[General Questions and Answers] Osir1s:
CAN THE SHIFT STILL MAKE A SPLASH IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

To a lot of the community it must seem that the highpoint of the HTC Shifts anticipation was the Hugo Ortega review of the device back in August [Additional Video Link]. The community seemed to Match Hugo’s enthusiasm for the device at the time, and understandably; the device has the potential to take the UMPC and pocketPC platform a great leap forward and all, since its first revelation for sub $2000. But since that high note and as more details have trickled out about the Shift the enthusiasm from both communities (UMPC and Pocket PC) seems to have diminished in proportional response [Comments here offer a glimpse to some of the broad criticisms now circulating].

The HTC Shift isn’t the first device to have specification changes or features taken out along the production path. First to go has been the 1.2Ghz Processor, followed by Windows Mobile 6 (at least a full version), next was voice capabilities (its quite possible these were never going to be available but given the cellular functionality of the device one wonders), then went the hope for at least a 1024x600 resolution screen and lastly the most recent revelation is that we can expect only 2hours of Vista battery life [New specs link – thanks to Kaz covering first hand GITEX2007].

Now the above paragraph might make it seem that the HTC shift has been butchered from its original splendour, so lets take a look at these change and its general specs. This isnt a review of the device, I haven’t been blessed to try the device, its just my interpretations of where the Shift is at now as it prepares to ship, combined with my UMPC experience but mainly as a long time Windows Mobile user and HTC enthusiast.

Processor: so we’ve gone from 1.2Ghz Via Chip down to the Intel A110 Stealy 800Mhz. It’s not all bad news, it’s the same processor used by popular UMPCs such as the Samsung Q1 Ultra, and is increasingly be used by other UMPCs such as the Kojinsha and Fujitsu. Most users have reported things run smoothly on these platforms, including Vista so unless you’re planning on using your UMPC as a video encoder one might suspect its going to do the usual run of the mill UMPC stuff just fine with 800Mhz. Despite a slow boot up time (possibly an anomaly, possibly could be corrected with tweaks) the multi-tasking from the Ortega video appeared quite smooth and responsive.

Windows Mobile (WM): When it was originally reported that WM would ship on the device I was confused as to what could possibly be the advantages of such an approach. Samsung had already proven you could build a dialler and phone functionality into the OS so why waste time putting WM on there.

After seeing the video review it made perfect sense. Use WM to do the things you don’t need vista for or that WM can do due to its longer battery life. This seemed to make sense. Why boot up Vista with its limited lifespan when I could get plenty more WiFi, Media playing, Powerpointing, Emailing done right there in Windows Mobile. Leaving Vista for the higher end tasks such as work, proper editing, more in-depth outlook management, data management, and maybe even a game or two?

Unfortunately the latest news from GITEX 2007, and Kaz’s adventures there, seems to point to WM being nothing more than ‘an advanced BIOS with a modem (HSDPA) for push-email support’. I think this is a big mistake as crippling WM in such a way limits its potential to being just a weak sideshow feature to Vista. Whilst being able to access the weather information and get my emails from HSDPA is nice, I believe my vision of WM above would make more sense.

However, if its one thing WM communities have shown though is never say die when it comes to changing our devices to suit. Short of HTC limiting the WM partition or WM RAM, a sense of optimism for a cooked full version of WM might not be out of the question.

Voice Capabilities: HTC seem to have always taken the view that voice capabilities for this device do not exist. It seems to be a foregone conclusion, and whilst any feature is welcome, I question if anyone would truly replace their phone with this device had it the voice capabilities. Despite this its range of connectivity options and HSDPA is a leg above most UMPCs on the market.

The Screen: After Hugo’s review there were mixed interpretations of what native resolutions the device supported. This has been cleared up quite succinctly. The device will ship with 800x480. When questioned about using a lower resolution spec’d screen Middle East Operations Manager for HTC Kevin Chen had this to say:

‘The answer is simple. The screen is only 7" and since power consumption has to be low, HTC decided on the low resolution screen.’ [Source – Kaz’s Interview]

That answer actually makes the device sound sub-par, and whilst higher resolutions are always a nice treat there is something to be said along the lines of screen size. Releasing a device this late in 2007 with such a screen when the standard has clearly moved to 1024 is slightly disappointing but on the whole doesn’t diminish the device too much. As the CEO said it’s a 7” screen, 800x480 isn’t going to look shocking on that size device. People not use to an UMPC with a higher resolution are unlikely to be greatly phased, and (fingers crossed) the interoperated mode which upscales the screen to 1024x600 looked good on Hugos review. There is the distinct possibility that HTC may have got this right where other UMPC manufactures have persistently failed users.

HDD: The device now ships with a 40G drive and a 60G option, quite reasonable for the UMPC, but it has increasingly come under fire for not having SSD or at least the option. Whilst I agree the option would be nice, this is HTCs first foray into this market, especially in such a hybrid manner. I think it is understandable they haven’t opted for the SSD option due to simply not knowing how the device will go and what its profit margin will be in the end. SSD also runs against the prime criteria of this device, which from HTC seems to have been an extremely competitive price point. Whilst the exact price has not been confirmed, the places taking pre-orders are placing their bets on $1400-1600. SSD on average means an instant increase in price of $400-500 which would erode away any price edge HTC have over the competition with this device.

Battery Life: Despite being able to see alternatives or the upside of most of the specs and changes with the Shift I really can’t say I or anyone is impressed with 2 hours. Unless that is 2 hours with everything on and everything running non stop that one is left wonder where our 3hr standard went? Hugo reported 3Hrs in his review, and 3hrs is the least the community has come to expect from an UMPC. I’m not sure how HTC can reconcile this issue unless its 2 hours of maximum usability (ie everything on, everything being used for those whole 120mins). I would suspect it highly likely an XP version could be put on the device by the user (as it will not ship with XP) but whether this would increase the 2 Hrs significantly is unknown.

HTCs website for the shift says: “Why should I compromise?” and that’s an excellent question HTC, why should we compromise our UMPC experience with 2hours of battery life? I suspect you cannot win an UMPC argument armed with 2hours of battery life, and with that in mind I would ask them to answer that question for themselves. If the market has to answer it for HTC on this issue I wouldn’t be expecting a favourable outcome.[/b]