Verizon Wireless
T-Mobile Tap (midnight blue)
Manufacturer: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Part number: TAPMDNBLUTMB
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- If you can get past the limitations of the screen size, the T-Mobile Tap is a decent midrange touch-screen phone.
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CNET editors' review
T-Mobile Tap (midnight blue) price range: $79.99 - $349.99
- Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
- Reviewed on: 11/18/2009
- Released on: 11/11/2009
The good: The T-Mobile Tap has a comfortable and lightweight design, a music player, a 2-megapixel camera, an FM radio, and GPS. It has good call quality as well.
The bad: The T-Mobile Tap's small screen size results in a cramped virtual keyboard and a difficult browsing experience. The Web browser feels a little primitive as well.
The bottom line: If you can get past the limitations of the screen size, the T-Mobile Tap is a decent midrange touch-screen phone.
Chinese phone maker Huawei is relatively unknown in the U.S. market. Up until recently, its only U.S. phones have been basic handsets, like the Huawei M328 from MetroPCS. That has changed with the T-Mobile Tap, which marks the company's first feature-rich touch-screen handset with a major U.S. cell phone carrier. The T-Mobile Tap is available for $79.99 with a two-year contract and $179.99 without.
Design
The T-Mobile Tap has a similar look and feel to the HTC Touch. Measuring 4.2 inches long by 2.2 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick, the Tap has curved corners, rounded edges, and a soft-touch exterior. This gives it a nice comfortable feel in the hand, and at 3.7 ounces, it won't weigh you down. Like the Touch, it is also one of the more petite touch-screen handsets we've ever used.
One of the reasons the Tap is so small is due to its 2.8-inch display, which is smaller than the 3.0-inch displays on comparable touch-screen phones like the Samsung Mythic and the LG Chocolate Touch. Despite its size, however, the screen has 262,000-color support and 240x320-pixel resolution, which results in crisp and vibrant graphics. You can adjust the brightness, the backlight time, and the greeting message.
The touch screen on the Tap is quite responsive, though you need to press the screen a little hard at times. It has haptic feedback, and you can change the intensity of the vibrations. You also can improve the precision of your finger taps by going through the calibration wizard. Along the left side of the Tap's home screen is a widget tray very similar to the TouchWiz interface commonly found on Samsung phones. You can show or hide it, and you can drag and drop shortcut icons to and from the home screen. Some of the more notable widgets on the Tap include shortcuts to Google Maps and GPS with TeleNav.
Also on the home screen are four shortcut icons along the bottom. They correspond to the phone dialer, the contacts list, the Web browser, and the main menu. There's also a speaker icon on the top right of the home screen that lead to a list of different sound profiles. The phone dialer has a roomy number keypad, with a large area for the dialed digits. It has a handy backspace key, and quick access to the contacts list and the call log.
As for text messages, you can either enter text via an alphanumeric T9-capable keypad, or via a full virtual QWERTY keyboard. Thanks to the Tap's internal accelerometer, the keyboard is automatically revealed when you rotate the phone while in text input mode. The keyboard feels cramped due to the small screen size. The Tap supports auto word completion in either English or Spanish.
Beneath the display are three physical controls, which are the Talk key, a square navigation toggle with a middle selection key, and the End key. The toggle seems a little redundant since you can just use your fingertips to navigate, but it's a nice option to have anyway. On the right spine are the volume rocker, the screen lock key, and the camera key. The power button and headset/charger jack are on the top. On the back is the camera lens next to the external speaker. The microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover.
Features
The T-Mobile Tap has a 1,000-entry phonebook with room in each entry for four numbers, an e-mail address, a nickname, a company name, a job title, a street address, a web address, birthday, anniversary, and information notes. You can add the contacts to caller groups; pair them with a photo for caller ID, or any of 27 polyphonic ringtones. You can also use voice recordings or your own MP3 files as ringtones. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a reminder feature, a memo pad, an alarm clock, a calculator, a unit converter, a world clock, a stopwatch, and a timer.
A few more advanced features include voice command support, a voice recorder, POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail, stereo Bluetooth, GPS with TeleNav, and a HTML browser. Even though you can use it to view full Web pages, the browser feels a little primitive. You can perform basic functions like enter a URL and refresh a page, but you can't do a keyword search on a Web site or toggle your Javascript settings. To zoom you must slide your finger along the magnifying glass line or with the volume rocker. We much prefer using the volume rocker, as it feels more effective. Yet, you can't zoom out all the way into full page mode, which means a lot more scrollingon such a small display.
