Review of The HTC MTeoR - The First 3G Windows Mobile Smartphone

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3240' target='_blank'>http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3240</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>Ok, now it's released and available, HTC's first UMTS Windows Mobile Smartphone - the HTC MTeoR aka HTC Breeze - but what's all the hype about and how does it compete with other UMTS mobile phones? Well, with the HTC MTeoR, HTC tries to give 3G Windows Mobile Smartphones a giant leap forward as it is the world's first 3G Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone and indeed, this slim and compact candy-bar mobile phone might makes it the ultimate pocket handset. It's featuring Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone, singleband 2100 MHz UMTS, triband 900, 1800 100 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Bluetooth 2.0 without EDR support as well as IrDA while it is sporting 128 MB of ROM and 64 MB of RAM which can be extended through microSD memory cards. The HTC Breeze reference design is powered by a Samsung S3C2442 CPU with 300 MHz and the UMTS baseband is a Qualcomm MSM6275 chipset.</i>"<br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/augusto-2006.08.10-breezereview.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />If you happen to be fortunate enough to live in a country which uses the 2100 MHZ UMTS band than I would recommend reading this review written by Arne Hess. Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about this device. Every time someone mentions a great new feature that was added to it, they also mention a feature that was taken away. Usually the features that are removed are ones I use often, like the volume buttons and audio jack. HTC has also removed the front facing camera from the European model which means no video telephony. :(

[Mike Temporale]

Wow, this sucker is a little powerhouse. I didn't know it had 300mHz CPU with 128ROM and 64RAM. Too bad HTC messed things up with the bands, and the overall look. Otherwise, it could be a pretty nice device.

[Rocco Augusto]

Wow, this sucker is a little powerhouse. I didn't know it had 300mHz CPU with 128ROM and 64RAM. Too bad HTC messed things up with the bands, and the overall look. Otherwise, it could be a pretty nice device.

Arne mentioned that this little guy was mostly made out of a kind of metal casing, which I could see looking good in person. To bad in pictures it looks soooooooo ugly :)

[iJITSU]

Being one of the guys who bought one (and got jerked around on the bands), I can say that this phone does look much better in person. Still not the best of designs, but better looking than in the pictures. But alas, I could care less. The phone is near worthless in the US.

[Mike Temporale]

Being one of the guys who bought one (and got jerked around on the bands), I can say that this phone does look much better in person. Still not the best of designs, but better looking than in the pictures. But alas, I could care less. The phone is near worthless in the US.

What about speed and responsiveness of the device? Does it fell faster than others?

[Rocco Augusto]

What about speed and responsiveness of the device? Does it fell faster than others?

I'm also curious as to how responsive the new scrolling start menu is. :)

[Stinger]

According to HTC (which was confirmed by some mobile operators as well), the 300 MHz of the Samsung are not strong enough to support UMTS video telephony

I don't believe that for a second. There's plenty of video telephony-enabled Symbian phones with way slower CPUs.

I wonder what was the real reason?

[Arne Hess]

Too bad HTC messed things up with the bands, and the overall look. Otherwise, it could be a pretty nice device.
Sure, for Americans and oversea travelers, the band thing sucks but personally, I'm not affected too much as a European, traveling within Europe most of the time.

Regarding the overall look I have to admit, that I fell in love already when I saw it the first time on the web. Personally, I like the look and design, for me it looks like a mobile phone (candy-bar) should look: clear structured.
But well, we can spend hours and days here talking about design and we will never get a common agreement at all which is good. Otherwise the whole world would have just one mobile phone design - how boring...

[Rocco Augusto]

Otherwise the whole world would have just one mobile phone design - how boring...

you mean we would all be stuck with nokias? oh no! ;) :lol:

[kupe]

HTC tries to give 3G Windows Mobile Smartphones a giant leap forward as it is the world's first 3G Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone
I thought the Motorola Q (EVDO, up to 1mbps download) was the first 3G Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone. Is UMTS now considered the lowest level of 3G?

[Rocco Augusto]

HTC tries to give 3G Windows Mobile Smartphones a giant leap forward as it is the world's first 3G Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone
I thought the Motorola Q (EVDO, up to 1mbps download) was the first 3G Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone. Is UMTS now considered the lowest level of 3G?

you are right. that quoted text was from the actual review though, which arne hess wrote. if im not mistaken, i think arne happens to reside in germany where this would have been the first 3G phone from them. here in the states though, the first 3G Smartphone would have been the Motorola Q :)