The Shift looks like a larger AT&T Tilt, and it sports 3G networking and UMPC features. So, where did it all go wrong?
Review summary of the HTC Shift:
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 The HTC Shift takes a few good ideas and clubs them over the head with some serious design and performance flaws. The device's leather sleeve, the wonky slide mechanism and the tiny keys all detract from what should have been a great idea, an extra-large version of the AT&T Tilt. With a thinner shell and a more touch-friendly interface, this device might have solved some of the nagging issues with the UMPC form factor, but instead it simply creates new problems. The integrated 3G networking is a great touch, but it's easy enough to add WAN capabilties to a better UMPC, so this feature doesn't help us forgive the Shift its shortcomings. Finally, the SnapVUE interface, which should have made the device more convenient, sits in marked contract to HTC's TouchFLO overlay, which does the same thing and looks much better . . . on a cell phone, no less. Release: March 2008. Price: $1500.
Pros: Cool design idea. We like the 3G networking on Sprint's EV-DO.
Cons: Design contradicts portability and convenience. Input methods are still difficult to use. Long time waking from sleep. Poor performance. Battery life to short.
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Full review of the HTC Shift:
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Design - Poor
When we first saw the HTC Shift, we were enthusiastic. As AT&T Tilt owners, we though the idea might translate nicely to a tablet, and it would certainly solve some of the input problems we've had with UMPCs in the past, notably the Samsung Q1 Ultra. Unfortunately, the Shift has some major missteps that make us wonder how it made its way to market.
Foremost among these is the huge, bulky leather folio that wraps the device and is attached to the back with torx screws. HTC says this is an FCC mandate, but in our opinion, as soon as the FCC mandated such a solution to the device's radio problems, we would have gone back to the drawing board. The huge wrap adds weight and bulk, which is a huge problem for an "Ultra-Mobile PC" that is supposed to be more convenient than a laptop.
Even without the leather case, though, the Shift would still be a large UMPC. The keyboard makes it thicker than most, and the leather pushes it across the threshold. We had trouble with the slide mechanism, as well. It seemed stiff on closing, and opening up it would usually catch just above the "ASDFGH" line of keys, until we forced it.
Input - Poor
The keyboard is also an issue. Though we were enthused by the idea of a full keyboard, the tiny keys on the shift come in at an awkward size. Even smaller than on the Asus EEE PC, the keys on the Shift are too small for real typing, but too large and spread apart for thumb typing. We could peck with single digits, but this wasn't any quicker or more convenient than thumb-typing. We had a terrible time typing out a long Word document on the Shift, though simple typing for e-mails and URLs was acceptable. On a positive note, we were quite impressed with the built-in handwriting recognition software. Though it was difficult to edit text, the software did a great job interpreting our chicken scratch, even when we pecked it out with our fingernails instead of the tiny stylus.
Perhaps owing to their cell phone pedigree, HTC has mapped many of the important functions on the device to the keyboard, using the function key modifier. So, if you want to turn down the volume on the Shift, if a movie suddenly starts playing at an annoyingly loud volume in the midst of your quiet office, perhaps, you have to either dig through Vista's controls, or open the keyboard and search for the right keys. Even then, the keyboard volume keys often didn't respond at all, which led to some awkward moments. Screen resolution switching gets a button, but not volume?
In addition to the touchscreen and keyboard, HTC has included a tiny, postage stamp-sized trackpad, what they call a microPad, on the right side of the screen. Again, we were enthusiastic at first, because the microPad was plenty sensitive and even let us tap it as a button. But after a while the pad became annoying to use, especially in precise actions like grabbing a window's corner for resizing. Because the system doesn't seem to understand the display's size, many windows opened beneath the task bar, which made for lots of window resizing.
Finally, Windows Vista just doesn't appreciate touch like a true tablet OS should. With a stylus, the OS was difficult to use, but not impossible. Double-tapping required some precision, and we wish there was a way to "mouse-over" using just the stylus. Instead, this required the trackpad. Microsoft's Origami software adds a more touchable, Windows Media Center-like experience to the tablet, but even this didn't help much. We found the Origami software a bit too simplified, and ended up digging into the non-Origami versions of Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player.
Display - Good
The seven-inch, touch sensitive display on the HTC Shift looked pretty good, though it was a bit washed out. At 1024 by 600 pixels, text, especially under icons on the desktop, looked poor, with clear anti-aliasing issues. At 800 by 480, icons started to look blocky, and the entire Vista Aero interface looked less clean. Videos looked pretty good on the screen. We played through an episode of "Doctor Who" encoded as an .avi file, and though we would have preferred better contrast for deeper blacks and better color, the video moved nicely. Our Archos 605 looks much better, so we wouldn't make the Shift our preferred media player, even on long trips, but if it's all you have, it will do a fine job.
