[PaulOBrien]

The HTC Excalibur was a much loved device. Most popular in the USA as the T-Mobile Dash, the Excalibur also manifested itself as the Orange SPV E600, O2 XDA Cosmo and of course the HTC S620 (amongst others). The Excalibur was succeeded by the Cavalier, but this device never received a wide launch and wasn't picked up by operator networks... hence we've really been waiting for a true Excalibur successor a long time. But... it's finally here... in the form of the HTC Snap.

My HTC Snap has just arrived, and i've unboxed it for your pleasure in this video from Unboxings.com. We will also be featuring the device in our WinMo Week podcasts.

If you have any questions about the device ahead of our review, feel free to post here and i'll do my best to answer them!

You can grab the HTC Snap from eXpansys (don't forget our discount vouchers!), i'll leave you with a rundown of the specs...

• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
  
• Qualcomm MSM 7225 @ 528 MHz
  
• ROM: 256 MB / RAM: 192 MB
  
• 2.4-inch TFT-LCD with LED back light and QVGA resolution
  
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
  
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  
• Trackball with Enter button
  
• 4-row QWERTY keyboard
  
• GPS
  
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
  
• HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
  
• 2.0 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
  
• 1500 mAh battery
  
• microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
  
• 116.5 X 61.5 X 12.0 mm
  
• 120 grams (4.23 ounces) with battery
  

P

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[AlecR]

Are you sure about the Excalibur also being the SPV E650 - isn't that the HTC S710/Vodafone v1415 (with slide out QWERTY)?

Anyway, 1500mAh battery seems impressive.

[PaulOBrien]

obviously I meant the E600...



P

[anonymous1]

off topic

Paul, the ping you wanted from me should be in your pm box

Please check it and let me know when despatched

Thank you

[neilg]

HI Paul,
Since my all time fave WM device was the Samsung sgh-i600, would be great to have any comparisons with this (or with your current BJII).
In particular:
- Navigation of voicemail/message inboxes/SMS etc with WM6.1 standard and any HTC enhancements to it? The Samsung carousel was one of the best UI's I have ever had.
- How good is the keypad compared to say (dare I say it) a Nokia E71 or even to the Samsung BJ/i600/BJII/i780?
- Would you personally use this (primarily as a messaging device for a number of email accounts) over something like a Touch Pro 2 for example (I appreciate this is a very subjective question, but despite trying most of them I have Never got on with WM Professional for messaging without using the stylus to navigate)
- Comparison of what you can do on Exchange 2003 and 2007 would be interesting, but i guess out of scope for a review

I am a really heavy messaging user, in fact really heavy voice user too and after using WM since the original SPV devices on Orange (original Sendo Z100 before that if anyone remembers as far back as that) I went to the dark side (iPhone 3G) with Nokia E71 and Samsung sgh-i600 as backup. I would dearly like to have a great landscape qwerty WM device again - still my old Samsung SGH-i600 hasn't been consigned to the heap purely for the reason that there is nothing to replace it.

Can the Snap replace my i600 and more..............? Or is it just slightly better keys...........

Incidentally is TomTom likely to support WM Standard again, ever? I notice they also are now punting an iPhone version.....

Cheers
Neil

This post has been edited by neilg: 10 June 2009 - 05:53 PM

[PaulOBrien]

- The Samsung carousel? That's just the standard WM6.1 carousel no?
- Keypad is good, I'm not a big fan of trackballs tho! I am as fast on the Snap as on my BJII I reckon.
- The TP2 is pretty huge, this is thin and light. If I was purely a power messaging user, yes, I probably would.

If you loved the i600 you'll likely love the Snap, but not see massive OS differences... just WiFi, GPS, 3G...

I am tempted to source a Samsung Jack for a comparison... but the lack of WiFi on that is a real shame! Also, if WiFi isn't a real deal breaker, maybe a BJII is a much more prudent investment. Argh!

