Review: HTC Titan Windows Phone with Mango
Camera
The Titan — and all WP7 Mango devices — will launch the camera when you press the camera button, even if the phone is locked and asleep. This is such a great feature, that HTC has started putting it on its Android phones, and Apple even put it on the iPhone 4S.
There is a box that appears in the center of the screen to help with centering the shot. Basic controls to access zoom and the video camera are stacked on right side of the display. The Titan offers a lot of tools for controlling the camera, including shooting modes, face detection, smile detection, scenes, burst shot, and of course control over the flash.
One feature I liked is touch-to-focus. It works really fast, and will focus on whatever object you select in the viewfinder. As for taking pictures, the physical camera key is the best way to go, thanks to the really well-defined two-stage controls, but there is also an on-screen software button if you prefer.
Once images are captured, they are whisked into the gallery app. The right edge of the previous photo serves as the frame on the left side of the viewfinder. It can serve as a quick reminder of what it is that you've most recently shot, and swiping it provides quick access to the gallery.
Gallery
The Pictures hub is a great way to treat photo galleries.
Your own photos are stored in one place, but it also syncs the photos shared by your Facebook friends. That's a neat idea. It also automatically syncs your own Facebook photo galleries with the device.
The Pictures Hub is all about sharing. It lets you easily upload images to Facebook, SkyDrive (Microsoft's photo upload service), Flickr or send them along via MMS or email. Pictures Hub sure looks nice, and is fun to use. Pictures can also be loaded to a favorites list, set as wallpaper, and so on.
The Titan includes the HTC Picture Enhancer. This is a separate application that can be used to touch up photos you've capture by applying effects, such as Enhance, Overexposed, etc. The Picture Enhancer shows up in the same way (via App Connect) that Slacker and Vevo show in the Music and Video Hub.
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HTC Titan
