94 replies to this topic

[PaulOBrien]

Edit: See base of post for latest updates!

If you follow WinMo elsewhere on the web, i'm sure you've come across talk of some new HTC devices that have been spy-shotted recently. This post is a roundup of the rumours and pictures doing the rounds... with some tasty litte extras added! NOTE: Everything you read here is rumours, assumptions etc. etc.

The first picture exposed of the new range was picked up by a number of sites a few days ago, but appears to have been floating around on HowardForums for a while now. The picture in question is shown below (we've enlarged and enhanced it)...



So let's look at what we can see here first of all!

The top row are devices we're all familiar with. From left to right you can see the AT&T Tilt, the HTC TyTN II, the HTC Touch Cruise and the original HTC Touch. The second row is where it starts to get interesting

The first device you see is the HTC Raphael... the successor to the HTC Kaiser. We'll elaborate on the specs in a moment, but you can see that it has a forward facing camera, a large screen that fills the casing nicely, a Touchflo friendly smooth bezel and what appear to be 'touch sensitive' buttons with a round navigation device in the centre. The device opens the opposite way to the Kaiser devices to expose a keyboard that is made up of 5 rows of keys together with what could be another row above these for soft keys / shortcuts. While the Tilt is tilted, the Raphael is not... which could lead us to think that the Tilt mechanism is not found on this device, likely to assist with creating a slim form factor.

Next comes the P3470, which is a current released device.

The third device and fourth devices you see are very similar in style to the Raphael, and one is likely to be the HTC branded variant of a device we've already had a sneek peek at - the T-Mobile MDA Compact IV.. Note the 'Home' and 'Back' buttons, together with the green and red keys. No soft keys on this (a-la-Original Touch). The device pictured is running a funky looking new homescreen replacement (which has been dubbed 'Manila' by HTC's own 'insider' (interestingly now pulled from his website... stable door and all that )). My guess is that one of these two devices is the HTC Diamond... the successor to the HTC Elf (Touch), and the other is the Touch Dual's, the HTC Titanium. From the pic it's hard to make out which is which!

The second set of pictures which is of interest comes courtesy of EngadgetMobile...



More analysis!

The first picture here clearly shows the 'Raphael' device. Altho this is a 'Sprint' product sheet, the Raphael is coming to GSM too with identical specs. This picture is most interesting as a tie in to the MDA Compact IV mentioned above. It is clearly a 'MDA Compact IV' with a keyboard, a HTC Diamond with a keyboard. The same 5 row keyboard, but no 'shortcut buttons' that appear to be on the HTC version. This is probably just a symptom of the design evolution... also bear in mind there is quite possibly subtle differences between designs for different operators etc, Raphael 100 / Raphael 200 etc. We can see some specs listed here, but we'll get to that in a minute.

The second picture is marked as 'Diamond', so we can be sure that the MDA Compact IV IS a Diamond based device - it's the same picture.

The specs

Both the HTC Diamond and HTC Raphael share identical specs with the exception of their hardware keyboard, and at time of writing, they APPEAR to be the following (get ready for a SERIOUS drool fest)..

- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
- Qualcomm MSM 7201A @ 528MHz
- 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM
- 7.2MB HSDPA / HSUPA (rev A EVDO for Sprint versions)
- 2.8" VGA screen
- WiFi
- Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
- eGPS
- 3.1MP Camera with flash
- Forward facing camera
- 4GB internal flash storage (Diamond only) - Samsung MoviNAND
- TV out (Raphael only)
- Orientation sensor (a-la-iPhone)
- FM Radio
- microSD expansion
- 900mAh battery (!!!)
- Diamond: 51x99x10.7mm
- Raphael: 51x99x17mm

The size seems great (although unconfirmed.... and I can't really decide if they're right based on the picture? - sizeasy posted below), but 900mAh battery? That scares me



When?

It seems likely the devices will debut on GSM before appearing on Sprint, and Sprint is slating Q3 for the Diamond and Q4 for the Raphael. It seems likely that the Diamond could even hit before end of Q2 on GSM in Europe, with the Raphael to follow in Q3. Very little is known about the HTC Titanium currently.

The reveal...

HTC have a press event coming up on 6th May, which we will be attending / liveblogging. The Diamond is a dead cert to get a reveal (and probably an availability date in the not too distant future) and the Raphael may also put in appearance, albeit with the caveat that it will not be available as soon as the Diamond.

You read it here first... the retail names for the devices will be:

HTC Diamond = HTC Touch Diamond (love it!)
HTC Raphael = HTC Touch Pro
HTC Titanium = HTC Touch Dual Pro

Anything else?

With the Diamond and the Raphael HTC have the Elf (Touch) and Kaiser (TyTN II) successors covered... but there's no real mention as yet of the Nike (Touch Dual) successor, the 'HTC Titanium'. Details are very very sketchy indeed, but it looks set to be another carbon copy of the HTC Diamond, but with a 12/20 key vertical slider.

I'll be updating this post as I get any further info corrections, so stay tuned!

P

Updates

- Added deets on Diamond's MoviNAND storage

Additional Sources:

Bluetooth SIG (Diamond)
Bluetooth SIG (Raphael)
PDAFans
PDAMobiz

[PaulOBrien]

Raphael is the one for me I think!

The 3.1MP camera should give us an idea of what to expect on the Xperia X1...

P

[PaulOBrien]

The HTC Touch Diamond's (great name btw) MoviNAND looks a neat solution for internal storage!

http://www.samsung.c...s_MoviNAND.html

It mean's it'll show us an an extra drive (Athena style) rather than big ROM (Atom Life style).



