HTC S620

Due October 2006
12th September 2006

The HTC S620 is a Windows-based messaging device that appears to be pitched directly against the BlackBerry 8700 series.

You can tell at a glance that the HTC S620 is a messaging phone, but we'll come to that later. This is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE data (but not 3G), it comes with a 320x240 pixel display, microSD expandable memory, stereo Bluetooth and of course a QWERTY keyboard. The HTC S620 also has WiFi support.

The display is a 2.4" TFT panel, but it isn't touch sensitive. Instead, the HTC S620 comes with a "JOGGR" control pad on the side that can be used with a thumb. The wide screen is useful for web browsing and document viewing.

Messaging support is very much Microsoft-orientated, with Direct Push email and standard internet protocols. There's also an MSN Messenger client installed.

As you would expect, the HTC S620 can view most types of Microsoft Office documents plus Adobe Acrobat PDF files. But, unlike the BlackBerry 8700 series, this is also a capable multimedia device with an MP3 player, camera and other features. That's not necessarily what many corporate customers want, but the drawback with Windows devices is that they pretty much come with the whole package.

It's not the first handset to be positioned as a "BlackBerry killer", and it certainly won't be the last. But if you're running a Microsoft shop then it looks to be a pretty reasonable proposition. HTC say that the S620 should be available from October 2006.

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