David Flynn07 November 2007, 2:09 AM
HTC's compact Shift is a dual-mode mini-tablet with a 7 inch touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard. But with a laughable two hours of battery life, it proves why Vista is not Intel's OS of choice for its mini-tablet platform.
When Intel announced its new Ultra-Mobile platform at this year's Beijing IDF, Linux and Windows shared the stage. The former took the guise of Red Flag Linux, a Chinese distribution based in turn on Asianux; the later was represented not by Microsoft but HTC, the world's largest manufacturer of Windows Mobile devices.
Ostensibly, each OS was to take a share of the ultra-mobile turf: Linux on small ‘mobile Internet devices' (MIDs) with screens from 4-6 inches, with Windows for the existing UMPC category with screens sizes of 5-7 inches.
 Shifty business: there's lots to like about HTC's pint-sized UMPC, except the OS... and maybe the $2000 price tag |
While we're yet to see the first production model of an MID unit, HTC has released its Windows-based ultra-mobile debutante. But rather than galloping along on Windows Mobile 6, the super-compact HTC Shift groans under the weight of Windows Vista. Mercifully, it groans for only two hours before the battery turns up its toes.
HTC is obviously aware of Vista's thirst for power, and has cannily equipped the Shift with a Sideshow-like shell named SnapVUE. Looking similar to the HTC Touch and its TouchFLO UI, SnapVUE provides full access to mobile email (push, POP3 and IMAP) and an SMS message centre along with the usual calendar, clock and so forth.
Users can quickly toggle between Vista and SnapVUE, which resides in a 128MB ROM chip and has its own 64MB slide of RAM. While in SnapVUE mode the Shift's triple cocktail of radios - HSDPA 3.6-enhanced 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 - all remain active, making the Shift a far more practical tool for mobile mavens.
Having shunted Vista out of the way, and running SnapVUE instead, the Shift can go for substantially longer between drinks - HTC claims just over 50 hours with push email enabled, and 10 days once the wireless is turned off.
The main reason for this parsimonious power figure is that the Shift sports two processors, one for each OS. When running Vista, the Shift uses an Intel A110 ‘Stealey' processor, which is actually a reheated and rebadged ultra-low voltage Pentium M chip (and, along with the 600MHz A100, is the CPU component of Intel's Ultra-Mobile 2007 ‘McCaslin' platform).
Once you kick over to SnapVUE, the Shift shuts down all things Wintel and powers up a tiny Qualcomm MSM 7200 processor. This XScale-compatible chip runs at 400MHz and includes the Shift's wireless engine .
In a brief hands-on session at the Sydney launch of the HTC Shift and other mobile siblings, we found this to be an excellent device in virtually every way, bar the niggling matter of the Vista OS. Given that HTC has opted for Vista Business, it's clear this is to satisfy the expected requirements of the mobile professional and corporate road warrior - although there's little evidence that many companies has moved to Vista or are likely to do so within the lifetime of the Shift.
 No advantage: HTC says it has no plans for local release of the Advantage, a Windows Mobile-powered 'super PDA' |
HTC already has a ‘junior' version of the Shift that runs Windows Mobile 6, in the HTC Advantage, but a HTC spokesman said there were currently no plans to release that model onto the Australian market. It's a much smaller device than the Shift, with only a 5 inch screen and thus a substantially smaller keyboard.