August 28th, 2007
Is the HTC Advantage really the most powerful mobile office?
Hardware - 3 megapixel camera: Windows Mobile devices, particularly those from HTC, are not known for having good quality cameras and the HTC Advantage is not much different. I do think the camera is better than others I have tried, but it still can’t really compare to the Nokia cameras. I took a few photos with the Nokia N95 and Advantage of the same objects in the same lighting conditions (and selected a 3 megapixel option for the N95) so you can see some of the differences in quality. In a couple I actually like the HTC Advantage output better than the N95, which was a bit surprising. The software has several settings and options, but the software isn’t really what you are looking for with a mobile camera. FYI, the white balance options are auto, daylight, night, incandescent, and fluorescent. The thick manual does have some good tips for helping you take the best photos possible and my main recommendation is to find good lighting.
I included a couple of photos taken with the flash in complete darkness and low light conditions and as you can see . I also took a photo of text, but without a macro mode these kinds of photos don’t work too well.
You can capture photos in several different modes (photo, video, MMS video, contacts picture, picture theme, panorama, sports, and burst) using the dedicated camera button. Photos are captured as .jpeg images and videos are captured in MPEG-4 (.mp4) format. You can capture photos from 160×120 resolution up to 2048×1536. Video can be captured in resolutions ranging from 128×96 to 352×288. There is 1x to 4x digital zooming for the lower resolution captures, but I find digital zooming on any camera to be useless.
You can store your images and video on the internal storage, miniSD card, Microdrive, or even USB attached device. It is cool to know you can take over 1,000 photos or 30 hours of video without worrying about filling up a card.
Hardware - wireless connectivity: The HTC Advantage has all of the best wireless functionality found in mobile devices today, with U.S. HSDPA 3.5G support, UMTS, EDGE, quad-band GSM, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support and 802.11 b/g WiFi. I simply popped out my iPhone SIM and put it into the Advantage to get full HSDPA connectivity. I regularly saw download speeds from 700 to 900 kbps, tested using the www.dslreports.com/mspeed site. You will need to get an AT&T SIM card to see the full HSDPA wireless speeds, but the device will also work with T-Mobile and its EDGE data service.
I was able to connect a pair of Cardo Scala S-2 stereo Bluetooth headphones to the Advantage and listen to flawless Yahoo! Music via Bluetooth from about 25 feet away through 2 interior house walls. My iPhone sometimes starts to lose Bluetooth signal if a I hold a headset an arms reach across my body and I have found the Bluetooth radio in the Advantage to be quite strong.
Hardware - GPS receiver: The GPS receiver is what impressed me after the first 15 minutes of using the device since I quickly downloaded Google Maps and found that the GPS receiver tracked my location in my house on the bottom floor about 8 feet from a window. I have never had a GPS receiver pick up a signal this well and was quite impressed. There is a QuickGPS utility that uses wireless data connections to help obtain the initial signal faster so that may have played a big factor in the speed of satellite aquisition. I then used the TeleNav software that came loaded on the device during a few road trips and time and again found the GPS to pick up signals quickly and maintain them very well while driving around. I have a bit more detail about the TeleNav software itself down further in this review. I regularly would have the Advantage sitting on the console of my truck’s bench seat between the driver and passenger so no direct access to the sky was present, but it was set back about 2 feet from the window.
Hardware - accessories included: The HTC Advantage comes with a very nice leather case that has three rigid plastic braces on the top for the main Advantage unit. You simply slide the Advantage up into the braces until it rest against the top brace. You will find that HTC thought of the user experience and there are openings on the two side braces for the stereo speakers to still provide you with a rich multimedia experience. There is a slight cutout on the top back right for easy access to the stylus and another larger cutout on the top back left for the camera and flash light. An HTC logo is branded into the center of the back behind the center brace. The bottom appears to be a flat piece of leather, but as soon as you get the keyboard close to it you will realize it has some metal in it as the keyboard snaps into place magnetically. I actually kept the Advantage in the case 95% of the time and you will find the leather supple enough to support using the Advantage in laptop mode with the case wrapped around it.
You will also find a USB cable for syncing and charging and an AC adapter for charging in the package. A wired stereo headset, with 3.5mm male end, is provided for listening to media or making/receiving calls. There is a small dongle on the cord for volume control and to answer a phone call. I personally did not use these since I prefer to use a Bluetooth headset for phone calls and my Ultimate Ears for music and media. An extra lame plastic stylus is included, as previously mentioned.
The last piece of gear included with the HTC Advantage X7501 is the VGA out cable that connects to the proprietary HTC port located above the miniUSB port. The cable is a total of about 7 inches long from end-to-end and includes a small cap on the HTC port end with a standard 15-pin female VGA connector on the other end. You can use this to connect to an external display or monitor and have everything on the display output to a larger display.
Hardware - accessories available: To test out some of the advanced functionality of the HTC Advantage, I purchased the HTC 4-in-1 cable from Mobile Planet for about US$24, plus US$22 shipping and handling. This cable/adapter is about 7.5 inches from end-to-end and also includes a small cap (easily lost I am sure) on the HTC port end. At the other end you will find 3 more connections over the included VGA cable, including composite video output, S-video output, and USB 1.1 ports. I used the composite video output to connect to my 37 inch HD TV as shown in my YouTube video and it allows you to easily demo the device or show off your photos to family and friends. The USB 1.1 port allows you to plug in and use low power USB accessories. You can use USB keyboards, flash drives, hard drives, and more with the HTC 4-in-1 cable.
I tested a 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer card and even played video flawlessly directly from the card (again shown in my YouTube video). I was able to transfer my screenshots from the device to the USB flash drive with no issues and found the USB flash drive to be a wonderful option for memory expansion and transportation. I also tried connecting to my 80GB hard drive enclosure (came from my MacBook Pro) and while it did see the drive and connect to it, the USB 1.1 connection speed made it an extremely slow experience that I didn’t think was practical for daily usage. The cool new microSD to USB adapter from Kingston that I am checking out worked well too, but I think using USB thumb drives are probably the best use for the port. I did try connecting to the Neuros OSD to capture video directly from it to the 8GB microdrive on the Advantage, but it did not work and I think it had to do with host vs. client behavior.
I also recommend miniSDHC cards and may be looking for some large capacity ones soon myself. The Think Outside Sierra Bluetooth keyboard is a must have for serious text entry.
Other accessories you may want to consider are a Bluetooth headset, Bluetooth stereo headphones, real stylus, good 3.5 mm earphones, and some kind of car mounting solution (I am looking for a good solution here if any readers have any suggestions). You do get a screen protector in the box, but I found it to be a rather cheap standard one that leaves lots of bubbles and trapped dust on the display so I haven’t used it myself. I may look to Boxwave or JAVOEdge since they have screen protectors I like for most devices.
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Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 08/28/07