The Tap also has a built-in music player. You can load your music via a microSD card, which is helpful since the Tap has only 156MB of internal memory. The player interface is basic but easy to navigate and use. You can create and edit your own playlists, set songs on repeat or shuffle, and there's a graphic equalizer as well. You can also send the music player into the background while multi-tasking in other parts of the phone. A nice bonus is a built-in FM radio, which you can only use with the headset plugged in.
The Tap's 2.0-megapixel camera can take pictures in five resolutions and three quality settings. Other settings include three color effects, a night mode, five white balance presets, three shot modes, a self-timer, and two shutter sounds plus a silent option. Photo quality was not bad. Though images didn't look as sharp as we'd like, colors were bright and vibrant. The camcorder can record in two resolutions (176x144 and 320x240) and with similar settings as the still camera.
You can personalize the Tap with a number of graphics and sounds for wallpaper and ringtones. If you want, you can download more via the Tap's browser. The Tap comes with a number of applications and games. They include Google Maps (complete with Streetview and traffic information), Brain Challenge, Platinum Solitaire, UNO, and Bubble Bash 2. You can download more Java apps and games via the browser as well.
Performance
We tested the quad-band T-Mobile Tap in San Francisco using T-Mobile. We were quite impressed with the call quality. We heard our callers with little distortion and plenty of volume. They sounded natural as well.
Callers reported similar good call quality. They did detect some environmental noise and there was a little bit of hiss, but it wasn't a deal breaker. They also reported good volume levels and a natural sounding voice. Speakerphone calls was also quite good, though callers said there was a lot more echo and background sound. On our end, we heard them loud and clear, though their voices sounded a little harsh.
The mono speakers emitted tinny and flat audio, so we would recommend using a headset for the best music- or radio-listening experience. The Tap comes with a wired headset in the package.
The 3G speed on the Tap was good, but not great. We loaded the full CNET front door in around a minute and 5 seconds, which is a little slower than we would have liked.
The T-Mobile Tap has a rated battery life of 5 hours talk time and 10 days of standby time. The tested talk time is around the same, at 5 hours and 15 minutes. According to the FCC, it has a digital SAR of 1.09 watts per kilogram.
User reviews
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Overall, a good basic touch screen
by ZTBELL21 on December 1, 2009
Pros: I like this phone for all it does, considering it falls just shy of T-Mobile's other touch screen devices (e.g. HTC MyTouch 3G, Samsung Behold II, etc). Also, it's very affordable.
Cons: It has a "cheap" feel but that's typical of basic phone. Also, it could run Android, but T-Mobile chose not to put that on.
Summary: First, the product's weakness- it feels like it's made from cheap plastic, but I've seen numerous other phones that feel the same way and have 2x the ...
Summary: First, the product's weakness- it feels like it's made from cheap plastic, but I've seen numerous other phones that feel the same way and have 2x the price tag (such as a certain phone that's exclusive to the nation's "fastest" and spottiest 3G network). Second, as with any low-end touch screen, it feels a little slow and clunky at times.
However, it's weaknesses are made up for by the fact it's a 3G world phone with a touch screen and an affordable price tag. Also, it has a MicroSDHC slot that holds an 8 GB card with decent storage for songs, photos, etc. The browser also works great, especially when compared to other touch screen devices in it's class. Also, unlike some other touch screens, this one has an FM radio- which allows people to listen to local personalities without carrying a seperate device.
Overall, this is a great device for someone getting their first touch-screen phone but I wouldn't get it for someone who needs to multi-task, open office documents or develop applications. Instead, I would recommend the MyTouch 3G, the G1, or any Windows Mobile device.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Entry-level touch/music phone with some serious flaws.
by ladridi on February 6, 2010
Pros: 1) feels good in the hand/ compact
2) music player with FM radio
3) compact keyboard is better than noneCons: 1) Proprietary headphone jack
2) slow processor
3) some strange functionality issues
4) won't sync with MacSummary: I got this phone two weeks ago and I'm on the fence as to whether I should return it and just get a basic call-only flip phone.
I switched ...Summary: I got this phone two weeks ago and I'm on the fence as to whether I should return it and just get a basic call-only flip phone.
