HTC Adds Windows Mobile SmartphoneHTC Adds Windows Mobile Smartphone

Hoping to get mobile professionals to switch from their BlackBerry devices, HTC on Tuesday introduced a stylish Windows Mobile smartphone that sports multiple business applications and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The HTC S740 has a similar form factor to the HTC Touch Pro but it loses the touch interface. The S740 has a 12-button number pad on the face, and the slide-out, four-row QWERTY keyboard can be accessed by holding the smartphone horizontally.

The S740 is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard, and mobile professionals can read and compose corporate e-mail on the device. Users will also be able to view Microsoft Office documents on the handset, as well as browse the Web with the PocketIE HTML browser.

HTC packed in multiple connection options, as the S749 has integrated Wi-Fi and is capable of having 7.2-Mbps downlink speed over 3G networks. There's also an EDGE option for times when faster connections are unavailable.

The smartphone also sports a 3.2-megapixel camera that's capable of recording video. There's also built-in GPS that's can use assisted-GPS for location-based searches, a multimedia player, and Bluetooth v. 2.0 capabilities.

The S740 has a 2.4-inch QVGA screen that's capable of displaying 65,000 colors, and the handset has 256 MB of RAM that's expandable via a MicroSD slot. There's also a MiniUSB slot, built-in hands-free controls, and HTC said it can get more than 6 hours of talk time off a single charge.

The device measures 4.5 by 1.7 by .6 inches, and weighs about 4.9 ounces. The handset is expected to be released across Europe in September, with rollout in other markets to follow. HTC did not indicate how much the smartphone would cost, or if any carriers would be releasing the phone.