In London today HTC announced two new Windows Phone handsets, the HTC Radar and the HTC TITAN. The Radar has a 1 GHz processor, 8 GB storage, and a 3.8″ LCD, and a 5 megapixel camera. The TITAN sports a monstrous 4.7″ screen (still using Windows Phone’s standard 480×800 resolution), 16 GB storage, an 8 megapixel camera, and a 1.5 GHz processor.
The design and the market positioning of the two handsets is quite different. The Radar is white and silver, with a body “crafted” from a single piece of metal. It’s a mid-range phone, with a mid-range price, and will retail for €399. The TITAN is a premium handset. 9.9 mm thick, unibody construction, and a €599 pricetag. The Radar also lacks the full range of sensors that Windows Phone supports; though it includes GPS, proximity and ambient light sensors, and an accelerometer, it doesn’t include a compass or a gyroscope. The TITAN has the complete set of sensors.
Both phones are equipped with front-facing cameras—1.3 megapixel on the TITAN, VGA on the Radar—confirming rumors that Windows Phone Mango would indeed support such hardware. Surprisingly, the only built-in application that can make use of the cameras is the standard camera app; it has a button for switching between the main camera and the front-facing one. Beyond that, use of the camera is up to application developers—Mango itself won’t include any built-in video-calling capabilities.
The rear cameras, though they differ in resolution, both include a lens with a fast aperture of f/2.2, and the sensors are backside-illuminated, which should in principle give them better low-light performance than conventional sensors.
The Radar is only a minor update over the first round of Windows Phone devices, leaving the TITAN as the star of HTC’s show. The screen is remarkable; it feels huge, but the device itself is slim and lightweight. While the phone is big—unavoidable, given the screen size—it is not unwieldy, thanks to narrow borders and the slimline design.
