2007 continues to make mobile news from the major players in the market. HTC operates in full accordance with the plans, which have become known to the general public at the beginning of this year, is expanding its range of devices, and, as usual, experimenting with form factors and filling. The hero of our review, HTC S710 (codenamed Vox), is intended to supplement the line of smartphones HTC, today quite scarce. Recall that a release of HTC S710 and HTC S620 previous model was almost half a year, which proves once again: Smartphone - still not the priority for HTC. MS Smartphone platform in general can not boast of great popularity, in contrast to the Pocket PC Phone. Perhaps, then play a role and strong competition from the same Nokia, and other circumstances, but in any case, the fact remains: the sales of smart phones is far behind communicators. In this regard, the emergence of a new intelligent handset can be viewed as an additional step aimed at promoting the Windows Mobile smartphone as a whole. And I must say that step quite successful.
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Once again, the company puts the experiments, so the S710 stands out among the few direct analogues in several aspects - OS version, entirely new form factor and balanced hardware. First of all, S710 - this is the first smartphone HTC, which will hit the market with a new version of the operating system Windows Mobile 6 Standard, submitted earlier this year at the Congress 3GSM. In addition, the unit is equipped with two keyboards: traditional monoblock digital, bred under the screen and slide out the side full QWERTY-keyboard. And here is how the characteristics of the HTC S710.
Specifications: - Operating system: Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard Platform
- Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP850, 200MHz
- Memory: 128MB ROM (ROM), 64MB RAM (RAM)
- Screen: TFT LCD with a diagonal of 2.4 "and a resolution of 240x320, 65536 colors
- Memory Expansion: microSD
- Wireless interfaces: GSM / GPRS / EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MGts; Bluetooth 2.0; WiFi 802.11b / g;
- Battery: removable lithium-ion battery 1050mAch
- Audio: microphone, speaker, headphone jack extUSB
- Camera: 2.0 MP
- Dimensions: 101 x 50 x 17.7mm
- Weight: 120 g with battery
As can be seen, filled with hardware from HTC S710 - order. On board is available full wireless ammunition - from the actual phone part for Russia (only GSM + EDGE, without the support of 3G) up to a couple of «Wi-Fi and Bluetooth». There is a standard for a smartphone 200 MHz processor, enough memory and a large screen diagonal of 2.4 "with a resolution of 320x240. The nearest competitors can be identified S710 Samsung SGH i600, wherein, by and large, the form factor (Blackberry-like keyboard), support for UMTS networks and a version of OS Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone. In other respects, this unique handset yet, due to its unique form factor and a combination of characteristics.
Set
On testing, we visited an engineering sample in a minimum configuration. But, if you believe the information from HTC, S710 will be available in this set:
- charger
- Cable miniUSB
- wired stereo headset with built-in extUSB
- cover
- User guide
- CD-ROM with software.
In general, all standard and customary, there is nothing superfluous.
Appearance
Kinda the motto under which the S710 goes out into the light, sounds so - «design leader with great usability», that is, the emphasis is on appearance and usability of the device. With the design of the HTC as always a complete mess, and S710 - is no exception to the rule: a smartphone a really attractive. Externally, our hero recalls nearly razdobrevshy and acquired the gloss HTC S310, due to color, brand streamlining the body and compact size. The tube fits not only into his trouser pocket, but in a thin shirt pocket. True, by weight S710 - slightly more than a lot of WM-smartphones. Grams more than he must once again its unique form factor, ie the sliding keyboard.
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The designers skillfully played on the contrast of light and dark colors - matte black, light gray and silver "under the metal." As a result, the device looks important and expensive. Case material - plastic soft touch, uncommonly pleasant to the touch and resistant to mechanical stress. Basic color - black. On the obverse side, however, is dominated by bright colors. Gray border around the screen smoothly flows into a brilliant navigation unit (hang up and receive a call back and go back to Today, the central joystick button), framing the keyboard. Button with a shiny surface look very favorably on the contrast with the black numeric keypad. True, from time to time they have to wipe, getting rid of fingerprints. QWERTY-keyboard and a light gray. In general, the appearance of S710 causes only positive emotions, leaving a vivid image in memory.
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Now let's talk about ergonomics and layout of controls. Above the screen are placed voice speaker and LED displays the availability of the network, charging, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and alerts. Under the screen - the soft-buttons, and the above-described navigation block surrounding the telephone keypad. The joystick has a rectangular shape with soft corners match for the thumb of medium size. The department - a very comfortable and adequate. The same can be said of the other buttons of the navigation unit, including the soft keys.
Numeric keypad, which is located under the joystick, consists of four rows of buttons (12 buttons, three in each), softly illuminated in the dark. Progress in all keys - a smooth, response - a clear, size - the optimum size for your phone, space for the Cyrillic alphabet - is enough.
