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Home -> UMPC Reviews -> HTC Shift X9500 and X9000, US CDMA and import GSM models
HTC Shift
Editor's rating (1-5): 
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Where to Buy
Review posted March 12, 2008 and revised March 19, 2008 to include the US Sprint CDMA version by Lisa Gade, Editor
in Chief
UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) have been around for 2 years or so in the relative mainstream. Long enough that we've seen several very different designs from the tiny OQO to the sleek slider Sony Vaio UX to those that resemble traditional handhelds sans keyboard like the Raon Vega. But really, there have been 3 major design camps: the pure slate like the Samsung Q1 Ultra, the extremely compact model with a keyboard that slides down from the bottom (OQO, Sony Vaio UX and others) and more recently the miniature notebook (Fujitsu U810 and Vye). HTC, perhaps the largest manufacturer of Windows Mobile phones has entered the game late with a design that's truly their own. In fact, the HTC Shift looks a lot like a giant HTC Tilt Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone rather than a notebook or UMPC. Cool. The Tilt with its slide out-and-up display is extremely popular and makes even better sense on a Vista ultraportable. The Shift can be used as a slate, as a flat slide-out keyboard device and in a conventional notebook position with the display upright. UMPCs attempt to bridge the gap between the mobility of a PDA and the power of a notebook, and the Shift comes closer than most thanks to its relatively large display and borderline touch-typable keyboard. The Shift's codename is "Clio", perhaps paying homage the Vadem Clio, a unique swivel-designed Windows CE HPC from years ago. The GSM unlocked model is the CLIO110 and the CDMA version is the CLIO200.
Features at a Glance
The HTC Shift, available in GSM 3G HSDPA version from importers and in CMDA with an internal Sprint EVDO rev. A modem directly from HTC's web site and Amazon. HTC tells us they wanted to roll out a US version at the same time as the worldwide version but the US lawsuit between Broadcom and Qualcomm has effectively halted 3G Qualcomm-based device sales in the US (when are those two companies going to settle!?). The US CDMA Shift sells for $1,499 and the GSM import version for approximately $1,500 to $1,700 US (and you thought the MacBook Air was expensive). This makes it one of the more expensive UMPCs, but HTC is betting that a few of its features will sell you on the device. First it's not only a Vista Business Edition ultraportable, but a pared-down Windows Mobile 6 Professional device that HTC calls SnapVUE. The Window Mobile portion is powered by a 400MHz Qualcomm processor just like the Tilt, and it can make use of the 3G modem for Exchange sync and email. It offers instant-on functionality, even when the Vista notebook in the Shift is powered off.
The HTC Shift, Fujitsu U810 and Nokia N810.
Like most current generation UMPCs, the Shift runs on an 800MHz Intel A110 (Stealy) processor with the Intel 945 chipset and the Intel GMA950 integrated graphics adapter. That's not terribly powerful when faced with resource hungry Vista, but the Shift does better than average thankfully since there's no Windows XP version nor XP drivers (HTC has no plans to offer XP support). The machine has 1 gig of RAM (a micro DIMM rather than soldered on the motherboard but no word of how to upgrade it) and a 40 gig 1.8" hard drive. Like all UMPCs, there's no optical drive because there's absolutely no room for one.
The HTC Shift with the Motorola Q Global
The Shift measures 8.15 x 5.08 x 0.98 inches and weighs 1.76 pounds, making it about the size of a deluxe paperback but heavier. It has a 7" display that run at 800 x 480 and 1024 x 600 resolutions with a button that switches between the two so you don't have to fiddle with the Display control panel under Vista. SnapVUE run at a VGA resolution with a black border (you can stretch VGA only so far), just like the HTC Advantage (which is smaller and lacks the black border). Being in the 7" camp with the Samsung Q1 Ultra and a few others, the Shift's display, even at our preferred 1024 x 600 resolution is much easier on the eyes than the 4.5-5.6" Sony Vaio UX and Fujitsu U810 running at the same resolution.
The Shift runs about 2 hours under Vista and 2 days under SnapVUE (WinMo) with push email on. Two hours of Vista time isn't exactly impressive, but then many UMPCs still lack fantastic battery life (the 5 hour Fujitsu U810 is one of the few exceptions).
