A very warm welcome to the HTC Touch HD2 into the MID/Phone crossover category of devices. It coincides nicely with the work I’ve been doing today to update the product database with all the WVGA phones out there. I’m trying to write a summary article too but this unboxing video from Chris at SlashGear is keeping me away from doing that right now!

The HD2 is due to launch this week with availability in the following few days. Pricing is already available in Germany too with latest prices hovering around the very expensive 599 Euro mark.

Clearly though, a multitouch capacitive touchscreen with Opera Mobile 9.7 on a 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU is something rather special and with the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and Sense UI adding to the experience, I think it adds up to make it of the most exciting ‘slate’ style high-end phones out there and definitely one that readers here should check out.

Chris will be getting into some more testing with the HD2 over the next few days and it will be interesting to see where he thinks this one fits in. Unlike the (240 Euro) Archos Android Tablet that I use as a secondary device, this (600 Euro) tablet is targeted at being a primary device. Is it really going to slot into the 24/7 usage scenario or is it designed to be used as part of a two-smartphone strategy?

More details on the HD2 here.

Slashgear have written an article that accompanies the video. Check it out here.

Does anyone remember the excitement about the HTC Shift that resulted in a series of total showstoppers that caused it to fade quickly from public view?  Battery life, screen resolution and (slow) operating system were my personal deal-breakers and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from 3 years of product blogging it’s that people are very quick to get excited about a product en masse but when it comes to the crunch, there’s often a show stopper that kills interest, en masse.

The Crunchpad has been at number 1 in the UMPCPortal charts for about a month now and because we’re not particularly highly ranked for Crunchpad search terms it indicates that there’s rather a lot of traffic out there for it. In fact if you look at Google Trends you see that searches for Crunchpad are in the same ballpark as for the terms ‘UMPC’ and the popular ultra mobile PC brand ‘Viliv.’

The Crunchpad is clearly getting a good number of eyes and if it’s well executed it should sell well but the lessons of the HTC Shift have to be remembered. Battery life and operating system are the two main issues here.

Two years ago we wanted a 3hr minimum battery life on our portable devices. Now, that expectation is up to 5hrs which is going to be a tough call. It is possible with a well engineered Menlow-based design (probably not with a typical netbook-platform design) but then there’s the issue of software. Creating an end-user Linux build is extremely hard work. Whatever OS is chosen though, if Firefox takes more than 7 seconds to open and page loads average more than 10 seconds, its ‘slow.’ The iphone 3GS is in the 10-15 second range for average page load times now so there’s no excuse for slow page loads.

Finally there’s the price. Mike Arrington, the owner of the company has set a lot of expectations down at the $200-$300 level so if he misses that target by much he’s lost a lot of momentum. With well-built 8.9 inch 1KG Asus 900’s going for under $200 there’s a lot of competition.

I would love to see the Crunchpad succeed and for thousands of people to have a portable touch-based web solution available but I worry about the lessons we all learned from the HTC Shift.

HTC Shift details and links

Crunchpad details and links

As time goes on, more and more of my time is being taken up reading very interesting smartphone news. WVGA, Android, WM6.5 and Cortex are the important keywords and every time a device comes up it becomes clearer that the push towards the MID market is greater from the Smartphone manufacturers than it is from the Intel-based MID and ultra mobile PC market. With Menlow in a strange UMPC-like state (with no Moblin support now) there’s a long wait until consumer-focused MIDs come out on the Moorestown platform in 2010. It’s even clearer than before that ARM will have the upper hand in the MID space in 2009 by building up from existing products and brands that already sell millions of devices. Intel will have to sit back and wait for the time being.

Today has been particularly active in the ‘MIDPhone’ space.

As I was updating myself on the status of my Samsung Omnia order (no delivery date in sight) I took a quick look at other options that are available and the Toshiba TG01 (soon available in the U.S.) jumped up at me. With a screen size of 4.1 inch, a resolution of 800×480 and  processing power that is 2-4 times as much as the Nokia N800 / N810, it’s difficult to ignore. Pricing is now under 500 Euro for an unlocked version and 02 in Germany are selling it for 150 Euro with a 25 Euro / month contract. Add 15 Euro on top for Internet and you’ve got an interesting option that you I could walk out and buy tomorrow. Chris over at SlashGear has just finished his review and although he wasn’t impressed with the UI and predicts that the WM operating system could be an issue, I still think that the device represents great value for mobile internet fans. When Windows Mobile 6.5 comes along it could make it even more interesting, especially if Opera 9.7 works on it. I’m looking forward to seeing some browsing speed tests on this one. Note: No keyboard!

As I was finishing up reading Chris’ article a news item about an HTC Leo popped up. The Ai.rs blog has posted what they say are the specifications for this new HTC device. I don’t know who Ai.rs are but everyone seems to be following up the story. WMPowerUser (a blog I frequent more and more these days) says that the device is the HTC Firestone. All I know is that it’s rumored to have a 4.3 inch screen and run a Snapdragon platform at 1Ghz. This is definitely another one to add to the MID list. Again, it looks like there’s no keyboard.

Only a few minutes later I read the news that the Samsung Mondi is launching. The Mondi is an even bigger device with a slider form factor and a 4.3 inch screen. Samsung are dropping a WiMax module inside and handing it over to Clearwire for a launch in Las Vegas. It’s an ARM11-powered device running Windows Mobile again. No pricing, No availability details. Style and feature-wise it’s not too exciting and in fact it doesn’t even support voice so this is really focused at mobile internet activities.

The Mondi’s compact design provides the user with a more mobile form factor and ease-of-use than the typical laptop or netbook. While it is small enough to fit into the user’s hand or pocket, the Mondi packs an impressive Web browser, powered by Opera 9.5, which takes full advantage of the device’s 4.3-inch touch screen.

