Will the real HTC Wizard please stand up?
posted May 31st 2005 3:19AM
Remember yesterday how we mumbled something about how some semi-reliable info surfaced about that new
HTC Wizard Pocket PC Phone? Yeah, well, maybe that info
wasn't quite reliable enough, because a second set of specs, along with a new pic, have turned up. And while there are
some discrepancies between today's specs and yesterday's specs (today's list the HTC Wizard as running on
Windows Mobile 5.0 and
having quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, a 2.8-inch LCD screen, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM, a 2.1 megapixel camera, Bluetooth,
802.11b WiFi, and a miniSD memory
card slot), the most significant difference/improvement is that today's pic shows the phone with a mini QWERTY
keyboard that slides out horizontally. No way of saying for sure which is the real Wizard (must… resist… cheap…
AD&D… pun…), but there's definitely something going on here; we just don't know precisely what yet.
[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]
For some reason I would assume that a qwerty would open to the right, not to the left... At least nearly all current models do it like that.
I think it's better that it slides this way, navpad at upper right.
i think this is the real one cause it matches all the rumors spreading about it a while ago
I think it's way better the other way. Then, the nav pad is on the left, where it should be, like a video game controller. I'm serious.
Well still sucks... no 3G... Hey HTC Please send us in Japan some 3G phone which do not look like my first Motorola... your Universal is nice but I do not want to old a latpop next to my head when I want to place a call
Regardless, keyboards do not belong on the side of the screen. It belongs in the front like the Oqo, and all laptops/tablets/desktops. Unless of course... this screen is oriented toward the keyboard.
Also, considering the incredible small size of those buttons shouldn't they use a differnt keyboard setup other than QWERTY? QWERTY was designed to be used by TWO hands and 10 fingers, not one hand and one finger. I guess they just want the concept of "change" in a common thing like keyboards to affect their sales.
Well the word on the web is that there are 2 different replacements for the HTC Magician. The HTC Wizard which does not have a slide-out keyboard, and the HTC Galaxy which does. Because of its size the keyboard has to come out the side of the keys will be too small to press! With Windows Mobile the screen can be orientated in landscape so that shouldn't be a problem at all.
http://pocketpcdubai.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/695604964/m/461103809/r/#
http://www.mobile-review.com/forum2/showthread.php?t=29443
Windows Mobile supports landscape mode, hopefully it will switch automatically when the keyboard is used.
At least with qwerty you know where the keys are. I think its meant to be used with both thumbs.
This looks like a piece of crap. I expected something that looks a lot sexier than this. Sheesh.
I think it looks great. Clean and simple, just like the original Jam.
I like the rumored/proposed HTC Universal better...
200mhz CPU (so no Skype) and Mini SD, thanks but i'd rather no keyboard and them up the CPU and put a SDIO port in it. Unless that is the specs that are about at the mo change quite a bit.
I would have had a good D&D pun to make here, but unfortunately I didn't have it prepared in advance.
Hi!
To all Pocket PC Phone Experts, I need to know
What would be the best Pocket PC for the Following PURPOSES:
A) GSM TRI BAND OR QUAD At least Has 900MhZ
B) Open MY PRIVATE PERSONAL EMAIl like @comcast.net, @hotmail.com OR open My ebay Account.
C) What is a HEALTHY RAM and Memory? 128 or 64?
D) Takes and Plays Video and Still PICTURES
E) MUSIC, Even better if it has Movies too
F) Browse Internet like In A home PC
G) WI-FI, IrDA, Bluetooth
H) Non- Confusing Keyboard
I) SIZE LIKE AN I-MATE JAM, THIS IS A MUST FOR ME.
I am willing to wait and maybe save $$$ JUST TO HAVE THESE FEATURES ON MY POCKET PC PHONE.
SMALL AND FUNCTIONAL.
THIS IS ALL I CARE FOR, YOU THINK THE NEXT HTC WIZARD IS THE ONE, RIGHT FOR ME.
Thanks for your kind consideration. PLEASE GIVE YOUR BEST ADVICES.....PEACE...
DIANA PRINCE
The HTC wizard will be crappy if:
1. the 2.1 MP camera has no auto focus.
2. the processor has speed less than 600 Mhz.
3. there is no embedded GPS application.
4. there is no Voice to Text, Text to Voice, Skype, Hand Writing Recoqnition, etc.
HTC please take your time in developing this model, it will be a real killer.
If the keyboard slid out the bottom, then it would be smaller and more useless than the Treo 650. To be useful, it has to slide out of the side, although I prefer the flip-n-twist mechanism (gives you more useable space, among other things). If you're going to slide out instead of flip-n-twist, then sliding out to the left (like this) makes more sense, because it will put the cursor pad to the right. For flip-n-twist, you'd want to go the other way.
Now, what I wish is that the designers of these things would put more keys on these keyboards. Make each key slightly smaller than it is now, but since they've up-sized it already from the Treo 650, it would still be an improvement. And with something more closely approximating a real proper keyboard, it would be a lot easier to send e-mail, type an URL, and go to web pages with non-alphabetic characters. How are you going to type numbers on this damn thing?!?
Of course, the screen is still just 320x240, which is worse than the Treo 650 at 320x320. If they want these things to really take off, they need a higher resolution screen. They also need to use proper SDIO slots and not Mini-SD, and all Microsoft OSes need the very fastest CPUs you can possibly cram into the box, and 200MHz ain't gonna cut it. Nor is just 64MB of RAM -- Microsoft OSes need way more than that.
This thing may be an improvement, but they're still going to have a very hard fight against the Treo 650. With any luck, the Treo 690 (or 750, or whatever the next model is) will include a higher resolution screen (320x480), flip-n-twist proper QWERTY keyboard with real number row, 802.11b WiFi with WPA2, and use the Linux-based version of PalmOS 6.
Sigh. We can dream, right?