Released by Verizon Wireless in the US, the HTC Imagio is the company's first Windows Mobile 6.5 device.  While designed as a business-friendly smartphone, it also comes with a slew of multimedia capabilities, including support for the carrier's range of streaming V Cast services.

Armed with a range of productivity tools (including Office Mobile, Adobe Reader LE and more) and a very good onscreen keyboard, the Imagio is an incredibly robust business device.  If that wasn't enough, users also get the benefits of Microsoft's Direct Push technology for your email, calendar, tasks and contacts, along with POP3 and IMAP support.

For multimedia, it comes with both Verizon's music player as well as WMP 10 Mobile.  It plays a nice range of files, including AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV.  There's a YouTube app for streaming video, V Cast Mobile TV and the rest of Verizon's streaming lineup, all of which worked gorgeously.

Physically, the Imagio isn't as flashy as other smartphones (most likely, because it's being marketed for its business features), with its industrial appearance and hefty feel.  Regardless, there's no way you can ignore the gorgeous 3.6-inch WVGA touchscreen display, along with the smooth edges and dimpled bezel.

As a phone, it managed excellent and clear voice calls, with natural sounding conversations.  Same with the speakerphone, which offered plenty of volume and clarity.  Overall phone speed, which uses HTC's TouchFlo 3D UI, was very good, almost surprising for a Windows Mobile machine.  Battery is rated at five hours.

Intended as a world phone, the Imagio supports both CDMA and GSM networks, allowing you to get both voice and 3G coverage in most places internationally. Both Opera and IE (with Flash Lite) are preinstalled on the unit, managing excellent full HTML renderings on the large display. It comes with the usual set of modern smartphone features, including standard messaging, GPS and stereo Bluetooth.

The 5.0 megapixel camera module takes above average quality pictures, with a huge lot of editing options and very sharp shots in lighted scenes.  It includes an easy-to-use touch focus mode and a video recording mode (with better-than-average movie quality).  There's very little default storage, though, so you'll have to use a microSDHC card to maximize the use of the phone.

Overall, the HTC Imagio continues the company's tradition of putting out the best Windows Mobile handsets around.  The roaming capabilities, coupled with the business functions and multimedia talents, make it an excellent all-around smartphone.

You've probably heard the rumors about HTC's upcoming line of mid-priced touchscreen phones, which the company claimed will comprise the remainder of their new products for the year.  Two handsets have been prominently covered in the pre-release buzz, namely the HTC Mega and the HTC Click.

Today, a blog (link below) managed to get their hands on actual photos (real products, not renders) and specs of the Mega.  As earlier rumored, it's going to be HTC's mid-market Windows Mobile phone and will ship with the upcoming version 6.5 of Microsoft's OS.

Hardware details include a 2.8-inch touchscreen display (320 x 240 pixels), 3.2 megapixel optics (fixed focus with no LED flash), a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 CPU, 256MB of RAM, an 1100mAh battery module and microSDHC expansion.  Connectivity suite seems pretty complete, with quad-band GSM, dual-band HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth with EDR.  It will feature the 2D version of HTC's TouchFlo UI.

Earlier in the month, the Click was revealed to be running Android 1.5, setting the two handsets up as the logical first releases for HTC's foray into entry-level smartphone territory.  Both devices are expected to hit retail stores within the next few months.  Price for both units are expected to be pegged at around $300.

[via Ai.Rs]

One of the few big announcements at MWC this year came in the form of Microsoft's highly anticipated update to their mobile platform, Windows Mobile 6.5.  While definitely welcome (considered how behind WinMo technology has been compared to the current crop of operating systems on high-end smartphones), the changes don't really bring anything new to the table and instead feels like a catch-up job that's more than a good year too late.

As expected, touch features have been souped up to bring it up to par with current handset requirements.   In fact, the Standard (non-touch) version of 6.5 remains almost unchanged from 6.1.  The Professional version, on the other hand, features plenty of interface updates designed to make it look more palatable (hopefully requiring less skinning in the part of manufacturers) and more responsive to touch controls.

Almost every aspect of the OS has been updated to feature finger-friendly operations, from menus to the control bars to the bundled applications, including the browser, contacts, calendar, messaging and email.  Windows Mobile fans will be happy to know that, as far as hands-on tests went, everything was responding exactly as they should.  The browser, in particular, has received a notable makeover and now features pretty impressive touch response as well as pop-up controls.  None of the changes, however, will trickle down automatically on third party apps.  According to the Microsoft, even the menu bar might not have its touch controls work as expected when used with add-on apps.

The home screen, a source of much criticism, has been updated and now looks infinitely better, apart from making navigation way easier than before.  Of course, it still feels a good deal behind other manufacturer-designed interfaces (especially with one big mess of apps that it calls a main menu), but should offer something better out of the box.

While these changes are very much welcome, there wasn't really anything presented that WinMo shouldn't have been doing in the first place.  In fact, the new features feel like they patched something terribly wrong instead of bringing forward something new.  To be honest, the only way Windows Mobile will provide serious competition in the current marketplace is by a total overhaul, a version 7.0 if you will.  Still, working touch controls and improved looks is better than nothing, right?