In one embodiment, a (hard-drive) read channel has a phase detector used in a timing recovery loop. The phase detector utilizes the sign bit and confidence value from a received log-likelihood ratio (LLR) signal to generate a mean value. The mean value is convolved with a partial response target to generate an estimated timing error signal. When implemented in a hard-drive read channel, the phase detector allows for timing recovery with lower loss-of-lock rates.