Ok, our society is always bigger, stronger, faster. Mates compare the size of their respective flat screen televisions like their significant others compare the size of …other things.  The more we demand out of our smart phones, the more features the handset makers cram into the devices. In fact, most leading edge smart phones are more powerful and capable than our desktop computers of not too many years ago.  Once one makes the decision to buy either a Android, Apple, Blackberry or Windows Phone from there features are the only way for one handset carrier to distinguish itself from another. Even Apple and RIM, the maker of the Blackberry, differentiate their respective offerings based on price and capabilities.

There is a price for all of this power in our hands. That price is of course paid by the battery.  The more we demand of smart phones, be it bigger screens faster processors, LTE data (someday Ofcom willing), or better streaming media all extract increasing demands on the battery of a mobile phone. Alas, Moore’s Law has not made it to battery size and power, so the  demand is always outstripping the supply as it were.

The result is either frequent charging, battery swapping; or bigger batteries.  Smartphone makers, and users, on the whole usually dabble in all three. However, with the increasing demands on a smartphone to replace a computer, many carriers are moving to kill two birds with one store and make bigger screens that in turn allow for bigger batteries. Even Apple, whose iconic co-founder the late  Steve Jobs derided over sized smart phones as undersized tablets, is credibly rumored to be coming out with a larger screen with the iPhone 5.

The question remains:how big is too big for a smart phone? Many say that anything over four inches is too big. Much larger than that and the phone no longer easily fit in a shirt or jacket pocket or purse. Not only size but weight is also a factor, past a certain point going over email on a heavy phone is less like being connected and more like working out. That is what people have said about devices  with screens up to 4.7 inches. Then you have the Galaxy Tab, a monster at 5.2 inches and widely held out as the current size champ.

When the Galaxy Note came out, I for one was convinced that it would fail miserably in the market. The specs are pretty good and the screen is first rate abet at the cost of poor battery life. But the size. How many of us want to ride a train or walk down a street looking like we are talking to a copy of National Geographic?  However, if sales numbers are to be believed, talking to copies of National Geographic is an up and coming fad. Samsung reports excellent sell through on the device and the American carrier AT&T is particularly pleased.

iPad, Galaxy Note and Blackberry

Something I found interesting was a post from American Internet curmudgeon Mike Cane. (Note: @mikecane is well worth following on Twitter. He has a take no prisoners attitude in his posts and blog that is more than a bit refreshing) Mr. Cane lives in New York City and in his meanderings about the city notices that the Note was being embraced by the  every man rather than the tech elite and suits. This set me to wondering if people were buying into the Galaxy Note (and by implication other oversized) phones instead of buying a smartphone and a tablet. If that indeed is the case, then the rumored “mini-tablets” may find getting traction in the market to be a hard slog indeed. Why buy a mini tablet when you can buy a slightly smaller Galaxy Note or its like?

Tells us what you think is too big in a smartphone. Or do you want your smartphone super sized?

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Can a smartphone be too big?

HTC first previewed these phones last month at MWC but there was no price or release details to go with the phones. Essentially two phones (Desire S and Wildfire S) are sequels to two very successful phones that catapulted not only HTC but Android to the top of the mobile phone markets. Both were very reasonably priced had all the cutting edge functionality you’d need and were generally great phones. So how can HTC improve them? The ChaCha is basically a phone designed for anybody completely obsessed with Facebook(which basically is most of us let’s admit)

Wildfire S :

• Faster 600 MHz processor
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 3.2” HGVA(320 x 480) touchscreen
• 5MP Camera
• GPS, WiFi (B/G/N), Bluetooth 3.0
• microSD

Desire S :

• 3.7” 480×800 “Super” LCD screen (note that it’s downgraded from AMOLED)
• 1GHz Processor
• Android 2.2 Froyo (Upgrade to 2.3 Gingerbread coming shortly after)
• 5MP with LED Flash
• 720p HD video capture
• Front Facing Camera
• Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi (B/G/N), GPS
• 1.1GB internal storage expandable by microSD

ChaCha

• 600MHz processor
• 2.6” 480×320 capacitive screen
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Android Gingerbread with HTC sense
• 5MP Camera
• GPS, WiFi (B/G/N), Bluetooth 3.0
• Dedicated Facebook Button with easy operation of the social networking site

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HTC Wildfire S, Desire S and ChaCha

The HTC 7 Mozart will be launched exclusively on Orange in the UK along with the Samsung Omnia 7.

