Living with the HTC Shift (Part 2)
Second day in and the HTC Shift is still impressing, at least part of the time.
The HTC Shift is still with me, managing to replace my laptop for almost all of the regular daily functions, there are a few things that are a little annoying.
I’ve recently bemoaned the fact that the OQO e2 had a capacitive pen rather than an actual touch screen I have to admit I was wrong and OQO were right.
The HTC Shift is equipped with a fully touch screen, great when in windows mobile as with your thumbs you can access the entire screen no problems. Email triage is easy as you like just a couple of thumb touches to get rid of the chaff from your inbox its great.
Using the tablet features are no problem as the handwriting recognition panel means it’s simple to enter even cursive text however when using OneNote with a fully sensitive screen or any application that doesn’t use the input panel unless you hover your hand over the screen in a cramp inducing posture you end up with scrawls all over the screen. A Capacitive pen would solve this problem to be honest this means that using the Shift for note taking in meetings isn’t as simple as I’d hoped.
The keypad is still too fiddly, so much so that I’ve taken to using my stowaway Bluetooth keyboard for more accurate and comfortable input, I will persevere but it’s not as usable as I’d hoped.
Battery life is also a problem using vista for even 30 minutes you lose a great deal of your windows mobile time, you need to have the power supply to hand as even with less than an hour of Vista use you get less than 24 hours windows mobile use.
This sounds like I don’t like the Shift, however for such a compact device it’s managing very well, the niggles are just that, niggles and the Shift is performing above expectations. Despite the little issues the HTC Shift is still winning for me.
Part three soon.
Go back to Part 1 or on to Part 3
Posted by: Alasdair
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Shift, Microsoft Communicator]
About the Author: Matt
More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.Subscribe
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