Entertainment

Basic features preinstalled on the Touch include a calculator, calendar and camera album. The one-touch talk button near the bottom of the phone brings up a keypad for users to make a call, and the end button closes this. As mentioned earlier, the Touch has access to Sprint Music Store and Sprint TV to listen to music and watch videos with Windows Media Player.

Through Sprint Music Store, customers wirelessly download songs to the Touch. Users can choose from hundreds of thousands of full-length songs from virtually every genre. Tracks can be simultaneously downloaded to both the Touch and a personal computer. Though Sprint TV, consumers can view more than 50 channels of live and on-demand including ABC News Now, Bloomberg, Fox News Channel, Discovery and the Learning Channel.

This wealth of media is good, since the Touch is competing with Apple's iPhone which allows users to buy songs and television shows through Apple's popular iTunes Web site.

Users can also customize on-demand information such as sports, weather and news information on the Touch, so that they have up-to-the-minute knowledge of what is going on. Sprint streams more than a dozen radio stations on the Touch and as mentioned above, that includes Sprint Radio and Sirius.

The Touch also has access to GPS through Sprint Navigation, helping travelers explore local restaurants and shops, or look for the lowest gas prices. Sprint Navigation offers voice-guided and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions that speaks street names for each turn. In addition to 3-D moving maps similar to an in-car navigation system or personal navigation device. To avoid traffic, users can get real-time intelligent traffic alerts and one-click rerouting, while local search provides more than 10 million points of interest.

Internet

The Touch supports Sprint's EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) high-speed broadband network for high-speed data connectivity of around 300 to 500 kbps, which makes it easy for users to connect to the Sprint Music Store, Sprint TV and other media. The Touch also comes with Internet Explorer so users can browse the Internet.

The EV-DO network also provides users with quick access to email accounts including POP3, IMAP4, SMTP and Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, and allows them to send and receive instant messages through AIM, Yahoo! and Windows Live.

Storage

The Touch has only 128 MB of built in memory, so it's nice that it comes with a 512 MB microSD card. The Touch supports cards up to 4 GB, which can be purchased separately. Putting in the microSD card and taking it out is inconvenient, since the back of the phone must be removed to pry loose the tab that covers the card slot.

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