In the Box
The Shift comes in yet another Apple-inspired, high quality package, reminiscent of the HTC Touch's packaging. The box is very slim but big enough to hold a full sized notebook in its other dimensions. Inside you'll find the Shift, battery, spare stylus, USB hub with 3 ports and Ethernet, a screen protector, manual and other printed material and what has to be the world's smallest notebook charger. Extra points for that-- we've seen UMPCs come with chargers that are nearly as big and heavy as the actual notebook. HTC also includes a very nice brown leather slip case.
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Included accessories: charger, stereo headset top row, USB hub and case bottom.
SnapVue isn't Full Windows Mobile 6 (unless you wanna hack a bit)
HTC's SnapVUE provides instant access to a few handy basics at the touch of a button. These are email (POP3, IMAP and Exchange) with support for MS Direct Push, calendar, contacts, tasks, weather (via HTC's Today Screen weather plugin as seen on the HTC Touch), SMS and time. Think of it as the super-sized version of the HTC Touch home screen, in fact. There's a settings button that takes you to the familiar Windows Mobile 6 Settings applets, minus a few such as the memory settings applet. The HTC Clear Storage applet is there in case you need to wipe out SnapVUE or have munged it up while hacking it-- hint: do not disable the HTC Today Screen or you'll lose access to pretty much everything and watch out for VGA hacks-- if WinMo can't boot successfully due to hacking there's no way to gain access to Clear Storage to wipe it out and start fresh. If you do sorta trash SnapVUE on the US CDMA version try this: while on the SnapVUE side type ##786#. That will hard reset the CDMA version (assuming SnapVUE can still communicate with the keyboard). This does not work on the GSM version. If you need to reboot SnapVUE (we all know WinMo needs a fresh start now and then) you can pull the battery or use the HTC Control panel in Vista to reboot it (soft reset, not hard reset). This is Windows Mobile 6, but there is no full Today screen, no Start Menu and no access to the programs group. Hmm...
The SnapVUE main screen. |
The SnapVUE settings screen with HTC's black & white theme (note the orange Q icon is QuickView which I added, it's not pre-installed in SnapVUE. |
Sadly, many elements of the usual Windows Mobile experience have been disabled or hidden away, and HTC tells us this is due to licensing issues (we assume they didn't go for a full WinMo license which would have raised the price of an already pricey UMPC) . There's no IE mobile, no Windows Media Player mobile, no (visible) File Explorer and no use of the phone to make calls. For those who are technically inclined with Windows Mobile, it's not hard to regain much of the functionality (newbies won't find it easy). We've restored access to the Programs group (including the File Explorer), installed 3rd party file explorers, registry editors as well as the Opera and NetFront web browsers. SnapVue doesn't see the WiFi radio or the SD card slot, though we're sure the capable folks at XDA Developers will find a way. There's no way out of the box, to sync PIM data with Outlook in Vista on the Shift (why, oh why!). But we did find a kludgy method of using Windows Mobile Device Center in Vista to sync with and explore files on the Shift, making it a much more useful device. So SnapVUE is basically instant-on email, weather and PIM data (only if you use Exchange or are willing to hack). It also handles the WAN data connection (3G) and acts as a wireless modem for the Vista side of things (does that bake your noodle?). Our hacking guide is at the end of this review.
NetFront 3.5 running in SnapVUE (Windows Mobile) after some hacking. The display run in VGA in SnapVUE and there are large black borders as a result.
Others have reported that WinMo VGA hacks blow up SnapVUE, so we may have to learn to live with the big black border.
A Walk Around the Shift... how about that touch screen and keyboard?
The Shift looks like a high quality, sexy and modern device. The casing is plastic, but it doesn't look cheap, and there's a metal bezel surrounding the display. The slider hinge is stiff with a definite lock-in-place feel when you close the unit-- much firmer than HTC's slider phones. The battery mounts at the bottom and there are plastic feet on the bottom. Air vents live at the back and sides and when the fan comes on, it blows rearward. The fan comes on when the unit works hard at playing video or other demanding tasks. At full blast, the fan is easily audible and we suggest not blocking the air vents by laying it on a bed for long periods of time if you object to fan noise.
