I can hardly bring myself to type this. Was it not for the new images (spot the Orange logo) and the stupid press release, it would be a link buried in a forum thread somewhere.
The HTC Shift will launch as an ‘exclusive’ by Orange in the UK and will be available ‘by the end of February.’ It will be priced at UKP999 with a data tariff. Which sounds like a crazy price to me seeing as Expansys are also offering them with a tariff for UKP 580 and Clove Technology are offering them contract-free for just over 800 pounds – a 20% saving.
London, 18th February, 2008 Orange today announced the launch of the HTC Shift. Exclusive to Orange, the Shift packs the punch of a laptop in a smaller, lighter form factor, with full mobile data connectivity. It perfectly blends style with functionality, boasting a seven inch touch screen that smoothly slides and tilts to the perfect viewing angle, as well as a full QWERTY keyboard.
I’m hating the PR company that came up with the press release too. They called it a ‘mob-top’ to start with and then went on to say that it’s…”Supporting both 3G/3G+ and Wi-Fi connectivity, a first for any Ultra Mobile PC.”…”packs the punch of a laptop”, has a “long battery life.” and comes with a “a massive 30GB hard-drive.” I’m all for promoting UMPCs but lying isn’t going to win you any customers in the long run. Thank goodness most people have the noddle to do research on the net before they buy devices. [Hint: The space left on that hard drive after Vista has stomped all over it with an install and recovery partition is about 13GB – Less than some smartphones!]
I like the Shift a lot but a more balanced view on the device might be appropriate don’t you think? [UMPCPortal Review]
Via: Techdigest.
