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The HTC Advantage we reviewed was running Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC. We were informed by HTC that the final ship version will be running Windows Mobile 6 Professional. Windows Mobile is an advanced smart phone operating system, providing a range of business and multimedia functionality as well as the ability to add functionality via native third party programs. Windows Mobile is comparable to Symbian or Palm OS, although each has its own particular interface and slightly different capabilities.
The HTC Advantage uses the standard Windows Mobile Today screen, which allows you to customize your experience by adding or removing plugins for important applications like calendar, contacts, tasks etc. You also have plugins for time & date, owner information and can add additional plugins via third party software.


The home screen on the Advantage looked huge on the large 5" display compared to standard Windows Mobile devices. We also noticed a plugin with a series of icons for quick access to things like power settings and connectivity on the Advantage's home screen. We do not know if this plugin will be included in the final ship version.
As a smart phone operating system Windows Mobile allows you to install native third party applications. There are currently hundreds of applications available for this platform. It also offers a good range of customization options, including the ability to change text size, install and use different themes and change your home screen extensively. You can also customize the programs that are displayed on the Start menu.
In our brief time with the HTC Advantage we found the operating system to be quick and responsive. The Advantage runs a 624Mhz processor with 128MB of RAM, so we expect it to be a very responsive device.
The Advantage we reviewed only had the standard Windows Mobile Solitaire and Bubble Breaker games installed. The Advantage does have an ATI graphics chip installed, opening the door for advanced gaming experiences. We do have some worries about the controls however, as they are not placed very conveniently for gaming. In particular we note that there are no buttons for soft keys when you are not using the keyboard. When using the keyboard you have plenty of buttons, but we feel it may be a little cramped for extended use.
The HTC Advantage X7501 will ship with both the standard Internet Explorer Mobile browser found on all Windows Mobile devices and with the Opera Mobile browser, which adds significant functionality to the browsing experience. The device we reviewed did not have Opera Mobile installed, so we really can’t comment on the experience of using the browser on the device.
The alarm on the HTC Advantage is the standard Windows Mobile alarm, with the ability to set 3 different alarms and customize the days that it will go off on.
As a Windows Mobile device the HTC Advantage supports viewing and editing of Word and Excel files, and viewing of Powerpoint files. We also confirmed that there is a PDF viewer installed. We were also pleased to see a zip manager. In addition to the software above we noted that the Advantage we reviewed had several other applications installed to manage the device's advanced features. We saw a QuickGPS application, an Audio Manager and Bluetooth Explorer in the Program menu. In the settings menu we noted a task manager, a manager for the Advantage's TV Out, an application to format the device drive and an application for controlling the VueFlo feature.

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