T-Mobile rolls out HTC Athena as "Ameo"

Move over, Universal, there's a new sheriff in town. The Athena from HTC is finally starting to make some public appearances in carrier livery, and we've gotta say, T-Mobile Pink is suiting this thing just fine. Specs for the new reigning king of HTC's expansive Windows Mobile lineup include a 5-inch VGA display, an 8GB hard drive to supplement any Flash you might have stowed in the miniSD slot, on-board GPS, quadband GSM plus HSDPA (sorry, yanks -- 2100MHz only), 3 megapixel camera, an XScale core clipping right along at 624MHz, and -- get this -- three styli in the box, two traditional and one multi-function pen. T-Mobile's European division will get this as an exclusive for a few weeks as the "Ameo," at which point we'd imagine a wider European release is in order. American availability, as always, is an open question.

[Franklin @ Jan 23rd 2007 3:44PM]

I've yet to see a pic with this next to someone's ear. And does the keyboard fold away or break away?

[Patrick @ Jan 23rd 2007 3:46PM]

I don't particularly think this is a great design, nor will it take over the world by any means, but you gotta just admire that HTC cranks out some pretty incredible stuff packed with features that is actually being picked up by big-time Western vendors/service providers. It wasn't so long ago you could never expect anything like this west of, say, Dubai.

[Andres @ Jan 23rd 2007 3:51PM]

I don't know if is true of all HTC phones or even shared among other windows mobile devices but after my experiences with the MDA from T-Mobile i'll never in my life buy another HTC regardless of how great it looks on paper.

[Uranium @ Jan 24th 2007 3:57AM]

What was wrong with your HTC Wizard? Mine works great. Did you ever try updating the ROM?

[hippie @ Jan 23rd 2007 4:36PM]

I had forgotten how horrible pocketpc Internet Explorer until I saw that picture.

[patsy @ Jan 23rd 2007 11:57PM]

Now if only Microsoft put a tiny fraction of the effort it puts into churning out new versions of WMx into a teensy bit of work on PIE, it might actually not suck so mind numbingly.

[Escay @ Jan 23rd 2007 5:00PM]

The keyboard is attached using a magnet:

http://www.jayraymee.nl/pix/htcathena3.jpg

[morgan @ Jan 23rd 2007 5:06PM]

While I didn't mind the hardware/case design of the MDA too much, it was seriously underpowered and WM pretty much sucks. That was the true killer for me, the OS was just a big stinky pile of crap.

[Mike @ Jan 23rd 2007 6:15PM]

This IMHO would make a better combination:

HTC Hardware + Symbian OS = Mobile Sweetness!

[applesucksLeo @ Jan 23rd 2007 6:29PM]

Good God...I want now ! And the value of the ApplePhone keeps going down ;)
Way better specs than JobsPhone plus replaceable battery , slot for extra memory , on-board GPS , 3 megapixel camera , 3G. Looks very useful ; like a mini-laptop.
The RDF just got turned off.

[Z @ Jan 23rd 2007 7:01PM]

T-Mobile USA needs to get their heads out of their asses and get with it. They've got to be losing business left and right to Cingular and Verizon. They still have no 3G or 3.5G networks, hardly any decent phones like this Athena, and no laptops with integrated T-Mo wireless (just Cingular-software-enabled cellular when it's available).

In addition, it's like T-Mo USA isn't developing any partnerships with ANYONE. You see Cingular EVERYWHERE - in Sony laptops; on different TV shows (American Idol, for instance: "Text 54321 on your Cingular wireless phone to vote."); they're teamed up with Apple and their new iPhone; Wells Fargo Bank gives Cingular and Verizon (but no T-Mobile) discounts to their employees; and Cingular seems to constantly get all the cool phones and devices here in the states (on the GSM end of things). And those aren't all, but just some of the examples I could come up with.

And where's T-Mobile? Who knows? Sitting with their thumbs up their butts.

Makes me wonder if T-Mobile is going to get bought out here in North America or if they're just becoming horrendously apathetic. They just don't seem to care. When is the last time T-Mobile ever did ANYTHING interesting?

[Aaron Rooney @ Jan 23rd 2007 7:49PM]

Are you kidding??? MDA, Dash, Pearl, SDA... They are actually doing much better now compared to 2-3 yrs ago. As ar as partnerships go, the NBA is one I believe and there are others.

[Brian Miller @ Jan 31st 2007 11:48AM]

Wells Fargo Bank does have a deal with T-Mobile first off.Secondly T-Mobile is the official sponsor of the NBA,ever heard of the T-Mobile All Star Game in Las Vegas genius? Third point is that while some people go for other carriers for broadband many more are coming to T-Mobile for myFaves,no other carrier worth anything nationally offers unlimited calls to outside carriers.And also remember who has the largest Blackberry customer base and let's not begin to talk about how many people have Sidekick service (not the best device but the largest selling data device in the US).Think before you speak!

