Review of HTC Advantage X7501

Reviewer: Bryan Eley (breley), Review Staff

Manufacturer: HTC

Price: Unlocked version, approximately $900-$1200.

The HTC booting up for the first time.

Weighing in at 12.7 oz, the HTC Advantage X7501, codenamed Athena, is no featherweight.  Housed in a metal casing, this Pocket PC & phone nonetheless sports some heavyweight capabilities:

• Intel PXA270 624MHz Processor
• 128MB RAM
• 256MB Flash ROM
• 8GB Microdrive
• 480×640 VGA screen
• ATI W2284 GPU
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS
• Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• 3 megapixel camera with auto focus and flash
• Built-in GPS
• TV or VGA Out
• Network capabilities:

  HSDPA/UMTS (2100 MHz for Europe, 850/1900 MHz for USA)
  Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

The unit and accessories were shipped in a large (8×6x5.75" or 20.3×15.2×38.6cm) sturdy black cardboard box that opened up for all the world like a treasure chest.  And what a treasure lay inside…

Shipped in the box:

• Advantage X7501
• Stereo Headphones
• Power outlet charger
• USB data connector/device charger
• Extra Stylus
• Manual & Quickstart Guide
• Getting Started CD with 60-day trial of Outlook 2007
• Leather carrying case

 Note: Click on any of the pictures to enlarge.

Dimensions: 5.3×3.86×0.63 inches (13.5×9.8×1.6 cm) 12.7oz (359g)

The Advantage X7501 as compared to a Dell X51v.

Same orientation, but seen from edge.

The Advantage is comprised of two separate parts, the primary unit chassis and the detachable keyboard.

The metal unit and keyboard attached.

Side view of X7501. The magnets on the keyboard very securely hold fast to the chassis.  And I mean securely. I was able to grasp the edge of the keyboard and tilt the entire unit upside down without any wobbling or separation of the keyboard and main unit. Below you can see the keyboard itself.

The keyboard keys, while small (about 6mm x 10mm average key size), were quite functional but does take some getting used to.  I wouldn’t recommend banging out something like War and Peace on this, but for emails and short documents it was perfectly adequate.  The fact that the keys weren’t backlit might make for a problem in darkened or low-light areas, though.  I didn’t particularly care for some of the key layouts, such as the comma being on the opposite side of the spacebar, but from a design standpoint of key placement in limited space it made sense.

Full Metal Jacket

A metal casing tends to make for a sturdier device, but since metal is a better conductor of heat than plastic, I wouldn’t recommend doing a Flick triple-dog-dare a la "A Christmas Story" and stick your tongue against the unit in the dead of winter.

Now, I’m sure most of you sensible viewers would not do this, at least while sober, but forewarned is forearmed.

Size isn’t everything, but…

One of the first and most obvious features of this unit is the large (5" diagonal) VGA screen.  Such a large screen makes viewing everything a lot easier.  In tandem with its detachable magnetic 48-key QWERTY keyboard, the Advantage makes for a solid portable office.  Note the obvious size difference between my Dell Axim X51v and the HTC in portrait mode.

The colors compared to my Axim, using a similarly colored wallpaper, were significantly brighter and crisper.  To be fair, however, my Axim dates back to December 2005, so it’s not factory-fresh as the X7501 is.

A Very Nice Case

The Advantage ships with a very nice leather book-like case that cleverly opens in two ways.

Empty case laid out.  The inside was a soft ruddy-brown suede.

Outside the case was a dark, flat brown.

Case fully open.

Unit sitting upright attached to keyboard, yet still within case.

Side view of case.  Notice how the case folds to permit full use. 

Case closed.  The metal and magnetic portions of the chassis allow for a fairly tight grip when the unit is closed up like a book, so no accidental openings will likely be encountered.

Case from behind.  Note aperture for camera/flash component in the upper right of the photo.

The stylus is a clear plastic construct about 3 1/4" in length.  I wouldn’t recommend dropping this on the floor by virtue of its transparency.  Although I had no real problems using it, I nevertheless found it a bit on the light side, preferring something with slightly more heft.

Inside its leather case, my unit came to 16.273 oz total weight, or 463.292g for the rest of the world.  What? Doesn’t everyone have a digital scale in their kitchen?  One of the benefit of marrying a scientist…and don’t worry, she’s not so geeky that she doesn’t know what "I’m Not Really a Waitress" is. 

External Features

When the unit is powered on, 4 LEDs will be lit initially:

1. The ring around the Navigation Control/Joystick, that represents battery life (green=100% charge, amber=battery level about 10-99%, and flashing red=roughly 1-10% charge)
2. OK Button
3. START Button
4. Browser VueFLO Button

Here you can better see the Navigation Control/Joystick battery level light.  The joystick control was very easy to use and had a nice feel to it, sort of a "click" sensation every time I move the selection cursor around.