Back view. Battery goes under the door on the back. The SIM card slot is inside the battery compartment. |
The US version has a permanently attached leather wrap-around case. |
The power slider (with lock position to avoid accidental power on), full size SD card slot and the lone USB 2.0 port. HTC includes a USB dongle that plugs into the Shift's USB port and expands it to 3 USB ports plus an RJ45 Ethernet jack. The 3.5mm stereo headphone jack is on the left side along with the stylus (hard to get out small telescoping affair) and the VGA port is on the rear edge. The Shift's surprisingly good and loud stereo speakers live behind narrow grills that flank the display and there's a built-in mic for voice command under Vista, VoIP calls and etc. The VGA web cam lives at the top left edge of the display rather than at the center as with most notebooks and UMPCs. We found it rather off-putting to sit off to the left while video conferencing in Skype and Skype video calls really bogs down UMPCs running Vista (and even XP). The biometric fingerprint scanner lives near the lower right corner of the display.
To the left of the display are two stacked buttons that handle mouse right and left clicks. On the left there's a mini trackpad that measures 3/4" x 3/4" instead of the usual annoying eraser stick pointer or other lamentable pointing device. Even as a leftie who'd prefer the trackpad on the left side, I found the trackpad, which HTC calls a "microPad" pleasurable to use, though a thumb is too fat and one of the other digits is best used (fat fingered folk may have trouble with the microPad as a result). Of course, the Shift has a touch screen that's best described as soft touch, making it very finger friendly. So you need not use the mouse apparatus at all.
On the US Sprint version only, the case is permanently attached and "should not be removed" according to HTC. It's actually affixed to the bottom rear edge by 3 really tiny-headed TORX screws and HTC tells us this is to pass FCC certification. Who'd have thought a soft suede case could effectively reduce EVDO airwave pollution? The case is brown soft leather on the outside and gray with a suede texture on the inside. The case is nice but annoying at times as you always have to fold it out of the way to use the unit.
The case is attached to the bottom rear edge by 3 tiny torx head screws
and HTC says the case shouldn't be removed lest it no longer meet FCC requirements.
The touch screen on very small UMPCs like the Sony Vaio UX and Fujitsu U810 are hard to use with fingers because the screen is so small and the resolution so high (targets like links are super-tiny). But the Shift's large display and soft-touch screen make finger navigation a breeze, even at 1024 x 600. HTC scores big usability points here. If you want a finger-friendly UMPC, this is it. If you're a hardcore inker who takes a lot of handwritten notes, then touch screens' tendency to vector (play connect the dots between your stylus and palm or knuckle resting on the display) will annoy. To reduce vectoring on touch screen tablet PCs and UMPCs, it helps to switch the display to portrait orientation, but the the Shift is one of the few we've seen that does not support screen rotation-- it's landscape only (HTC didn't see a need for portrait mode, so they didn't include support for it).
Right side with SD card slot, power/hold slider switch, USB port and power jack. |
Side view of the US version with case closed.
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The display is very bright, so bright that the highest setting is just too bright. It's also sharp, though not as sharp as the Vaio UX, OQO model 02 or the U810-- but that's not a completely fair comparison since those machines have much higher pixel densities (they cram more pixels into a smaller space which increases sharpness). The Shift's display is fine at 1024 x 600 and more useful than 800 x 480. For older eyes, we found that increasing the font dpi setting in Vista to 110% made for very readable text with no eye fatigue. For those with poor vision, the 800 x 480 resolution should be quite easy to read. The display surface is matte and the included screen protector adds a bit of gloss but in no way interferes with screen response.
The USB hub has 3 USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet RJ45 jack.