I switched from Verizon because I like having an a la carte cell phone plan, rather than mandatory text and data fees. The Tap offered me the option of doing $10 unlimited internet per month with no contract. (I did the Even More Plus plan) It also had a compact keyboard and substantial music player. On the surface it was just what I was looking for.
When I bought the Tap at the store the man assured me that I could swap out the included headphones for my own by using an adapter to change the mini-USB to a 3.5mm jack. Seemed simple enough. I was wrong (and so was he). I have searched the internet thoroughly and driven to quite a few stores. Apparently Huawei created a proprietary double-sided (top and bottom) mini-USB for this phone. As a result, standard (bottom-only) mini-USB jacks will fit but not work. Online it is suggested that HTC jacks will fit but I tried one and it didn't. Now I am no fan of proprietary hardware, but I understand that it is a part of the marketing scheme. You make more money when you force people to buy new accessories for every new phone. I accept that. But why make a proprietary connection and then refuse to sell accessories that fit it? I can't even find a replacement headset in case something happens to the one included with the phone or in case I just want to leave one in the car. This makes no sense, but it seems that whoever designed this phone didn't have much. To be fair, you can use Bluetooth headphones, but then you lose the FM radio (which is at least part of the reason I bought the phone) and you have to either have or buy Bluetooth headphones. I would like to use my existing headphones. Silly me.
My second substantial gripe with this phone involves the way the screen locks when you are on a call. On talk only calls I don't really care. On calls where I have to enter numbers I have to unlock the screen, pull up the keypad, and then enter the numbers. When I call voicemail I have to do all of this plus make sure that when I unlock the screen no buttons get accidentally pushed because even backspacing won't help. The system recognizes it as a wrong password and you have to then punch in your entire phone number. Unlocking the screen with the side button instead of the touchscreen helps a bit, but it is still a maddening process and I seem to screw it up virtually every time.
Third, the processor is incredibly slow, particularly when accessing music, but not just then. It repeatedly stops when I am navigating as though it is taking a deep breath before the next huge task, such as typing or dialing or changing the ringtone. The phone gets overtaxed really easily. What is worse is that if you don't realize it you keep pressing which seems to make things worse. And then when the phone catches up you have a lot of deleting to do.
The other issues I've had with this phone are relatively minor.
1) I don't like the fact that I have to set a ringtone for texts as well as calls. I like texts coming on vibrate alone but this apparently is not an option. I worked around this by recording silence and using that as my ringtone, but I hate having to come up with workarounds for what should have come on the phone to begin with.
2) I hate the fact that most phones today won't sync with Mac. What year is this? But I don't hold that against this phone since it is hardly alone in that category.
3) As for the browser, some folks online recommend downloading Opera Mini. I didn't because I realized I just don't care much for surfing on a phone and cancelled the unlimited internet entirely.
4) The phone offers very limited customization. Basically what is on the widget bar is gonna stay there. You can change the order, but you can't get rid of them. Same with the preloaded Java apps. Those sample games are there to stay.
5) I can't do the flick on the widget bar so I gave up and just use the menu.
Okay, so now that I read this it seems like I probably should return the phone. But I'm not sure. In all fairness, the phone has definite issues and is overpriced due to those issues. But the music sounds pretty good, you do have a keyboard and sound quality is good and battery life is great. In the end it probably comes down to this: You can 1) pay substantially more (and/or take on a contract) to get a phone that actually does well what this phone does poorly or you can 2) pay a bit less for a really basic phone and get a separate MP3 player or you can 3) just accept that this is an item that does too many things not very well and too few well but that's okay because it is still easier than carrying two gizmos. -
Better off sitting on the bench than starting the game
by Faysal21 on January 30, 2010
Pros: FM Radio, good music player, takes good photos
Cons: condensed touch-screen, slow & skippy at times, lacks good calibration, difficulty with Bluetooth headset connecting, restarts from cold conditions, drivers malfunction occasionally when charging via USB
Summary: I had the Behold for some time, but it was brief, so I switched to the T-Mobile Tap. Previously, I was concerned about how much i'd lose for downgrading ...
Summary: I had the Behold for some time, but it was brief, so I switched to the T-Mobile Tap. Previously, I was concerned about how much i'd lose for downgrading to the Tap, but it wasn't all that bad on Day One. However, i've lost my "that wasn't so bad" feeling about this phone. I often use the phone's media features (primarily FM radio & music player). The FM radio was great, but the music player was too. The equalizer feature blew me away. The sound is good, but it could be louder when i plug in the headphones.
