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The S740 isn't a touchscreen device so it doesn't use the company's TouchFlo 3D interface. Instead you get HTC's customised ‘Sliding Panels' home screen. With this you click up and down through a series of panels to access commonly used applications and settings. When you stop at a specific panel you can also usually scroll left or right to access different content within that panel. For example, if you scroll down to Internet Explorer, you can then scroll sideways to select different bookmarks to open. Sliding Panels looks great and is reasonably quick to use, but it isn't a total replacement for the standard interface in Windows Mobile 6.1. As a result there are still lots of occasions when you need to exit from it and go back to the standard WM menu system.

The phone's processing muscle is provided by a Qualcomm MSM7225 processor running at 528MHz and this is twinned with 256MB of ROM and 256MB of RAM. You can add extra storage space using microSD cards, although the card slot is slightly awkwardly placed under a flip that's only accessible when the keyboard is pushed out from the main body of the phone.

The fast processor makes the handset generally feel quite quick for day-to-day stuff like adding contacts, updating your calendar or browsing the web. However, there are times when things aren't so speedy. For example, when you open or close the keyboard there's a delay before the screen re-orientates itself. It's a short delay, but nevertheless it is a tad annoying. Similarly sometimes when you're in the main menu the phone takes a while to respond to a switch between menu items. It's certainly not all the time, but it happens often enough to be noticeable. Let's face it, a handset with a speedy 528MHz processor just shouldn't suffer from these types of issues.

Despite support for HSDPA, the S740 only has a single camera mounted on the rear, so it can't be used for video-calling (who cares!). The camera has a 3.2-megapixel resolution, but it lacks both a flash and autofocus. Shots aren't too bad, but colours tend to look a little bit washed out.

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