Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Usually, when a new piece of kit hits the market it arrives in the US first and we get it later. Here’s a twist; the HTC Touch has arrived in Europe but Americans are snapping up the devices on the grey-market (yours for only $750!).
But there are some ‘gotcha’s’.
The tri-band GSM phone does not support 3G frequencies - no 3G wireless networking in America for the HTC Touch Diamond. Voice and 2.5G data services are still available. The HTC Touch Diamond will be officially released in the United States later this year. The official US version will offer full support for the wireless frequencies used in North America.
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Monday, June 9th, 2008
HTC have been promising a UMPC for quite some time now. The Shift X9500 was initially unveiled last October but only became available as of March 2008. Was it worth the wait? We think so.
Traditionally, UMPC’s uptake has been hampered by aspects such as keyboard size, battery life and performance. Fortunately, manufacturers such as Samsung have listened to consumers and worked hard give us what we want. Have HTC?
Design
On first inspection, the Shift X9500 looks good. It’s not the lightest or smallest of the UMPC’s (size 207 x 129 x 25mm, weight 790g) but the Shift X9500 has many things in its favour. The keyboard is fairly large and the 7″ screen makes for easy use. It looks like HTC got this part right. The Shift X9500 fits nicely in your palm with the trackpad and mouse buttons being mounted in a position that allows you to easily navigate with your thumbs. The only downside was that the trackpad was a little jerky when trying to do precision work. A slightly larger trackpad wouldn’t go amiss.
The hardware keyboard folds away under the screen. When you need to type simply fold out the keyboard and it locks into position at a 45 degree angle to the screen.
The 7″ screen features a native resolution of 800 x 480. Not great for a device running Windows Vista. But don’t panic; a button the side of the screen will switch to a resolution of 1024 x 600. Still not the best we’ve seen but better than the default.
They keyboard is about the same size as the Asus Eee PC but we found that typing was not as easy on the HTC Shift X9500. That said, the Shift X9500 keyboard has a nice feel when typing. A nice touch by HTC is the ability to attach a full sized keyboard and mouse to the Shift X9500 when working at a desk as the device ships with a mini USB hub.
The HTC Shift X9500 is powered by an Intel A110 CPU. We’ve spoken about this before in other reviews. Unfortunately the Intel Atom wasn’t available when the HTC Shift X9500 was being built so you’re stuck with the A110 for now (rumours are circulating that the next version will feature an Intel Atom processor). Performance isn’t great. The CPU is just good enough to run the installed Windows Vista Business Edition.
Disk space was adequate. The HTC Shift X9500 features a 40Gb platter disk which should be more than enough space for your documents and media.
Connectivity is good. The HTC Shift X9500 features:
- 3G modem
- 802.11b/g
- Bluetooth
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x USB 2.0
- VGA
No complaints there.
Battery life was an issue. We managed about two hours thirty minutes on normal usage. Cranking up some additional applications (WiFi, media player etc) and CPU time pushed this down to just over one hour thirty minutes. Not great if you intend to do some heavy duty video playback sessions. HTC know that battery life is an issue. To counter this they have included SnapVUE. This stripped down version Windows Mobile allowing you to check on Outlook emails and send/receive text messages. Using SnapVUE only on the HTC Shift X9500 will massively increase your battery life but reduces productivity associated with UMPC’s. It’s an approach but I’m not sure it will catch on unless SnapVUE is opened up to allow more third party apps.
Conclusion
The HTC Shift X9500 is one the the best UMPC’s we’ve seen. If HTC can improve SnapVUE then they may well have a real winner on their hands (if you don’t mind the price tag of around £900). I look forward to seeing the Shift X9500 with an Intel Atom CPU and enhanced SnapVUE capabilities.
Specifications
Intel A110 (800GHz)
1Gb RAM
Graphics Intel GMA 950 (integrated)
Hard disk 40Gb
Display 7″ touchscreen (800 x 480 default)
Other Fingerprint reader, webcam
Downside
Battery life could be better by far. SnapVUE is a very nice feature but needs more applications. Finally, it would be a real plus if HTC could release the next version with the Intel Atom processor.
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