It seems as if the phone is unable to handle cold conditions (as I live in the Northeast) On several occasions (most times having used music or radio), it restarted as if it had been turned off, then powered back on. In addition, i had trouble connecting it with one the Jabra BT2070 Bluetooth Headset because it never found it when searching. Also, viewing the device on a computer is sometimes a struggle. I have had several situations, all different & unique, that end up malfunctioning the drivers. As a result, I only connect the device to a PC once in a day & if i have already, i use any device with a USB port that does NOT run a Windows OS (ex. PlayStation 3, FiOS cable box, etc.).
As most should know, the screen is pretty small if you make contact,or touching (for those who need me to dumb it down) . I find myself touching the screen plenty and it's difficult to get an accurate touch. I'd say I can get a touch on the spot about 70-80% of the time.
All in all, this is a good phone, but I don't see enough positive to keep me in it for the long stretch. It's better off being a backup just in case rather than run with it for a good two years or so. -
Cheap phone with rich features, cheap data plan, AAA++
by pbigley7 on January 24, 2010
Pros: Quite nice interface, easy to use touch screen, beautiful and diminutive design, make sure you download Opera Min 4.2, $10 unlimited dataplan is the no.1 reason you should get this phone.
Cons: Touch screen is not as sensitive as iPhone and other high-end model. Speakphone is not very good at high volume, phone always locks when it is connected, making it difficult if you have to dial more numbers such as 800 toll free number.
Summary: With $179.99 and $40 plan (500 min, unlimited data) and easy to use interface, this is the best value in town. Even though it has short comings, unless you ...
Summary: With $179.99 and $40 plan (500 min, unlimited data) and easy to use interface, this is the best value in town. Even though it has short comings, unless you are power user or simply have too much money to spend, this is a nice phone for you to read email, access internet (go and get Bolt mobile broswer). I called huawei headquarter, they have something better coming, sth that addresses the touch screen, speaker phone and resolution, slightly more expensivthat the T-Mobile tap, but it is coming, baby!
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Cheap and works pretty well
by whatson_15 on January 23, 2010
Pros: Cheap touchscreen for t-mobile, pretty nice set of features, comparable to other phones at t-mobile (samsung highlight), easy to use, loud spaeker, good signal (where i am located).
Cons: Some mp3's sound fuzzy, sometimes when you receive a pic its to small and all blurry, and just like other touchscreens it sometimes can be a lil slow.
Summary: Great phone for the price i havent had any problems with it, and the touchscreen works pretty well to me . . .
Summary: Great phone for the price i havent had any problems with it, and the touchscreen works pretty well to me . . .
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Okay, but only if its Free with a new account...
by mnm_brantley on January 21, 2010
Pros: The touchscreen feature is nice but not always responsive, doesn't always pick up a signal, I had to take the battery cover off to increase signal strength.
Cons: I have this phone, I almost had to force myself to like it, my main complaint is the qwerty keypad is too small and when I hit the space bar sometimes I would hit the send button. The touchscreen feature is nice but sometimes it doesn't respond.
Summary: This phone was originally purchased for my wife, she tried to get used to it but couldn't, so I traded her my Blackberry Curve (she loved the WiFi on ...
Summary: This phone was originally purchased for my wife, she tried to get used to it but couldn't, so I traded her my Blackberry Curve (she loved the WiFi on it) and I took her Tap. At first I like it because it was a touchscreen, but soon found out that the qwerty screen was so small, it took more time to correct my spelling errors than it did to actually type a message. I have t-mobile and usually get an ok signal in the house, with this phone, I would get signal, then lose it, and so on. I relized taking off the battery cover helped to increase signal strength. The web browsing on it is lame, it's a watered down version of the internet. But other than that, the phone is a basic cheap touchscreen, great for kids maybe or someone who isn't on their phone alot. It's frustrating to go from a Blackberry to a Tap, It's like a movie trailer, they show all the good stuff on the commercials but when you get it, you find out you were taken for a ride. I currently am trying to find someone to trade me phones, I am looking for another Blackberry, I just don't like this T-mobile Tap. Sorry Huwaei, go back to the drawing board and re-think this one.
