HTC MAX 4G

Expected November 2008
12th November 2008
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If you were going to guess which European country the HTC MAX 4G might be launched in, then which one would you choose? Germany? Sweden? Britain? Nope, the answer is Russia.. a country that is developing into a very interesting market for mobile phones with a number of handsets made exclusively for that market.

The HTC MAX 4G is an impressively specified Windows smartphone, but perhaps the most interesting part is the "4G" tag. If plain old UMTS / WCDMA is 3G, and HSDPA is 3.5G.. then what exactly is 4G? Well, that's a good question because strictly speaking there are no recognised 4G standards. In this case, HTC are referring to the phone's WiMAX capabilities. We have covered WiMAX before with the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition, and essentially it works a little like a cross between a cellular phone network and wi-fi (you can read more about it here).

Currently, Moscow and St Petersburg have a WiMAX network running under the "Yota" brand name which allows for very high-speed network access wherever there is WiMAX coverage. Unlike the N810 though, the HTC MAX 4G is also a fully featured mobile phone with tri-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE data support (but no 3G) and also standard 802.11 b and g wi-fi. The WiMAX radio works in the 2.5 to 2.7 GHz band, but not all WiMAX implementations worldwide use this frequency.

Other than the WiMAX support, the HTC MAX 4G is pretty similar in specification to the HTC Touch HD. The 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen is actually a little larger at 3.8", and there is a motion sensor built-in to automatically change the orientation between wide and tall formats. there's a 5 megapixel autofocus camera on the back plus a secondary 0.3 megapixel video calling camera on the front. Audio output is via a standard 3.5mm socket, and the HTC MAX 4G has an FM radio too.

The MAX 4G also has GPS support, 8GB of built-in memory, 256MB of RAM and a 528 MHz Qualcomm ESM7206A processor. It weighs 151 grams and measures 114 x 63 x 14mm. Talktime on GSM is 7 hours, and a little under 4 hours if using VOIP.

The operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with some HTC enhancements, including the rather good TouchFLO interface. The MAX 4G is also integrated with Yota's "Yap-yap" service allows photo sharing and contact synchronisation. Yota will also provide free-of-charge TV to the MAX 4G over their WiMAX network.

Priced at 28900 roubles (around €840 / £670 / $1000), the HTC MAX 4G is a pretty expensive device.. but a very desirable one, if you are lucky enough to live in a WiMAX coverage area. HTC say that the MAX 4G should be available from 26th November.