HTC Touch Pro smartphone

Windows Mobile phones lag behind Nokia and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry in terms of market share, but Microsoft’s platform is catching up fast.

Gartner calculates that sales of Windows-based smartphones were 20 per cent higher in the second quarter of 2008 than a year ago. One reason is the efforts of handset makers to combine more attractive, easier to use designs with the business functions of Windows Mobile.

Handset maker HTC’s latest business phone – the Touch Pro – shows just what can be done when those elements come together. The Touch Pro combines TouchFlo 3D, the touch interface first shown on the Touch Diamond handset with a slide-out physical keyboard.

TouchFlo is not quite as intuitive as the iPhone’s touch interface, but it works well enough for managing the phone’s basic functions, such as making calls, light web browsing or looking up calendar entries or contacts. Features such as the cute weather page and clock, carried over from the Touch Diamond, make the touch interface fun to use.

The phone has plenty of business features, too, such as support for high speed, HSDPA web browsing, GPS, Wi-Fi, out of the box support for Exchange e-mail synchronisation and the improved security features of Windows Mobile 6.1.

On the downside, the Touch Pro doesn’t feel all that responsive. Touch commands could be quicker. It also takes a few seconds before the phone registers that the keyboard is extended and it allows you to type.

The fact that HTC includes a stylus with the phone serves as a reminder that the Windows menu system is alive and well under the TouchFlo skin: all but the most casual users will use the stylus quite a lot.

The screen is high resolution, but relatively small (2.8 inches), so navigating those menus can be challenging. The Touch Pro is much more pocket friendly than many earlier Windows Mobile phones, but after a few hours use, a larger device might actually feel more comfortable.

Sometimes a larger, lower-resolution screen is easier to use, for example in poor light. Nor is battery life on the Touch Pro – two days at best – good enough to persuade this writer to give up his BlackBerry.

The HTC Touch Pro is one of the best Windows Mobile smartphones yet. But in trying to upgrade a consumer handset to business class, HTC has produced a good smartphone rather than a true wireless PDA for the road warrior. Heavy e-mail users who do not need to run Windows Mobile applications could also look at Nokia’s E71 or the new, 3G, BlackBerry Bold.

By: Stephen Pritchar, via: FT.com

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Samsung i780 Review

The Samsung i780 is Samsung’s newest thin, QWERTY smart phone that runs Windows Mobile. Before being officially announced, the Samsung i780 was aptly called, the Blackjack II, after all, it is the second of Samsung’s Windows Mobile Device and still retains the Blackberry-like form factor.

Design

The Samsung i780 is a solid device, though larger, wider, and heavier than the Samsung i600. The Samsung i780’s larger form factor is understandable since it houses a larger screen. The screen on this device is touch sensitive, has 65k colors and is one of the first devices I’ve seen that has a 320 x 320 screen resolution. The Samsung i780 is not made from cheap plastic materials, the back cover alone has a somewhat leathery look and feel to it.

Features

Before I get to the Samsung i780’s feature, let me give you a run down of its specifications. The Samsung i780 is 3G, EDGE, HSDPA, and GPRS capable. This phone also has a 2 mega pixel camera with 2x digital zoom, WiFi, built-in GPS, 256MB or ROM, 128MB of RAM, Marvell PXA 310 processor up to 624 MHz power, and is powered by Windows Mobile 6.
The Samsung i780 is one of the more powerful Windows Mobile devices I’ve seen. It has three input options: Touch Screen, Touch Sensitive joystick, and of course, the QWERTY keyboard so users would have a variety of choice in handling the Samsung i780. You can use the touch screen with the included stylus or you may opt to use your fingers since the screen of this device isn’t recessed into the casing. The most innovative feature I’ve seen on the Samsung i780 is the touchpad or touch sensitive joystick. With conventional phones, you have to press the joystick but on this device, you have to swipe your fingers around the touchpad so you can gain access to a pointer. This allows you to handle the device with one hand but would take some time getting used to.

What really excites me about the Samsung i780 is its processor and RAM. While Samsung’s online information or any other specifications of the Samsung i780 online doesn’t reveal what kind of processor it houses, a little Google search revealed that it runs on the Marvell PXA 310 which is capable of around 624 MHz of power, almost similar to the processor running on the iPhone. This plus the fact that the Samsung i780 has a 128MB of RAM means that running a multitude of applications would be a breeze on this device and hang-ups would be kept to a minimum, which is something I can’t say about HTC’s windows mobile devices.

Conclusion

The Samsung i780 is one powerful device. HSDPA, WiFi, GPS and Windows Mobile 6 makes this phone a dream come true for Windows Mobile fans.

HTC Shift

The HTC Shift has just been released in the US and I think Sprint will be the one providing the mobile broadband feature. Here in the UK, the HTC Shift has long been launched by Orange.

This Ultra Mobile PC is like a Laptop and PDA in one since it is running both Windows Vista and Windows Mobile. It even has separate specs for the Laptop and the PDA. UMPC specifications for the HTC Shift include 7 inch touch screen, Intel A100 800Mhz processor, fingerprint reader, integrated web cam, integrated Intel GMA950 integrated video chipset, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 30GB hard disk drive, Bluetooth, HSDPA, and WiFi. The PDA specs include a 400 MHz Qualcomm processor, and 128MB of RAM.