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Good for the price, but I wouldn't recommend it
by too_complex on January 9, 2010
Pros: Not bulky touchscreen phone like the G1.
Cons: Camera settings are horrible! Touch screen is delayed and hard to press. Some features wont leave the screen until you turn the phone off then back on. Phone freezes quite often!
Summary: I want my money back! I havent had the phone for 30 days and Im sick of it already! I send pics to family and friends all across the US ...
Summary: I want my money back! I havent had the phone for 30 days and Im sick of it already! I send pics to family and friends all across the US and always get reports that the pics came out side ways. Not only that, I can only send one at a time unless the person is right next to me, then I can send more than one via bluetooth. The touchscreen is delayed! I find myself pressing a key more than once before it appears on the screen. This phone also freezes alot. Jus yesterday I was sending a text then it froze, cut off, then came back on. That wasnt the first time I noticed it do that though. It will shut off and come back on quite often. Happened to me at least 6 times since I had the phone (since mid December 2009). I can say this phone could be a great starter touch screen, but you better have insurance!!!
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Good cheap phone
by bbroerman on January 7, 2010
Pros: small and comfortable size, lots of features, generally good reception.
Cons: UI is slightly sluggish. FM radio does not support stereo bluetooth headset. IM application is difficult to use and not integrated. Games are all demo versions. screen auto lock comes on when contacting voicemail.
Summary: I like this phone as a baseline touch phone. Overall, for the price, I can not complain much. I have had some issues with data connectivity, but that is a ...
Summary: I like this phone as a baseline touch phone. Overall, for the price, I can not complain much. I have had some issues with data connectivity, but that is a problem with t-mobile, not the phone. All in all, the only negatives I see are that its user interface is slightly sluggish; the FM radio does not support the stereo bluetooth headset, while all of the other media application do (Big issue with this.. it's just sloppy); the IM application, while looking like a typical multi-im app is a separate add-on java applet and not integrated with the other messaging features. The UI on this app is terrible, and the links / buttons are way too small to be useful (again, just sloppy). The camera is pretty nice, but an LED flash would have been an easy and a nice addition. The file browser separates phone memory from data card memory on some types of files and not others, which is confusing. The media player does not really separate the loaded ring-tones from actual music files, so it is easy to select these in addition to the music you want to play. The GPS application is not free, and there is apparently no way to remove it from the menu bar. Its a small annoyance, but still an annoyance. When browsing for games to play, it shows the other java applets, including the IM app, the account maintenance app, and others that are most definitely NOT games. This can be annlying and confusing to some. Finally, the auto screen lock comes on when contacting voicemail. While not something that is easily worked around in the phone itself, it is a small annoyance.
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DECENT PHONE
by BooLoca on January 4, 2010
Pros: THE TOUCH SCREEN IS NICE, AND THE PHONE IS SIMPLE TO USE.
Cons: THE CAMERA IS NOT OF GREAT QUALITY, SOMETIMES THE "FLIP KEYBOARD" FEATURE IS SLOW, AND YOU LOOK LIKE FOOL GETTING IT TO FLIP TO A QWERTY KEYBOARD!
Summary: SOMEBODY SAID THERE WAS NO WAY TO TURN T9 OFF, THERE IS...ON THE LOWER RIGHT HAND SIDE THERE WILL BE THE T9 OPTION HIGHLIGHTED YOU JUST PRESS IT AND ...
Summary: SOMEBODY SAID THERE WAS NO WAY TO TURN T9 OFF, THERE IS...ON THE LOWER RIGHT HAND SIDE THERE WILL BE THE T9 OPTION HIGHLIGHTED YOU JUST PRESS IT AND IT GOES NORMAL...PRETTY SIMPLE!
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It's just okay.
by daffydi2 on December 26, 2009
Pros: Free phone with contract extension. Vivid display. Good camera.
Cons: Touch screen (even after calibration) isn't very responsive. Small qwerty and number pads. Ring tone and volume could be louder.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Part number: TAPMDNBLUTMB
- Bottom Line: If you can get past the limitations of the screen size, the T-Mobile Tap is a decent midrange touch-screen phone.
General
- Product Type Cellular phone
- Service Provider T-Mobile
Product series
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Manufacturer: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Specs:
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Manufacturer: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Specs:
Manufacturer info
- Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.huawei.com/
- Phone: 0086-755-28780808
- Email: support@huawei.com
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