Yesterday, HTC introduced their latest QWERTY smartphone called the HTC Snap at the CTIA convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. When I first saw it, what immediately came to my mind was that it had the resemblance of a Blackberry Bold and a Nokia E71 with its trackball and QWERTY keyboard in full public display.

The HTC Snap was designed for business people, executives and other users whose main purpose is using a handset for communications – sending emails, text messages and other documents. The HTC Snap smartphone is also the first HTC handset to use an email prioritization system called “Inner Circle” that allows the user to specify an exclusive group of people as high priority contacts or the users “Inner Circle”. With a touch of a button, all emails from people who belong to your “Inner Circle” will be sorted and pushed on top of the list/inbox for quick and easy access.

Specifications:

• Qualcomm MSM 7225 processor, 528 MHz
• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard OS
• QWERTY keypad with dedicated messaging, email and Inner Circle hotkeys
• 256MB ROM, 192MB RAM
• microSDHC support
• Dimensions: 4.59″ x 2.42″ x .47″ (LxWxT)
• Weight: 4.23 ounces (with battery)
• Display: 2.4″ (diagonal) QVGA (320×240)
• 1500 mAh battery
• HSDPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz or HSDPA/WCDMA 850/1900 MHz (HTC S522)
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• Wi-Fi (b/g)
• GPS/aGPS

Additional Photos:

Here’s HTC’s Press Release for the HTC Snap smartphone:

HTC Snap™ makes staying in touch with more people less complicated

LAS VEGAS – April 1, 2009 – HTC Corporation today debuted its newest QWERTY smartphone, the HTC Snap™. Designed with a set of features selected to deliver everything customers need without overwhelming them with things they don’t, the HTC Snap makes it easier than ever to stay in contact with life’s most important people.

A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive® and commissioned by HTC* found that 44% of US adults are often overwhelmed by the amount of email they receive, and over half (55%) of US adults prioritize five or fewer people with whom they communicate via email. In response to these issues, HTC’s innovative Inner Circle feature allows HTC Snap users to press a dedicated Inner Circle key to bring emails from a preselected group of people to the top of their inbox, enabling important messages to be acted upon immediately.

“Recognizing that people are being overwhelmed by an avalanche of email, the HTC Snap introduces Inner Circle, an HTC innovation that makes it easy for people to prioritize messages from the most important people in their lives at the press of a button,” said John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer, HTC Corporation. “The HTC Snap represents the latest step in HTC’s mission to create a range of innovative smartphones, each with specific benefits designed to both surprise and delight our customers.”

With a slim, sleek profile designed to fit perfectly in the hand, the HTC Snap measures less than a half-inch thick (12 mm), yet it can deliver up to eight and a half hours of talk time with the standard 1500mAh battery. The full QWERTY keyboard is ergonomically designed with extra-large domed keys and responsive tactile feedback to make typing emails and text messages fast, accurate and comfortable. High-speed 3G HSPA connectivity makes it quick and easy to send pictures to friends, access favorite social networking sites, or download large files while on the go.

The HTC Snap is powerful enough for experienced business users looking for an affordable, straightforward choice for remotely synchronizing email, calendar and contacts with their Microsoft Exchange server. However, the flexible Microsoft Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard platform allows the HTC Snap to also be simple enough for first-time smartphone users wanting to keep their family life organized.

The HTC Snap is expected to be available in select channels during the second quarter of 2009, rolling out in markets around the world throughout the second half of the year. Additionally, an unlocked version supporting HSDPA at 850/1900MHz for the US market will be made available under the name HTC S522 during the summer.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a HTC fanboy. Ever since I got my AT&T Tilt aka HTC TyTN II, I’ve fell in love with HTC and their handsets/mobile devices. Although I prefer handsets with bigger screens, I still like the design and look of the HTC Snap. It’s slim, sexy and looks very classy and elegant.

A couple days ago, Toshiba officially introduced the Toshiba TG01 smartphone. This mobile internet device looks like something that is geared to compete with the popular Apple iPhone 3G and Android powered G1. The Toshiba TG01 is only 9.9 mm thick but it boasts a 4.1″ WVGA full touch screen display (800 x 480 pixels). It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and comes with Internet Explorer Mobile 6 (full support for Flash). The Toshiba TG01 is the first device in the world to run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform (1GHz mobile CPU).

Toshiba TG01′s internal memory is only 512 MB but has a microSD card slot that supports up to 32 GB. It has support for DivX videos and unlike other WinMo powered devices, the TG01 doesn’t use RealPlayer as the default multimedia player but instead it uses CorePlayer which is considered the best mobile multimedia player around.

Specifications:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• 1.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD2850
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• 3G/HSDPA
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels
• GPS/aGPS support
• Accelerometer
• 512MB internal, up to 32GB storage via microSD
• 4.1 inches (480×800 pixels) full touch screen display
• microSD slot

Additional Photos:

Below is the official video released by Toshiba. It gives us a closer look at the Toshiba TG01′s features including the custom 3D GUI and the on-screen keyboard.

The Toshiba TG01 comes in two colors – black and white and as always, our European friends will be the first to get their hands on it this summer. So far no word regarding which operator/carrier gets it or how much it will be sold. I hope they’ll also release it here in the US or North America.

Based on the photos, videos and specifications I can say that I’m very impressed with the Toshiba TG01 except for one thing, the striped custom Toshiba 3D GUI which I think is ugly. But overall, the Toshiba TG01 is a slim and sexy mobile device that packs a punch.

So what do you think of the Toshiba TG01? Is it worthy enough to compete with iPhone 3G or G1?

[via Engadget; video by MegaWhat.tv]