HTC Titan in the flesh, first impressions

Announced back in September 2011 along with the HTC Radar, the HTC Titan is yet to be officially released in the Philippines (the HTC Radar was already launched locally since last year). In any case, we got a unit here for review. Check out or unboxing and first impressions after the jump.

The HTC Titan reminds me of the HTC HD7 (one of the first Windows Phone 7 handsets then) that was released more than a year ago. The Titan is slightly larger than the HD7 (4.7″ vs. 4.3″) plus a couple more hardware improvements. The body design closely resembles the Desire HD though.

And while the display size has already grown, the screen resolution remained the same at 480×800 pixels. Nevertheless, HTC was able to pack the Titan with a decent Super LCD display making the screen look way better than the HD7 (better contrast and richer colors).

The design signature is pretty much the same as the previous large-sized HTC handsets — deep, dark earth tones, heavy on the hands,, simple lines and minimal curves yet elegant to look at. The thick glass display is almost edge-to-edge.

With the latest WP 7.5 Mango update, the HTC Titan got some really nice new features and functionalities:

• Aside from the previous Facebook, Google & Windows Live integration, it now supports Twitter and LinkedIn accounts as well.
• Internet Sharing is now supported (tethering).
• Battery Saver to help manage your handset’s battery life.
• Attentive Phone makes the handset more responsive in a natural way (like the Pocket Mode which automatically increases ringer volume when the handset detects it’s inside your pocket or bag).

A few more additional features are included that I’ll cover once I publish the full review.

The last time I used a really good camera on an HTC handset is with the Sensation XL. My initial impression with the 8MP sensor of the HTC Titan is that it could be better (based on the initial photos I took but I’ll need more sample under different conditions).

The hardware configuration is almost the same as the one on the Sensation XL, except for a smaller amount of RAM.

HTC Titan X310e specs:
4.7″ Super LCD display @ 480×800 pixels
1.5GHz Scorpion processor (Snapdragon S2)
Adreno 205 GPU
Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset
16GB internal storage
512MB RAM
HSDPA 14.4Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/, DLNA
Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP
microUSB 2.0 port
8MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
720p video recording
1.3MP front-facing camera
FM radio tuner
Dolby Mobile and SRS
GPS w/ aGPS support
Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
Li-Ion 1600mAh battery

And then, there’s the absence of Beats Audio in favor of Dolby Mobile & SRS.

The size is another thing — and though 4.7″ is already larger than the usual 4.3-inchers of most flagship handsets, when you place the HTC Titan beside the Galaxy Note with its 5.3-inch display, you’ll get a better perspective.

Here are more unboxing photos of the HTC Titan. I’m very curious to try out that camera in the outdoors. So far, I’m liking it. Too bad it cannot record 1080p videos, just 720p.

[uds-billboard name=”titanboard”]

Full review coming up later next week. The HTC Titan is not yet officially released in the Philippines but online stores like Widget City is already carrying the handset for Php28,000USD 477INR 40,449EUR 454CNY 3,475.

Disclosure: Widget City provided for the review unit. They are also a display banner advertiser on this site.