Sprint HTC Arrive: Windows Phone 7 is not ready for landscape keyboards
The Sprint HTC Arrive comes in a solid compact box.
Check out my ZDNet Smartphone & Cell Phones blog for detailed thoughts and a video of the device in action.
When you open the lid of the box, you will find the Arrive sitting in a formed compartment.
The included accessories consist of the charging cable and USB A/C adapter, wired stereo headset, and pamphlets.
The HTC Arrive is a rather compact Windows Phone 7 device with 3.6 inch display.
The back of the HTC Arrive consists of a metal battery cover, speaker, 5 megapixel camera, and LED flash.
The upper part of the HTC Arrive is very attractive and well built.
The screw on the back is not used to remove the cover like might thing and is more of a decoration than something you should mess with.
There is a large volume button on the upper left side.
The lower left side is where you will find the microUSB port.
The 3.5mm headset jack and power button are found on the top. You can see part of the rear hinge on the left side of the top.
The HTC Arrive has the same three touch sensitive buttons required on Windows Phone 7.
The landscape QWERTY keyboard on the HTC Arrive is nearly the same as the HTC Touch Pro 2 and is the BEST QWERTY keyboard on any smartphone.
The HTC Arrive landscape QWERTY keyboard is wonderful.
The left side of the HTC Arrive shows you the available keys on the device, including the FN, emoticon, comma, shift, and other keys.
The right side of the HTC Arrive shows the directional arrows, enter key, Sym button, and other keys of the QWERTY keyboard.
The HTC Touch Pro 2 keyboard closely matches the HTC Arrive as the best ever on a phone.
Here you can see the keyboards head-to-head and note how good they are.
The Touch Pro 2 and Arrive both have five rows of button goodness.
The hinge is a bit unique with a couple large springs used to pop it up after it is extended.
The keyboard first comes out flat before it pops up in place.
The HTC HD7, HTC Arrive, and Dell Venue Pro match up as the best in Windows Phone 7.
The HTC Arrive is stacked in between the Dell Venue Pro and HD7.
HTC Arrive gallery 1
HTC Arrive gallery 2