T-Mobile Ameo (HTC Athena)

T-Mobile Ameo (HTC Athena) Review This new year has seen a plethora of new Windows Mobile devices announced by a multitude of hardware manufacturers. HTC are arguably still the market leaders but are now being pressed closely by the likes of E-Ten, ASUS and Quanta along with many more established electronics suppliers. This competition seems to be driving the state of the art forward at an alarming rate and we, the consumers, are reaping the benefits. Even with all the innovation and variety we're seeing though, only a couple of the new devices are really hotly anticipated. The Ameo from T-Mobile, based on the HTC Athena platform, is one such device. There seem to be two schools of thought about the Athena. The first suggests it will be the true convergence device we've been waiting for, eliminating the need for a separate mobile phone, laptop, MP3 player and GPS system. The second theory is that all too familiar jack of all trades, master of none, guise. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the T-Mobile Ameo. Near miss or Nirvana? Read on to find out...... For your delectation all photographs are thumbnails which may be clicked on to load an image. Specifications As previously mentioned the T-Mobile Ameo was built by HTC from its Athena hardware platform and as such should have the same specification as the other Athena devices. To date it will be released in the following guises:- T-Mobile Ameo. HTC Advantage X7500. HTC Advantage X7501 (WM6). Dopod U1000. Brand: T-Mobile Manufacturer: High Tech Computer Project Codename: HTC Athena Release Date: March, 2007 Physical Attributes Dimensions (width x height x depth): 98 x 133.1 x 16 millimetres 3.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches Bounding Volume: 208.7 cubic centimetres Mass: 375 grams (battery included) Software Environment Embedded Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (Magneto) AKU 3.5 Operating System Kernel: Windows CE 5.1.461 Microprocessor, Chipset CPU: Intel XScale PXA270 Databus Width: 32 bit CPU Clock: 624 MHz CPU Clock Multiplier: 3 Internal System bus Clock: 208 MHz CPU Core: Intel XScale Level 1 cache: 32KB data cache / 32 KB instruction cache Instruction Set: ARM v5TE Memory, Storage capacity ROM type: Flash ROM ROM capacity: 256 MB RAM type: SDRAM RAM capacity: 128 MB Hard Disk capacity: 7.62 GB Graphical subsystem Display Type: colour transflective TFT Display Colour Depth: 18 bit/pixel (262144 scales) Display Resolution: 640 x 480 (307200 pixel) Display Diagonal: 5 " (127 millimetres) Viewable Area: 4" x 3" (101.6 x 76.2 millimetres) Dot Pitch: 0.1588 millimetre/pixel Graphical Controller: Qualcomm MSM6275 Audio Subsystem Digital/Analog Converter: stereo , 16bit audio sampling Microphone: mono Speakers: 2 loudspeakers (stereo) Audio Output: 3.5mm jack Audio Chip: Qualcomm MSM6275 Cellular Phone Cellular Networks: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850, UMTS1900, UMTS2100 Cellular Data Standards: CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA Cellular Antenna: Internal Call Alert: 72 -chord melody (polyphonic) Vibrating Alert: Supported Speakerphone : Supported Phone Controller (DSP): Qualcomm MSM6275 Control Peripherals Positioning Device: Touchscreen Keyboard: Attachable QWERTY-type keyboard, 49 keys Keyboard Backlight: Automatic keyboard backlight (upon press of any key) and ambient light intensity sensor Directional Pad: 5 -way directional block (including action button) Jog / Scroll Wheel: Not supported Interfaces Expansion Slots: SDIO, miniSD Serial (UART): RS-232 , 115200bit/s Proprietary connector USB: USB 2.0 client, 60Mbit/s USB Series Mini-B (mini-USB) connector Infrared Gate: Not Supported Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 , Internal antenna Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi): 802.11b, 802.11e (54Mbit/s) Internal antenna Satellite Navigation (GPS) GPS Protocol: NMEA 0183 Browse all devices with integrated NMEA 0183 GPS GPS antenna: Internal antenna GPS Chip: Qualcomm MSM6275 gpsOne Built-in Digital Camera Main Camera: CMOS sensor, 1920x1440 (2.765 million pixels) Autofocus (AF): Supported Optical Zoom: 1 x Macro Mode: Supported Built-in Flash: Mobile light (LED) Recordable Image Formats: JPG, BMP Camcorder: 352x288pixel Recordable Video Formats: 3GPP, AVI, MPEG4 Secondary Camera for Video Calling Secondary Camera: CMOS sensor, 640x480 pixel Recordable Image Formats: JPG, BMP Camcorder: 640x480pixel Recordable Video Formats: 3GPP, AVI, MPEG4 Power Supply Battery: Lithium-ion polymer , removable Battery Capacity: 2100 mAh Average Current: 175 mA Estimated Battery Life: 12 hours Additional Features: * GPRS Class 10 * voice command * attachable QWERTY keyboard * HTC VueFLO technology * video out (VGA) * 3D Surround hang In the box There's quite possibly the best selection of accessories supplied