P

[neilg]

Paul, on Jun 11 2009, 10:27, said:

- The Samsung carousel? That's just the standard WM6.1 carousel no?
- Keypad is good, I'm not a big fan of trackballs tho! I am as fast on the Snap as on my BJII I reckon.
- The TP2 is pretty huge, this is thin and light. If I was purely a power messaging user, yes, I probably would.

If you loved the i600 you'll likely love the Snap, but not see massive OS differences... just WiFi, GPS, 3G...

I am tempted to source a Samsung Jack for a comparison... but the lack of WiFi on that is a real shame! Also, if WiFi isn't a real deal breaker, maybe a BJII is a much more prudent investment. Argh!

P

Great - thanks Paul!! Samsung Carousel on i600 was their own creation as far as I know was on WM5 originally. I'll keep an eye out for your review, although it seems like I am the only one this side of the pond who cares about QWERTY WM Standard!!

[TimLayton]

I think there are a couple reasons for the success of the HTC snap. First, the interface is very clean and easy to navigate and the size of this device is perfect for one-handed use. This device really does a good job of using the windows mobile power features and handles very nicely. I think we will see future versions of this and other similar layouts continue.

[slippers]

I am quite keen to purchase one of these handsets but was wondering if I will be able to find much software for windows mobile standard devices these days, more specifically tomtom or a similar navigation program that will work with this phone.

[chris5h]

Here is something I have been trying to figure out:

How do you hard reset the device without going through the menu to get to it?

[Jolig]

In the meantime - does anybody work with Blackberry Connect software on the Snap? I've tried it several times with different versions - no luck, device gets no connection, always "Pin pending" - whereas on my touch HD it runs very good.

[Mark K]

Hi Paul,

I have this device form Telecom NZ, and while I love it I am frustrated by the application lock, which Telecom won't recognise as a problem (I can't even update Google Earth! :-( )

Have you any idea how to get around this? Have done a fair bit of searching but can't fiund anything definitive.

Thanks,

Mark.

Paul, on Jun 10 2009, 22:52, said:

The HTC Excalibur was a much loved device. Most popular in the USA as the T-Mobile Dash, the Excalibur also manifested itself as the Orange SPV E600, O2 XDA Cosmo and of course the HTC S620 (amongst others). The Excalibur was succeeded by the Cavalier, but this device never received a wide launch and wasn't picked up by operator networks... hence we've really been waiting for a true Excalibur successor a long time. But... it's finally here... in the form of the HTC Snap.

My HTC Snap has just arrived, and i've unboxed it for your pleasure in this video from Unboxings.com. We will also be featuring the device in our WinMo Week podcasts.

If you have any questions about the device ahead of our review, feel free to post here and i'll do my best to answer them!

You can grab the HTC Snap from eXpansys (don't forget our discount vouchers!), i'll leave you with a rundown of the specs...

• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
  
• Qualcomm MSM 7225 @ 528 MHz
  
• ROM: 256 MB / RAM: 192 MB
  
• 2.4-inch TFT-LCD with LED back light and QVGA resolution
  
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
  
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  
• Trackball with Enter button
  
• 4-row QWERTY keyboard
  
• GPS
  
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
  
• HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
  
• 2.0 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
  
• 1500 mAh battery
  
• microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
  
• 116.5 X 61.5 X 12.0 mm
  
• 120 grams (4.23 ounces) with battery

P

[obed]

slippers, on Jul 15 2009, 12:39, said:

...windows mobile standard devices these days, more specifically tomtom or a similar navigation program that will work with this phone.

the stock software on the Sprint Snap is superb. It comes with a Quick GPS program that maintaines your coordinates by refreshing location services every few days.

Tom Tom 7 was a no go, unless someone has figured out a work around

[obed]

chris5h, on Jul 17 2009, 22:17, said:

How do you hard reset the device without going through the menu to get to it?

1. shut down and restart
upon boot up press "up volume" button on side, and green "talk" button. hold them down until screen goes black and bootloader kicks in

note: I'm posting from memory, so dont quote me...I think the specifics are in the owners manual

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