P

[chucky.egg]

Are those sizes right?
And any indication of the weights?

900 mAh on a device with 3G, 2.8" VGA at 528 MHz?  
That'll be a battery life of 30 minutes then will it?

4Gb sounds nice, but I doubt it'd use it.  I'll go for the Raphael I think, be nice to have a keyboard again.

[PaulOBrien]

Sizes: Unconfirmed, seem about right tho looking at the pic?
Weight: No info yet
Battery: Confirmed 900mAh!


P

[Kimbie]

The Raphael looks ok, but disappointed with the lack of a tilt on the screen, got to like that on my Kaiser.  It will be interesting to see how it compares to teh X1 when it comes out, but since im not due to upgrade till start of next year I thik I should have some good choices, of course by that time we might have iphone ver3

Kimbie

[PaulOBrien]

That's only a guess from the pic, seems likely tho...

P

[Shuflie]

Paul (MVP), on Apr 24 2008, 11:47, said:

Sizes: Unconfirmed, seem about right tho looking at the pic?
Weight: No info yet
Battery: Confirmed 900mAh!


P

Is the Qualcomm 7201A chipset so much more efficient than other 3G processors that they can get away with such a minuscule battery capacity?

[PaulOBrien]

I'm guessing that can be the only reason behind it!

Trying to find any figures on power consumption between the two is an impossible task it seems!

P

[Syphon Filter]

Raphael and Titanium are sounding like winners to me. Lets hope they live up to the hype.

[surur]

I find the multi-touch screen and motion sensor really hard to believe, and I have had other insiders say the Raphael does have a tilting screen.

Its excessive hype like this which will leave people disappointed when the a perfectly good upgrade gets announced, but without all of the gwizz features.

Surur

[PaulOBrien]

Quote

I find the multi-touch screen and motion sensor really hard to believe, and I have had other insiders say the Raphael does have a tilting screen.

Who said anything about a multi-touch screen?

Quote

Its excessive hype like this which will leave people disappointed when the a perfectly good upgrade gets announced, but without all of the gwizz features.

Which bit is the excessive hype? What would you rather not be told?

P

[Syphon Filter]

No pleasing some people...

I like the feature list and the styling of these new phones. Seems a bit of shame, my Kaiser is barely 9 months old I think...mind you, these new devices wont be out for another 5 months or so I am betting so not too bad.

[PaulOBrien]

I like the angular look, and I think the Raphael in particular looks sweet!

Seems like your Kaiser is likely to be about a year old before you get a Raphael, perfect

P

[NikLP]

Raphael looks like a winner! I am six months behind on my upgrade (shock, to anyone that knows me) so I am looking forward to these two.

Paul, can we get notified of the releases of these? It was well after xmas that I found out the Kaiser was available on Orange. By that time, I'd already talked myself out of getting one, given that O were so crap with the Tytn. I've had six of them. It would be nice to know who gets what and when, as soon as anyone knows...

Can't believe the size of those new units anyway - the sizeeasy comparison of the tytn II and the raphael beggars belief really...!

[surur]

Paul (MVP), on Apr 24 2008, 14:00, said:

Who said anything about a multi-touch screen?
Which bit is the excessive hype? What would you rather not be told?

P

Sorry, I don't know where i saw multi-touch. However I would rather have a case of under-promise and over-deliver than the converse. Previously I had no reason to believe the Raphael would have a motion sensor, now if it doesn't I would feel something is missing.

Surur

[nuttyphilt]

surur, on Apr 24 2008, 14:36, said:

Sorry, I don't know where i saw multi-touch. However I would rather have a case of under-promise and over-deliver than the converse. Previously I had no reason to believe the Raphael would have a motion sensor, now if it doesn't I would feel something is missing.

Surur

I just noticed multi-touch is mentioned here on Tracy and Matt:

http://www.tracyandm...the_htc_diamond

[Ovie]

Wow, looks niceeeeeeeeeee! I am really liking that diamond, if it is just 1cm thin then that would be awesome, and the 4GB is a big plus! Raphael looks pretty sexy too, I must admitt though, I am worried about this 900mAh battery!

[sheltem]

This rocks!  Who would have thought that Sprint would be the #1 CDMA carrier in picking up all these new Windows Mobile devices.  You figure Verizon would get these first, as they did with the Moto Q.  I do a decent amount of web browsing on my Mogul and the 640x480 resolution would be a huge improvement.  The 128 megs of ram is a no brainer addition and having a flush screen makes finger only operation so much nicer.  I was psyched for the Sony Xperia X1 because of the hardware, but I am even more excited for the new HTC Diamond, especially with the new HTC Manilla interface.  The Sony panels look nice, but seem gimmicky, imho.

[shootydogthing]

HTC Diamond = HTC Touch Diamond (love it!)
HTC Raphael = HTC Touch Pro
HTC Titanium = HTC Touch Dual Pro

So why is the kaiser's successor called the Touch Pro?

Don't make sense to me...

And think the titanium will have the flash, the TV-out or neither?


Shame I have a year left till upgrade... I'm guessing that I'll end up with the successor to THESE, unless they take their time releasing these...


If they have Multi-Touch and HTC find a way to implement it into WinMo well... I'll want them so much

And i hope the Raphael has a tilting screen...

I'm guessing I'll be upgrading to either the Raphael or it's successor, even if i have to postpone my upgrade a month or two