with the Ameo that I've ever seen included with a PDA. They are:- The Ameo itself AC adapter 2 clear styli VGA output cable USB cable Wired Headset "SUPER Screen protector" Black accessory travel bag Brown Leather/Suede Wallet TMobile combo stylus pen It's not just the amount of goodies you get that's impressive, but the quality too. The black travel bag is a nice touch but the quality of the brown leather/suede case is unprecedented for a freebie. Long gone are the days of the shoddy black plastic HTC pouch, in the Ameo bundle you get a professional looking wallet with plastic holders to keep the PDA in place and magnetic clasps to hold the keyboard. Very nice. There's also a very neat combo stylus pen that serves 3 purposes. As the name suggests clicking the top of the pen switches between biro and stylus nibs. The third and possibly most ingenious use for the Combo device is that it acts as the fastener for the wallet, genius. The wallet could have done with having a belt loop, but it's probably a little bit big to attach to your trousers. I could write a whole review on just the accessories they are that good, but let us move on. The documentation pack includes a handy quick start guide and comprehensive manual as you'd expect, along with 2 CD's. The first holds the obligatory Outlook/Active sync software with the second containing the following apps:- Sprite Backup F-Secure Antivirus GPRS Monitor Blackberry Connect Again this is a goodly set of free extra tools with Sprite and GPRS monitor being on most peoples must have app list. This really is an excellent package and it will be interesting to see if the HTC and Dopod versions of the Athena contain the same. If not, I have to say very well done T-Mobile. Convergence Modern life in the 21st Century is becoming ever more complex and hectic, and PDAs that are being developed have to evolve to suit that need. No longer are users happy to carry around a PDA, phone, etc; more functionality is demanded from the market and in ever more pocketable and slight devices. The T-Mobile Ameo strives to meet these needs boasting a truly spectacular specification and therefore contains the following areas of functionality within the device: Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Mobile (cell) Phone Camera GPS Navigation Unit Push Email Portable media player Laptop computer replacement? We will investigate each of these in turn as we move through the review. Aesthetics In the old days when you bought a device made by HTC you could have it in any colour you wanted...... as long as it was silver. With the recent HTC re-branding most of their devices are available in the new black hardware and green software livery. With the exception of the glossy black finish on the Trinity, I personally prefer the "old skool" silver and T-Mobile, to their credit, have again plumped for the titanium coloured finish. Thankfully they've also been a little less generous with the cerise trims on the Ameo too! (unlike the Vario 2 colour scheme). Without the keyboard attached, in its PDA form factor, the Ameo is gorgeous. The huge 5" screen is narrowly framed by the orange backlit control buttons with the petite joystick and video call camera. These and the indicator LEDs are set into a stylish titanium coloured parallelogram. The slanting edges of the device are obviously designed around the keyboard attachment mechanism but look really smart, especially in landscape. All the buttons are smaller than we're used to seeing, but are nicely spaced so as not to seem cramped. The stylus, a non telescopic white/clear combination, matches the white insert on the top (landscape view) of the device and while a little plasticy in its own right fits well with the device in general. With the keyboard attached, in its laptop form factor, the Ameo looks a little top heavy, or rather a little "bottom light". The thin keyboard makes the device look as though it wants to topple over when attached and it looks a little strange until you close it up. With the keyboard acting as the screen cover the sleek lines are once again complete. I really like the look of the Ameo, and even in the "laptop" mode if you have the supplied leather wallet attached it looks ok. During the couple of days I've been using it as my main device everyone who's seen it has said how cool it looks. It's big, but beautiful. Size There's a huge amount of technology crammed into the Ameo, and it's far from being the most compact device on the market. Just how big is it though? I've produced several images to try and give you an impression of its size. If you have a Hermes or Wizard, you can see that it's about a centimetre longer than the Hermes when open. If you want a really good impression of the size of the Ameo you can take two audio cassette boxes (or a double as I have in the picture) and fill it with 350g of play dough. This