HTC S730 Windows Mobile smartphone

VerdictIf we had to sum up the S730 in one word it would be 'competent'.Sure, there is nothing here to set your hair on fire with excitement,but what there is a reasonable depth of basic functionality which willprobably appeal to the business rather than domestic user. The screencould be better - HTC is slipping a bit on this front across its range- and the same could be said for battery life. It could do with more inthe way of program memory too.

The successor to the S710, the S730 is a dull but hard-workingmember of the HTC clan. It's neither quite so ubiquitous as its bigbrother the TyTn II nor quite as fashionable as its sisters Touch, Dual and Cruise.
In appearance, the S730 is a pretty run-of-the-mill smartphone, withits traditional keyboard layout; 2.4in, 320 x 240, 65,536-colourscreen; and stout HTC-grey plastic shell. With its slide-out Qwertykeyboard, the S730 could be seen as a sort of TyTn mini-me. It doesmost of the same things, but at 106 x 51 x 19.4mm in size and 150g inweight it's a fair bit narrower and shorter, and a whole 40g lighter.OK, it's 5mm thicker, but you can't have everything.

HTC's S730: good size and good weight

In the hand, the S730 is a chunky yet comfortable device to hold.The keypad layout is a model of common sense while the centralnavigation pad is suitably sized, positioned and weighted for thumbuse. The only slight ergonomic 'erk' is that is if you tend to hold thephone in your right hand, it's a too easy to push the keyboard open. Wehad the same problem with the first generation TyTn, though in thatcase it was an issue for lefties as the handset slid the other way.
We give the S730's slide-out keyboard top marks. The keys have aslightly rubbery feel and raised centre which combine to make it one ofthe best HTC keyboards we've used, and a quantum leap forward from theS710. The inclusion of two small LEDs to let you know the Cap and Fnkeys have been pressed is another nice touch.
When it comes to connectivity, the S730 has the bases well covered,coming with 3.6Mb/s HSDPA 3G, quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge, Bluetooth 2.0and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.
Incidentally, the S730 is also available as the O2 XDA Atmos.

Fring worked a treat, and in what seemed like seconds - but was infact about five minutes - we were chatting to our Leader, who wasallegedly working in Shanghai, via Skype Out. Fring also allows you toaccess pretty much all your VoIP and IM accounts from the oneapplication. Which is nice.
The two-megapixel camera is the same old, same old. And, as we'vecome to expect from HTC, the headphones connect through the mini-USBport. This makes HTC's own USB-3.5mm hands-free/headphones adaptorsomething of a must-have, and this is irritating partly because thesupplied phones are pretty nasty, but mostly because the thing isn'tbundled. No, it's a £14.95 accessory.

The 2Mp camera is the 'same old, same old' we've come to expect from HTC

Call quality proved to be well up to snuff, as did the handset'sability to find and keep hold of a Wi-Fi signal, while the built-inspeakerphone was both clear and loud, vital for those impromptuconference calls. 3G reception also proved to be more robust than onour recently tested Touch Dual.Battery life is entirely dependent on what you leave switched on. WithBluetooth and Wi-Fi going you can expect a dead battery in about sevenhours. Switch the Wi-Fi off and you are looking at about a full day ofaverage usage between charges.