Also scoring big usability points is the excellent keyboard-- the best we've used on a UMPC. If your fingers aren't super-sized, with a little practice you'll actually be able to touch type. The keys are notebook style medium-travel as compared to the Vaio UX's no travel/no tactile feel thumb board and the Fujitsu U810's more squishy long travel keys (that are much smaller since the U810 is quite a bit smaller overall). This is a standard notebook keyboard layout with a number row up top with embedded Fn keys (F1-F10), arrow keys at the bottom right (hold down Fn to turn them into page up/down, home and end), dual standard shift keys, Crl, Alt, Windows Start Menu and a normal size (relatively speaking) space bar. Note that the import version has a UK layout, with a few symbols in different locations from a US keyboard. Be sure to select "UK keyboard" in the initial Vista setup if you've purchased the import GSM/3G version or some symbol keystrokes won't match the key labels (go to the Regional control panel if you've accidentally selected the US keyboard in setup to switch to UK keyboard).
Horsepower and Performance
This isn't the section where you get all jazzed up about UMPCs. They're small, really small-- too small for standard current notebook CPUs. Even the super-thin MacBook Air has lots of room to work with compared to these guys. Hence the HTC Shift runs on the Intel Stealy A110 processor at 800MHz. You'll find that CPU in the Samsung Q1 Ultra, Fujitsu U810 and other current UMPCs. In its favor, the A110 generally outperforms the VIA processor used in current competing UMPCs, though it's outclassed by the Sony Vaio UX3xx and 4xx series which run more powerful Intel CPUs (more so the UX4xx series). The upcoming Intel Atom CPU for mobile devices focuses on low power consumption and longer runtimes-- we don't expect it to run circles around Stealy. 800MHz isn't that bad-- you may well have a notebook that's a few years old with a CPU in that ballpark, and Windows XP, Linux and Mac OSX can manage just fine. The trouble is Vista, an OS that's hungrier than a lone piranha in a pool. And there is no downgrade to Windows XP, for those of you who'll take speed over the latest OS. Some of the drivers are fairly proprietary, so it won't be easy to install XP or XP Tablet Edition yourself and cobble together downloadable drivers.
But the good news is that Vista Business Edition (the only OS version available bundled with the Shift) runs tolerably well. HTC's engineers worked some good mojo here and have made a few optimizations that really make a difference. If you intend to use the Shift as a highly mobile web, email, Office document and occasional (non-HD) video playback machine, it's fine. It also makes a good music player and can handle Windows Media player cranking tunes while you're busy in Word, email and a web browser. We don't suggest running more than 3 heavy titles at once (say Photoshop, Word and a web browser). Given the low resolution (relative to a standard notebook or desktop), you probably won't want to use it for serious movie making, image editing and the like. It's a mobile office, not a portable powerhouse.
The Shift has 1 gig of DDR2 400MHz RAM in the form of a microDIMM. This gives us hope that the machine can be upgraded to a more Vista-friendly 2 gigs (with 1 gig, there's only about 300 megs free with no other apps running). But the machine doesn't scream "take me apart"-- beyond warranty issues, it's not an easy machine to take apart. HTC says it is possible but they have no plans to offer a 2 gig upgrade and taking the machine apart will indeed void the warranty.
The hard drive is a 40 gig 1.8" model spinning at 4200 RPM (the same kind of drive is used in hard drive based MP3 players like the iPod 5G and Zune). These aren't fast drives, but it performs well in the Shift so we aren't complaining. From the factory, there's 21 gigs of free space. Vista takes up a good deal of space and there's a recovery partition which is a good idea since there's no optical drive for restoring from a disc. Given the tight space, you'll probably want to use a USB flash drive or fast SD card to hold movies for playback on the commute or flight. There is no SSD drive option, but the standard drive performs well enough and the machine is already pricey-- a 64 gig flash drive could easily raise the price another $1,000.
The Shift's Windows Experience Score:
CPU: 2.1
RAM: 4.5
Vista graphics for Aero: 3.8
Gaming graphics: 2.7
disk: 3.8
Software
There's absolutely no bloatware-- thank you, HTC! The Shift comes with a clean install of Vista Business Edition, VitaKey biometric security software, a trial of Trend Micro Antivirus, HTC's Shift Control Center (the oddly named application "ShagControl.exe") and drivers for the hardware that comprised the machine. Shift Control Center manages the WiFi, Bluetooth and GSM radio connections, has sliders for brightness and volume, flight mode, and advanced settings where you can reboot Windows Mobile (SnapVUE). Note that the only way to completely wipe out SnapVUE is to use the Clear Storage application in SnapVUE settings. Trend Micro is the closest thing to bloatware, but some sort of anti-virus is necessary. For less brainy machines like the HTC, we prefer the lightweight AVG, which is available in a free edition.
