HtcStarTrek
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Cingular 3125 / HTC Star Trek reviewed
Ever since the RAZR popularized the concept of thinness as a selling point for mobile phones, the industry has been flooded with dozens of copy-cat devices attempting to cash in on the trend for anorexic handsets. Until now, Windows Mobile devices have largely skipped past this fad, with the majority of said phones either being chunky candybars or wide QWERTY phones. The first of no doubt many WinMob phones to take a good stab at combining RAZR thin beauty with Windows Mobile's business practicality is the HTC Star Trek (or Cingular's 3125 if you prefer the numerical name). As well as looking substantially more attractive than most of its peers, the 3125 does the most important core features of a cellphone very well: for example, the 3125's long lasting battery life will go down well with potential buyers, though Cingular may have gone slightly overboard with their higher capacity cell that add a lot of junk to the phone's trunk. The relatively low price ($149.99), vibrant internal and external displays, and great reception combined with the unparalleled design for a device of its type all point to the 3125 being a good phone. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, a number of niggles mean that the Star Trek isn't quite a great phone. An array of outdated features like Bluetooth 1.1, USB 1.1, an average camera, and the lack of Wi-Fi, 3G UMTS, and an IR port will disappoint certain buyers. There are also a couple of notable, but relatively minor design no-nos, like the microSD slot being located underneath the SIM card, and a single proprietary data, power, and audio port awkwardly located on the side of the phone. PC Magazine said that if you "think of the handset as a cutting-edge smartphone ... you'll probably be disappointed", with The Unwired saying that the 3125 is "a lifestyle and fashion-device which can also attract regular mobile phone users" and Laptop Magazine calling it "just smart enough": what we think they're trying to say is that the 3125 is a phone that will satisfy business types with an eye for design, but has a far too limited feature set to keep power users happy.Read - Laptop MagazineRead - PC MagazineRead - The UnwiredRead - Mobility Site
Qtek 8500/HTC Star Trek available for pre-order
Much to the delight of our friends across the pond, British phone e-tailer Expansys has posted a page for the Qtek 8500/HTC Star Trek claiming a May 10th availability, further stating that UK customers can expect shipment in nineteen working days. In case you've been living in a cave for the last few months, the Star Trek, also sold as the i-mate Smartflip and Dopod S300, is HTC's first flip phone, and they've managed to pack a Windows Mobile 5.0-powered 200MHz OMAP processor, quad band GSM radio, 1.3 megapixel camera, 64MB of ROM, and music playback from a microSD slot into a 99-gram package. Expansys is charging £360 to get your hands on the 'Trek, which means we'll probably be importing ours from Asia, for like, $200 cheaper.[Via Reg Hardware]
Hands-on with the KG800 (Chocolate) and Dopod S300 (Star Trek)
Good times can be had over at our sister site, Engadget Chinese, which has managed some alone time with two recent releases, the LG KG800 Chocolate and Dopod S300 HTC Star Trek. Both phones are plenty sexy in their own way, with the KG800's obvious aesthetics leading the charge, but the S300's ability to pack in all that Windows Mobile goodness in such a small package earning it plenty of kudos as well. Decisions, decisions.Read: LG KG800Read: Dopod S300
Live shots of the HTC Breeze
Never ones to shy away from living vicariously, we thought we'd share some more live shots of the HTC Breeze we recently came across. Looks to be quite the skinny 'un, and it should give the Star Trek (pictured on the right) a bit of a run for its money in the HTC-dominated Windows Smartphone world. We'd love some more confirmation about the purported specs, such as a QVGA screen, EDGE and UMTS data, and what kind of resolution we might get for those dual cameras (1.3 megapixels and VGA anyone?), but we guess this will do for now. Check the read link for some more pics.
