A purported road map of HTC devices includes five smartphones with Google’s Android OS and three with Windows Mobile 6.5. Fast and thin, features sprinkled throughout the group include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, slim touchscreens and 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Google’s Android operating system will
dominate HTC’s smartphone lineup for 2010, if documents posted to a developer forum
— reportedly a leaked HTC presentation from an October meeting in Vienna
— is to be believed.
The presentation categorizes the phones
into four groups: Design/Lifestyle; Social; Performance; and Productivity.
While the three phones designated for “Productivity” run the Windows Mobile 6.5
operating system, the handsets in all the other categories — five phones in
total — run the Android OS.
Under the Design/Lifestyle umbrella are
the Legend and the Salsa. The former is thin and metallic and lovely, with a
3.2-inch AMOLED display, a “clickable optical mouse,” a 5-megapixel camera,
Wi-Fi and GPS, and a supposed March sales date on the T-Mobile network. The
Salsa is also a slim candybar-style phone, with a dedicated qwerty and
portrait-oriented keypad under the screen. It’s said to feature a 528MHz
Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, and include a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, a
2.6-inch QVGA touchscreen and an FM radio.
While the Legend is just 0.44
inches thin, the Salsa is a still-thinner 0.33 inches.
Under “Social” comes the Tide and the
Buzz. The Tide is said to include a 528MHz MSM7225 processor, and a
brand-new
form factor — a full-touch numeric keypad below a 2.68-inch QVGA
touchscreen. Pegged for an April debut with T-Mobile, the presentation
plays up the
Tide’s social-networking capabilities and a user’s ability to “touch or
type.” GPS,
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and functionality on WCDMA/HSPA and
GSM/EDGE
networks are all said to be included.
The Buzz boasts a 3.2-inch screen with a 5-megapixel camera, a back cover that
can be swapped out for customizing and a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor.
There’s also GPS and AGPS, Wi-Fi connectivity and pre-loaded software for
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other social-networking sites, as well as
Microsoft Exchange e-mail support. It’s said to be slated for a May arrival with
T-Mobile.
The Bravo, under the “Performance”
category, may elicit a round of applause. It pairs an HD-ready 3.7-inch AMOLED
display with Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor. There’s also Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth connectivity, GPS and AGPS, 512MB of Flash memory and 256MB of RAM
with a 16GB MicroSD card and a 5-megapixel camera with high-definition video
capture. It’s reportedly slated for April.
The “Productivity” devices running
Windows 6.5 are described as the Photon, Trophy and Tera.
The Photon, scheduled for April, features
a 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive display, a 600MHz MSM7227 processor, a 5-megapixel
camera with auto-focus, plus GPS, AGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Special features are listed as a “Motion G-sensor, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack,
MicroUSB, Straight Talk Lite, People, TouchFLO 3D, Business Card Scanner,
Facebook, Twitter.”
A month later the Trophy is said to be arriving,
with a 3-inch VGA capacitive touchscreen and a dedicated qwerty keypad below
it, as well as a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor. All the connectivity
options and special features are here as well, inside a 0.43-inch-thin
candy-bar-style form factor.
Last but not least comes the Tera,
which has HTC TouchPro2-ish good looks: a 3-inch WQVGA resistive touchscreen
that slides over and up at a angle to reveal a four-row qwerty keypad. (The
TouchPro 2 has five rows of keys.) Said to be arriving in April, it features
the 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, GPS
and AGPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera and more.
An HTC spokesperson said he could
neither confirm nor deny whether the devices are official.
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