A closeup of the OK and START buttons when they are illuminated. The OK, START and VueFLO buttons dim after a few seconds of inactivity, but light up again when used.

Desktop Layout

Here you can see the default layout: date, email, tasks, TeleNav GPS app, Windows Live/Live Search, appointments, and the HTC Home plugin.

The HTC Home plugin shows battery status, screen orientation, Comm Manager, brightness settings, QuickGPS (downloads updated GPS position data), and TV Out.  By default, the user can therefore access these feature right from the desktop.

Default systems specs of my review unit.

Communications Capabilities

The phone isn’t really designed so much for casual conversation-seekers out driving or standing at a bus station.  Instead, this device with its built-in speakerphone is more ideally suited for mobile office users working on documents and emails and needing the ability to collaborate while away from the office proper.

The Comm Manager, accessed via Settings–>Connections  or else from its associated button on the right side of the unit (see the appropriate image in External Features previously).  It conveniently handles all primary modes of interaction of the Advantage with the outside world.

The Comm Manager controls the follows items:

1. Flight Mode status
2. Phone, both making/receiving calls as well as phone network data use
3. Bluetooth, for connecting to/from other BT devices, as well as enabling BT filesharing/FTP access
4. WiFi connectivity
5. DirectPush mail to/from Exchange Server (may need GPRS or EDGE enabled to use)
6. Data Connection (this activates if you start using data features on the GPRS or EDGE network, such as starting a browser session)
7. Activesync

Locally I was able to hop onto AT&T’s 3G Network and see what shenanigans were going on at mobilitysite.com & aximsite.com, with load times of about 6 seconds. 

Note the icon adjacent to the left of the 3G network connection type.  This icon indicates that the browser is using VueFlo technology, which is an interesting concept.  By tilting the unit up/down, left/right, the given web page moves according.  In other words, in the screenshot above, I need only tilt the Advantage forward to cause the page to scroll downward to read the rest of the page.  While I found it to be occasionally handy, the scrolling progress is relatively imprecise, whereas using the stylus to drag the slider bar manually offers more control.  The motion-sensor technology is impressive, but whether or not it is really suited for browsing remains to be seen.  Don’t try using this on a roller coaster, hilly, windy road or in a rocking chair, you’ll drive yourself batty.

The integrated mobile Live Search made finding local restaurants online a snap.

Just follow the yellow brick, er, blue road.

Network speed via phone wasn’t too bad in my area.

Occasionally I’d see in place of the "3G" an "H", which probably meant I was getting occasion HSDPA connectivity. The X7501 supports the following network types: HSDPA/UMTS with ranges of 850/1900 MHz for USA and 2100 MHz for Europe, along with Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE operating at 850, 900, 1800 or 1900 MHz.

The Internet Explorer icon with circle icon above it on the lower right side of the Advantage screen launches the default browser associated with the VueFlo configuration tool, which would be either IE or Opera.  Interestingly, the button logo here indicates Internet Explorer, but by default on my device the associated VueFLO browser was Opera 8.65.

I was able to use a BT headset effortlessly with the Advantage, and as indicated in the picture above, an icon appears when a headset is in use.

The large buttons made for very convenient use.

A handy feature for the Advantage given its mini-laptop styling was the Voice Speed Dial.  Simply record a phrase for a given contact, then run the applet and speak the name/phrase associated with the contact you wish to dial.  Up to 12 numbers can be stored for each contact entry, and you can select one of 25 (polyphonic) ringtones and create or import others via the My Ringtones folder under \My Documents.

With regard to the phone use, I would not recommend using the X7501 as you would a standard PDA phone or cell phone given its size and weight and speakerphone-only ability.  It did however work reasonably well in a speakerphone capacity, and the people I called were able to hear me quite well with me being about 12" from the unit.  I could envision a mobile warrior reviewing work docs or emails and calling someone at the office to discuss or collaborate on a project, hands free to type on the keyboard as needed.  Having a BT headset makes use of the device easier since in theory the unit could be tucked away in a briefcase or (large) pocket while still using the headset to make or receive phone calls.

Messaging

Messaging can be accessed with a push of a keyboard button.

Email/messaging is nicely integrated, so users can drill down to specific email accounts quickly.

There is of course the standard folder view that is still available.

 Synching, Vista-style

Here is the screen as it appears during a synch operation if the device is selected in Windows Mobile Device Center (v6.1 shown here) in Microsoft Vista.  The device appears to have had an X7500 series Sync.ico on it.  Anyone notice anything peculiar in this image?  Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?  The device icon shown isn’t an X7501, it’s the X7500 by virtue of the the front-facing camera.