At the bottom there is a slot for a strap and covered by a rubber plug connector extUSB, intended, as we have to connect the charger, sync cable or headset. About this connector has been said a lot of "warm" words, but, apparently, HTC is not going to abandon it. However, for those who wish to connect to your phone good headphones, instead of standard "drops», HTC has released a special Y-shaped adapter, which allows you to simultaneously connect the charging / sync cable and headphones jack 2,5 ". The HTC site this adapter now offered as a recommended accessory to almost all devices.
At the top end S710 power button is located slightly recessed into the case. As expected, it's a bit tugovat.
On the left side S710 «apartment" volume control buttons (not, incidentally, comfortable, though protruding above the surface) and the voice dial button. Right - the microSD card slot under the rubber flap and button to call the camera.
On the back of the unit is 2-megapixel camera lens, self-portrait mirror, the lattice dynamics of the system, a connector for external antenna (again under the rubber cover) and the battery cover.
A little surprise: a battery cover no slot for SIM-cards, he moved to the back of the upper halves of the slider. Very convenient solution that facilitates access to the card.
Finally reached the fun part - a sliding QWERTY-keyboard. S710 - first smartphone-slider from HTC, which is used to avtodovodchikom mechanism similar to that available to the HTC P4350 (Herald). In practice, sufficient only slightly shifted halves of the enclosure relative to each other, and the mechanism itself will complete begun - will open or close the keyboard. Powered avtodovodchik clearly and perfectly. Complaints about the quality of its performance we have not. The appearance of backlashes in time are likely to be ruled out because all the products HTC different traditional high build quality.
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As for the keyboard, it was surprisingly comfortable for its size (36 keys in three rows). Good not only size, shape, and the response keys, but also how they are spaced. The distance between them excludes the possibility of simultaneously pressing two buttons. On the keys themselves - enough space to accommodate the Cyrillic alphabet. Illumination - the same as that of the numeric keypad - blue, not cutting the eye in the dark.
As with the P4350, above the keyboard apparatus placed two additional LED displays the status of modifiers Caps and Fn, as well as the understudy for two hardware soft keys. When you open the QWERTY-keyboard automatically changes the screen orientation - with the standard portrait to landscape. Unfortunately appreciate the full usability of the keyboard during the test failed, or rather did not work with the Russian layout. The reason is that the smartphone is in the Beta-version, as evidenced by the appropriate caption Homescreen.
Summarizing this chapter, we can say that the HTC S710 was a success. Visually, it's definitely arouse the interest of advanced youth. Ergonomics, as well as the assembly - at the level and form factor certainly emulated by other manufacturers.
Screen
In HTC S710 - One of the biggest and qualitative screens among WM-smartphone - Diagonal 2.4 "at a resolution of 320x240 and support 65,000 colors. By the way, a possible competitor to Samsung i600 is equipped with a slightly lower matrix - 2.3" in diagonal. In general, according to this index, our hero looks better than some of the WM-communicators of the new wave, equipped with cut-down screen. Interestingly, according to the brightness, contrast and quality of the matrix among the classmates he is almost without equal. The viewing angles are also very good. Adjusting the backlight, as usual, the smartphone is missing, that is, it can be either on or off. In the sun, like every TFT-matrix display fades, but not critical, but in the dark is not much strain your eyes.
Processor and memory
Hardware-S710 anything (except the form factor) does not differ from its predecessor - HTC S620 (Excalibur): it is the same processor TI OMAP850 clocked at 200MHz, and 64MB of RAM (available to the user almost 50 MB) and 128MB of ROM (for storing user data is available 63 MB). Even the memory card slot one and the same - microSD, supports cards up to 2 GB.
To evaluate performance we used the player TCPMP 0.72RC1. As shown by the test, S710 is a bit faster than other devices on the hardware platform TI, which basically is a credit to the new version of Windows Mobile.
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| Test results TCPMP |
The test results are confirmed, and purely subjective observations. When you work virtually marked the brakes, the interface responds more quickly than in WM 5.0, but all the same facilities for viewing video at 640x480 at our hero is not enough. As for the usual problems for a smartphone, the S710 enough performance here with a vengeance.
Battery
Battery installed in the S710, is not very high capacity - 1050 mAh, given the large Smartphone QVGA-screen. Let's see what he can do. 1. Maximum load. The brightness set to maximum, the speaker volume - also included Wi-Fi network in the search mode, and Bluetooth, the Windows Media Player in the cycle is played a "heavy" video. Battery life in this mode was 3 hours and 20 minutes. 2. Normal operation. Backlight is turned on. On the smartphone was launched reading of the text in the program AlReader with automatic scrolling. Time work was 12 hours and 30 minutes. 3. MP3 Playback. Listening through headphones at high volume. We used Windows Media Player and files with a bitrate 192 Kb / c. Time work 9 hours and 45 minutes. But the S710 looks like on the background of my classmates.
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| Runtime |
Well, the result - normal, but not a record.With active use (hours of calls a day, an active business correspondence, a little Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 3:00 reading, 2 hours of music) S710 hardly will run over two days without recharging. In the delicate cycle will last about three days.
