HTC Athena (X7500): a UMTS/HSDPA quad-band UMPC?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Dec 21st 2006 7:45AM
posted Dec 21st 2006 7:45AM
Ok kids, hang onto your hats and dose a grain of salt. According to the lads over at Mobile-Review, the HTC Athena (X7500) is a much hotter and much more highly spec'd device like we thought (hoped) yesterday when it first graced our pages. Certainly, none of this is confirmed, but that beefy Windows Mobile PPC Phone Edition device is now rumored to be running on a 624MHz Intel Bulverde processor pumping away beneath a 5-inch, 262k-color VGA (640x480) touch-sensitive display. It's overall thickness is in part explained by the fact that it spins either an 8 or 10GB disk drive while a 2100mAh Li-Poly battery provides up to 6 hours of talk, 300 hours of standby, or 8 hours of WMV video playback. Those specs certainly make more sense. Better yet, it's said to come in two flavors: one for Europe, and a UMTS/HSDPA quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE flavor for the US unlike initial reports. Other notable features include GPS, a standard 3.5-mm jack for headphones, 2 megapixel cam with LED plus another cam up front for video conferencing, dual stereo speakers with 3D surround, USB 2.0 and another USB 1.1 host, TV-out, 802.11b/g WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP/AVRCP profile support. The unit weighs in at 12.3-ounces (350-grams) / 5.24 x 3.8 x 0.78-inches (133 x 97 x 20-mm) making that QWERTY (barely) usable as a table-top keyboard and not some awkwardly held thumbpad. Estimated to be priced between $1,500 and $2,000 which makes it a non-starter for most, if true. Maybe this is HTC's first take at their UMPC after all. Be sure to hit the read link for the complete list of specifications.
[Via PhoneArena]
Man I want one of these! Just what I'm looking for. Part phone, part notebook PC!
EXCELLENT!
I think I still like the HTC Universal form factor better. If you pull this thing out in public and start using it you're going to really be noticed. Also, looks like you couldn't hold this thing in your two hands and thumb with it. So if you have to set it on a table or bar or whatever, then that makes it less useful. The HTC Universal (a.k.a. Jasjar) can be held in two hands and thumbed.
So this form factor might work well as a UMPC, but I really believe that for use as a phone, the slide out QWERTY keyboards or the flip around screen of the HTC Universal is the best design. Candy bar style keyboards of the Motorola Q/Palm/Blackberry are good, but the keys are small.
If you're in the market for one of these devices, I suggest never buying one sight unseen. You need to try them out, hold 'em in your hands, see if the keyboard feels comfortable.
Many stores now have working devices on display that you can try out. Try sending an email or text message to yourself before you buy. This is really the acid test for a smarphone... You should be able to pick up the device and send a message without reading a book or asking the salesman. These devices were designed for texting and emailing. If the U.I. doesn't make it obvious how to do that, then you have to wonder how the rest of the user experience is going to be.
dang, I went on a rant!