The HTC Advantage X7510 smart phone adds Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and updates its Qwerty keypad with haptic feedback. Are these additions worth the price tag? The X7510 was supplied by clove.co.uk, where it's available for £656.
Strengths
Cosmetically, the X7510 is virtually identical to the original Advantage, though a few buttons have been removed from the front facia. The OS is now Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with a standard HTC customised home interface.
Its weight and larger profile are in place to accommodate the 127mm (5-inch) touchscreen display, which, despite its VGA resolution, will at least retain better compatibility with third-party programs.
Apart from the impressive 16GB of storage, miniSD card expansion and multimedia touches -- stereo speakers/3.5mm headphone jack -- the X7510's biggest improvement lies with its keyboard. While the keypad is completely flat, it does provide a dedicated number key row and the new haptic feedback system gives off a slight vibration/audible noise when each key is pressed. This feature resulted helped produce a quicker and more comfortable typing experience than we had expected.
When the board is not in use, it clips to the front of the screen and provides basic head's-up information related to network status, battery strength and time. When required for typing it locks into position with a strong magnet and the screen angles back slightly.
The TV-out cable can be used to rig up your device to a TV/VGA monitor (S-Video/Composite/D-Sub) to watch movies. You could also utilise the USB port to attach a full-sized USB PC keyboard or flash drive.
Additionally, the X7510 is adorned with a 624MHz CPU, 128MB RAM (with 77MB free, allowing for better multitasking), HSDPA support, dual Wi-Fi and a GPS receiver. The receiver was pretty slow at picking up our location indoors using Google Maps, but there's a data utility supplied to help.
HTC also throws in a host of extra software/utilities -- far too many to list here. The cream of the crop has to be the Opera 9 browser, which alongside the display makes Web surfing a dream.
Even with the large screen, the X7510 provided respectable battery life, with a claimed 5 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby.
Weaknesses
The X7510 definitely offers a great spec, but it's still a Windows Mobile device underneath and the high price may be out of most buyers' reach.
Plus, while smaller than a laptop, it's still large, heavy and impractical for all situations. The navigation pad, for example, has been removed, which will impede those wishing to pursue gaming. Making calls feels a little strange as the keyboard really needs a flat surface to work effectively and the screen angle can't be adjusted.
The 3-megapixel camera provided above average image quality, but we did discover a strange issue when using the camera outside. After a while, the screen would start flashing and captured images would corrupt. Hopefully, a firmware upgrade will solve this issue.
Our synthetic benchmark test revealed that its graphics performance was surprisingly poor and while not really affecting Windows operation, we did detect a few lip sync issues in one of our video tests.
Conclusion
Like early Advantage models, the X7510 is one of those devices that struggles to find a common ground. It's too big to be completely functional as a smart phone, though it's lighter and more manageable than a laptop or UMPC. In theory, it does provide a useful proposition for those who don't want a full-blown Windows operating system, but at the same time still need to be kept in touch with the office.
Price is always going to be the X7510's biggest downfall, regardless if the device is well specced and featured. Despite it not being practical for all mobile situations, the X7510 is still a great piece of kit and we especially liked the new haptic Qwerty keyboard and large screen. Coupled with the instant-on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS, 16GB of storage and supplied software, you have a useful alternative to a laptop for out of office use.
Edited by Shannon Doubleday
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User reviews2
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anonymous 5 January 2009
Good: Professional mini-mini laptop look c/w 3g video calls
Bad: Htc taken away mini joystick, ok & windows start button
Comment: Usually people who buy x7510 , they already have or at least used before desktop, laptops, netbooks or macbook . Therefore pricing is subjective :- if you are so-so - it's expensive , if you are well to do - it's ok , if you are rich - you don't mind at all & if you are filthy rich - you wouldn't be looking at this page at all . Owners of x7510 also have a few handphones & iphone with them i believe. It's a niche product for a niche market if you dig it !
Heavy, impractical for all situations - this is not entirely fair & true at all . How can one manufacturer make a sub netbook smaller and lighter ? You need 5" screen for looking brilliant & nice , and you need to power this screen - how do you make a smaller & lighter battery with such technology now ? Maybe in the next few years but it's not fair to judge x7510 that way . You cannot have a foldable screen for it right ? When it is made big , you cant make it light ?
You still can make normal phone calls although not private . Place your ear near the speaker & place mouth not so near to mic , adjust volume of the set and talk . You look strange you say because normal phones are smaller in size - that's all . Use bluetooth or earplugs if you want private calls . It's not too bad i would think .
Keyboard needs flat surface - Yes if you want to type fast but you stilll can type on the go but with 2 hands holding keyboard & thumb typing it , it should be ok . And to see clearly you just tilt the x7510 angle a bit . It 's not a big deal .
Camera and poor video - maybe some got this problem , not all sets are like that .
Poor performance - you got to compare with wm pda phones and not to umpc or netbooks ( different category ) or normal handphones ( also different ) .
In my opinion it is the best pda phone available in the market with a typeable keyboard , Htc got a lot of improvements on the next replacement model but so far Htc have been doing a very good job since Dopod 900 days . You have got to give credit to them . If there is a 3g video call wm pda with keyboard set out there which is better , prove me wrong and i will salute you ( apple to apple comparison ). Cheers .
Thanks & regards ,
jimmunsw@gmail.com :)
shopmobiles4u 24 July 2008
Good: variety of new and improved hardware features including 16GB of storage. magnetic QWERTY keyboard
Bad: price, quite hard to look after in my view.
Comment: Coming soon to Orange, the HTC Advantage X7510 integrates a broad set of features into a compact and innovative design. Based on the latest version of Windows Mobile, the updated HTC Advantage includes a customized HTC Home today screen that provides one-touch access to emails, text messages, missed calls, calendar appointments and contacts, as well as current weather conditions and forecasts for hundreds of cities around the world. The HTC Advantage features HTC’s TouchFLO software which enhances finger touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages and contact lists. The Advantage also includes Opera Mobile 9 and Google Maps for mobile.
In addition to the many software enhancements, the new HTC Advantage X7510 also adds a variety of new and improved hardware features including 16GB of storage, a new improved keyboard with haptic feedback and an updated version of VueFLO using a Gsensor that recognises the screen orientation of the device for optimal customer usage. With its innovative built-in video output capability, users can run presentations directly via the projector and TV output. Its 5 inch VGA colour touch screen and innovative, magnetic QWERTY keyboard are ideal. Users can also watch videos, browse the web, use push e-mail and navigate anywhere with inbuilt GPS and TomTom Navigator 6.
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