HTC 7500 and 7501

[dbec10]

http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_x7501.htm

Specification
Processor
624 MHz CPU with ATi™ Graphic Chip W2284

Operating System
Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Professional

Memory
ROM: 256 MB

RAM: 128 MB SDRAM
Dimension
133.5 mm (L) x 98 mm (W) x 16 mm (T)

Thickness with keyboard: 20 mm
Weight
359g (with battery)

Display
5” transmissive TFT-LCD with backlight LEDs, touch-sensitive screen

Network
HSDPA/UMTS (2100 MHz for Europe, 850/1900 MHz for USA)
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

(The device will operate on frequencies available from the cellular network)
Device Control
5-way Navigation Control

HTC VueFLO™ motion sensor assisted browsing experience

Keyboard
Dual usage QWERTY keyboard for text input and display protection

Connectivity
Bluetooth® 2.0

Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g

HTC ExtUSB™(11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one)

HTC proprietary 16-pin combined port (USB 1.1 host/VGA and TV Out)
Camera
3 mega-pixel camera with autofocus and flash light

Audio Built-in/Dual, Hands-free (microphone and speaker)

Headphone: AMR/AAC/WAV/WMA/MP3 codec
Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 2200 mAh
Standby time: Up to 300 hours (for GSM/UMTS)
Talk time (Screen off):

Up to 5.5 hours for GSM

Up to 4.5 hours for UMTS
Expansion Slot miniSD™ (Hot swap and SDHC compatible)

[Karel Jansens]

You lost me at "Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Professional".

[Milhouse]

No mention of the screen resolution, and those battery figures look a bit improbable. 300 hours? That's almost 13 days, which might just be possible if the entire device apart from GSM/UMTS radio is powered down... And how long will the battery last if the screen is actually switched on, doing something useful other than yacking? :) And USB 1.1?!

I must admit when I first started going through the spec - 624 MHz CPU with ATi™ Graphic Chip W2284 - it reminded me of an HP iPAQ HX4700 (640x480 rez) from about 3 years ago, as this also had a 624Mhz PXA270 CPU and ATI Imageon 3220 graphics chip which was rubbish (it had hardware bugs and ATI lost interest in developing bug-free drivers due to lack of OEM demand - strike 1 for closed-source drivers!)

Nice form factor though, shame about the internals and choice of OS. :D

[Seb Per]

and 350 g... this is more than what old nokia communicators used to weigh. One brick in the pocket... if it can fit in... one start to limp

[dbec10]

Articles are popping up around the web. Looks like the resolution is going to be pathetic 640x480 and the price is expected to be above $1,000 US.

So count me out.

[dbec10]

Nokia has a really good product in the N800. If they would just get the other little issues resolved and help the developers a little more to releasing solid software.

Or liscense Palm OS and load it on. Now that would be the absolute booomm!! I'd get mine today!!

[aflegg]

Or liscense Palm OS and load it on. Now that would be the absolute booomm!! I'd get mine today!!

I hope you're joking: an unstable, single-tasking OS where all the applications (at best) cater for 320x320 screen resolutions? Exactly how would this be any good for the N800?!

[dbec10]

Of course they would have to get drivers for the N800 hardware. Which would include support for 800x480 or 800x600 resolution. Currently Palm OS supports 480x320 max.

But you cannot deny the maturity of the Palm OS. Yes it is sinlge processing and that is a part of its stability.

However I would agree that going forward multiprocessing would be a must before general release.

[TA-t3]

PalmOS also has the problem that its single-tasking programs can write all over the internal RAM, with fatal resets as the nicest possible result (and white screen of death+losing everything installed is another one). I like PalmOS a lot, but there is simply no memory protection. If you use it a lot it will crash, and in a much more problematic way than if an application on the N800 fails, where it doesn't affect anything else and you don't need to reboot. I have a Linux-based Zaurus PDA too, and in the years I've owned it it hasn't had a single reset or crash or failure or anything _ever_. Not one. The uptime is astronomical (as it's Linux you can actually get a shell and enter the 'uptime' command, just as with the N800). This level of stability is also possible to achieve on the N800, although we're not quite there yet. As for PalmOS, if it works out I guess the Access version with PalmOS as a GUI on top of Linux is the best you could hope for, stability wise. I'm keeping an eye on that development.

