HTC Shift: what the DualCor cPC should have been?
UMPC Portal has some leaked docs that highlight several upcoming HTC products; I had seen one of the Windows Mobile devices at the Boy Genius Report, but Kornel rightly zeroed in on what appears to be the HTC Shift unless it’s a slightly different model. Sure it’s going by the name Shangri-La (X9500), but whatever you call it, you can’t call it a traditional UMPC. Why not? It runs both Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Mobile 6 Professional! While that architecture might sound familiar from another company, I suspect HTC will be more successful at a mass-market product launch.
I won’t steal their thunder so click on over to the UMPC Portal for all of the details. I will state one cautionary note: it appears that this unit uses a Qualcomm chip for the phone side of the house. Due to a pending lawsuit, new phone devices using Qualcomm chips aren’t getting into the U.S. so let’s hope that the legal issues get resolved quickly!
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so can i use this as a phone. paired with a bluetooth headset?
Correct. It’s a UMPC with phone and WWAN capability. And a keyboard. And instant on with the Windows Mobile function. And….. ;)
I’ll believe it when I’ll see it.
DualCor has been working on this for, what, at least 3 years now (and announced it in late 2005, early 06) without any commercial product to date.
so would this be the first (cellular) phone to run windows xp/vista?
Technically no. The Flybook V5 runs Vista, has integrated HDSPA and GSM for voice. I had a similar config and made voice calls with a prior model running XP as shown here: http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkotr_audio_edition/2006/11/jkontherun_audi_1.html
Still, it’s no less impressive to have a UMPC with WinMo and voice.
Man am I torn! I tried to buy a DualCor last year only to find it never made it into production. I have an HTC Trinity and want to upgrade to a bigger screen. (I do a lot of web browsing) and would like a bigger screen. I only want one device to carry (in my purse). I have been reading that HDDs might not be the most stable choice for all day mobility. (Mine would be in the car, in my purse, on the desk at work…it would be my everything.) I really can’t decide whether the Advantage running WM6 is plenty or if I would get enough out of the Shangri-La (besides the cool factor) to make it worth carrying the bigger device. Any opinions?
Many humble apologies for the multiple posts! My mobile browser said it wasn’t accepting my entry, so I kept trying. Guess my mobile experience is still less than ideal!
Ignore what I wrote about it only being EDGE capable – It’s full HSDPA + HSUPA! Or, at least that Qualcomm chip is…
Aura: I use HTC Advantage and love it. The experience is very close to using a full-scale laptop, if you do a lot of web-browsing Advantage will do an admirable job. Mind you, there are some websites that won’t work well on any of the Windows Mobile (or nay other PDA devices for that matter). These are really exceptions rather than a rule though (e.g. sites using Flash Media Server). In real-life, I have never had a problem.
I do not know what battery life will be like with the Shift but I would venture a guess that Advantage does better – PDAs usually do. I get a full day of use of it – and I use it heavily as I often tether it to my laptop and use it as a 3G modem.
Of course, I DO want the Shift… but then again, I DO want nearly all new toys :-)
Bruno
Bruno: Thanks! You gave me the one piece of info that may actually help me decide…FLASH!
My salon uses an online appointment service that uses Flash. If any mobile device isn’t going to allow Flash, but the PC portion of the Shift will, that solves 2 problems for me!