The specification of all the phones is somewhat similar with most phones using a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8250 CPU and the rest of the specification is:

Internal storage: 8 GB
ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 576 MB

Screen: 3.7 inches, 480 x 800 WVGA

Camera: 8 megapixel, Auto focus and Xenon flash, 720p HD video recording

Battery: 1300 mAh

Weight: 130 grams

The phone isn’t dissimilar to previous HTC designs but it is nice to see they have used an aluminium unibody which gives the phone more of an expensive feel and better build quality.

One disadvantage seems to be a lack of expandable memory, which seems common among all of the new phones. I find this odd as it would distinguish the phones from the iPhone and potentially give it an advantage in the memory area.

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HTC 7 Mozart–Windows Phone 7

Although the last incarnation of the Windows Mobile OS wasn’t a great success, HTC had a great phone in the HTC HD2. Now with Windows Mobile 7 just around the corner, HTC have officially announced the successor to the HD2 with the HD7. Windows Mobile 7 has a minimum requirement to what a phones specs have to be for it to have the OS, so what does the HD7 offer

On the large size of phones(but what smartphones aren’t these days ) 122 x 68 x 11.2mm, the HD7 will be rocking a fast 1GHz processor and 576MB RAM it’s certainly up there with the big boys for power. Screenwise a 4.3” 480×800(WVGA) Capacitive touchscreen. Other goodies include a 5MP camera with dual-LED flash, HSDPA, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, N-standard WiFi and FM Radio. Disappointingly there’s only 512MB of onboard memory but you will get an 8GB microSD card bundled with the phone, which can be upgraded.

Sadly we have no price or official release date soon but with Windows Mobile 7 officially out on the 21st October, it can’t be too far after that.

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HTC HD7 is official : Windows Mobile 7

As well as the Desire HD, HTC have announced a sister phone to the original Desire. Not as tech greedy as the new Desire HD the Desire Z is aimed towards those who don’t want to fork out as much for a decent phone but also for those who love a QWERTY keyboard to text and email than the sometimes hard to use on screen, software types.

So what’s different about the Desire Z? It’s basically an old school Desire, but has a unique hinge on the 800×480 3.7” display that reveals a QWERTY keyboard (not a full one, no dedicated number keys) However the keys on said keyboard can be programmed for shortcuts to your favourite apps, menus and programmes etc on the phone.

Powered with a slightly not as good 800MHz Qualcomm chip the Desire Z will however be running Android 2.2 Froyo. It will also have a 5MP camera on the reverse with LED Flash which is capable of 720p resolution video capturing goodness. 1.5GB of internal storage can be expanded by microSD the Desire Z has N-Standard WiFi, HSDPA connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS.

Although not as good as the Desire HD, it’s not supposed to be but I love a good QWERTY keyboard on a phone, it’s just personal opinion. Amazon leaked a price earlier in the week at £429.99, whereas our friends at Expansys have it for £454.99. Again the phone should get a release next month on the 11th October

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HTC Desire Z : Desire with QWERTYness

The HTC Desire on release was hailed as one of the best smartphones, if not THE best Android smartphone around and showed that HTC meant business. Now the Taiwanese mobile makers have announced this week the successor to the Desire, well more of an upgrade is the Desire HD. If you’re considering getting a new phone I’d seriously check this out.

Announced at a press conference at the end of last week, the new Desire is HTC’s answer to the iPhone 4 and is certainly more than capable of challenging it too. Firstly the HTC Desire HD will be running Android 2.2 Froyo and will be packing the same wonderful Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor as it’s predecessor. With a whopping 4.3” LCD screen it also has the usual extras of n standard WiFi, Bluetooth etc, An 8MP camera on reverse with dual LED flash and 720p video capture capabilities. It will have 1.5GB of internal storage but can be expanded by microSD. However what makes this more of a step above is the body is carved from a single piece of aluminium much like the older HTC Legend, making it super nice in the aesthetic department.

Also what we have is the knowledge of the release and the cost. Available next month (11th October according to Expansys) will be SIM Free for £504.99. However T-Mobile are the first to announce that they will be selling the Desire HD for free on a 24 month, £40 per month contract.