[bobhodgen]

I'm not sure going to Palm OS would be a good idea.

I've been a Palm user for 4 or 5 years and have a Treo 700P. The Treo resets itself at least once a day. In my experience the N800 is more stable, especially after reflashing to the newest version.

About all I use the Treo for now, besides phone, is EVDO DUN for the N800.

Bob

[Texrat]

I'm starting to believe that the 2 usable portable form factors are the typical laptop at one end and the N800-class devices at the other. These in-between devices are doomed to fail IMO, trying to fill the void spanning these two extremes and only serving to annoy most users. The photos look good, (some of) the specs look good, but the proof is in the pocket. Oops, these things don't fit! ;)

[Karel Jansens]

I hope you're joking: an unstable, single-tasking OS where all the applications (at best) cater for 320x320 screen resolutions? Exactly how would this be any good for the N800?!

People would start sending penguinbait money to develop his desktop environment ports?

[Texrat]

People would start sending penguinbait money to develop his desktop environment ports?

ah-HA! Now I understand his evil plan: entice us with alluring screenshots of 95% complete alternative desktops then hit us with a paypal request for the remaining 5%.

Ooooo, that wascawy penguin...

[dbec10]

bobhodgen, you need to get your Treo software checked. I am also a Palm user and I know several others. Random resetting is not one of the things Palm does. When that happens it's because we loaded something we should not have. Or the hardware is faulty.

Personally I prefer the N800 form factor. Although the keyboard on other devices may make text entry faster. It adds too much bulk. Judging from reviews the N800 thumb keyboard would be sufficient for me.

That's the only reason I'm still on this forum. I want an N800, just not in it's current state (software-wise).

[linuxbear]

Access version with PalmOS as a GUI on top of Linux .

Actually from what I have managed to gather, they will be using a virtual machine. I believe it is called Garnet VM and might be downloaded as source code seperate from the OS. I understand that Access Linux might be open sourced as well. I think Access is trying like Nokia to use as many "off the shelf" OSS apps as possible. The specs if memory serves were for a 220 meg processor with a small footprint in RAM. This would be wonderfull it it were compatible with the Maemo platform, but there might be problems with audio and text entry.
I for one, would be very happy if some of my Palm apps were portable via the virtual machine. I think that the aps which look decent on the larger screen of the Palm TX would be OK on the Nokia. particularily my palm office suite which copes with word processor and spreadsheet (.doc and.xls) files and is only about 5 MB. There is also a great solataire palm game which would be nice. Aeroplayer with ogg support for music. And last, but not least, the Palm Bejeweled game which I at least have a chance at. I haven't been able to beat Battlejeweled yet :-)

Glen

[TA-t3]

I'm starting to believe that the 2 usable portable form factors are the typical laptop at one end and the N800-class devices at the other. These in-between devices are doomed to fail IMO, trying to fill the void spanning these two extremes and only serving to annoy most users. The photos look good, (some of) the specs look good, but the proof is in the pocket. Oops, these things don't fit! ;)
The more I think about this (and thinking back on the list of devices I've looked at and tried) the more I agree.

[TA-t3]

I for one, would be very happy if some of my Palm apps were portable via the virtual machine.
Yep. I still use my Palm PDA for some essential stuff. Everything from a simple, but life-saving 3party free application that has no equivalent elsewhere, to things like Lufthansa's nice Palm flight table application.

[artkavanagh]

I'm starting to believe that the 2 usable portable form factors are the typical laptop at one end and the N800-class devices at the other.

What I want is a device with a notebook-sized screen and keyboard, no hard disk, no fan and no speakers (nothing that makes any noise, but of course it should have a headphone jack). It should have maybe 8 - 12 GB flash memory and a fully-functional browser, that supports CSS and Java. I can live without a touch screen, but a trackpad would be nice for browsing.

Anybody know of such a device?

[kiso666]

bobhodgen, you need to get your Treo software checked. I am also a Palm user and I know several others. Random resetting is not one of the things Palm does. When that happens it's because we loaded something we should not have. Or the hardware is faulty.

