With the release of the X7500 Advantage, the rapidly dissolving border between mobile smartphones and laptop PC's has been pretty much broken down.
Combining some features previously thought impossible to install in a mobile phone whilst trying to maintain portability, HTC are aiming squarely at the market of business-centric handsets with no compromise on trimming or space-saving.
With a fingerprint sensor, 40GB HDD Drive, 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, the HTC Shift is certainly well-equipped and more closely resembles a mini-laptop than a smartphone. With a 7-inch wide touchscreen and adjustable screen angle allowing for easy typing, there should be no difficulty in reading any your emails.
Coming with Windows Vista Business, as opposed to the usual Windows Mobile 6 that's becoming commonplace in the smartphone market these days, HTC are ensuring that the Shift has enough features in its locker that currently will not be available anywhere else.
Though it's to be expected on a device like this, the sheer wealth of connection options available are frankly-mind-boggling. Included are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G HSDPA for high speed data transfers and video calls (which are transferred via a high-quality 1.2 Mega Pixel camera.)
As the HTC Shift is packed with such a wide-array of features, you would expect it to be no lightweight dandy and you'd be right. Weighing in at a hefty 800g (that's almost 10 Nokia 6300's) this is one mobile phone that is barely pocketable, justifying its status as a mini-laptop.
Though in terms of features the Shift would seem to have all the bases covered, there are some critical criteria that need to be met if the Shift is going to have any chance of success. The battery and processor need to fare much-better than the recent disappointing HTC TYTN II.
The price also is an issue when you take into consideration that a mid-range laptop can be found for under ?700 and that the UMPC market is already well established, with big players such as the Sony Vaio UX1XN involved. The expected SIM Free retail price of the Shift is expected to be around the ?840 mark, possibly in order to lighten your pocket enough to cope with the weight, which is similar to the Sony's price. Of course there is one big advantage to the HTC, the fact that it does not require plug in equipment to access the internet where no Wi-Fi is available. The fact it is a GSM unit mean that you will also be able to buy it on contract, significantly reducing the cost.
Overall this is an impressive looking model and although it is quite hefty, it's good to see a manufacturer concentrating on features rather than appeal, although to be fair, it's not a bad looking beast.
The is due to be launched mid-January 08 and you should first expect it to be available on and .
