14 DAY TRIAL // Out with the crap, in with the new! In this case, the new is the HTC Athena and the crap? Well it can be anything you want from my point of view. If some of you don't think this is a thing to get all crazed about, I suggest them to take another look at the photos and give me one single reason, only one, that could justify them dissing a device looking like this.
The Athena is being released on the T-Mobile Netherlands' network under the name of AMEO and this means that finally, the Europeans got something before the Asians did. And, for the record, I think it's much cooler than the things they have in their mobile retail stores now. Of course, to keep the limits, and not make out of it the ultimate communication device as Steve Jobs has done with the iPhone, I suppose that not everybody will get hyped up about it the first time they see it.
Some people don't actually like the bulky looks of the handhelds and wouldn't even touch such a device in their entire life. But, on the other hand, there are others that would give all their possessions just to be the first ones to hold it in their hands and have a few days of fun with it before anybody else does.
The soon to be released on the mobile market AMEO is running a Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system on an Intel Xscale processor that goes around the clock at 624 MHz, it boasts a 5 inch TFT QVGA touchscreen display with a 640 x 480 pixels resolution and 65k colors, 64/128 MB RAM and 128/256 MB ROM (the combination is up to you), an 8 GB hard drive which goes along very well with any type of memory you will decide to stuck into the miniSD memory expansion card slot, quad-band GSM, GPRS and HSPDA (only 2100 MHz so the guys from the states can stay at ease for the moment), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and wireless Bluetooth connectivity, built-in GPS capability, a 3 megapixel digital camera, a 4 mm thick detachable QWERTY keyboard, all these packed up in a case measuring 133.1 x 97 x 20 mm (with the keyboard included) and with a total weight of 355 grams.
I'm sure there will be enough peeps that will make it look like a thing we get our eyes on every day of our life but, trust me, it is not. Why would they say that? The first thing they could worry about is the fact the Athena runs a Windows Mobile OS and not a version of XP or Vista.
Why would you want that? This is a phone and you need a longer battery life, a thing that the XP or the Vista versions of the Microsoft Os' aren't that good at. Not as good as their Mobile sister (brother? :) ).
A plus on the AMEO scoreboard? The 5 inch display will let you browse the Internet in the best visual conditions and there's no need to think about zooming the image to see what the heck were they trying to write on the right-up corner of that website.
Remember Steve Jobs bragging about the iPhone's capability to do the zooming thing only at a simple touch? Steve, we've got news for you: zoom is ALREADY old fashioned and Athena is here to prove it.
For now, it seems the Athena will get a few weeks of exclusivity on the T-Mobile European division's network, later followed by a release in other select European countries.
America and Asia? Nobody knows that at the moment, but when anything new appears on that subject, we'll keep you posted.