will give you an almost exact representation of both the size and weight of the device. Ergonomics I don't think it's going to come as a surprise to anyone to find out that this device is big. If you're using it as a laptop replacement and it's sat on a desk then size of course is not an issue. You'll undoubtedly have seen promotional shots of people carrying the Ameo about in laptop mode punching away on the thumb board with smiles on their faces. This would be in the first 4 seconds of carrying the device like this before the mind bending cramps start to occur and you rupture your Ulnar Collateral Ligaments in both hands. In the real world I've found the only way to use the Ameo out and about is to remove the keyboard and use it in tablet fashion. By keeping the keyboard packed away the device is just about pocketable in jeans and trousers, but is most at home in a jacket pocket. Some people prefer to use the tablet in portrait with the stylus, but I prefer to use it in landscape mode using the on screen SIP keyboard to enter everyday data for SMS etc. With the 5 inch screen the SIP keyboard is just about big enough to use with your fingers even with stubby digits like my own. In landscape mode I've found the dpad joystick in the top left hand corner of the device feels very natural to use and all the control buttons are easily reachable while maintaining a decent grip on the device. I'd definitely advise using a Bluetooth headset to make and receive calls. You can make and receive calls as is with the Ameo but it is difficult to get a comfortable grip on it and hold it up to your ear with one hand (not to mention it looks a little... strange). In general I really like the form factor of the Ameo; the two modes with and without the keyboard offer a fair amount of flexibility for a device of its size. I don't think I'd feel confident taking the Ameo to the pub with me on a Friday night but other than that with its slim lines I've not found the size too restrictive at all. Hardware Layout The form factor of the Ameo is unique. As we've seen with devices like the Hermes, HTC seem to now have the hardware layout of their phone and PDA type devices pretty much nailed down, having evolved over several device generations. The laptop/tablet form factor is pioneering from a Windows Mobile perspective so it's interesting to see where and why the Ameo's controls have been placed as they are. It strikes me that HTC have primarily designed the device for landscape use, and the front of the device seems to support this. On the front towards the bottom of the device there are three buttons, two on the left, the ok and Windows key and one on the right. This activates the built in Web browser (Opera is supplied with the T-Mobile Ameo) and if you press and hold it VuFlo is enabled or disabled. Towards the top of the device the left hand side houses the lovely new dpad/joystick device. The right hand side has the front facing VGA camera for video calling along with the three status lights for GSM, BT/WiFi and Alert. The GSM and BT/Wifi indicators are self explanatory while the Alert indicator lights up if you have incoming messages (email/SMS/MMS) or missed calls. Interestingly there are no controls on the top of the device and the bottom only has the connectors for the hardware keyboard and slot that houses the battery, MiniSD card and SIM card. These are all tucked away behind a slightly awkward to use sliding cover that while safe and secure once in place, is fiddly to open and close or insert the specific hardware. The back of the device too is quite sp**** with just the reset button, camera, flash and two covered aerial sockets. These sockets are to connect an external antenna for GSM and UMTS. The left side of the device has the new VGA Out/USB Host combo port along with the volume slider, Charge/Sync port and a 3.5mm headphone socket. It's nice to see HTC are still providing the standard socket on the larger devices. Both the left and right sides also have a speaker not unlike the pair on the HTC Wizard. The power button, Wireless and Camera buttons are the other controls located on the right hand side of the Ameo. The top right corner of the device has the stylus silo which runs underneath the top of the unit and houses the white and clear stylus. Screen For many people the most attractive prospect to owning an Ameo is the enormous (by Pocket PC standards) 5" screen. It seems to me that this was the driving force from a manufacturing perspective too as everything else seems to be built around the screen. The display takes centre stage with all the controls and input devices fitting in around where there is an empty spot. It's worthwhile though because as soon as you power the Ameo on (once you get past the drab TMobile splash screen) you are greeted by a bright and vibrant Windows Mobile screen. From here the Today screen