Installation in Vista was pretty straightforward

GPS

The X7501 comes with a built-in GPS device that will notify you after a set period, usually 2 days, if it needs to update your satellite data.

The Advantage ships with TeleNav, a subscription-based software GPS-navigation system tailored for mobile phones.  Unfortunately, as I had a test SIM account lacking a bona fide phone number (plus I wasn’t too keen on signing up for an account running a minimum of $9.99 per month), I wasn’t able to put this software through its paces.

Google Maps provided a nice free way to see how well the internal GPS functioned, and it was pretty much a joy to use.  I simply hopped on the AT&T network, fired up Google Maps, and within a few seconds zeroed in on my current position indicated by the blue dot.

Traffic options shows a decent up-to-date report on local traffic. Except at this zoom level it doesn’t show the road I’m on or the traffic backup, which explains why I haven’t moved too far…

Camera Function

The HTC comes with a very nice camera and excellent control options, for things like single photo, panorama, video capture, MMS video, Contacts picture

Outside my workplace…not too bad considering the exceptional drought.   Ansel Adams isn’t the one with the camera.  And it shows.

Closeup of my Axim on my desk.  The X7501’s camera was very good at providing reasonably clear, crisp closups.

A pint of English "Wychwood Hobgoblin Dark Ale" for October along with some local Jonathan apples and a bag of basmati rice trying to sneak into the picture.

I thought Chris Leckness might appreciate this, a relic from Skyline Chili…that was a might tasty Chili Burrito Deluxe the oyster crackers came with, Boss. :)

Overall, indoor colors tended to have a slight yellowish cast. Outdoors, at least under overcast conditions, colors seemed truer.

Multimedia

Songs through Media Player tended to be mediocre through the Advantage speakers, lacking any significant bass.  With the 3.5mm jack, the included headphones improved the sound quality.  That being said, I don’t think the device was slated to be a jukebox replacement.

Video playback was snappy and ran very nicely off the microdrive.

Don’t step on that duck, ma’am…

VGA Out

The VGA Out port is located on the left side of the unit, next to the headphone jack and the miniUSB power/Sync port.

Outputting the screen to another larger monitor is as easy as…

1.  Hook up the VGA output cable, in this case to a monitor cable…

2. Select the appropriate output setting from the Settings–>TV Out applet…

3. Click OK on the applet.  Voilà! The Advantage’s 5" screen now showing up on a 37" plasma screen.  For business-related presentations and such, this feature could be extremely handy.  It could also be handy at home, especially if you were clever and paired a monitor with a KVM switch (I wasn’t that clever…)

 Other Software Features

The X7501 features Bluetooth PAN, so I could share files between my Axim X51v and the X7501.

Network Plugin, under Settings–>Connections is a very handy tool, that allows File Explorer to access network folders (much like Resco File Explorer).

Sampling of the Programs folder…

The MIDlet Manager allows users to install and run Java applications.

Doom and Streetfighter were sample apps I downloaded and installed.

Hah, 1/2" Cacodaemons don’t scare me!  Hopefully there are some larger-screened apps available.  That’a pretty small window!

And the rest of the Programs folder…

One handy feature that WM6 on the X7501 has is built-in zip compression tools in the Programs folder.

Using Microsoft Reader on such a large screen made reading very easy on the eyes. Using either the joystick toggle or the keyboard arrow keys made reading virtually effortless.

 Battery Life

The X7501’s 2200mAh lithium ion battery is rated for approximately 5.5 hours of talk time for GSM (4.5 hours for UMTS) and up to 12.5 days of standby time. 

 Conclusions

The Advantage was a fast piece of hardware, though the price seems fairly prohibitive to the general enthusiast.  Considering the quality of the components and its metallic construction, the premium price is understandable to a degree. 

For active, on-the-go cell phone users who insist upon having convenient access phone access, I would hesitate recommending the X7501.  It’s size and weight simply prohibit convenient phone-to-ear use and impedes full portability. 

However, for business users wanting a powerful mobile device for staying connected with the office and still be able to maintain phone connectivity, or mobile tech enthusiasts wanting a top-of-the-line Windows Mobile device, this would be an excellent unit.  It has a large, crisp screen with vibrant colors, excellent WiFi, Bluetooth and cell network capabilities. The internal 8GB Microdrive is an added boon, and battery life I found was quite acceptable and I experienced no difficulties synching this device at home and at work.

I would rate the HTC Advantage X7501 a 7.5 out of 10.

 Full Specifications: 

Written by breley · Filed Under Companies, HTC, Mobilitysite Reviews, Windows Mobile 6 
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