Nokia E63 vs HTC Touch 3G

One of these things is not like the other...
One of the most glaringly obvious differences between the HTC Touch 3G and Nokia E63 is the fact that the former makes canny use of software to enable touch sensitive commands and lacks a physical keyboard, while the latter is old school with a traditional full QWERTY keypad.

Vital statistics
The E63 is a bit beefier than HTC’s 3G offering. There’s not much in it really as far as the dimensions go - 53.6x14.5x102mm versus  59x13x113mm for the Touch 3G and E63 respectively – but it’s the old ‘granny test’ where Nokia’s handset loses out.

Picture an old lady trying to carry her shopping, ward off teenage ASBO holders with her walking stick and still have enough energy to lift a phone in and out of her. While the E63 is not the heaviest of devices, Granny Smith is likely to go for the more lightweight – all 96g of the HTC Touch 3G.

Soft or hard touch?
The argument of touch versus hard keys is one that may well go on forever. Both clearly have their merits but also irritations too.

The E63 echoes the OS used by the E71 (S60 3rd Edition). It’s an all rounder of a good phone OS that’s pretty speedy and responsive to user commands. Our only criticism here would be the blocky nature of some of the menu items which may put some looks-obsessed users off.

The Touch 3G makes use of the TouchFLO menu system residing on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional – the marmite of operating systems – and is intuitive with nice animation.

Compared with the HTC Viva, the Touch 3G’s screen is neater and much easier to use with scrolling and menu activation easily accessible with a thumb. Although data entry is still likely to be stylus-driven for those with bigger digits.

The E63 has clearly been designed for comfort and ease of use. The raised oblong keys make a bit of a strange noise when used but they’re also highly responsive and perfect for long texts or emails.

At 2.36-inches, the screen is also ample for most needs – the Touch 3G’s is slightly bigger at 2.8-inches - and the dual home screen option to separate work and play is a nice touch.

Finding your way in the world today...
Navigation fares pretty majorly in a lot of mobile buying decisions these days. You could have two identical handsets but if one lacks GPS and the other has it, that omission alone could prove the deal breaker. In that respect, the E63 loses out to the Touch 3G for the Finnish mobile giant has ousted GPS in favour of other features – although it’s given us Nokia Maps 2.0 instead. Lucky us.

Thankfully HTC didn’t fall out of love with that feature and has ensured the phone is both GPS and A-GPS ready.

Speed wars
Both the E63 and Touch 3G offer Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. However, while HTC’s handset also offers HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, Nokia’s offering can only look-on in amazement at the Touch 3G surfers enjoying the faster information super highway while they sit in the (comparatively) slow lane.

That said, the E63 does offer a pretty good experience when it comes to surfing the web, thanks largely to the preview pane that comes into play for long web pages so you can see at a glance exactly how long long really is.

And, if you’re particularly data hungry when it comes to uploading/downloading, the Files on Ovi feature might just make you smile. Providing 1GB of online file storage, this handy feature lets you share files from your PC to your handset.

Automatic zoom has left the building for both the E63 and HTC Touch 3G. It’s been replaced by manual labour instead and neither have anything on the iPhone’s pinch and expand technique.

The Touch 3G also lacks the ability to view web pages – or keyboard - in landscape mode. The Viva suffered from the same lack-of-accelerometer ailment and it’s just not good enough.

Camera-wise the Touch 3G’s 3.2-megapixel snapper outperforms the E63’s 2-megapixel one on a number of levels but neither are likely to have David Bailey quaking in his boots.  

Verdict
We’re declaring it a tie. If you’re going to be emailing a lot and don’t want a BlackBerry, we’d say go for the E63. If you’re not going to lament the lack of keys and are more into funky new things and web-hungry multimedia, the Touch 3G is the one that you want.

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