looks superb; it's so crisp and the colours are nice and bright. Watching videos on the Ameo at VGA resolution is exceptional. The VGA res makes a huge difference if you're using the Video Out to connect to a big TV or a projector for PowerPoint presentations and while you're not getting DVD quality it really is astonishing how well the device performs as an DivX player. Another big plus for the VGA is when using a remote desktop connection to a PC. VGA gives you 4 times the screen real estate you get on a QVGA device making remote control of PC's a reality. Great stuff. Keyboard The detachable keyboard on the Ameo serves several functions. I like that the keyboard is detachable and that the device can be used as a regular Pocket PC without it. In laptop mode the keyboard acts as a stand for the rest of the device. There are magnets placed at three points on both the base of the main device and on the keyboard which powerfully grip the device into place. You can see where from the warning stickers on the case. The keyboard has gold connectors to make the circuits between its two parts and these fit together flawlessly every time. It's a very well implemented solution. You can see just how strong the magnets are from the image to the right. The second function the keyboard serves is as a screen cover. The key side of the 'board can be placed on top of the device where again the magnets grip it into place. Once in position the screen changes to a small status display that you can view through the clear plastic top edge of the keyboard. Another one of the really clever touches that really make the Ameo. Finally, the keyboard is also used for input and as a keyboard it's not great if I'm honest. I found it most reminiscent of the old rubber keyboard on the 48k Spectrum computer. There's no reassuring click when you press the buttons. In fact you don't so much click the button, more "mash" it. I found that I can't get nearly as much speed out of typing on the keyboard as compared to the Hermes, which in itself was not as good as the Wizard, in my opinion. That said, it is functional and I'd rather have it than not. It would have been nice to have seen an HTC Universal size standard keyboard but I think there would have been a heavy trade off with weight and thickness. The Ameo is heavy and thick enough as it is so maybe we can forgive HTC just this once. Interestingly, as with the Universal, the seemingly useless "light" button is back and still doesn't actually seem to do much. From what I can gather it will turn the device back on when it has gone to sleep, but the power button does the same so I'm a little perplexed as to its value. Camera This most recent generation of HTC devices seem to be being released with 3 mega pixel cameras. This is a whole mega pixel higher than the last generation. Will this next level of hardware turn what has so far been mediocre photographic performance into a feature as opposed to a novelty? The short answer is yes. The Ameo uses the new version of HTC's camera application which is much better than on the older devices. Coupled with the enhanced hardware the results are actually quite good. Sure, it will not win any awards, but from the images below you can clearly see the images are getting better and better as the devices evolve. I think the Ameo is actually reaching the quality you could print out a 8 x 5 image and frame. The low light images are still a bit weak and the high powered LED masquerading as a flash still doesn't really cut the mustard. Maybe for the next generation of devices HTC will give us a real flash? Perhaps. Until then progress is still progress and I do feel the still camera is a good addition to the device. The order of the photos from left to right are: HTC Magician, HTC Wizard, HTC Strtrk, HTC Hermes and finally the Ameo (HTC Athena). Telephony There's been a lot made about the lack of a dedicated telephone speaker on the Ameo. Out of the box if you have no headset connected and the device rings the phone defaults to speakerphone mode. I found that if you turn the volume down to its lowest level you can take the call by holding the phone up to your ear although this is not ideal; there is still too much volume to keep the call personal. Realistically the Ameo is too big to hold up to your ear so it's not a massive issue; it just seems strange that a PE device does not have the personal speaker included. I think the majority of users would be prepared to carry a headset and prefer to keep the device tucked away safely in any case. If you do decide to use it the speakerphone function itself is very good with above average (for a WM device) clarity and volume for both incoming and outgoing call audio. Wireless The Ameo comes equipped with both cellular data (CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA) and Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) supporting the 802.11b, 802.11e (54Mbit/s) protocols. If you're used to connecting to your WM5 device to the web there's very little to differ with the way it is executed on the Ameo. I found the WiFi signal strong and sturdy, not having any issues connecting to the 3 WAP's I tried it on. Likewise the switch between GPRS, 3G and HSDPA was seamless in their respectively enabled areas, with the latter two protocols providing broadband like speed cellular internet connections. GPS As with so many devices released in the last six months or so the Ameo comes equipped with built in GPS hardware. I pulled the MiniSD from my Trinity and used my tried and tested copy of TomTom5 to test the performance of the GPS subsystem. Using the "Other Wired GPS" option with serial port set to Com4 I picked up a signal consistently in 3 - 3 1/2 minutes from a cold start. There is the option to use QuickGPS which claims to speed up the fix by downloading satellite positions from the web. The Quick GPS didn't speed things up fix wise for me but when I looked at the TomTom GPS monitor you could see that with the QuickGPS in use the satellites were already placed awaiting "pickup" as opposed to all being in the centre of the "radar". This seems to indicate the software was working correctly, but as I said it didn't seem to make much difference fix wise. The Ameo lends itself well to in car GPS usage with its large screen and laptop form factor sitting nicely on the dash. In the absence of an official cradle for the device I velcroed a thin piece of metal to my dashboard and then let the Ameo's powerful magnets hold the device in place. This seemed to work really well!!! Bluetooth As is standard with the HTC devices, Bluetooth is included, and supports many BT profiles. The regular features of Bluetooth are still up to scratch too, and even better than before. As with most of the HTC devices the A2DP wireless headphones profile has by default been set to JointStereo only. That is a single stream through both headphones. To get true stereo you have to change a registry setting. Once enabled the Ameo seemed to handle true stereo quite nicely without any drop outs like those seen on the Hermes and Trinity. A marked improvement, and a very welcome one for me personally. Please note that before changing the registry you should backup your device as this can seriously harm your machine. The registry keys that need to be changed are: HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings/BitPool - change to 48 HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings/MaxSupportedBitPool - change to 58 HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings/UseJointStereo - change to 0 For answering calls generally I've been using a Plantronics Discovery 655. I have the headphones profile tagged to the I-Phono Mini bluetooth headset and the Headset one to the Plantronics. This works very well for me. I'm impressed that the combination of the two work together. VuFlo For those of you VuFlo virgins wondering what on earth this section is all about I'll give you a quick heads up. VuFlo allows you to scroll through web pages by simply tilting the Ameo in the direction you want to scroll. When you click and hold the Web'n'Walk button a small circle appears on the Status bar. This then responds to the pitch and yaw of the device and if the window of the web browser is scrollable it will follow suit. For example, to scroll down on a web page you tilt the Ameo towards you and vice versa. I quite like the VuFlo, and it impresses people no end when you're showing the device off but it's a bit of a gimmick. It certainly wouldn't be something I'd view as a must have feature in future. VGA Out/USB Host We've already seen how TMobile have packaged some excellent accessories with the Ameo, but there is one almost criminal omission. You get a VGA out cable with the default Ameo package enabling you to connect your device up to a larger display. With the TV Out application then run the display then mimics the screen of the Ameo. This facility works very well for both video and presentations but for a mere £12 from Expansys you can get the HTC 4-in-1 cable. This offers the standard VGA socket but also a USB Host port, a Video Out and a Composite Video out. The USB Host lets you connect regular USB devices to the Ameo while the Video and Composite Out ports offer external video connections to Televisions and video cameras etc. I've successfully connected a USB mouse and USB Keyboard via the host port. If you get really adventurous however, you can hook up a USB hard disk with some movies on it and view them on your big screen TV! Sweet. I think TMobile should take look at including the USB Host socket at the very least as without it the port cannot be used for this at all rendering the function redundant. Storage Most of the Pocket PC devices we