Touchscreen or Not- How to Spot the Difference

One of the things that I get asked about a lot is how to determine if a device is Windows Mobile Professional or Standard through a photo. These days, WM devices come in all flavors and you can get a QWERTY pad on a WM Standard device, or a numeric pad on a WM Professional device.

Look at this photo and figure out which one is which:

Photobucket

Here are two ways to tell:

1. The screen. Look for the position of the word 'Start'- if its on the top, as it is on the first device, its a touchscreen device. If its on the bottom, then its a non-touchscreen device.

Now using method one to determine is all well and good except that sometimes companies will digitally 'enhance' the photo and may make a mistake in pasting a touchscreen image on a non-touchscreen device (Expansys, for example, even sends out printed material with this kind of mistake). Or you could be looking at a photo of a device thats not powered on. in that case-

2. The hard buttons. Touchscreen devices always have the 'Windows' logo on one of the hard buttons on the right hand side. On the other hand, non-touchscreen devices will have a 'home' icon on one of the buttons.

So, there you have it. You can shop smarter online for your next device, and know right away which flavor it is!

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