March 20th, 2008

A closer look at the HTC Shift from Sprint

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 1:19 am

Categories: Windows Mobile, UMPC, Ultra portable PC, Review, Gadgets, Wireless carriers, HTC

Tags: High Tech Computer Corp., Device, Microsoft Windows Vista, Sprint Communications, HTC Shift, SnapVUE 1.8, A/C Adapter Brick, Origami Central Application, Keyboards, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn)

I’ve been using an HTC Shift from Sprint for over a week now and as you can see in the more than 140 photos and screenshots found in my image gallery and quick and dirty post yesterday I have had a chance to try out most all aspects of the device. As I said yesterday, I was planning to post my full review next Monday, 24 March, but Amazon posted a pre-order page of the device. The HTC Shift from Sprint has a model designtation of HTC X9000 and a suggested retail price of US$1,499.

The last major HTC device I reviewed was the HTC Advantage and since that time I have been a bit excited, as has most of the ultra portable crowd, about the HTC Shift. There are some reviews online for the GSM version of the HTC Shift that is available in Europe, but that is not the version being officially announced in the U.S. next week since there are still legal issues with Qualcomm and their chips. Sprint will be announcing the HTC Shift on Monday, 24 March and this version has an integrated EV-DO/CDMA radio for wireless access on the go.

What’s in the box? I have couple of unboxing photos in my image gallery and as you can see HTC and Sprint did an excellent job in packaging the Shift, which I would expect for a device costing almost US$1500. The black inner box is solid, lined with thick foam and protects the contents. Inside you will find a very compact A/C adapter (great job here HTC) in a cool draw string sack, screen protector, USB hub with 3 USB ports, an ethernet port, and a miniUSB port, and the HTC Shift in brown leather case. There were no recovery disks included with my review sample and HTC later sent along the trial of Microsoft Office that should be included with shipping models.

What is up with the leather case? The device has a leather case made out of the same high quality material found on the HTC Advantage. I noticed that the case is secured with 3 posts to the device and there did not appear to be any way to remove the case. I talked with HTC about this and apparently the case is actually required to pass FCC testing because it increases the buffer zone (distance between the device and your body). The Shift is different than other UMPC/ulta portable computers because it has an always-on component with SnapVUE. It also has a CDMA radio that actually pings the cell towers more often than a GSM device. I guess the test simulated carrying the HTC Shift under your arm like a small woman’s handbag and the case was needed to pass this test. I do not recommend you try removing the case because you may never get it back on. Then again, as I will talk about below I noticed the case can get in the way at time too.

Specifications: Here are the hardware specs that I can confirm are on this model, the HTC Shift X9000 from Sprint:

A walk around the hardware: Let’s start a tour around the Shift by looking at the sides and bottom since most of the buttons and functions are on the face or keyboard. On the left side you will find a 3.5 mm headset jack up top, the stylus silo in the middle, and mic holes (I think) down towards the bottom. The stylus is decent, but I do not like the way it slides back into itself when I am trying to use it. I suppose you don’t really need to use the stylus too much since the touchscreen is very sensitive and vectors like crazy.

On the right side, you will find the DC-in port, USB 2.0 port, power/hold switch, and Secure Digital slot. Along the back (top) you will find the VGA out port so you can easily connect to an external monitor. On the back you will find 3 small vents and the battery cover that takes up the entire width and about half of the height of the Shift.

Starting at the top left of the front of the Shift is the 640×480 VGA camera for video conferencing with the left and right mouse buttons below this, the left stereo speaker and finally the SnapVUE button on the lower left of the display. There is a light sensor at the top right, then the Control Center button, resolution switch button, microPad touch pad, right stereo speaker, and biometric fingerprint scanner.

The microPad touch pad and two mouse buttons work very well together and let you navigate and operate the Shift with ease. I would like to see this touch pad included on other ultra portables too.

A set of indicator lights in a long bar appear along the bottom of the front of the Shift below the display. There are indicator lights for power, battery, CAPS lock, hard disk activity, Bluetooth/WiFi, CDMA data connection, and Email/SMS. They glow in orange, green, yellow, and red for different states.

Hardware - 800×480 display: The 7 inch 800×480 display may have been fine for first generation UMPC/ultra portable devices, but at this time 1024×600 is really the minimum resolution for a 7 inch display. The Shift does have the ability to switch into 1024×600 resolution, but I personally found this mode a bit too “fuzzy” when looking at text. The higher resolution mode was nice for web browsing and may be adequate for many people. The 800×480 resolution is clear and looks good with superb brightness, but this resolution requires you to scroll too much and hides most dialog boxes.

Hardware - 66-key QWERTY keyboard: The QWERTY keyboard is the BEST keyboard I have ever tried on an ultra portable device. It beats my Fujitsu U810 and I have to say I even like it better than my full size Think Outside keyboard because it has a nice solid feel, good spacing, and good key travel. I was actually able to use it with two hands, almost like a full size keyboard and did not have to hunt and peck with my index finger like I do on my Fujitsu U810. I have heard people say it is very similar to the EeePC, but I do not have one of these to compare it with. I started writing this review on the HTC Shift, but the urgent need to finish before I wanted to resulted in me switching to my MacBook Pro for quicker text entry on a larger display.

Hardware - wireless connectivity: One of the major advantages of the HTC Shift over most other UMPC/ultra portables is the inclusion of an EV-DO wireless radio. Unfortunately, EV-DO Rev. A is not included, but maybe there will be a future update that upgrades the radio. Unfortunately, Sprint doesn’t seem to have that great of coverage in the areas I travel and I found the HTC Shift had limited connectivity with Sprint. I do have great AT&T coverage so a lower cost GSM Shift would appeal to me more.

The Shift also has the standard wireless features of Bluetooth and WiFi. Range and strength with WiFi was decent, but I have seen better with some devices.

Hardware - accessories included: The HTC Shift comes with the very nice leather case that I mentioned earlier. The A/C adapter brick is very small and I was pleased to see such a small unit included. It takes about 3 hours to charge the Shift’s rather small battery though so I guess there is a trade-off for the small size.

A stereo headset, screen protector, accessory pouch, and 4 port USB hub is included with the HTC Shift. The 4 port USB hub has 3 USB 2.0 ports, an ethernet port, and a miniUSB connector. It is very glossy and a fingerprint magnet, but it is a nice addition to extend some functionality.

I was a bit disappointed that there were no recovery disks or disks to take the Shift back to XP. My Fujitsu U810 (I bought it for US$930 with the docking cradle and extra extended battery) came with Vista installed and XP Tablet Edition disks. I understand it may be quite difficult to get SnapVUE and other features running in XP though so not including these disks isn’t a major issue.

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