HTC Shift UMPC photo tour

Htc_shift_smallBy now you know all the rumors of HTC entering the UMPC market are true. Yesterday’s announcement of the HTC Shift from CTIA made for a very interesting splash in the small handheld market. Short of driving from Philly to Orlando, we had to see if someone could hook us up with some more photos of the device. For the record, I’ve made the drive in under 19 hours, but I was younger and spry back then. ;) It just so happens, Dave Zatz is on the scene and offered to fill some film flash memory with a few shots of the Shift for us. I was very curious to see the ports, hardware buttons and of course, the screen sliding mechanism.

Bear in mind that the Shift was under glass; it would have cost us extra for a brick through the display to get better pics and frankly, our budget is low at the end of the month. Still, Dave got some shots that shed a little more light on the Shift.Here’s one of the right front face. Starting at the top, the pinhole would appear to be a microphone to me. The first hardware button has a symbol I would equate to power, but I’m not sure that makes sense. Underneath that, it looks like some type of zoom or resolution switching button. I’ll go with small trackpad after that, but then I’m stumped: small speaker, perhaps? Lastly, we see a small fingerprint reader. Overall, I like the rounded edges of the device that are very apparent in this view. It also appears that the keys (or a portion of them) are backlit.Htc_shift_6We try to keep things clean for the kids, but we do have a full-frontal view below. You can see the left and right mouse buttons at the top left, with a camera directly above them. It’s difficult to tell, but it appears to be a dedicated Windows key at the bottom left. Under the screen are the typical indicator lights of hard drive activity, battery life, etc….there could be more there. The key spacing looks generous, but you have to remember that the device has a seven-inch screen, meaning the width of the keyboard is likely between five- and six-inches.Htc_shift_1On the left side, there’s not much to see as the device is very ‘clean’ in design. No ports that I can find, except for a lone headphone jack on the base.Htc_shift_4Let’s go back to the right side as there’s something here. We’ve got the A/C power coming in at the back right. There’s definitely a USB port here as well as a silver button (I’d go with power here) and what looks to be a card reader. The USB port on this side is the only USB I’ve seen on the device.Htc_shift_5Finally, we get to the back of the Shift. This was most interesting to me as it shows the screen sliding mechanism. Looks like the same general two-post sliding system on my XV6700 or HTC Apache. That device slides perfectly, so I hope that HTC keeps that perfection on a larger device. We also have a VGA-out port: looks like you can pop the Shift on a monitor and use a USB keyboard for a small office setup. This pic also confirms the suspicion that the shift’s screen doesn’t fold over like a convertible tablet PC. It’s more like a slate since you always have access to the screen, but can open up for the keyboard as needed.Htc_shift_3Thanks again to Dave Zatz for the pictures!

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