Hugo is right, the HTC Shift is an extremely significant device in the ultra mobile PC story. It’s also a significant device in the PocketPC story too which I wasn’t really expecting. If you haven’t watched the GottaBeMobile video, do so now! It looks as gorgeous as it did when we first saw it presented at IDF. Smooth lines, good finish and great symmetry. There’s no way you’d know that it houses a full keyboard from looking at it either. Its so slim. Wonderful. I want one ASAP.
I’ve just spent an hour going back and forth through the video and have a large number of thoughts and questions which I’ve put down here as a reference. The main question I had as I went through the video was about the native resolution. Having watched the video and read Hugo’s comments on the GottaBeMobile blog, I’m still not 100% sure. The 1024×600 certainly looks good in the video but its difficult to tell. Is the 640×480 PocketPC mode centered in an 800×480 screen? Staying with the PocketPC side of things we have to ask ‘What version of Windows Mobile is it running?’ The device doesn’t have voice support apparently but it did show a SIM icon on the WM control panel. Can anyone work out if its WM5 or WM6 and what version it is? More questions about the dual-CPU operation center around hardware sharing. Can it multi-process? I doubt it. Do both processors have access to all hardware? Disk sharing? HSDPA sharing? SD card sharing? And what about that 7 day battery life? Small PocketPC’s use around 1W of power. That battery looked something like a 30W/hr battery (what was the exact battery capacity Hugo?.) There’s no way you’re going to get 7 days of operation out of it. A screen and WiFi alone take 2-3watts. So maybe 8 hours of use in PocketPC mode? 7 days standby is more likely. There are other questions related to the dual CPU too. Can you shut down Vista completely and run PocketPC mode?
Picking out the specs: VGA out (does it work in windows mobile mode?) SD card slot (does it go all the way in for readyboost users. How fast is it?) headset (or is it a headphone-only like Q1) socket, 1Gb RAM (expandable?) Fingerprint reader, mouse pad (very small isn’t it) stereo speakers (that sounded good) 1.3MP cam.
More questions Hugo. Perhaps you can check these for us:
- Screen brightness. Better than Everun/Q1 Ultra? Gloss or anti-glare?
- Case, accessories in the box. Extended battery available?
- Availability?
- Price!!
- HSDPA chipset details (is it quad band?) Can you get these from device manager for us?
- Hibernation took 3 min’s in the video. I assume this is a problem and not normal. I saw it on my i7210 once. Painfully slow!
As I write this, Hugo is sleeping (probably well earned!) but I’m going to email the questions to him as a nice surprise for when he wakes up in the morning! Well done again Hugo and GottaBeMobile for a nice overview and again, if you havent seen it, take a look now.
HTC Shift specifications, images and more news items on the product page here.
