Don Tolson
09-22-2008, 05:00 PM
<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219086818.usr15.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong><br />Product Category:</strong> Laptop replacement PDA/phone<br /><strong>Manufacturer:</strong> <a href="http://www.htc.com" target="_blank">HTC</a><br /><strong>Where to Buy:</strong> <a href="http://www.mobileplanet.com/p.aspx?i=163501&partner=pthoughts" target="_blank">Expansys</a> [Affiliate]<br /><strong>Price:</strong> $1,159.99 USD<br /><strong>System Requirements:</strong> Windows Mobile Professional 6.1<br /><strong>Specifications:</strong> PXA270 CPU running at 624Mhz with ATi W2284 graphic chip; 256Mb ROM, 128Mb SDRAM, 16Gb Flash; 133.5mm x 98mm x 22mm (with keyboard); 375g (with battery); 5 inch TFT LCD with LED backlight. The full set of specifications are available <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=474" target="_blank">here.</a></p><p><strong>Pros:</strong></p><ul><li>Beautiful, huge VGA screen;</li><li>Huge (16Gb) flash drive included;</li><li>Reasonable battery life (compared to a laptop);</li><li>Full accessory pack.</li></ul><p><strong>Cons:</strong></p><ul><li>Interface really doesn't make good use of VGA real estate;</li><li>Phone really isn't integrated with the rest of the package;</li><li>Keyboard has limited tactile feedback;</li><li>Card (SIM and mini-SD) slot is very difficult to access.</li></ul><p><strong>Summary:</strong><br />The 7510 is HTC's third version of the Advantage product line, which it bills as a Mobile Office, rather than a PDA or Pocket Phone. Originally introduced in 2007, it targets mobile professionals who want to keep in touch with the office, email, etc. but want something more than a handheld PDA, without the weight and 'wait' (boot up) associated with a laptop. Jason originally received a demo 7510 while at the <a href="http://www.mobiussite.com" target="_blank">Mobius</a> conference back in December, but at the time there were a number of problems with the unit. HTC promised an upgrade to the firmware to address these, so we thought it best to put the review on hold until we had the new version. Well, it arrived about a month ago, so we installed it and put the Advantage through its paces – using it as a laptop replacement in an office (project management) environment for about two weeks. Let's see how it did...<br /><MORE /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Presentation</strong></span><br />First off, everything about the packaging and design of the Advantage says this is geared to the executive professional. From the black-on-black presentation box, to the sleek contours of the two-piece design of the main unit and keyboard, and the included leather carrying case, this thing is designed to look at home in the executive suite. It is a totally different design from other PDAs and is definitely meant for putting down on a flat surface to work. For those that may have missed it earlier, here's a quick tour around the unit.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219087070.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 1: The Advantage 7510 comes as two pieces -- the display unit, shown in the top half of the case, and a detachable keyboard. The display unit is fully functional as a touch-screen PDA/Smartphone, but when you want to use them together, they are held together by strong magnets at the base of the display unit (see picture at the top of the article.)</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219087373.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 2: When all closed up, the clear plastic window in the top of the keyboard and the leather case allows for viewing a summary display of the current status of the unit (radios, emails, messages, sound, battery, and time) without having to open the case.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219087531.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 3: Here's the left side of the main unit. From left to right is a) volume slider, b) speaker, c) the proprietary video out port, d) mini-USB port for power and connection to PC; and e) a 3.5mm stereo headphone/mic jack.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219087703.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 4: It's pretty sparse here on the right side of the unit, with a) Power switch, b) speaker, c) Camera button, and d) stylus holder.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219094742.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 5: The front panel is pretty spartan as well, with three LEDs in the top right corner for GSM (phone), Bluetooth/WiFi, and messages. Our unit came with a front facing VGA video camera for video calls (which worked here in Canada on the Rogers network, BTW) and the Home button in the bottom right.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219175420.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 6: There's not much at the back of the unit. Just the 3 megapixel camera in the top right corner, the stylus slot in the top left and a reset in the middle bottom.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219095506.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 7: Here's a shot of the bottom of the unit, with access to the mini-SD and SIM card slots. You access this by flipping down that door you see in front. The SIM card fits in by moving that white carriage (2) out of the way, then sliding in. To insert the mini-SD card, you have to hold the door out of the way, then slide in the card around it (under the 1). It's a very tight fit, and not easy. For a SIM card, that's OK, since you're not likely to change that often, but for the SD card, it doesn't really support frequent swaps.