The nifty piece of software on the Shift is Origami Experience 2.0. Those of you who use Windows tablets and UMPCs are likely familiar with the finger-friendly Origami with its large icons and media controls. But the Shift is the first device to ship with the 2.0 version (as of this writing you can't even download it to upgrade a 1.0 machine). Version 2.0 adds a lovely information desktop with widgets, called Origami Now and features a web browser (customized IE) that supports scrolling by dragging the page and other cool stuff. UMPC users who are into Origami will likely love this new version.
The Origami Now! component of Origami 2.0. It has widgets for weather, notes, RSS feeds, images and more.
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Networking-- lots of it
The HTC is a very connected mobile PC with high speed wide area networking in the form of 3G or EVDO, WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 and wired Ethernet. You need not activate the Sprint EVDO module and account if you prefer not, nor do you need to insert a SIM in the GSM/3G version, but SnapVUE won't be able to do email, sync with an Exchange server or download weather information without one of these since it does not see or use the WiFi module. We were pleased with both the HSPDA and EVDO rev. A connection speeds-- they're equivalent to a slower WiFi connection and make web browsing and email downloads a pleasure. We even survived 30 megs of Windows Updates without pulling our hair out.
3G Reception on the GSM unlocked version is weaker than some recent HTC PDA phones like the Tilt. The antenna is at the back edge of the device and you'll get better reception if you keep your hands off that section. Also, the display portion itself covers part of the antenna area when the Shift is in tablet or flat mode. Swing the display up to notebook mode and you'll get another bar of 3G. WiFi reception isn't as strong as the average notebook, and is in fact somewhat weak (3 bars according to Windows Vista vs. 4-5 bars on better notebooks).
On the SnapVUE side, email with attachments download quickly-- though there's little point to downloading attachments since Office Mobile is missing from the Windows Mobile side of things and there's no way to transfer attachments to the Vista side or view them from Vista unless you want to do some of that hacking mentioned earlier. On our hacked units, browsing speeds using HSDPA and EVDO were similar to the AT&T Tilt over HSDPA and the HTC Mogul on Sprint.
Battery
Most UMPCs battery life rivals a full-sized notebook, which is to say not great at 2 hours. The Shift's 2700mAh 12v Lithium Ion battery lasts 2 hours on a charge in Vista according to HTC. In our tests with either WiFi or the WAN radio on, Bluetooth off, power savings set to "Balanced" and the screen set to half brightness, we averaged 2 to 2.5 hours when surfing the web with frequent page turns, working with Office documents and email. We got about 1.7 hours of iTunes video playback (video on an SD card). Standard spare batteries are available for separate purchase, and HTC tells us they currently have no plans to offer an extended battery (given the device's design, we can't imagine how they'd make one). Battery life in SnapVUE is about 2 days with push email on. This assumes vanilla use of SnapVUE and not hacked Windows Mobile and use of a 3rd party web browser, video player and the like for hours at a time.
Conclusion
Certainly one of the best UMPCs we've seen to date with a large display and usable keyboard. Ultra-mobile computers are highly personal devices, so we can't say the Shift is for you: if you want a near notebook replacement with a display that's easy on the eyes, a relatively good typing experience and wide area networking via cellular then the HTC is a good fit. If you want something that will fit in an oversized pocket rather than a notebook substitute, consider the significantly smaller OQO model 02 or Sony Vaio UX (or the Fujitsu U810 as a compromise between the two). We say that the HTC Shift has the best usability of any UMPC thanks to its very readable display, finger-friendliness and top-notch keyboard. The integrated high speed wide area networking is perfect for those whose travels extend beyond hotspots and home/work networks and there's WiFi for home/work/Starbucks. Bluetooth 2.0 means you can use Bluetooth mice, stereo headsets and more so you need not carry the USB hub with you.