[applesucksLeo @ Jan 23rd 2007 7:45PM]

And 5 inches of 640x480 goodness :)

[Z @ Jan 23rd 2007 11:51PM]

"Are you kidding??? MDA, Dash, Pearl, SDA..."


Am I kidding? No, I'm not. And those phones are lame. Terribly underpowered junk and boring compared to what's out there.

And a partnership with the NBA? Oh, yippee. First of all, I wasn't even aware they had one with the NBA. Secondly, what does this partnership accomplish - cheaper rates for pro basketball players? And thirdly, how does this benefit the rest of us T-Mobile customers?

Nope, sorry. A few lame phones and some obscure, widely unknown partnership with the NBA doesn't cut it. T-Mobile's efforts have been boring and pathetic.

[Asad @ Jan 24th 2007 12:05AM]

For more info check out this site http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/articles/htc-athena-en.shtml

[Zach @ Jan 24th 2007 12:08AM]

This looks like it could knock my trusty Axim X51v out of my hand. Finally another system with VGA and 624 mhz, and the keyboard looks decent too. I'd have to see about T-mobile's data, though, if it ever arrives here. I currently tether the Axim to my a900 with Sprint's speedy network.

[AlanJC @ Jan 24th 2007 2:39AM]

I wonder why all of the on-screen images are so badly faked?

It loosly resembles WM5, but my guess is it will be launched with WM5.2/WM6/Crossbow whatever it will be called. SO they have faked it to stop speculation.

[Liam Billington @ Jan 24th 2007 4:30AM]

I know that everyone is complaining about this huge ass device, but I think they are trying to compete with the Nokia internet tablets.

It will be most likely bundled with web and walk (UK unlimited HSDPA for £7.50 extra on top of your voice plan) T-Mobile could go wild with the unlimited data plans.

[Richard @ Jan 24th 2007 10:44AM]

I am with you, Mike:
"HTC Hardware + Symbian OS = Mobile Sweetness!"

So long as it is UIQ and NOT Series 60 3rd Ed.

Oh! The new battery for my trusty and very fast P910a just arrived. Yippee!

Now I can throw my S60 3rd Ed. E62 where it belongs - in the shredder. This should be fun!

[alexnoinc @ Jan 24th 2007 6:14PM]

http://www.xda-developers.com/modules.php?name=News&file=showarticle&threadid=286884

[Z @ Jan 25th 2007 5:54AM]

"Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. cellular operator, said on Wednesday it is talking with banks about letting its customers manage their money by cell phone as part of a push to expand phone use beyond talking. The wireless venture of AT&T Inc and BellSouth Corp. said a wireless banking application it is testing would let customers of participating banks view account balances, transfer funds and pay bills on their cell phones. Spokesman Mark Siegel said Cingular hoped to launch the application commercially in early 2007."


And to add more to what I was saying earlier, we have yet even further effort by Cingular. What's T-Mobile's position with this? Once again, "Who knows?"

I'm telling ya, T-Mobile is ASLEEP.

[Z @ Feb 6th 2007 6:05AM]

They do? With Wells Fargo? I've been with T-Mo for four years and I've never heard anything of it. Wonder why that is? T-Mo never said anything to me about it or any of the other people I know who've had their service for just as long. I'd bet most people aren't aware of it, either. That is, if it even exists and you're not simply confused or lying. Why is it that I'm aware of what Cingular is doing with Wells even though I'm not a Cingular customer, but not aware of any T-Mo/Wells partnership even though I AM a T-Mo customer? You seem to be the only one who knows about the T-Mo/Wells deal. I've never heard anything about it anywhere online, in my billing statements, in T-Mo advertising, or through any other means. Maybe it only exists on your planet.

And the T-Mobile All Star Game in Vegas??? WOW. Too cool dude. No I haven't heard of it. Probably because I don't live in Vegas, genius. Lots of good that does for the rest of us who don't live there.

As for your other points, is that supposed to sway my thinking? That's all you've got? They have Blackberrys and Sidekicks? NO WAY! WOW! I'm really impressed. BFD. Like everyone doesn't have those.

You're going to have to do a LOT better than that if you're going to convince me that T-Mo USA is really getting busy making waves. Aren't you T-Mo employees taught any better?

Oh yeah, and be sure to THINK before YOU answer next time. Take your own advice, creep.

[Robert Hoppe @ Jul 15th 2007 7:20PM]

Someone said they wanted to see this thing next to someone's ear (to get an idea of the size). Well, you can check out this video. Now, keep in mind it is a little British girl holding it...but even so, this thing is HUGE. Assuming she is even a shortcake like 5'2" the Athena is still far to big for a "phone."

http://www.mobileplanet.com/video.aspx?id=81&i=145430