Sprint has begun accepting pre-orders for the launch of the HTC Arrive Windows 7 Smartphone (globally known as the HTC 7 Pro), which features a sliding full QWERTY keyboard and tilt-up display. Its unique Start screen with Hubs gives easy access to the user's most valuable content and customizable Live Tiles come to life with real-time updates from the Web.
Depending on the app, the Live Tiles might show pending messages and appointments, news and weather, or game notifications and friend status — all continuously refreshed. It also lets the user customize people, apps, playlists, pictures, and other favorites to the Start screen, so they're available at a single touch.
Windows Phone 7 Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view and offers quick and easy access to the users' most valuable content. The six Hubs are built on specific themes, including:
- People Hub brings together relevant content based on the person, including photos and live feeds from social networks. People Hub provides a central place from which to update status or change profile pictures across multiple social networking sites. Skim Facebook, Windows Live feeds & photos, then call, text or post to friends and get directions to their place.
- Games Hub is an on-the-go arcade and the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone. Play solo, or use the free Xbox LIVE service to match wits with friends wherever they are and view player avatars, profiles and achievements.
- Pictures Hub houses your entire collection and makes it easy to share pictures to a social network in one step. It can also bring together a user's photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view an entire picture and video collection, including photos saved to the phone and pictures friends posted on Facebook or Windows Live. You can even send favorites to friends, or post them to Facebook or Windows Live, all from one place.
- Music + Videos Hub is an anytime entertainment center. Play a music collection — synced wirelessly from a PC — or stream or download new tunes. There's even a built-in FM radio and high-resolution screen that's perfect for watching TV shows, movies or your own video clips. Add an optional Zune Pass subscription to get millions of songs for one low monthly fee. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers.
- Marketplace Hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
- Office Hub brings the familiar experience of the world's leading productivity software to your phone. With access to Microsoft Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents.
HTC Arrive key features include:
- Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon Processor
- 3.6-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch capability
- Full HTML Web browser with Bing Search and Maps for turn by turn directions, address mapping and even street level views via voice search or typing
- Windows Phone Marketplace offers a single view to showcase apps, games, music and premium Xbox LIVE games
- Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync), personal (POP & IMAP) email and text messaging
- 5MP camera with flash, autofocus and digital zoom and 720p HD camcorder. The camera button will snap photos fast, even if the phone is locked.
- 16GB internal memory for storing pictures, videos and large files
- Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
Price and Availability
HTC Arrive will be available beginning March 20, for $199.99 with a new two-year service agreement or eligible upgrade and after a $100 mail-in rebate (taxes not included).
Update: Priced from $0.01 at Amazon.com or Wirefly.