see contain 3 types of storage to look at. RAM, ROM and one of the three Secure Digital (SD, MiniSD or MicroSD) format card readers. Some of the older machines also contained Compact Flash, but we tend not to see this with WM5 devices. The Ameo has all of these (in this case MiniSD) and also an 8GB Microdrive. The Microdrive adds an extra dimension to the internal storage of the device offering 40 times more capacity than in a usual Pocket PC. The Microdrive is not as fast as RAM, but it easily handles the movies and music I've thrown at it. It's not all good news though as with the extra functionality comes extra weight and power consumption. This again contributes to the overall size and weight of the device. Of course this extra storage adds functionality such as movie player and music player that previously were only available through the removable storage media. The Ameo takes the MiniSD cards and seems to be quite at home running my 4GB High Speed card (150X). 4GB is the maximum size of MiniSD available at the moment. Not only is the Ameo blessed with the Microdrive and a good MiniSD slot, it also comes with a large 256 MB of ROM and 128 MB of RAM. This larger than normal amount of memory gives us a nice combination of program space to run more applications concurrently and storage space in which to install them to. Good stuff. Battery For a launch ROM on a new device with such a vast array of technology, I've been quite impressed with the battery life on the Ameo. An average day’s use for me consists of up to 20 minutes of calls, 30 minutes of browsing in a mediocre 3G area and about 100 push emails. I'm not much of a texter but there's usually a couple of SMS in there too. I also use my device as an MP3 player while I'm cycling to work, so there's also an extra 30 minutes of music too, over a set of bluetooth headphones. I've been finding at the end of the day I've had about 40% charge left over. This is a little more than the Hermes but approximately the same as the Trinity. It's not entirely surprising if you examine the battery specifications for the three devices. The Hermes and Trinity have 1350mAh and 1500mAh respectively while the Ameo has an enormous 2100mAh. HTC have had to trade off the power required to bring the Ameo's technical wizardry to life with the weight of such a large power source. As they did previously with the Hermes and Trinity they've got the balance just about right for the device. I can't help wondering what happened to the days of the Wizard and two days worth of battery life from a single charge. Unfortunately we seem to have involuntarily accepted a single days charge as the norm. Software We've already seen and reviewed the basic operating features of Windows Mobile 5 in our previous reviews. If you would like to read about these in greater depth I suggest perusing our review of the O2 Orbit available HERE or the O2 XDA Exec available HERE. Operating System The operating system on the Ameo is Windows Mobile 5. It seems strange that the Ameo has not been installed with WM6 which is appearing on other HTC built devices such as the Vox. According to the HTC website WM6 will be available on their own branded version of the Athena, the Advantage, later in the year. It is unusual for a flagship device like the Ameo to not be released with the latest version of the OS. Typically HTC uses these devices as a platform to show what the new OS is capable of. I can only think that the Ameo ROM was built before WM6 was ready. The HTC website is showing a new device listed, the Advantage X7501. This promises Windows Mobile 6 which will offer Ameo users hope that an upgrade from WM5 to WM6 will be available at some point. Fingers crossed! Applications The most striking aspect of the Programs list in the Ameo is the order. For some reason that escapes me TMobile have changed the order of the programs in the list from alphabetical to..... well I'm not sure what to be honest. I can't see a reason why they would do this, but a registry change will change it back should you wish to have it the way Mr Gates intended. As stated before, editing the registry can harm your device! Simply remove the following registry key and normal service will be resumed: /HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Shell/StartMenu (Thanks to Paul O'Brien for that one! ). The list of WM5 standard programs is: Games - Bubble Breaker & Solitaire. ActiveSync - The WM client component of ActiveSync 4.xx. Adobe Reader LE - PDF Viewer. Bluetooth Explorer - Camera - HTC Camera control application. Comm Manager - HTC client application for managing the phone / Bluetooth and WiFi (HTC application). Excel Mobile - WM 5.0 Pocket Excel. File Explorer - WM 5.0 File Manager. Internet Explorer - Web browser. Internet Sharing - Modem Link - allows you to use your device as a 3G modem (HTC application). MIDLet Manager - allows