HTC has been making Windows-based mobile phones for other companies for more than 10 years. Orange's SPVs, for instance, are re-badged HTC phones.

The HTC Touch is in keeping with the company's reputation for quality: it’s an impressive Windows Mobile 6 phone.

There’s no keypad or keyboard, with users instead relying on the touch screen to navigate around the phone's menu and to make calls. The phone is slim - just under 14mm thick - and a rubberised coating makes it easy to grip.

Software called Touchflo is included to operate the large screen. Dragging a finger up the middle of it causes a new screen window to rotate up into place. Drag a finger or thumb left or right, and the screen rotates to show more functions. This way, it's easy to get to the most-used parts of the phone such as the contacts, music, text messages and photos.

The built-in and regularly updated weather report is particularly useful, and the ability to add and remove regularly used programs from the menu was also welcome. However, it does not completely replace the Windows look and feel that lies just below the surface.

Using the phone for anything more complex such as adding a contact or checking email means dropping into standard Windows Mobile again. The phone is pleasant to use, though. The screen is clear, sharp and well-lit. Email, as with other Windows Mobile devices, is handled extremely well.

However, there was one serious problem which put us off using the device after a couple of months. The phone started warning repeatedly that it was low on memory, which was strange since we hadn't tried to store anything new in the built-in 128MB memory. It was cured by a hard reset, but it was still a worrying sign.

Vista compatible: Yes