HTC Shift: Part smartphone, part UMPC

So, fancy yourself an HTC fanboy, eh? This should test your loyalty: feast your eyes upon the HTC Shift, a UMPC/smartphone hybrid, of sorts. On the UMPC tip, it's got an 800Mhz Intel A110 CPU, up to 60GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, a 7" 800 x 480 touch-sensitive LCD and (gasp!) Vista. On the smartphone side of things you'll find a 400Mhz Qualcomm MSM 7200 chipset, tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth. Apparently this thing can only do two hours of Windows on that 2700mAh battery but luckily, that second CPU can handle 53 hours worth of push email without having to boot into Vista. In the form factor department, expect the screen to slide out and tilt--not unlike a giant version of the much-loved, Windows Mobile Tilt. Expect this device to land in Europe and Asia next week for around $1600, with U.S. availability in January.

For more on the Shift:
- see this article from UMPC Portal