Imate Ultimate 9502

At the recently concluded Mobile World Congress, i-mate has announced the latest addition to their Ultimate devices: the i-mate Ultimate 9502. The i-mate Ultimate 9502 is HSDPA as well as HSUPA compatible, allowing for a rated uplink speed of 7.2 Mbps and downlink speeds of 1.9 Mbps.

The i-mate Ultimate 9502 is a feature-packed device and aside from giving you 3.5G speeds, the device also comes with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Aside from bringing you the best of the web through the i-mate Ultimate 9502's variety of connections, the device also features a built-in GPS. Every feature on this device is geared towards business individuals, the device runs on Windows Mobile platform which allows users access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the go applications.

Probably the best feature businessmen can find useful on the i-mate Ultimate 9502 is its Direct Video Out Features which allows the device to be connected to projectors or TV so they can display their PowerPoint presentations on the big screen. The i-mate Ultimate 9502's Direct Video Out feature also allows you to view video calls on the large screen.

Telstra, Australia's largest mobile network will be the first to release the i-mate Ultimate 9502 on March for a suggested price of AUD$1099. Europe will soon follow.

HTC Touch Diamond Review

So HTC has announced another new HTC Touch, the HTC Touch Diamond. Frankly, this is what, the fourth time that HTC had a go at being iPhone’s main competitor? So, is the fourth time a charm? Let’s find out. Just a word of warning to iPhone haters, I’m not Apple fanboy, but frankly, HTC is just trying too hard at making an iPhone copycat.

Design

The HTC Touch Diamond still has the same 2.8 inch screen as other regular PDA phones. What is wrong with upping it to 3 inch, HTC? The design of the HTC Touch Diamond is reminiscent of the Nokia Prism phones, with diamond like patterns on the back of the device. Unlike the iPhone, the HTC Touch Diamond has a circular directional pad, much like the one in HTC Touch Cruise. Since HTC didn’t copy the iPhone’s design right off the bat, I have to give them points for design. The HTC Touch Diamond is one gorgeous, sleek phone.

Specifications and Features

The HTC Touch Diamond is a HUGE improvement from other HTC phones. Instead of the usual 400 MHz processor, you will get a Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528MHz processor plus you get a 192MB RAM. You’d think that the HTC Touch Diamond’s interface would be faster with the RAM and processor and all, however, the interface is still quite sluggish compared with the iPhone but a much better improvement from the HTC Touch Cruise’s sluggish interface. To get an idea of what I'm talking about...

Read all entries at: PhoneReviews

T-Mobile gets official about new HTC-made phones

T-Mobile by now has been usually lax about selling unlocked phones, so many people were buying T-Mobile-branded HTC-manufactured Windows Mobile phones and using them with other operators. This time HTC is once again on the forefront when it comes to HTC phones and surely their offering may be appealing not just to T-Mobile customers…


Yesterday there was a press conference in Munich, Germany where T-Mobile introduced new HTC phones: T-Mobile MDA compact IV (pictured above, a version of HTC Touch Diamond), T-Mobile MDA Vario IV (with QWERTY keyboard) and the new 16GB Ameo (a version of HTC Advantage).








Today T-Mobile has published a story about this announcement, unfortunately only in German (yet) so here are highlights translated to English:

• release date for T-Mobile MDA compact IV is July 2008 - all over Europe (where T-Mobile has divisions)
• T-Mobile underlines the following features in MDA compact IV: 3D-touch-screen, 4GB internal memory and 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
• T-Mobile MDA Vario IV - the one with keyboard - is coming late sommer, i.e. at first MDA Compact IV will be released
• T-Mobile confirms that MDA Compact IV has HSUPA for fast uploads!
• T-Mobile Ameo 16GB is coming to market in June 2008

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E-TEN Shows Affordable Glofiish X610 Smartphone

Today E-TEN announced its latest affordable addition to its Glofiish lineup of Windows Mobile Professional powered smartphones, the X610. Like the DX900 and X900 that it was launched with today at the Computex 2008 show in Taiwan, the X610 makes use of E-TEN’s new 3D animated finger user interface - seen below.

E-TEN’s new finger touch UI extensions, which we first saw under NDA at the 2008 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, have an HTC TouchFLO-like appearance and provide users with 3D effects and large, finger-friendly buttons and icons to make it easier to control the X610 one-handedly, without the need for a stylus (which is still included). We haven’t seen the final version of the software, but what we saw in February looked promising.

Details on the X610 are otherwise a bit sparse, other than the fact that it has a built-in GPS module, but the device does seem to be the obvious successor to the X600, a smartphone equipped with a QVGA touchscreen display and quad-band GSM/EDGE network support. One thing is certain, though, the X610 runs the latest version of the Windows Mobile Professional OS: 6.1.

The X610 can be seen now through June 7th at the Computex show in Taipei, Taiwan. E-TEN has not provided an estimated availability date or price for the x610 as of this moment, and we are still waiting on full specs.

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