[Hands0n]

Errr, could this be the "Must Have" for 2007? It is certainly a well spec'd eye-catcher. HDSPA too.



HTC's UMPC-like smart phone, Athena, is now available in the UK in its guise as the T-Mobile Ameo priced at a mere £120 - provided you pick the right airtime package, of course.

Pay less up front for connectivity and the Ameo itself will set you back £430. Even that's not bad for a 3G UMTS/HSDPA machine with a QWERTY keyboard; 5in, 640 x 480, 65,536-colour screen; 8GB hard drive; 128MB of memory; Bluetooth 2.0; 802.11b/g Wi-Fi; three-megapixel camera; and an SDHC-compatible memory card slot. It runs Windows Mobile 5.

All of this comes in a 13.3 x 9.8 x 1.6cm, 355g unit that has battery capacity sufficient for 6.5 hours' talk time and 300 hours in stand-by mode, according to T-Mobile.

HTC is expected to offer Athena itself in due course, as the Advantage X7500. Unlike Ameo, the X7500 will not be tied to a specific network, but expect to pay more for it as a result.

Article Source (and pictures) The Register (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/19/t-mobile_uk_prices_up_ameo/)

[Ben]

Shame it packs Windows Mobile.

The TyTN just confirmed what I already knew for me. Windows Mobile sucks. It has always sucked, and will continue to suck in the future.

It's a shame they couldn't have crammed a real OS into such a nicely spec'd unit, though until we can actually have a play for ourselves we wont know whether it's technically up to much either.

You've probably guessed by now that I'm not holding out much hope ;) Oh well, we'll see.

[3g-g]

I'll only echo Ben's comments, Windows mobile is "OK" but that's it, I want to see a full OS in a device of this size. The only issue I could foresee is the way people want their devices syncing with laptops and PCs, currently with ActiveSync. Perhaps having a full OS would confuse the general public, seeing it more as a full PC than a mobile device? Would that not mean having to network the devices rather than setting them up as a master and slave, as it kinda is just now? Networking scares most people, so I still see the fully capable OS in a hand held device a little while off yet.

[Hands0n]

The way I look at this device is that maybe, just maybe, it has the capability of usurping my [now ageing !!] four-year-old iPAQ 4150 PDA and give me the longed-for convergence of PDA and Phone. This is something that no converged device has managed to satisfy me with so far. Perhaps the T-Mobile Ameo won't cut it either - I had got to the point of thinking that I'll never be satisfied with such a converge device. But the Ameo has got me thinking again. I need to get one in my hands, perhaps trial one for a few days!

The issue for me with such a device has always been the greasy face print on the screen after use as a phone! That won't change here, I suspect, but if we're now using a full on keyboard instead of a stylus it may just make the difference for me.

I'm also concerned about size, where such devices are huge compared to the relatively dinky 3G handsets of the day. And the Ameo is no shrimp!