Ultra-mobile PCs are the awkward middle children of gadgets. They're constantly trying to assume the notable attributes of their older and younger siblings, but almost always come up short. On one hand, these little dudes aspire to have a laptop's computational power and ease of use, yet they also endeavor to be diminutive and highly portable, like a smartphone. Unfortunately, the end result is more often than not some ungodly mishmash of half-measures and workarounds, none of which comes close to matching the experience on either end of the spectrum. And, yes, like middle children, they also tend to get ignored and neglected.
HTC's latest UMPC, the Shift, is no exception. It comes bound in an annoying leather case that smacks of smarmy corporate importance. Strangely, you're unable to remove this case, making the Shift awkward to use, when you're, you know, mobile. Speaking of mobility, the Shift weights a little more than 2 pounds – a tad heavier than most UMPCs out there – and sports a slide-out, 7-inch touchscreen. This screen can also be tilted upward, if you want to look (and feel) like a ridiculous giant typing on a teeny, tiny laptop.
Like a number of other UMPCs, the Shift also hides a painfully inadequate QWERTY keyboard below its screen, one that almost seems like it was purposefully engineered to be utterly useless. It's too large for thumb typing and too small to use like a normal keyboard. In the end, you're left idiotically pecking away at individual keys and pining for a laptop's bountiful keyboard real estate. Sure, the Shift also happens to be a touchscreen device, and thankfully you can do a good deal of navigating using just your finger or the included stylus. But for a device that purports to be some sort of all-in-one answer to your busy mobile lifestyle, this keyboard is not even close to acceptable.