Sound
Audio path from S710 - very high quality (which is typical for almost all devices HTC). Sound the call - a loud, interlocutor in conversation is heard well, but the vibrating alert is not too strong, average strength. When listening to music through the supplied headset is traditionally lacking bass.
Wireless interfaces
In this regard, the HTC S710 is no different from its predecessor S620. Set of wireless interfaces have become standard for today's devices: quadband GSM / GPRS / EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi. As usual, all the features of the application controls the Comm manager.
Phone
In the S710 is used all the same quad GSM / GPRS / EDGE module is manufactured by Infineon. Phone functions have not undergone any change, so we restrict ourselves to generalities about how it all works is relatively stable and no special problems in the test sample was observed.
Bluetooth
In the S710 uses the native »Bluetooth-stack of Windows Mobile from Microsoft, well known to us for review of other devices. The new version of the operating system is not added to it any new functionality. Continue to support a standard set of profiles:
- Generic Object Exchange
- A2DP
- AVRCP
- HID
- FTP
- PAN
- Object Push
- Handsfree
- Headset
Again, again, everything works as expected.
Wi-Fi
There is also nothing new: support for standard 802.11b / g and a familiar interface for users of smartphones (the last time changes were made to it in WM5 AKU3.0). By the work of the wireless module is again no complaints, except maybe not the most outstanding sensitivity (in some places where a laptop with Wi-Fi module, perfectly captures the signal, S710 just did not see the network or permanently lost her). Most likely, it costs miniaturization.
Luggage
S710 has become the standard for the latest HTC camera with a resolution of 2 megapixel, no flash and autofocus, but with a self-portrait mirror. Maximum resolution for photos - 1600x1200, format - jpg. Maintain and record video in MPEG4 and H.263. Camera settings are familiar. You can select the picture resolution, adjust the white balance (Auto, Daylight, Night, Incandescent, Fluorescent), apply special effects (Grayscale, Sepia, Cool, Negative), enable the timer, metering mode, turn off or turn the shutter sound, etc.
Image quality, issued by the camera S710, - very average, but it will come quickly "click" something on the go. With the examples can be found below.
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| HTC S710: example photo (jpg, 1600x1200, 213,3 Kb) |
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| HTC S710: example photo (jpg, 1200x1600, 471,1 Kb) |
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| HTC S710: example photo (jpg, 1200x1600, 457,6 Kb) |
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| HTC S710: example photo (jpg, 1200x1600, 520,4 Kb) |
Software
As already mentioned, HTC S710 running the new operating system from Microsoft - Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard. Recall that the title was now a new version of the OS for smartphones, formerly known as Windows Mobile for Smartphone. In fact, all the changes embodied in the new edition of the OSes, - an evolutionary, as it marks a transitional stage to a radically new OS Photon, which will be released next year. First of all, to change the look and feel, and increased its speed, has been supports Windows Live services and VoIP-telephony protocol SIP, as well as user-friendly search for contacts and made many small changes and improvements. Standard software package replenished mainly due to:
- office suite, Microsoft Office Mobile (Word, Excel and PowerPoint Mobile), previously not available for Smartphones
- Suite Microsoft Windows Live (Messenger Live Messenger, Live Mail postal service and search service Live Search)
- programs to search the e-mail application SmartFilter and search for contacts Smart Dial
- Application Marketplace to purchase software directly from a mobile handset.
Otherwise, no significant changes in terms of features other programs do not happen. In the OS also includes: Microsoft Outlook Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, Media Player Mobile 1910, ActiveSync, Windows Mobile Update, Photo & Videos, Games (standard), "Explorer", the encryption card slot. At present, for the S710 is in beta testing, but about a set of additional programs like this:
- Package ClearVue Suite (including the ClearVue PDF) - a set of software for viewing office documents and PDF-files
- архиватор ZIP
- Manager SIM-cards - work with a map
- Comm manager - Centralized management of all wireless interfaces
- Task Manager, Task Manager - manage running software
- audio manager - alternative to Windows Media Player
- MP3 Trimmer - the program for the indigenous production of ringtones from popular tunes.
Price and Availability
According to preliminary data, HTC S710 should appear on sale in late May or early June of this year. Price of the device initially will be about 16,500 rubles.
Conclusions
Market prospects for HTC S710 - very good, given its unique form factor, great design, a balanced set of features and an affordable price forecast (this, of course, about $ 500). In fact, the competition is not unique to this machine, and its mission - a mobile tool for easy correspondence - it is completely justified. Quite suitable not only for beginners who have decided to change the mobile phone to a smartphone, but also business users. True, new items have a couple of shortcomings that may be critical for the target audience. Here are the pros and cons of it.
Pros: - compactness
- effective design and excellent ergonomics
- radically new form factor - the numeric keypad + QWERTY-keyboard
- A new version of Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard
- complete set of wireless interfaces including Wi-Fi
Cons: - connector extUSB (alternative headphone connection is possible only through separately sold adapter)
We thank the company Brightpoint for the provided HTC S710. The authors, translation:
