HTC P3300 Review

The HTC P3300, also know as HTC Artemis and O2 XDA Orbit, is one of the pocket pc devices with a broad range of connectivity features. The HTC P3300 is a pocket pc phone edition and has built-in WI-FI, Bluetooth, FM Radio and a built in GPS receiver. Other devices with similar connectivity features are the HP iPAQ hw6915, ASUS P535 and the ETEN X500.

Until recently the HTC P3300 was an innovative device, with its small and stylish design and the full set of connectivity features including a GPS receiver. With the release of the ETEN X500, a device that is the thinnest pocket pc device with built-in GPS and a better processor than the HTC P3300, the standards have changed.

The HTC P3300 is the first attempt of HTC to produce a pocket pc with phone functionality and built-in GPS. Before the HTC P3300 there was the Qtek G100 but that pocket pc had no support for phone functionality so that device cannot consider as the predecessor of HTC P3300.

HTC P3300 Design:

What really makes the HTC P3300 a very attractive pocket pc it’s the design. The device measures 62,5mm (L) X 111mm (H) X 12,5mm (P) and weights only 124g. You can easily hold the device on one hand and with the presence of the jog wheel and trackball (HTC RollR) on the middle you can use it only with on hand. The trackball can be used for scrolling through the menus or to move the cursor on the screen and make selections as you do with a laptop trackball. On the left and right side of the wheel you can find the ‘make call / answer’ and ‘end call’ buttons as well as the dedicated windows mobile 5.0 keys. The power and dedicated camera button is located on the right side together with the stylus holder while the volume control slider, dedicated voice control key and soft reset button is located on the left side. On the back of the device you can find the 2.0-mega pixels camera, the self-portrait mirror and a socket for an external GPS Antenna. At the bottom there is the microphone jack and the USB connector. On the top of the HTC P3300 resides the external speaker. The microSD expansion slot is located beneath the battery.

The display is a QVGA, 2.8” size with 65K colours and the standard 320 x 240 pixels resolution. The quality and brightness of the display is good and can be viewed very nice from different angles and under different conditions (dark-light).

The overall quality of the device is very good and it gives you a feeling of a well-built and solid structure.

HTC P3300 GPS:

One of the most important features of HTC P3300 that distinguish this device from other pocket pc devices is the built in GPS receiver. The GPS receiver embedded is a SIRF-STAR III Chipset with tomtom navigator 6 software. By default you can download one free map to use on your GPS device. In addition to the built-in GPS receiver, as mentioned earlier, there is also a socket for an external GPS antenna for better satellite reception.

The HTC P3300 offers 2 GPS related software. The first is the Quick GPS. Quick GPS is a program made by HTC and is included in HTC P3300 that is used to speed up the time for determining your GPS position by downloading the latest satellite data via and Internet connection (GPRS, WI-FI, ActiveSync).

The second GPS related software is TomTom navigator 6. TomTom is one of the best GPS software in the market and it really adds value to the GPS functionality of HTC P3300. Once you download your free city-map you are presented with a demo of how to use your GPS software and you are ready to go.

Overall the reception of the GPS is very good and the size of the device makes it handy to use in the car (using the card holder) but also on the move either using the neck strap (attached on the bottom of the device) or in your hand. Mind that the use of GPS for a long time reduces the battery life and this is bad if you use the device as a phone.

HTC P3300 Camera:

The camera of HTC P3300 has a 2-mega pixels resolution. It is the same camera as the one used in HTC TyTN but with no macro-mode, auto-focus or flash. The quality of the camera pictures is very good especially in good lighting conditions. There are a number of options available for taking pictures and video (different size and resolution, picture quality, effects etc.).

HTC P3300 Connectivity:

Besides the built-in GPS receiver described above the HTC P3300 has support for Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and FM Radio.

The Bluetooth profiles supported include:
A Hands-Free Profile (HFP) which can be used for Bluetooth connection between headset and device, aHuman Interface Device Profile (HID) for Bluetooth keyboard connection, advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) for sound transfer, Personal Area Network Profile (PAN) but Bluetooth network connection with a PC andSIM Access Profile (SAP) which can be used for accessing a SIM Card of a Bluetooth phone from another Bluetooth phone.

The FM Radio of HTC P3300 is simple to use with good quality. To activate the radio you need to add the external stereo headsets to the device. You can manual search thought the stations and use the 20 memory slots to save your favourite stations or perform an automatic search.

HTC P3300 Performance:

The performance of the HTC P3300 is something that was discussed even before its release. The presence of the TI OMAP processor at 200 MHZ was one of the disappointing factors for this device with the plethora of connectivity features. Before HTC P3300 was even launched some suggested that the processor will be slow to satisfy the performance requirements of the average pocket pc user. This was said because the same TI OMAP processor was available on the QTEK 9100 and S200 and the performance was not so good.

The truth about HTC P3300 performance is that the 200 MHZ is not enough to satisfy the demanding pocket pc user but it is sufficient to satisfy the average pocket pc user (at least some of them). In other words when you can accept the fact it may take up to 1 second for the Start menu to open and that the device will be very slow when you open a couple of applications the same time the HTC P3300 will be the device for you. If you want to use SKYPE (over Wi-Fi) and have a quick response from your device when you play a game or do your PDA tasks then the performance of HTC P3300 will not leave you satisfied. On the other hand if you want a slim and compact device to use as your regular phone with built-in GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and do not have any special requirements (e.g. Skype) then the speed may not be such an important factor.

HTC P3300 Review Conclusion:

The HTC P3300 is one of the devices with an excellent set of connectivity options. The built-in GPS, Bluetooth and WI-FI are a perfect combination. The device does not have a QWERTY keyboard neither does it support 3G. Once the HTC P3300 was announced it was an innovative device. At that time no other pocket pc device was available with the features of HTC P3300. Once the 3300 was released another device, the ETEN X500 came to market. The ETEN is a similar device with the same connectivity options but with a much faster processor. It is difficult to say that the HTC P3300 is not a good choice for a pocket pc phone since the only ‘bad’ thing about it it’s the processor. It is easy though to say that there are better devices with the same features, like the ETEN X500 and even better the ASUS P535 (upcoming device). The ETEN X500 is 430 GBP and the HTC P3300 440 GBP.

HTC P3300 specifications: