Alright, we're not going to hold back here. We really thought the
HTC Excalibur was going to fall way short of expectations, but when the
Boy Genius got a hold of his and told us how stellar it was, we were prepared to be swayed. We picked one up at MobileFocus hoping to remain neutral, but we just can't help it, we fell in love. There's no way to easily describe how thin it feels in the hand, but it has the molded, shapely curved body of a Treo combined with the thinness of a Q (which, unfortunately, is much boxier). But it also just feels damned good in the hand, way more solidly built that Moto's handheld. No, it's not as speedy on the cellular data, but it does have a few things the Q doesn't, like WiFi, and, well, a keyboard we're actually pretty fond of. Sorry Moto, it might soon be time to step to the side with this new device class (at least for this round).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
UnseenLlama @ Sep 13th 2006 5:02AM
Any idea for an exact release date? I know the O2 version is getting close.
RyanTV @ Sep 13th 2006 8:08AM
is this device like the Q in the fact that it has no touch screen?
PEZ @ Sep 13th 2006 8:30AM
Dude! IS that your REAL thumb? HOly shitballs... Looks like an ear of friggin corn! HAHAHAHAHA
Kent Pribbernow @ Sep 13th 2006 9:14AM
FYI: That last photo is the wrong image guys! It's a side view of the HTC Artemis, not the Excalibur.
Damian @ Sep 13th 2006 9:59AM
Sigh - so close to what I want - just needed to add the high-speed connection and I'd be sold...now I have to decide between this and the Hermes. Anybody got any thoughts on this comparison?
FurniFind @ Sep 13th 2006 11:36AM
Yeah, it's truly stupid that they released this phone w/o the high-speed data transfer options. Why would they include this in the Hermes and not the Excalibur... it puts many enthusiast users in the terrible place of having to choose between two models, neither of which quite meets their needs.
The result of this idiotic move is that I will now be waiting for another manufacturer (probably Samsung) to get this right before making a purchase... BOOOO to HTC.
aaron @ Sep 13th 2006 12:27PM
Can I download and send emails universally and on-the-fly (with or w/out a wifi network), or is that the benefit of high-speed data transfer? Looks like samsung gets my money; that i607 also looks nice.
T-Will @ Sep 13th 2006 8:36PM
It has EDGE, so yup, you can send and receive emails and even browse at a decent speed.
evilsaywhat @ Sep 15th 2006 9:19PM
If I can get this with no contract for $250 or less (lol) then I will pick one up just to use at home for IM/Browsing/ICQ/Email around the house. If it had HSDPA, then I'd pay more and keep it on my most of the time heh.