I’d like to see this with HSPA, Android, a high-end CPU and a big fat battery for all-day mobile internet use!

Press release. Via.

Finally, in addition to all that, there’s news about a Sony Xperia X3 which had previously been known at ‘Rachael.’ Dutch blog ‘All About Phones’ found the information in an Expansys we page and it’s quite the interesting read, largely because it’s going to be running Android and will have a 4 inch 800×480 screen. As yet, the CPU information is unknown. If you’re thinking about an HTC Hero, you might want to wait for final specs and pricing on this one.

Breaking: Xperia X2 news is coming in

None of these devices represent the ultimate MID yet but you can see where things are going. The 4 inch to 5 inch space is getting very busy already. I’ll beadding some of these (if not all!) to the database very soon.

We talk a lot about the FIE (Full Internet Experience) here on ultra mobile PC Portal. The reason many of us are using UMPCs is that there aren’t many non-x86 computers that have provided it. The FIE slowly finds its way onto smaller and smaller devices, and while I wouldn’t say that the new HTC Hero provides a true FIE, it is getting there.

The recently released HTC Hero is HTC’s second Android phone, and among other things, the unit is getting a lot of attention because its web browser can support some Flash content. Adobe has released a good video demo showing the Hero’s flash capable browser, and the implementation looks pretty good, but there are still challenges ahead. Even in through the marketing jargon, it is apparent that work needs to continue until full multi-device flash support has been worked out:

As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go. inch said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future [my emphasis]

It is nice to Flash working on an Android based phone, but while most Flash video players will work fine, I wouldn’t (yet) expect to be able to play many of the Flash based games that are out there. The video demo shows an extremely basic game which works simply by clicking the mouse once to drop the penguin, and once more to swing. There isn’t much other input from the user. This basic interaction is currently supported, but some of the more advanced Flash games will be impossible to control until more is done.  While the phone might technically have the ability to display the content of a Flash game, many Flash based games rely on keyboard based input and most (if any) certainly aren’t programmed to support multiple mouse inputs (multi-touch) at this point.

Providing some support for Flash is better than no support however, and initiatives like the Open Screen Project will help future devices of this type to inch close to the FIE.

[Adobe Press Release]

It’s not quite the MID that many of us would like to see (it’s missing a slightly larger screen and a dod of processing power) but because its voice-enabled, highly converged and slick, we’re going to keep a close eye on this one. We’re tracking details and keeping the new Pro2 product page up to date.

Engadget also have a hands-on video.

For those of you following the HTC Touch Pro2 news, here are the official photos. Click through for bigger versions in the gallery.

More details on the HTC Touch Pro2 in the database.

Update: We’ve put the Pro2 in the database and will add links, videos and specs as we get them. If you’ve found any good articles, galleries or videos yourself, send them in via this form.

HTC Just announced the HTC Touch Pro 2, a Windows Mobile slide/tilt device that many readers at UMPCPortal are going to be interested in. It’s still using the ‘old’ (or maybe I should say ‘current’) processing platform which is a little disappointing but the big battery, big 3.6″ screen and keyboard make it a good productivity option. Note the ‘zoom-bar’ specification which could help a lot in navigating websites. looking at the WCDMA talk time figures gives a good idea of how long it will last in ‘MID’ usage scenarios. About 4hrs.

The press release also mentions ‘Push Internet’. “HTC Push Internet alleviates slow downloading and rendering of Web pages on a mobile phone. Users can preselect their favorite Websites to get immediate access to them when needed.” Its sounds like some sort of background downloading service. Also note the lack of 3.5mm headphone socket. This is a very business-focused device.

No pricing info has been announced but you can estimate a price in the 600 Euro bracket. Availability in Europe is ‘Early Q2.’ putting it just ahead of the N97 timeframe in Europe.  (Nokia said the N97 would be available in June in their updates at MWC today.)

Specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7200Aâ„¢, 528 MHz
• Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional [Note: HTC announced a FREE upgrade to 6.5]
• Memory: ROM: 512 MB RAM: 288 MB
• Dimensions: 116 X 59.2 X 17.25 mm (4.57 X 2.33 X 0.68 inches)
• Weight: 175 grams (6.17 ounces) with battery
• Display: 3.6-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution
  Adjustable tilt screen
• Network
  HSDPA/WCDMA:Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz, Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds,
  Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, (Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)
• Device Control: TouchFLOâ„¢ 3D, Zoom bar
• GPS
• Connectivity
  Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
  HTC ExtUSBâ„¢ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)
• Camera
  Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
  Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
• Battery
  Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
  Capacity: 1500 mAh
  Talk time: Up to 270 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 419 minutes for GSM
  Standby time: Up to 454 hours for WCDMA, Up to 348 hours for GSM
• Video call time: Up to 150 minutes
  (The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
• Expansion Slot
  microSDâ„¢ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Special Features. FM Radio, G-Sensor

More details and images at the HTC website.

Prepare for a bumpy ride in the MID/Smartphone space. A confusing one too because according to DigiTimes, one of the most successful smartphone designers is getting ready to launch Snapdragon-based phones. The target for launch is Q2 of 2009, later than the planned Toshiba TG01 which is also running Snapdragon.

The leaked roadmap from last month show’s two devices that would fit well with the Characteristics of the snapdragon platform.

 
HTC Ihoth and HTC Whitestone W. Images and info from jouwmobiel.nl

Also in the brief article, Digitimes states that HTC are designing with Atom. This is similar to news we had 10 months ago and could be anything from a phone to a next-gen HTC Shift.

Digitimes.