</em></p><p><PAGE /></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219097487.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 8: A side-by-side comparison between the 7510 and my TyTN II (Kaiser).<br /></em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219097455.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 9: Here's a comparison of the screens between the 7510 and the Kaiser/TyTNII. At five inches and VGA, the 7510 sports almost 8 times the screen real estate!<br /></em></p><p>As you can see from the size comparison, this is not a unit that is easily pocketable. Not only is it big, but it's heavy as well! Kudos to HTC for making a case which feels like metal, but it adds considerable weight to the display unit. Together with the keyboard, they weigh just over 13oz (375g), which is just too much for most suit or pants pockets. It is, however, a good size for a purse, backpack or briefcase. And it would be ideal for those tiny little trays in the economy section of the plane.<img src="tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif" border="0" alt="Wink" title="Wink" /></p><p>For those who may have seen the earlier 7500 and 7501 versions of the Advantage, they will find quite a few differences here. As mentioned before, HTC is clearly targeting the mobile professional with the Advantage line and the 7510 version shows significant movement away from the PDA mode of operation – moving more toward a mini-desktop environment. The layout of logos and labels on the display unit clearly expect use of the unit primarily in landscape mode (although the display itself can be rotated to portrait mode) and most of the buttons which supported the unit as a PDA are gone. The 5-way navigation button, the Communication Manager button, Start and OK buttons, and the left and right user function buttons have all been eliminated from the 7510. Instead, many of these functions have been replaced by keys on the keyboard.</p><p>The keyboard itself is mostly the same as the one which came with earlier versions of the Advantage. HTC has responded to complaints about tactile response though, by adding slightly raised borders around each of the keys and a short, gentle vibration feedback when a key is pressed.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219180914.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 10: The 7510's new keyboard. You can just barely see the raised ridges around each of the keys, and if you look really closely, you can spot access keys for most of the functions which originally had buttons on the unit.<br /></em></p><p>It's better than typing on a flat surface, but it doesn't really work for touch typists. The keys are too close together and very sensitive, so you can't rest your fingers on them at all.</p><p>In terms of accessories, HTC has done an excellent job of including everything a mobile professional needs.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1218232827.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 11: The contents of the Advantage 7510's package. Running clockwise from the top left, there is the VGA/SVideo output cable, Wall charger with mini-USB connector, ear-bud headset with built-in microphone, earbud foam covers, extra stylus (clear plastic), and a USB power/sync connector cable.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1218233082.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 12: HTC even provides a cloth zippered accessories bag for all of the above. Note the velcro closures and elastics to hold everything securely in place so things don't rattle around.</em></p><p>There truly seems to be nothing else to buy. My only complaint is the stylus. Who thought that a short, light, transparent piece of plastic fit in with the <em>executive</em> look and feel? A sleek metal unit would have been a better choice and while it would add more weight, at this stage it wouldn't really be noticed.</p><p>The only thing missing from our demo unit was the 'Getting Started' brochure and the User's Manual, but these are also available for download from HTC's website. Unfortunately, the manual is for the 7500 and 7501 models and hence, doesn't reflect the changes introduced in the 7510.</p><p>So what is different with the 7510? The biggest difference is the replacement of the 8G micro-drive with a huge 16Gb flash memory module. This storage area is not included in program or storage memory managed by the CE O/S, but rather as a completely separate drive – much like having a big flash memory card installed.</p><p>The 7510 runs Windows Mobile Professional 6.1, the latest version available of the O/S. There are lots of descriptions available of the changes included in 6.1, but suffice to say that it's mostly tweaks to various parts of WM6, rather than whole new functionality.</p><p><PAGE /><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Applications</strong></span><br />The package of applications supplied with the Advantage is equally impressive and reflects the focus on the mobile professional. Included:</p><ul><li>Adobe Reader LE</li><li>Audio Booster (bass booster for headphones only)</li><li>HTC's Audio Manager (Windows Media Replacement, but audio only)</li><li>ClearVuePresenter 5 (PowerPoint through the video port)</li><li>Google Maps </li><li>Java</li><li>Jetcet Print 5 (print directly from the PDA)<br /></li><li>Opera 9.5 (beta version of browser replacement)</li><li>SIM Manager (update contact information on your SIM card)</li><li>Voice Speed Dial</li><li>World Card Mobile (take a picture of a business card, then transfer the information to your Contacts list)</li><li>ZIP</li></ul><p>As with the hardware accessories, HTC has included software to take full advantage of the features of the 7510. For those professionals doing presentations on the go, ClearVuePresenter did a very good job driving all the projectors I tried it with. The big plus on HTC's video output cable was the inclusion of both VGA, composite Video, and S-Video output.