Sprint's Touch to Take on the iPhone

Sprint finally unveiled the compact—and aptly named—HTC Touch this morning, a phone that looks poised to take on the iPhone as the touch-sensitive handset of the moment.

Available on November 4 for $250 with a two-year contract, the four-ounce, 3G-capable Touch comes with a nearly three-inch touch-sensitive display, as well as access to full-track music downloads and streaming video—a couple of key features lacking in the EDGE-only iPhone. Powered by the Windows Mobile 6 OS, the Touch's main screen boasts something called "TouchFlo": a 3D cube that you flick to access the phone's various functions (including Web browsing on the mobile version of Internet Explorer, Web e-mail and corporate Exchange accounts, the mobile Windows Media Player, and more).

Sounds like a potential iPhone killer on paper, but what about in practice? My old colleagues at InfoSync World had a chance in June to test-drive a generic version (but not the Sprint-branded model) of the Touch, and they came away less than convinced. Writer Philip Berne confirmed what I suspected: once you get passed the tough-to-manipulate TouchFlo cube, you're left with the standard Windows Mobile OS, which pretty much requires a stylus to operate. Anyway, I'll reserve final judgement until I've had a chance to check out Sprint's Touch myself.

Here are a few more specs to tide you over until the November 4 launch date: microSD memory expansion (up to 4GB), a two-megapixel camera, support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, and voice commands. No mention of GPS or Wi-Fi, however.

What do you think: does the Touch sound like a worthy competitor to the iPhone? Sound off!

Related:
Press release [Sprint]
Review: HTC Touch multimedia smartphone [InfoSync World]