough to view in indirect sunlight. General phone usage and media playback are fine on the display, but not bright enough outdoors. This is particularly bad for the Slide because it uses an LCD display. Still, images are crisp, and its a pleasure to view pictures and watch videos on the Slide.

he pride and joy of the Slide is its 8MP camera. The specs on the camera are pretty neat: a 3.69mm f/2.2 lens, up to 1080p video recording with stereo sound, instant upload to Facebook, Picasa and Flickr, and a number of automatic shooting modes including HDR, burstshot with up to 6 shots, etc. And it really is quite good, as you can see in the sample shots below.