Pro: Very touch-friendly display, excellent keyboard that beats all other UMPCs including the Fujitsu U810. SnapVUE offers instant-on access to email, SMS and weather (also PIM data if you sync it with an Exchange server) using the familiar Windows Mobile environment. More responsive than most Vista UMPCs. Super-small and light charger shaves off the total carry-weight difference between the Shift and smaller devices like the U810. USB hub with Ethernet included (take that, Apple!). Biometric fingerprint scanner works well and is a must for a device this portable.
Con: Expensive. SnapVUE (Windows Mobile) doesn't offer access to all the programs and features of Windows Mobile-- a real shame. SnapVUE only syncs with MS Exchange for PIM data. Battery life is mediocre at 2 to 2:30 hours in Vista. As with all UMPCs, the 800MHz Shift isn't for heavy duty computing but rather Office, email, web and music playback. There's a bug where the SD card sometimes disappears after the unit has slept (a reboot brings the card back).
Price: $1,499 for the US Sprint version, $1,500 to $1650 estimated for the GSM version through importers.
Web Site: www.htc.com
Quick and Easy Hacking Guide for WinMo on the Shift:
1) First you'll want to gain access the programs group. Open the email app on SnapVUE and start a new message. Go to the menu marked "Menu" at the bottom of the email screen and choose "insert" -> "picture". This allows you to browse for pictures and it's the closet thing we have to a file manager at the moment. Navigate to the Windows directory, then the Start Menu (in the Windows directory) and highlight the Programs folder if it isn't already. Hit Control-C on the keyboard to copy it. Navigate back up to Windows/Settings and press Control-V to paste the Programs folder inside the Settings folder. Cancel out of email creation.
Now when you open Settings in SnapVue, you should see a colored folder called Programs. Open it and you'll see most (but not all) of the usual Windows Mobile programs, including File Manager.
The unlocked GSM version of the Shift has the registry set to not run CAB files. We'll need to change that so we can install programs in SnapVUE. Either email yourself a Windows Mobile .exe format registry editor (CAB files of a registry editor won't work) or copy it to the Program Files folder in SnapVUE using Vista. Here's s a free registry editor in exe format courtesy of the folks at xda-developers.com (the place to go for extensive hacking discussions of HTC products including the Shift). The US Sprint CDMA version does run CAB files by default, so you can skip the registry editing section if you have the US version of the Shift.
2) How to copy files to WinMo from Vista?
First install Windows Mobile Device Center (or the latest upgrade to it if it's pre-installed).
In Vista, connect via the cellular modem-- i.e.: surf on Vista to activate the modem, then switch to WinMo and run Internet Sharing in our newly found Programs group to disconnect (you may have to press "connect", then press "disconnect". You should hear the Windows hardware unplugged sound from the Vista side of things when you do this. Now run Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). After several seconds it should say it's connecting (and the first time it connects it will install drivers for the WinMo device). If this doesn't happen, have patience, rinse and repeat-- connect modem to the Internet in Vista, then use Internet Sharing to disconnect. Eventually you'll get it :). Also close web browsers and other apps that access the Net because they'll reactivate the modem connection which will drop the virtual USB connection for WMDC.
One WMDC has connected, connect without establishing a partnership and select the file browsing option. Copy the registry editor to the Program Files directory. You could connect with a partnership, if you wish to sync your Outlook data to WinMo. Note that we've seen occasional ActiveSync memory error notifications when we've done this because SnapVUE doesn't have a great deal of RAM.
2a) If you don't use Exchange ActiveSync and don't want to sync via WMDC, another way to get your PIM data on the device is by copying the PIM.vol file from the root level of your other Windows Mobile device (you do have a WinMo phone, don't you?) to your hard drive. Then copy it to the root level of the Shift's WinMo drive. Reboot SnapVUE and voila-- your calendar, contacts, tasks and notes should all be there.
Switch back to WinMo and use the File Manager to run the registry editor (browse to the Program Files directory to find it and run it). You can create a shortcut to the registry editor and put it in Windows/Settings/Program Files for easier access in the future.
3) Edit registry to allow CAB files:
Using the Windows Mobile registry editor, navigate to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Cabfile\Shell\Open\command\
Under "Default" type: wceload.exe "%1" /nodelete
Save and exit. Now you can install programs inside WinMo via CAB file.