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HTC Desire HD : All the details

We’ve already seen a couple of Windows Mobile 7 phones on the horizon such as the Dell Lightning and the LG protoype and with all eyes on what Android and Apple are doing it seems nobody knows when Windows Mobile 7 will be seen first and on which handset. Now I’m keeping an eye on HTC as they’re growing bigger as a company everyday due to the fact they’re knocking out some pretty decent phones. Well now it’s time for their first Windows Mobile 7 phone, which coincidently could be the first Windows Mobile 7 handset on sale, delivering what Microsoft set out to achieve with both the software and it’s required hardware specs.

Packing a 4.3” WVGA screen it wil be powered by the speedy 1.3GHz Snapdragon so already it’s going to be up their in the speed department , allowing Windows Mobile to do it’s thing. As Microsoft have set out guidelines as to what Windows Mobile phones require, expect a 5 megapixel camera, GPS and the other usual stuff.

At the moment it’s all rumours and HTC haven’t confirmed much in terms of future release date or price or whether they have other plans for the Windows market.

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HTC Mondrian : First Windows 7 Phone????

Business gurus Bloomberg announced that electronics company Palm, makers of the Palm Pre has gone up for sale and early reports suggest that Taiwanese mobile company HTC are interesting in buying the company in an attempt to strengthen its foothold in the mobile market and then hopefully challenge Apple as top dog.

HTC has shown itself to be a great inventor and designer in the new mobile market with top sellers such as the Hero, the Tattoo, the Touch HD and now with the superb HTC Desire and Legend. Now picture them taking over Palm. Palm’s Pre phone and WebOs platform although not met with total success by the public but are great, plus the knowledge they have in the field already after being in it for so long could propel HTC as a frontrunner in the market.

Other advantages is that Palm employs a lot of former Apple employees, their SEO Jon Rubenstein was one of the original developers of the iPod and we all know the success that has seen. Chinese computer firm Lenovo is also believed to be interested in a takeover too, but to be honest I’d rather HTC took the plunge and grabbed it and further produced some cracking phones to take away the dominance of Apple.

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Could HTC be buying Palm

HTC MANIA OR WHAT??? Now this is the icing on the cake for HTC at Mobile World Congress, not only with the Desire and HD mini have we seen the potential of two great new mobiles but then they saved the best till last with this bad boy.

Like Apple’s MacBook Pro these smartphones are made from a single block of Aluminium set with black plastic making them look the dog’ danglies. Rocking a similar shape to last years Hero phone, the bottom of which protruded like Jimmy Hill’s chin, has been made a little less obvious and has been given a new optical trackball for extra responsive use.

Housed within the lovely metal is the usual gubbins of 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth running the latest Android: Eclair 2.1 OS and HTC’s own “Sense” UI. It also sports a 5MP camera with a flash so you can view decent quality pics on its AMOLED screen.

What puts this one above the other two is the raw speed that the phone can function thanks to the UI. Multitouch is available allowing the user to flick quickly between the Android screens and packs full of features for quick and easy social networking use. Again due in April this could be one to watch!

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Mobile World Congress : HTC Legend

Now here we have another phone from HTC which doesn’t seem to be breaking too many barriers by appearing to be an updated version of one of its current line of mobiles. Like The Nokia N97 got its Mini, this is the HD2 but mini.Originally this phone was going to be named the “Photon” it’s one of the only phones HTC managed to keep under wraps before the congress. If you remember the HD2 was a very solid good all-round phone, maybe a little big but HTC again appears to have delivered that in a smaller form.

Running Windows Mobile 6.5.3(hasn’t 7 just been announced at the congress? :s) in conjunction with HTC’s Sense UI the HD mini has a 3.2” HVGA capacitive touchscreen more than capable of multitouch functions. It also has a a 5MP camera on the back but unfortunately it lacks a flash so no snaps in the dark i am afraid, well lit areas only.

Other exciting features lie in the software of the HD mini. Firstly it can share its 3G internet goodness to other Wi-Fi enabled wireless devices, acting as its own little Wi-Fi hotspot, WOW! This feature is exclusive to Windows Mobile, HTC phones. Another funky little addition is something that HTC calls “Manner Mode”. When you pick up your phone your ear-shattering ringtone quietens down. Its little touches like this that make HTC such a great competitor in todays mobile market. Like the Desire we’re looking at a Q2 release.

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Mobile World Congress : HTC HD Mini