Prior to the unveiling of the new Windows Mobile, even Microsoft advocates and apologists left WinMo 6.x alone. It just isn’t a mobile os that anyone wants to boast about using.
Strangely enough, this pariah of a phone os, this leper of smartphone interfaces, has received at least one piece of hardware that just about everyone would have liked to have in their pocket, with two more on the way. As we all gear up for the new WinMo at the end of 2010, the old WinMo has saved the best for last and is coming out on three phones that almost make you forget they’re running WinMo.
The first of the three is HTC’s HD2, which launched in Europe in November and Hong Kong in December. This is the form factor that I was hoping the Google phone would use back when that was still all rumors and speculation. The HD2 is a very sexy form factor, and as expected, HTC worked their magic on the interface. As WinMo phones go, you would barely notice on the HTC HD2. What really makes the HD2 stand out is the 4.3, yes you read that right, 4.3 inch screen. The HD2 is also the second phone to offer the GHz Snapdragon CPU, beating Google’s Nexus One to the punch by a couple of months.
The HTC HD2 is finally coming to North America, and will be a T-Mobile exclusive this spring. (Why does T-Mobile, a company with only a relative handful of users get all the cool phones?)
So I am watching all my gadget blog feeds this week, and lots of stuff is coming out of MWC, predominantly the big Microsoft announcement. I also keep seeing Toshiba pop up as I scan my feeds. Toshiba? Love their TVs, but they don’t make phones.
Um, yes they do, just not in the States.
So I scoot over to Toshiba’s UK website and lay my eyes on the Toshiba TG01. This lovely phone has been on sale in Europe and Asia since last summer. Sexy form factor. 4.1, yes, 4.1 inch screen. It’s the very first phone that used the Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU. Damn. Now I am starting to feel jilted, then I read that the screen is resisitive instead of capacitive. Deal breaker. Enjoy your TG01s rest of the world, you can have them.
Still, that is one nice looking phone. Why isn’t Toshiba selling phones in North America?
The third phone launching with a GHz Snapdragon CPU is Toshiba’s TG02. Basically the TG02 is a TG01 with a capacitive instead of resistive touchscreen. Problem solved. Everything else about the Toshiba TG01 was already spot on, besides it being a WinMo phone, so the TG02 pretty much nails it. Again, only for the European and Asian markets, so us Americans will have to content ourselves with our iPhones, Pres, Droids, and Nexus Ones.
Third and last is the Toshiba K01. The K01 is a slider version of the TG02. Basically identical with the addition of a nice looking QWERTY keyboard.
In fact, it’s such a nice looking slider phone that I hope Google is paying attention. Unlike the Droid, the K01 offers a big, useful looking keyboard in a form factor that remains svelte and sexy.
So with good old WinMo on the way out and a spiffy new interface coming at the end of the year, WinMo fans have a lot to be happy about. These phones sure are a nice way to see off the old system, and I will say that I think these HTC and Toshiba form factors are nicer than anything in the Android, iPhone or Palm worlds. The Nexus One is awfully close, but that trackball is an abomination. Thankfully HTC removed it from the Desire in favor of a trackpad, which is less obtrusive, but still unnecessary.
Smartphones are exploding in a big way right now, and I have a feeling that all of us are going to regret our long term contracts as these new devices roll out. Two years is a long time, and depending on what’s in your pocket these new phones may make you feel like you’re toting around a circa 1975 TI calculator.