4) Want Opera, Netfront, or other apps on SnapVUE? Use Vista to copy the CAB files to the My Documents folder using the method described in step 2. Switch back to Windows Mobile and run the CAB files via File Explorer. QuickMenu, a very handy Start Menu replacement is free and you install that (go to its options and set it to show the "Q" icon in the menu bar, that way you'll always have access to it). If Quick Menu causes stability programs at WinMo boot, disable the run at startup option and launch it manually after boot by tapping its icon (you did create a shortcut to it in Programs, right?). If you want MS Office Mobile, Microsoft sells it as a separate purchase for $50.
Important Note: The Shift has only 64 megs of RAM and 128 megs of ROM, the bare minimum for a Windows Mobile Professional Pocket PC. There are only ~27 to 29 megs of free storage space. There is currently no way to access the SD card slot to expand storage. This means you can't install lots and lots of large programs. You really need to leave 10 megs storage free, especially if you use the email feature in SnapVUE (email and attachments take up space). So pick 17 megs or so of your must have apps and install those. Remember to delete large CAB files from the WinMo file system after you've installed them to free up space.
5) There currently is no way to hard reset SnapVUE and wipe it out clean if things get munged other than by using the Clear Storage app in SnapVUE settings. This means if SnapVUE won't boot, you're in trouble. We have had no stability issues though, except when replacing programs in flash ROM. For example, there's no functional IE, Windows Media Player Mobile or Office Mobile on the device. The files are there in the Windows directory but they don't actually work. We suggest you resist the temptation to overwrite them using a file manager like Resco Explorer than can overwrite files in flash ROM. Legal issues aside, we nearly bricked SnapVUE by testing IE 6.1 on the WinMo side. It got stuck in a notification error look complaining about Webview.dll and it took about 15 attempts and mucho patience to get to Settings-> Clear Storage before it hung up in that loop.
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Display: 7" 32K color touch screen, 800 x 480 and 1024 x 600 resolutions (can support other resolutions on the internal display but these are the recommended resolutions). VGA out to drive an external monitor (no HDMI port). Intel GMA950 integrated video chipset with 64 megs memory (can use up to 255 megs via shared memory).
Battery: 2700 mAh, 12v Lithium
Ion rechargeable. Extremely compact world charger included. Vista runtime: 2 hours, SnapVUE (WinMo) standby time: up to 53 hours with push email on and 10 days with push email off.
Performance: Intel
A100 processor running at 800MHz for Windows Vista. 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7500 CPU running at 400MHz for SnapVUE (Windows Mobile). Vista specs: 1 gig DDR2 RAM (microDIMM), 40 gig 1.8" hard drive. GSM version hard drive: 34.2 gigs capacity from the factory (formatted with recovery partition) and ~25 gigs available with Vista and factory software installed. Intel 945 chipset. Windows Mobile SnapVUE specs: 64 megs RAM (with 24 megs free at boot), 128 megs flash ROM with 27 megs available).
Size: 207mm x 129mm x 25mm ( 8.15 x 5.08 x 0.98 inches). Weight: 800 grams (1.76 lbs).
Import GSM version: Quad band GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands. Triband 3G HSDPA: 850/1900/2100MHz. Works anywhere in the world GSM and/or 3G are available. No voice services included (no phone calls, data only).
US CDMA version: Dual band CDMA digital radio (800/1900MHz) with EVDO rev. A for fast data.
Camera: VGA web camera.
Audio: Built
in stereo speakers, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone
jack.
Ports: One USB 2.0 port, VGA port, 3.5mm stereo headphones/headset jack. Included compact USB 2.0 port has 3 USB ports and Ethernet.
Networking: Integrated
WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0. Ethernet via included adapter.
Software: Windows Vista Business Edition. Origami 2.0, HTC Control Center software, VitaKey software for fingerprint scanner, Trend Micro Antivirus 90 day trial included. SnapVUE: Windows
Mobile 6.0 Professional Edition operating system (most features disabled). Recovery partition on hard drive for Vista restores, no disc included.
Expansion: 1
SD (Secure Digital) slot supporting
SDIO and SDHC.
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