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219253460.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 13: Here are the composite and S-video output jacks on the included video output cable. The standard VGA output is located on the left end.<br /></em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219253504.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 14: On the other side of the output end of the cable, there's even a USB output jack.</em></p><p>Content on the slides were as clear as any VGA output from a laptop, and the animations were <em>relatively</em> smooth. I suspect that moving around a lot of bigger graphics might get a bit chunky, but I generally keep mine simple and small.</p><p>Google Maps was disappointing in that I couldn't get it to work with the imbedded GPS unit at all. (More on this in the Radios section of the review). Unfortunately, due to a lack of cell towers in my area, triangulation via GSM connections placed me either in a lagoon 4 miles away or in the middle of the Juan de Fuca Strait!</p><p>Likewise, the Opera 9.5 browser was not really ready for primetime. Granted, this was a beta version, and I'm not a regular Opera user, so there was a bit of a learning curve for me as I tried to figure out the intricacies of the interface. But there were a lot of frozen screens and a couple of crashes (soft resets) as I was browsing my usual set of favorite websites.</p><p>World Card Mobile is an interesting concept. The idea is to take a picture of someone's business card with the camera, then use the software to identify the parts where contact information is located. It then uses Optical Character Recognition to transfer the info into an entry in the Contacts database. For me though, there was just too much fiddling required to get it to read anything on the cards. It's much faster for me to just type the stuff into a new Contacts entry.</p><p>The version of Office Mobile provided included the usual suspects -- Excel, PowerPoint and Word -- but also included OneNote Mobile, which we don't often see included in an OEM package. </p><p>The 16Gb Flash Drive on our demo unit came with garbage in the MyDocuments folder and a demo copy of ExtremeAgenda, which wouldn't install properly. I'm not sure if the production version of the 7510 comes with ExtremeAgenda, but I did look it up. It's available from <a href="http://www.birdsoft.biz/extremeagendapro.htm" target="_blank">Birdsoft </a>, and is a pretty interesting looking PIM replacement.</p><p>Wanting to clean things up a bit for Jason, I eventually found the formatting utility for the flash drive, but it was a little counter-intuitive for those of us used to HTC devices. It's a new function in the ClearStorage utility provided by HTC. Normally, this application does a hard reset of your device, but HTC has modified it to provide a format utility for the flash drive only.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219095181.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 15: A screenshot of the updated Clear Storage utility provided by HTC for the Advantage 7510. The dropdown list provides options for clearing the entire unit (a hard reset) or just formatting the Flash Drive.</em></p><p>The phone... yes, there is a fully functioning quad-band GSM phone in the 7510, but it's not really integrated into the design. There's no earpiece on the display unit, which is way too big to hold up to the side of your head anyway. The only way to listen to incoming calls is by plugging in the headset/mic, through a bluetooth headset, or via the loudspeaker built into the front panel. If you're using this in a cubicle, a bluetooth headset is almost a necessity, unless you're one of those types who likes to show off their executive status by conducting all your conversations via speakerphone. It's almost as if HTC added the phone functionality to provide connectivity, rather than communication (i.e. a way to stay connected to the Internet, rather than actually use the phone as a phone). There is a vibrate function available (to avoid disturbing a meeting, etc.) but this is only available through the keyboard, so it has to be attached to make this work.<PAGE /></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: medium;">Performance</span></strong><br />The 7510 is powered by a PXA270 CPU running at 624 Mhz on a 32-bit data bus, and sports an ATI Graphic Chip W2284 as well.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219095829.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 16: The Device Info screen from the Advantage 7510.</em></p><p>That's a pretty powerful processing package and that, coupled with 128Mb of RAM and 256Mb of Flash Memory (in addition to the 16Gb discussed earlier) you'd expect snappy performance. Well, not exactly. While the Advantage worked reasonably well, screen-to-screen transitions weren't always as quick as I've come to expect on smaller PDAs and the 7510 really dragged when it had five or six applications running simultaneously. I suspect a lot of the CPU power and the graphics chip are taken up in managing the large VGA display. Unfortunately, the Spb Benchmarks bear out these observations.