Hands on: WinMo 6.1 and HTC Shift

We knew that we couldn't leave the CTIA show floor without saying hi to everyone's favorite OEM turned smartphone powerhouse: HTC. On display at their booth were a number of relatively new devices, many of which were running the newly-announced Windows Mobile 6.1 firmware. The Touch Dual--which is coming to the States later this year--was pretty much exactly as we expected, a Touch with a slide-out keypad. It does, however, seem a bit thinner and lighter than the original Touch. It was nice to see a device as powerful as the TyTn II (aka the AT&T Tilt) finally freed from the clutches of the cluttered Windows Mobile 6.0 home screen, though the device seemed to experience the same delay in switching from portrait to landscape that users of the AT&T firmware have complained about. Finally, the Shift was as interesting of a device you could expect to find on the show floor--with its dual operating systems (Windows Mobile 6.1 and Windows Vista), massive touchscreen and bolted-on leather case (which was necessary, apparently, in order to meet an FCC requirement regarding the distance of an antenna from the outside of a device's case). Cool? You bet. Worth $1,500? Not when the highest-end Mini-Note can be had for half the price.

For more on Windows Mobile 6.1 and HTC's newest devices:
- see this photo slideshow