Review: T-Mobile myTouch 4G
Screen
The myTouch has a 3.8-inch Super LCD display with 800 x 480 pixels. It looks fantastic. It is bright, colorful, and text and graphics are nearly 100% free of any sort of pixelization. Depending on the brightness setting, pure white screens did come off a little gray, but most of the time color was accurate. Indoor viewability is no problem. Outdoors, it dims some, but it's still readable for most high-level tasks. In other words, answering a phone call or taking a picture will be easy, but reading an email might not be.
Signal
Signal performance on the myTouch ranged all over the map. From no signal to five bars, from EDGE to HSPA+. In nearly all signal conditions, the myTouch was still able to access and use T-Mobile's network. Only once did I miss a call because the network couldn't find the phone (or vice versa). I tested HSPA+ speeds extensively throughout the NYC metro region. The absolute slowest download speed I attained was 1.8Mbps. The fastest the myTouch 4G reached was a hearty 5.4Mbps. Uploads ranged between 700Kbps to a best 1.36Mbps. The average download speed was a respectable 3.5Mbps, and the average upload speed was 1.1Mbps. Not bad performance at all. It's most noticeable when downloading apps from the Android Market. Apps that 1MB to 3MB in size seem to download almost instantly.
Sound
Call quality with the myTouch was pretty good, but far from great. Some calls rated very good, though I'd say more than 50% of calls were slightly below average in call quality. What does that mean? A consistent presence of static, odd noises, digitization of voices, and echoes. The good news is you'll get a strong earful of all this distortion thanks to the powerful earpiece speaker. It's plenty loud enough to hear convos in most environments. As for ringtones, the volume varied wildly. "Windchimer" for example, could barely be heard above a TV in the same room. Meanwhile, the "Old Phone" ringer was so loud it could be heard from two states away. (Both were tested with the volume all the way up.) The vibrate alert is strong enough to loosen knots from your back if applied correctly. You're going to notice it. Trust me.
Battery
Those familiar with modern smartphones won't be surprised to learn that the myTouch lasts a bit more than a day between charges. When unplugged at 7AM on a Friday, it still had about 30% of its juice left at 8AM the following day. That was enough to get me to an early lunch. Bottom line? Average users will need to charge every night, though those who using their phone sparingly might get two days out of it. Leaving town for a night or two? Bring your charger.
CTIA Fall 2010
HTC myTouch 4G