Personally I prefer the N800 form factor. Although the keyboard on other devices may make text entry faster. It adds too much bulk. Judging from reviews the N800 thumb keyboard would be sufficient for me.

That's the only reason I'm still on this forum. I want an N800, just not in it's current state (software-wise).

It's not just "his" treo software or just "his" treo hardware is the problem. It is Palm's lack of QA when making the treo. Out of the box, the treo is bound to reset. I am on my second 700p and they haven't even been out one whole year. I do not want to take away from this thread but you opened the door with plopping Garnet onto the n800 and the fact that just because you don't have problems with your treo, don't discount others.

I use my 700p for Phone/SMS/BT-DUN. That is all it is worth to me now. If it werent for EVDO,qwerty keyboard and a two year contract with sprint :-) the treo would be tossed. At least Versamail sort of works.

Ah, then came the constant reboots. But with no other apps installed.. it will reset on its own. Treocentral is so chocked full of these problems. So, please, don't say that random rebooting is not one of the things Palm hardware does. It does on it's own and it does it plenty with no third party software and I am on my 2nd unit.

And still no firmware update. Nice support. At least Nokia has given us N800 owners that much. (Too a degree)


I want a Treo 700p, just not in it's current state (support-wise/OS wise/instability-wise). For now, the n800 will do alot of what the Treo cant do. And more reliably. For now they work together. Two huge bricks in my pockets! LOL!

[glhart@mac.com]

I have a 770 and 800, and am using them more and more. I use them especially for reading ebooks -- they are both far superior to anything else I've tried (including the Sony eBook reader). For me, the selling point of the Nokia machines is the screen resolution. Even compared to the large-screen Clie Th-55 (palm OS), which is the next best thing I've found, the Nokia is clear and easy to read. Also, it has a huge range in adjustable back-lighting. Why someone would make a tablet PC with low resolution is beyond me. By the way, the 800 screen is superior, but I keep the 770 because it's more easily portable. I got the 800 for $270 from CompUSA -- couldn't resist, and I'm glad I got it.

[dbec10]

In my post I said that you have a software conflict or your hardware is faulty. Judging by your post kiso666, I guess it is the latter this time.

When I said palms don't reset by themselves like that I was more refering to the software not the hardware. Of course it has its bugs and yes it's not perfect; I know that; and I know that there are people out there with palms that reset. What I was saying is that the Palm OS is mature and stable. Once it is ported to a device correctly and released by Palm. As long as the device is not faulty by design as the 700p seems to be. You'll end up with a pretty good device to use.

In my earlier post I also acknowledged that in 2007 Palm Garnet may not be the ideal thing to use on a powerful device like the n800. You would need the multi tasking and such to work.

In summary if an upgraded Palm OS was on the N800. And it had the stability of the current OS. Then I would buy it for sure.

[digitalsa8nt]

It will be interesting to see...but I wouldn't hold my breath.


http://www.gearfuse.com/rumor-palm-being-sold-to-the-highest-bidder-this-week/

[Texrat]

Note the post date on that story: March 22. Already discredited.

[ArnimS]

This thing is being fairly heavily marketed by T-Mobile in Germany as the 'Ameo'. Price is 500 euro bundled with their 24-month cellular contract.

Seems to be doing fairly well, due to the point-of-sale presence and marketing blitz (inserts in newspapers and magazines), mention in every computer/mobile rag...

Obviously the 640 width limitation and windows makes it lame-o compared to a 770/800 + bluetooth keyboard - for those with a clue(tm).

http://http://www.insidepda.de/pda,T-Mobile-Ameo,test,245.html

It has about 10x the mind-share as the Nokia tablets in Germany among those business types who have the pocket change to splurge on these gadgets. The 770/800 would have made a similar splash if they had a) bundles (with bluetooth kbds, for umts customers) with more german cell phone operators b) the marketing campaign and c) the point of presence in cell phone shops. I've carried my N770 into 4 cell phone shops and none of the salesdroids had ever seen anything like it.

As a rule, they were impressed... and surprised they hadn't heard of it. Obviously i'm a Nokia evangelist, but i'm just one person...

Cheers