HTC Titan vs HTC Radar ~ GoAndroid

Two Windows Phone 7 Mango powered HTC devices go head to head with the HTC Titan facing off against the HTC Radar
We see how HTC's two new bloods stand up to each other in a Windows Phone 7 Mango stand-off.
Form:

HTC Titan - 131.5x70.7x9.9 mm, 160g
HTC Radar - 120.5x61.5x10.9mm,137g
In the main, HTC has a habit of producing handsets which are not offensive to the eye but at the same time unlikely to grab you by the lapels and demand your attention.
It’s almost as if the majority of HTC’s phones are made with a cookie cutter template, being more or less the same shape each time.
Ultimately these are both HTC’s standard bold rectangular shape with the now almost signature slightly rounded corners.
Each is pretty thin and light, but while the Radar comes in either bright white or silver and features tonal soft-touch panels, the Titan settles for a much more tasteful carbon grey and a minimalist treatment to the exterior.
Each phone has been given a high level of build quality, both being made with an aluminium unibody, they’re pretty solid when stacked up against much of the competition.
Compared to the Radar the Titan, as its name implies, is a good deal bigger and more imposing, and it’s also the heavier of the two as a result.
We prefer the aesthetics of the Titan even if it’s the slightly more cumbersome model in terms of size and weight it’s more svelte in overall design and allows for a larger screen to boot.
Winner – HTC Titan

Display:
Speaking of those screens, the Titan’s larger expanse of metalwork means it can cram in an impressively scaled 4.7-inch S-LCD capacitive touchscreen made by Sony, no less.
The resolution is a little disappointing, however, at a mere 480 x 800 pixels and 198 pixels-per-inch (ppi), in truth we were hoping for something a little meatier.
The Radar offers the same resolution and S-LCD screen as its cousin but on a smaller size display at 3.8-inches giving a higher pixel density of 245ppi.
Both devices feature scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass alongside accelerometer and gyro sensors and multi-touch input.
It may have a smaller screen but the much higher pixel density of the Radar at the same resolution as its opponent means it will deliver better image quality time and again.
Winner – HTC Radar

Storage:
The Titan has a storage capacity befitting its stature with 16GB of space at your disposal. An accompanying 512MB of RAM is certainly enough to tackle most smartphone tasks.
The Radar has the same amount of RAM and half the internal storage at 8GB.
Sadly neither handset features a card slot.
A higher capacity on the Titan secures it an easy victory this round.
Winner – HTC Titan

Processor:
Both phones run on single core Qualcomm Scorpion processor on the Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset and each is accompanied by an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit (GPU).
The Radar has the lower spec of the two at an even 1GHz while the Titan is, as always, the heavy hitter being clocked at 1.5GHz.
The ever reliable Qualcomm tech means there’s plenty of zippy performance here whichever one you choose but the extra half gig clock speed on the Titan closes the deal in its favour.
Winner – HTC Titan

Operating System:
As we mentioned at the start, these phones are each new additions to HTC’s range of Windows Phone 7 powered handsets and both are on the most recent build dubbed Mango.
Mango aims to rectify most of the (quite reasonable) complaints many users had of the system when it launched and in fairness it does a sterling job with its 500+ feature updates, changes and additions.
On the surface the user interface remains much the same with its distinctive Live Tiles, but look closer and you’ll see the tiles have been improved to display more detail than ever before.
Microsoft has added support to allow developers to utilise this feature, meaning for example that a diary app might show full clock and calendar information within the tile rather than a more simplified reminder.
Integration is certainly a watchword with Mango, social networking has been thoroughly blended into the very fibres of the system so not only do you have native Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn apps but access to these features from within many other parts of the phone’s interface and native app screens.
The ‘People’ hub is also a key enhancement to this area and it allows you to see continuous threaded conversations with your contacts across all social networking, instant messaging, email and text platforms.
Mango goes as far as ensuring you know when someone is online in any given medium, so you won’t waste time and money on a text when a free Facebook poke would suffice.
Not only is this useful for individual contacts but the People hub lets you create groups of priority contacts, going into a group will show an aggregated collection of all their Tweets, Facebook updates and messages across multiple media.
You can also use this feature to simultaneously send messages across all channels rather than going into each individual app.
A few other handy features include the ability to combine or segregate your inboxes, you’ve essentially got complete organisational control of your email and best of all you can pin both basic and custom inboxes to the start menu to make things as easy as possible.
Also of note, Mango will check any invitations you receive via email against your calendar and if there’s a conflict in your schedule it’ll post a warning right into the email text.
With both phones running the same system there’s nothing to compare between them but certainly we feel Mango is a very intuitive, fluid and usable system.
Winner - Draw

Camera:
HTC’s lower spec Radar runs a 5-megapixel primary camera at 2560х1920 pixels resolution, which is up against the Titan’s 8-megapixels at 3264x2448.
Both are capable of video capture at 720p and support video calling. The features list for each is identical with autofocus, LED flash and geo-tagging.
The Radar has a VGA secondary shooter while the Titan sports one at 1.3-megapixels.
Decent setups all round but the Titan has been souped-up with a better primary at a higher resolution. The higher quality images it can capture win this round.
Winner – HTC Titan

Final Thoughts:
A landslide victory for the Titan, though perhaps to be expected being the more premium model.
Aside from the distinctly lacklustre screen it outperforms the Radar in most categories with more storage space, processing power and a snappier camera.
Add to that a better looking exterior and a wonderfully slick operating system and you get a clear winner.