The HTC Shift was one of several UMPCs on display at the dedicated MID section of Intel’s booth.
Having lost most of my interest in the device (and all 7 inchers, for that matter) last summer, I waited until the last day of CES to actually play with it. And now that I have, I wish I had done it much sooner.
Even though it’s not without its share of shortcomings, I think it would have been an excellent CES companion: lightweight, compact, and capable enough for me to do all of my work with little compromise.
The fact that I have an enormous soft spot for its form factor doesn’t hurt either (my HTC Advantage and AT&T Tilt make that bias pretty clear).
The keyboard was a lot better than I expected it to be. I wasn’t able to immediately touch-type on it and I suspect that extended sessions would result in cramped fingers and some aches and pains, but in general, it was really quite usable.
I don’t think I would use the Shift very much at home, where I usually work, so I probably won’t buy one when it becomes available in the next few months. I know I wouldn’t choose it over the Vaio TZ, but I probably wouldn’t travel without it either. And that’s sort of the point of UMPCs, right?
The HTC Shift has definitely regained some of its lost appeal . . .