Connectivity - Good
We could complain about the lack of ports on the HTC Shift, but most of the devices we would connect to a UMPC are already built-in, so this wasn't really a problem. The device only sports one USB port, but since we didn't need a keyboard, we only used this port for USB drives, though we could see plugging in an external DVD player. We would have complained about the lack of an Express Card slot, but the HTC Shift features 3G networking on Sprint's EV-DO network. This was a great choice. We've always gotten the best performance from Sprint's 3G network wherever we travel in the U.S., so we don't mind HTC making our carrier decision for us. Unfortunately, we never saw better than 800Kbps download speeds, which is slower than many smartphones we test, but this was plenty fast for casual browsing and e-mail, and even some FTP transfers.
The HTC Shift also features an SD card slot and a VGA port, both fine choices. The device has a headphone jack, but no audio-input, which is fine because there are plenty of USB microphones and adapters. We would have liked to see an Ethernet port, but HTC does include an adapter with an Ethernet jack and three extra USB ports.
Performance - Mediocre
We were ready to excuse the sluggish performance on this device, since its laptop looks don't translate into a laptop-strength processor, but the HTC Shift disappointed us in ways we didn't expect. First, the Shift took a long time to wake from sleep, sometimes more than a minute. The SnapVUE interface, a Windows Mobile derivative (more on that later), sprung to life instantly, but when we switched back to Vista, the Shift took a while to wake up. Though the SnapVUE feature did offer quick access to our e-mail and calendar, we would have liked to see a very speedy recovery, closer to instant-on.
Otherwise, we had no trouble running applications or performing basic tasks on the Shift. Multiple Web pages opened smoothly, and even processor-intensive Web tasks, like streaming video, and AJAX-heavy pages, like Flickr's organize photos page, worked as we expected. As we mentioned, 3G networking speeds were disappointing, but that's a problem with today's 3G networks, and not the device itself. We didn't try to play any games on the device, nor did we run our standard PCMark benchmarking software, mostly because we didn't have a USB DVD drive that would help us install these apps.
Battery - Mediocre
In constant use, even without the 3G radio turned on, the HTC Shift will probably not last an entire flight from New York to Los Angeles. With the radio turned on, it might not make it through takeoff, if your flight is long-delayed. We got almost three hours of mixed use from the Shift, which included watching a 42-minute TV show, lots of Web browsing and e-mail, and playing music in the background for most of the time. We would obviously like to see something closer to 5-6 hours, especially considering the lack of an optical drive, but users who are frugal with their Web browsing on the cellular network should be okay.
Value - Poor
The HTC Shift costs $1,500. We won't get too specific about what that kind of money could buy, but a full laptop with a cell phone and a few extras would be about right. The Samsung Q1 Ultra is comparably priced, perhaps a bit less, but that device won't have WAN capabilities unless Sprint actually comes through on its WiMAX plans. In any case, the HTC Shift either needs to slim down to some truly impressive dimensions to justify the price, or drop the cost to well below the $1,000 mark. As it stands, it isn't so much smaller than the HP 2133 Mini-Note that it justifies the premium.
Odds and ends
With the touch of a button, the HTC Shift will switch from full-on Windows Vista Business mode to an interface HTC calls SnapVUE. They aren't fooling anyone, SnapVUE clearly resembles Windows Mobile, and not even a pretty version of WinMo at that. In this mode, the Shift will accrue consider power savings. HTC claims it can last more than a week in standby, but this is hardly impressive, considering the mode simply converts the Shift into an oversized smartphone. We abandoned SnapVUE almost immediately, as soon as we discovered that it didn't synchronize with the Vista OS beneath. So, if you want e-mail, you have to set it up twice. Once on the full Vista Outlook, and once in SnapVUE. This is dumb, literally, as these systems should speak to each other better. The only benefits to SnapVUE were improved battery life and the fact that it comes up instantly, at the touch of a button. Instead, HTC and Microsoft should improve Vista and the UMPC itself so that an OS like SnapVUE isn't necessary.
For a UMPC, the Shift is also a bit loud. The fan kicked in pretty early in our usage, even while we just left the SnapVUE interface running. Could this be because of the leather coat it's forced to wear? Also, on a few occasions in our week or so of testing, the Shift would begin to emit a loud, high-pitched whine while the device was in sleep mode. It didn't seem to be related to the fan, and it wouldn't stop until we woke the computer from sleep.
Comparison
Compare the HTC Shift with similar products
Who is the HTC Shift for?
Business users
Price and availability
The HTC Shift is available online for $1500.
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