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218233913.usr15.png" border="1" /><em></em><br /><em>Figure 17: Overall benchmark results for the 7510. It's probably not fair to compare to the original iPAQ 3600, since there have been significant changes in the O/S since this was started, but if you look at the comparisons to the other VGA-based units (M700, X51v), it doesn't do too bad.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218233924.usr15.png" border="1" /><em></em><br /><em>Figure 18: Here, you can clearly see the advantage of the more powerful CPU. The separate graphics processor in the 7510 may have also helped out here.<br /></em><br /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218233934.usr15.png" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 19: Hmmm, not exactly sure what happened here. I would have expected better performance with the graphics processor, but this reflects what I saw when I tested viewing of various videos on the 7510.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218233941.usr15.png" border="1" /><em></em><br /><em>Figure 20: Wow... what difference! Clearly, this is where the dedicated graphics processor took over.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218233953.usr15.png" border="1" /><em></em><br /><em>Figure 21: Compressing a file, using mainly the CPU, the 7510 did relatively well, but not stellar, especially when its processor is much faster than the X51v and the TyTNII.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218234056.usr15.png" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 22: Similar to the compression test, here we kind of expect better performance from the 7510's faster processor.<br /></em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218234071.usr15.png" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 23: Again, ignoring the iPAQ comparison because of O/S changes, the 7510 doesn't do too badly compared to similar units.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1218234102.usr15.png" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 24: Again, a real surprise here. I certainly would not have expected the TyTNII to come out on top, especially considering all the controversy surrounding imbedded graphics chips with no (or disabled) drivers. Maybe it came out on top because it's only QVGA? I would have expected a much better result from the 7510.<br /></em></p><p>My overall feeling was that the Advantage 'lagged' a bit. It wasn't quite as snappy as my TyTNII (Kaiser), but then again, I'm running a custom-built ROM (thanks, XDA Developers!).</p><p>The unit comes with a graphics chip/accelerator, which should improve the display, especially when viewing videos. I tested it (very unscientifically) by viewing trailers from various sources, such as VideoDetective.com and compared the results to my TyTNII (Kaiser). Visually, the Advantage had a better look to the video (bigger screen helps) but the frame-by-frame flow looked the same, if not a bit blockier than the TyTNII. As you can see above, this is confirmed by the Spb Benchmark tests.</p><p>The 7510 is powered by a massive 2100 mAh Li-ion polymer battery which should give amazing usage right? Again, not quite. It takes about 4 hours to fully recharge the battery on a wall charger from absolutely dead, which isn't <em>too</em> bad – roughly the same as many of the laptop batteries. I tried running the unit in what I thought would be a fairly normal operating mode for someone working away from the office. I put the screen on continuously at low to medium intensity, made 2 or 3 phone calls, turned off the bluetooth and GPS and ran the basic PIM (Calendar, Contacts, To Do's, etc.) functions on and off during the day. After about 6 hours, the battery was a 20% and the O/S was reminding me to do something about it. Not exactly the 5 to 6 hours of talk time and 300 hours standby claimed by HTC, but to be fair, their times are with the screen off. And 6 hours of screen on access to email, etc. is still a good deal longer than you'll get from most laptop batteries.<PAGE /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>User Interface</strong></span><br />One of the big selling (and price) points of the 7510 is the 5 inch VGA screen. Not only does this make the display area physically twice the size of a Pocket PC or Smartphone screen, but the higher resolution provides an additional quadrupling of available screen real estate for applications. Unfortunately, it appears the screen drivers written for the 7510 don't take <em>advantage</em> (sorry) of this. Instead, HTC seems to have simply taken the existing QVGA drivers and told them to fill the screen. The result, as seen in the screenshots below, is to create screens with huge icons. It's certainly finger friendly, but not very efficient. Nor do the drivers seem to be telling applications that they have a VGA screen available to them.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1218232926.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 25: The Advantage running the Today screen of Spb Menu. Note that instead of making use of the increased space available on the VGA screen, the HTC simply makes all the images/icons bigger. That's OK for finger friendliness, but it's still a bit of a waste of screen real estate.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219098216.