you to use mini Java applets on the device. Pictures & Videos - WM 5.0 Video / Picture viewing application. Phone - Links to the dialler. PowerPoint Mobile - WM 5.0 PowerPoint Application. QuickGPS - Downloads Satellite locations for faster GPS locks. SAP Settings - Remote SIM Access over Bluetooth. Search - WM 5.0 system search applet. Streaming Media - Streaming images etc over GPRS/3G. System Info - Nice graphical view of system resources. Tasks - WM 5.0 To-Do list application. Terminal Services - WM 5.0 Terminal Services application for accessing machines remotely. Voice Recorder - Links to Voice recording applet. Voice Speed Dial - Voice activated speed dialling / application launching (HTC application). Windows Media - Media player. Word Mobile 5.0 - WM 5.0 Pocket Word Application. Zip - HTC ZIP client for managing Zipped file archives. TMobile have added some nice applications of their own to this list, they are: Help - Launches FAQ applet. Interactive - TMobile web facilities. Sprite Backup - Backup program. F-Secure Antivirus - Antivirus. GPRS Monitor - GPRS Traffic monitor. Blackberry Connect - Blackberry push email support. JETCET Print - Printing application. Opera - Web Browser. The extra applications added by TMobile are obviously aimed at the business user, as I would think the device is in general. It's a good selection of software and one that covers most bases from a business functionality perspective. You should be able to use your device in anger straight out of the box, without having to purchase extra software (except for maybe some GPS software), which is a nice change from the norm. Performance Even with the very large battery the Ameo is a little short on juice. I've found that during normal usage the device needs charging every day. When I've not charged it overnight I've found it's running on empty by about 4pm the following day. In a standard day with a full charge, at 7am, I usually have about 40% battery at midnight. As a comparison my old Mini S used to go for 2 days with the same usage using the new 2.24 ROM. I do seem to remember the MiniS being a lot worse for juice with its launch ROM though, so maybe there's hope for the future. The CPU on the Ameo is the Intel XScale PXA270 running at 624MHz and it really flies. At no point during my usage did I experience anything like lag or slowdown. I'm not really what I'd call a power user, but this is a big step up from many of the other HTC devices I've used. The extra power is probably partly to blame for the poor battery life, but if you're like me and you usually charge overnight you'll love the extra power, so just make sure you charge every night. Historically my experience of TMobile branded HTC devices has been good, with the supplied software usually providing a good base for the machine from the start of the machine's life. The launch ROM for the Ameo seems nice and stable. I've not discovered any memory leaks or experienced any lockups since first using the device and have only had to soft reset out of choice when installing software. Pros & Cons Pros Fast processor. Large RAM and ROM 8GB Microdrive. Awesome screen. GPS. 3 Megapixel camera. 3G - HSDPA. Good Bluetooth Implementation. 3.5mm Stereo Jack. Detachable keyboard. Huge screen. VGA/Video/Composite Out available (not bundled). USB Host. Better Camera implementation. Nice new Joystick. Good selection of accessories. Good selection of bundled software. Cons Size (Too Big!). Battery cover a little flimsy. No 4-in-1 cable supplied. No "personal" phone speaker. 4WinMobile Rating 90% Conclusion The new Ameo from T-Mobile is, technically, without a doubt the best Pocket PC ever. Virtually every feature ever seen is included in what is a state of the art device confirming HTC's status as the premier Windows Mobile manufacturer. T-Mobile has done an excellent job in producing a package for the UK mobile market which could have been perfect with the inclusion of the 4 in 1 cable. From a price perspective T-Mobile are offering the Ameo at a reasonable price scale starting at £429.99 and dropping to £129.99 for the more expensive pay monthly contracts. You get what you pay for. The only downside to the Ameo is its bulk. Is the Ameo too big for someone looking for a mobile phone sized device? Yes, in my opinion it is. If form factor is top of your requirements list this device is not for you. It's too large to hold to your ear and the lack of personal speaker makes telephony awkward without a Bluetooth headset. The Ameo excels as a convergence device though that will tick almost all of the boxes for both business users and multimedia fanatics alike. You wouldn’t want it sat in your pocket on a Saturday night out but deciding whether or not to buy the Ameo is a no brainer. It's THE device of year to date. The tricky part is going to be deciding what your "going out" phone will be!