Yesterday afternoon I was fortunate enough to be invited by HTC to a small gathering of press people to look at new HTC devices. It was an informal discussion setting, so I wasn't taking many notes: the real purpose was to show us the two new devices that they had announced, the HTC Advantage and the HTC Shift. They also passed around some new phones I hadn't seen before - one was the HTC S720, a CDMA phone that looks similar to the Vox and will be released by Telus in Canada. There's another phone, with a steel blue finish, that I can't identify. I've sent out emails asking for more information on each phone but I haven't heard anything back yet. For now, here are a series of photos comparing the new phones to my current phone, a T-Mobile Dash.
UPDATE: After seeing
this Engadget post, I now realize that I was sort of on track: the phone that looks like the Vox (S710)? Yeah, that actually is the GSM-based S710. The steel-blue one? That's the CDMA-based S720 and being released by Telus.
The HTC S710 - the GSM-based Vox.
The Vox/S710 compared to my T-Mobile Dash - it's basically the same height.
The S710 whas a great slide-out keyboard that has more spaces between the letters than my T-Mobile Dash, so I suspect it will be easier to use for thumb-typing.
The T-Mobile Dash is on the left, and the HTC S710 on the right. It's a fair bit thicker, though it still feels good in the hand.
This is the HTC S720, a CDMA-based version of the S710 (Vox).
This is the HTC Shift, a small laptop-like device running Windows Vista. They aren't calling it a UMPC, largely because they feel this device is a new type of device that redefines the category. They said that most UMPC devices seemed to fall into the "miniature laptop around the house" category, whereas their device with 3G networking support is more of a mobile business device. More information and specifications can be
found at the HTC site.
We had a little bit of hands-on time with the HTC Shift, but HTC is being very guarded about exactly what sort of hardware is inside it. They wouldn't tell us what kind of CPU was powering it, though I suspect it's going to be a VIA CPU. I did notice an icon for the Intel graphics accelerator in the system tray, and since it runs Windows Vista Business with full Aero glass, I suspect they're using the Intel GMA950 GPU. It has one USB port, so you can use it for adding a wireless mouse, though a Bluetooth mouse is likely a better option. Because of the size of the device, the keyboard is likely the hardest thing to get used to. I've worked on all sorts of keyboards, and I know given enough time muscle memory takes over and almost anyone can type on almost any keyboard...but at first attempt the keyboard on the HTC Shift was extremely challenging to use. It's too small for five-finger touch-typing - at most three fingers can be used, and even that was awkward. Two fingers on each hand is likely the most an average person could bring to bear. How big of a barrier will this be when the Shift comes out? It's hard to say, though I suspect anyone buying a device this small will have a high tolerance for learning to type on a small keyboard.
Battery life was another mystery, one that they wouldn't say much about. However, in my discussion with one HTC employee, he said that the big difference between the HTC Shift and every other device similar to it is that all the other devices have been designed by laptop companies. They think in terms of watts like a desktop PC. HTC, on the other hand, is a mobile phone company and they think in terms of much smaller power units. He said that the HTC Shift would have the best battery life of a device in this class on the market today - but wouldn't give me specifics. I heard a rumour of eight hours, but I have no hard data on that and it might be false so don't get too excited about that - though, if true, the Shift would certainly be in a category all it's own from a battery life perspective.
And lastly we come to the
HTC Advantage, a Windows Mobile 6 device that breaks new ground in the Windows Mobile world. I've posted about the specifications earlier, so I'll just share my thoughts about it after some hands-on time with it. First off, yes, it's pretty big. It's not designed to be in the same category as a slender smartphone. With that big five inch screen, it's made for content creation and editing, not for light email and phone calls. Because of the size, it requires the use of a Bluetooth headset - what I'm not exactly clear on though is if your Bluetooth headset battery dies on you, can you still make and receive phone calls, even if it's awkward? I suspect so, but I'm not 100% sure. The keyboard is, as you'd suspect, small and difficult to use. Depending on the size of the user's hands, some people may be able to pick up and use the HTC Advantage as a thumb-board device. Others may find it a bit too large for that and will opt to use the one-finger typing method with the device on a table. They keyboard attaches via magnetism, but the connection is very strong and not at all flimsy like you might expect. It's interesting that they've combined a strong magnet with a hard drive - normally those two go together like a toaster and a bathtub full of water. HTC innovation!
The screen is big and very bright, which is impressive given the up to eight hour battery life that HTC is quoting. My biggest gripe with the screen is that VGA resolution (640 x 480) at five inches in size makes for a very big user interface. That means that icons are the size of a dime, which is huge on a portable device. You can bump the system font size down to the smallest level and it's highly readable on the home screen and in the contacts application, but not all text elements shrink in size when you make this change. Ultimately when using the device I found myself wishing they had gone with an 800 x 600 screen which would make everything smaller and sharper. Perhaps the next unit will solve this problem.
Pricing wasn't announced, though they hinted it would be somewhere around the $800 USD range, and definitely under $1000 USD. It will be sold through Amazon.com, unlocked and ready to jump on any GSM network as long as you have a SIM card.
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