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 26: Here, Agenda One does a bit better job, but there is no difference in displayed information that that provided by running in Landscape mode on a QVGA screen. Unfortunately, I no longer own a VGA device, so I can't show you a comparison shot of what it should look like in VGA.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219098244.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 27: As can be seen here, everything has been scaled up to fill the available space, instead of making use of the real estate available to display more info.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219098272.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 28: Even the phone pad interface has expanded buttons.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219098296.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 29: Here's HTC's own Today plug in.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219098336.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 30: HTC has included a good looking keyboard replacement for the standard one provided by Windows Mobile, but it takes up over half of the available screen. I also noticed that applications which would normally reconfigure their screen to make room for the keyboard and keep their buttons visible, don't here. There were a number of times I needed to close down the keyboard to get access to Next or Continue buttons.<br /></em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1219098523.usr15.jpg" border="1" /><br /><em>Figure 31: While Spb Mobile Shell recognized it was in Landscape mode, there's no evidence here it knew it had VGA resolution available.<br /></em><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Radios</strong></span><br />Radios are not something we normally talk a lot about when discussing the technical capabilities of a Windows Mobile phone. The radio is the firmware which runs the various telecommunications chips (Bluetooth, WIFI, GPS, Cellular) contained within the phone and defines how they operate with the rest of the software and hardware. On HTC units, the radio also controls the functionality of the camera(s). In most units, manufacturers simply include this as part of the O/S and hide the fact that the radio can be changed separately. HTC, however, displays the radio version separately from the operating system (visible whenever you soft-reset the unit or from the Settings/System/Device Information screen) and those of us working with developers who are cooking new ROMS for the units happily swap new radios in and out to compare performance.</p><p>The radio in our new firmware was still version 1.58.0.0, so I don't believe HTC has spent any additional time working on this part of the unit. In general, the radio worked pretty well. The cellular radio is quad band, so it will work anywhere in the world, and it comes with HSPDA/UTMA data transfer capability. Sensitivity and reception of cellular signals was very good, with 4 to 5 bars consistently in the city and full 3G/H coverage. In the country (away from major cell tower clusters), I was still able to get 1 or 2 bars and complete calls and data transfers from anywhere a regular phone would work.</p><p>Bluetooth appears to have better range than most PDAs and phones I've tested, but sometimes the audio in my headset was a little scratchy. This turned out to be a problem with the headset. WiFi reception was slightly better than other units in my home, running an 802.11N network.</p><p>GPS performance was disappointing. It took approximately 18 minutes to get a GPS lock from a cold start (I.e. with no satellite info) which is pretty long, compared to my TyTNII. Warm starts (after it has an initial satellite lock) were better, but still took 2 to 4 minutes in most cases. I wasn't able to get Google Maps to work consistently at all, whereas it works just fine on the TyTNII and the Eten X500. I'm not realy sure how one would use the 7510 as a car navigation system. The screen is certainly clear, bright and big, but where would you put the display unit? It's too big and heavy for most windshield mounts. Earlier versions of the Advantage had ports for a car and GPS antenna, but these are not available on the 7510. There are rubber inserts on the back where the jacks are <em>supposed</em> to be (according to the documentation), but these are very difficult to get out, and after you do get them out, there's no jack underneath.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Conclusions</strong></span><br />So, is the Advantage 7510 ready to take over? As a phone replacement, no. It's just to big, too heavy, and lacks the integration of a true Smartphone. Could it be a laptop replacement? Maybe. For most functions of a mobile professional -- email, Internet access, simple documents & spreadsheet, presentations -- all the pieces are there and work relatively well. The biggest advantage is the 'instant on' features of Windows CE and the huge flashdrive HTC has bolted on. I'd expect better overall performance and VGA support, and the imbedded GPS needs an overhaul. With all that done, it would provide a very credible alternative to lugging the laptop around.</p><p>And when all is said and done, the form factor does have that certain 'cool' factor about it.</p><p><em>Don is an Associate Director with Fujitsu Consulting, responsible for the Enterprise Mobility practice. Funny, I remember when a laptop was the mobile traveller's holy grail. "Take the office with you!" Now, we're complaining they're too big and bulky.... </em></p><p> </p>