HTC Shift Will Run Windows Mobile and Windows Vista

Early this year, HTC announced plans to release its first UMPC running Windows Vista. A new report confirms that this model -- to be called the HTC Shift -- will also run Windows Mobile, something this company said nothing about when the Shift was first unveiled.

HTC loaned Hugo Ortega from Uber Tablet a prototype unit to demonstrate at last week's Microsoft TechED, and he has put together a video demonstration of this device.

New Details on the HTC Shift

If the eventual shipping version of this laptop is like the prototype, it will run Windows Vista Business on an Intel Santa Rosa A110 processor. It will have 1GB DDR2 RAM and a 40 GB hard drive.

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When running Windows Mobile 6 Professional, the Shift will use a 400 MHz processor from Qualcomm, and include 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of ROM.

Ortega makes it clear why HTC is offering the option to run Windows Mobile in a Vista device: battery life. The HTC Shift will last for three hours on a single charge when running Vista, while Ortega says its battery life running Windows Mobile will be more than 5 days.

Interestingly enough, the page on HTC's web site about this model still says nothing about offering Windows Mobile support.

A 34-minute video preview of the Shift can be found on Uber Tablet.

A Laptop and a UMPC

This mini-laptop will have a tablet design with a QWERTY keyboard hidden behind its 7-inch touchscreen. When the screen is slid aside to expose the keyboard, it will flip up at an angle.

The Shift will function as a quad-Band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE. It will also support the 3G cellular-wireless networking standards UMTS and HSDPA in the frequencies used in the U.S. and Europe.

For short-range wireless networking it will include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0.

There has also been no word on then with computer will be released or what it will cost.

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Thanks to cktlcmd for the tip.