HTC Shift X9500 UMPC

If it seems like the HTC Shift has been around forever without actually being available, that’s because it was – HTC first unveiled this foray into the UMPC market last October, but the device has been coming “real soon now” ever since. A mere five months later, however, and the Shift has finally hit the shelves – has it been worth the wait?

Truth be told, we’re still pretty unconvinced by the UMPC concept, not least because we’ve yet to see one that really delivered on the concept of an ultra-compact laptop that can go anywhere. Poor screens and pathetic keyboards are the most common failings, but even when a UMPC gets these two key components right, it’s always let down by abysmal battery life. Most models can only manage a couple of hours away from the mains, yet still cost as much as the invariably longer-lasting laptop they’re supposed to supplant.

The good news is that on the first two points at least, the Shift is off to a good start. HTC knows a thing or two about cramming the most amount of features in to the least amount of space and it’s used many of the design tricks from its smartphone business to make the Shift as functional as possible.

As you can see from the photos, the Shift bears more than a passing resemblance to the HTC TyTN II , and that’s no bad thing. Though it’s a similar size and weight to the Samsung Q1m, that familiar sliding case design means that HTC has been able to squeeze in both a 7in and a reasonably large keyboard, which is a first for any UMPC.

In tablet mode, the Shift fits comfortably in the hands, but its size makes it a little awkward to hold in one hand and tap the touch-sensitive screen with the other. Fortunately, you won’t have to for most of the time, since there’s a trackpad at the right of the screen and two mouse buttons at the left that fall neatly under the thumbs. The small size of the trackpad makes it a little jittery, but it’s fine for all but the most precise pointing tasks.

When you do need access to the keyboard, the screen slides back on sturdy feeling tracks and hinges upward – just like the TyTN II. The screen clicks into place at around 45 degrees and doesn’t wobble, though you’ll need to support it with your fingers if you need to use the track pad or mouse buttons.

It may be big for a handheld device, but the 7in screen on the Shift is still small by laptop standards. It’s crisp and bright, but the native 800 x 480 resolution is a little cramped for Windows use. Some dialog boxes won’t fit on screen, but a shortcut button on one side of the screen quickly flips between native resolution and an emulated, but still usable, 1024 x 600 – the OQO model e2 does something similar.

The keyboard, while far from full-size, is by far the largest on any UMPC. The keys have a pleasant feel with plenty of travel, though they’re not quite as easy to type on as those on the Asus Eee PC’s similarly sized keyboard. There is a mini three port USB hub in the box though, so you can easily connect the Shift to a full-size mouse and keyboard when you’re sitting at a desk.

Intel designed the Shift’s A110 processor specifically for UMPC use, and it’s an ultra low-power chip based on the venerable Pentium M. Its popped up in a few other ultra-portables and while it has just one core running at a mere 800MHz, it’s just about up to running Windows Vista. It could hardly be called snappy though, and Vista takes a good couple of minutes to boot from cold, but the rumour is that HTC will be snapping up Intel’s new and more capable Atom processor for the Shift as soon as it’s available.

Unfortunately, while the processor may be frugal, it does little to prolong battery life. The Shift lasted for just two and a half hours in our light use tests, and dropped to 90 minutes in a slightly more realistic situation with a few applications running and Wi-Fi enabled. This pretty much renders the Shift redundant as a laptop substitute and a typical ultra-portable will last for at least twice as long. You’ll fare better if you just want to use a UMPC for short spells throughout the day for email and web browsing, but that’s nothing that can’t be done on a capable smartphone, so why carry an extra kilo around with you?

HTC clearly isn’t ignorant of the Shift’s lacklustre battery life though, and it has come up with one curious way of extending it. In addition to running Windows Vista, the Shift also comes with a customised version of Windows Mobile called SnapVUE. This is a little like the custom Today skin that HTC uses on its smartphones and the idea is that it offers a quick and easy way to perform certain tasks regardless of what Vista is doing – a button press quickly calls up the SnapVUE interface even if Vista is shut down.

SnapVUE lets you check on Outlook emails, send and receive text messages and, if the on-screen information is to be believed, make calls to your contacts. Unfortunately, this latter option seems to be one that HTC forgot to remove, since the Shift can’t be used to make voice calls -- a bizarre limitation, it must be said.

You should get a couple of days use out of the Shift using SnapVUE mode alone, but if your mobile needs only extend to email and text messaging, you might as well buy a BlackBerry. Support for third-party Windows Mobile applications would make SnapVUE far more useful, but even the inclusion of an RSS reader would mean you wouldn’t need to fire up Vista just to check on a website.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – the UMPC is a problem looking for a solution, and the Shift doesn’t offer anything to change our minds. It’s certainly the best UMPC we’ve seen so far, but given the quality of the competition, that’s not saying much. Yes, it’s well-made and agreeable to use, but if you’re looking for something smaller to replace a laptop, forget it.

Like we said at the start, it’s all about battery life and if you buy a Shift, you’ll spend more time looking for a mains socket than messing around in Windows Vista. Had SnapVUE been just a bit more capable then HTC may have had a hit on its hands, but as it stands, the Shift is simply an interesting novelty. If you’re desperate for a compact laptop replacement with internet access, you’ll be better off buying an Asus Eee PC and a USB 3G modem. You won’t have quite an elegant a package, but you’ll have all the same features and more importantly, a few hundred extra quid in your pocket.