I really like gadgets, electronic toys, and technology. Sorry, I mean, um, tools. Yeah, tools. Anyway — what a shock, right? Coming from a Church IT guy? Well, I see plenty of cool stuff, I have some of it, and I look forward to an occasional new toy when I can afford it. But I haven’t seen the Perfect Computer. Until now. So I’m going to break with regularly scheduled programming (wow, what a cliché, especially for someone who doesn’t have any!) and tell you about it.
The HTC Shift is a UMPC. It has:
- An 800 MHz Intel processor (A110)
- Intel 945GU Express graphics
- 7-inch widescreen touch display
- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard suitable for touch-typing
- Vista Business OS
- Media Player 11
- Tri-Band UMTS/HSPDA and Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0
- Trackpad, fingerprint reader, camera
- VGA output to a real monitor if you want/need it
So basically, wrap a very respectable laptop and cell phone in a fit-in-a-large-pocket package, give it every kind of connectivity you could ever ask for, WiFi to cell phone), a few extra gadgets thrown in for good measure.
Not much else to say. It’s not even available in the US yet. You can Google around and find plenty of more information. Now, pardon me while I go get my drool mop…
To be the perfect mobile device though it also must have great battery life. 8 hours of use would make me pretty happy :-)
Yes I agree…I haven’t seen any specs on the claimed battery life for this thing. I could probably survive during the day with four hours of life before having to plug it in. Or, a really small power cord that I could plug into my pocket. Finding power usually isn’t the issue, it’s that the AC/DC adapter is as big as the device many times! Also interesting to see what drains the battery most: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and/or cellular. I’d likely use WiFi most of the time, and pop my Treo’s SIM card in occasionally for on-the-road GPRS/EDGE data. But Lakeview has WiFi almost everywhere (and of course I have it at home!) so that takes care of 98% of my introverted-personality life ;-)
I’m also a bit concerned about the keyboard. Will I really be able to touch type on it? I hope I have the opportunity to find out :-)
So maybe I’ll slightly revise my outlook — it’s the most Perfect Computer I’ve seen yet, but that just means a better one hasn’t come out. And it’s still based just on the specs, no evidence!
Also interesting to note I’ve seen a few places talk about it dual-booting Windows Mobile and Vista Business. Not sure how that’s going to work if it’s true, but I haven’t used either so it’ll all be new to me (if I get one, of course…).
[…] have contemplated the HTC Shift in the past. It does not appear to be released in the US yet, however, and the price when it is […]