If you have nothing else to do but lust after the HTC Touch HD but doesn’t have enough bills in the wallet (or not brave enough to your credit card, or your dad’s) then HTC made something especially for dreamers, not in bad way – the HTC Touch Viva. Of course, when we say that a phone fell in a budget conscious paradise, it has to sacrifice something and this time it’s the GPS and 3G. Don’t frown and let’s step back through the years, I bet you’ve lived the life without these perks, right? So let’s move on.

Don’t expect that the screen in the HTC Touch Viva is as flush as the other more expensive members of its family tree, but it’s considerably topnotch. It has an ordinary touchscreen that is responsive to finger presses; no need to add extra pressure with those pinkies. Despite the screen is a little small, the text and graphics remain bright and sharp.

On the back of the handset is the 2MP camera slightly hidden in a small recess probably to avoid any scratches when the phone is inside the pocket. The camera lacks auto-focus and flash, making its camera not recommended for night shots. It also develops a good deal of digital noise in low light.

Another problem arises in the music section, with the standard 3.5mm headphone jack sacrificed for a mini USB port for audio output. The same port is also used for syncing and charging the device, so it means that you can’t listen to your favorite while it’s charging o syncing data with your PC. The biggest surprise (or shock!) is that headphones aren’t included in the package. You have to buy them separately from the HTC accessories.

A little redeeming value for the HTC Touch Viva’s succession of turn-offs is the TouchFlo interface which offers finger-friendly access to most of the phone’s key features. Moving between functions such as text messaging, music player and Internet browser can easily be done with a finger running across a row of icons at the bottom of the screen.

Applications in the HTC Touch Viva include a dedicated viewer for YouTube, a handy RSS news reader and the Opera web browser, which makes browsing to websites much easier. It also includes preinstalled Google Maps, but the weird thing is the lack of GPS, a big moniker actually. The lack of 3G also means giving all the downloading tasks to EDGE which is only good for receiving emails, but definitely not for surfing.

We must not be oddly get dismayed with this metallic fella, as it still remains a phone, perfect for making text messages and voice calls, and you can still boasts its design to everyone, anyway. Just make sure you aren’t showing this thing to phone critics.

The HTC Touch Dual joins the class of slider phones, with its own slide-out 20-key keypad tucked in its compact frame. It is taller and thicker than its predecessor, but retaining the minimalist look of just having the touch screen, 5-way navigation pad, camera and power buttons, call answer and end keys and volume control visible. The stylus is hidden on the top-right side and the microSD expansion slot at the bottom. The SIM card slot can be accessed by taking out the battery first.

It measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.6 in inches and weighs 3.9 ounces. The Touch Dual’s screen is smaller, however, at 2.6 inches. It has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixel and 65,536 colors. Like the original Touch, it has the HTC TouchFLO user interface which is paired with the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system. It utilizes Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE, GPRS, HSDPA and UMTS, but lacks Wi-Fi capabilities and GPS.

The interface now has bigger-sized menu icons and virtual keyboard keys, a new getting started menu, a sound mode tab, phonebook with alphabet-access to contacts and a task manager with memory information. These changes allow users to have a better “touch” experience with their fingers, minimizing the use of a stylus.

TouchFLO technology makes the screen sensitive to the commands of the user given with the tap and swipe of their finger. Users can also make use of the Block Recognizer and the Transcriber to speed up doing inputs. To get to the QWERTY keypad, users just need to slide up the front cover activating a new task page on the screen which is a short cut to making text and emails or noting in appointments. The QWERTY keypad has a Blackberry SureType feel to it.

The upgraded version of Windows Mobile gives the mobile Internet Explorer zooming capabilities which decrease the need to scroll. It is still bundled with Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for using Word and Excel and viewing PDF and PowerPoint files; Direct Push Technology for real-time email and Outlook synchronization via Exchange Server; and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for music and video streaming.

Touch Dual’s 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM 7201 processor has 128MB of RAM and gives a snappier user-experience. It makes use of a 1, 350 mAh lithium ion battery with five hours of continuous GSM talk-time and 3.2 hours of continuous 3G talk-time.

This smart phone is a quad-band with call features that include an address book, speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging and voice dialing and command. Touch Dual has two cameras, a 2-megapixel one with an 8x zoom for taking photos and videos and another one for video calls. Like the Touch, it has no flash thus taking photos or videos at night are not recommended. A purchase of the Touch Dual comes with an AC adapter, carrying case, extra stylus, manual, mini USB cable, pair of earbuds and software CD.