HTC is a brand known for innovations. First it was the Touch, which had a unique finger touch interface followed by the TyTN II with a keypad that could be tilted at 45-degree angle. After launching such devices, the next in line that has been recently launched in India is the P4350. Also known as the Herald, this phone has been in the international market for almost eight months now. So we are not expecting much from it in terms of innovation. Just like other HTC handsets, even this one is a touchscreen and has a slide out QWERTY keypad. However it cannot be tilted at 45degree angle. The only thing that impressed us in terms of its looks was its colour.

The device is made up of black plastic vvith silver selection keys at the bottom of the 2.8inch display Apart from this, a shortcut key for camera has been added on the top of the left panel, which is followed by a sliding volume key and miscroSD card slot. Two keys are added on the right panel as well. First being 'Comm Manager' for connectivity and the second key directs one to speed dial on light press, and notes on a long press. This PDA can be operated using a stylus but for user's convenience a QWERTY keypad has also been added. The keys are large and well spaced making it comfortable to use.

We were glad to know that the P4350 runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional. Thanks to HTC, even if they are launching this handset months after the international launch, they have managed to update the operating system from Windows Mobile 5.0 to 6.0. And just like other enterprise phones running on this OS, this one comes loaded with complete Office suite too. Apart from creating, editing and downloading documents we were able to view files in PDF format as well. Even the Zip feature allowed us to unzip all files we received. GPRS settings were picked automatically and configuring e-mail accounts was simple.

Even browsing the Web using Internet Explorer was a great experience and as this device is Wi-Fi enabled connectivity becomes a child's play. We didn't face much difficulty while using any of the functions but the speed of this device is utterly disappointing. As compared to the earlier phones like the TyTN II, it has 20lMHz processor and is slow to operate. As soon as the keypad slides out, the display changes from horizontal to vertical position but this process consumes a lot of time and the phone becomes slow. Thankfully we were saved from the hassle of restarting the device.

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Multimedia features like camera and music player are increasingly becoming popu
lar in enterprise segment. For basic imaging needs, this device comes loaded with
a 2.0megapixel camera. It offers decent image quality but does not have the business card scanner feature. The sound quality is just about average and cannot compete with any of the music phones available in the market. After LG's initiative of adding FM radio in its KS20, we wonder why other companies can't add this feature to their phones. 'Ne were further disappointed to see the absence of GPS. Being a touchscreen phone, the battery drains at higher speed. We were impressed to see that a single charge lasted more than a day with an hour of calling and continuous e-mailing and the Web browsing.