The HTC Universal is a

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

5.0 Pocket PC PDA manufactured by

High Tech Computer Corporation HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

. It was the first 3G/

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...

-enabled Pocket PC PDA with a telecommunications function, and also the first to come with

5.0 pre-installed. It was sold by many different vendors under the names of O2 xda Exec,

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

SPV M5000,

Dopod HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

900,

Qtek HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

9000,

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobil ...

MDA Pro,

I-mate i-mate is a company selling Windows Mobile-powered devices. The Group was launched by James Morrison, who began his telecoms career at sea designing and installing fiber optic cable systems with Cable & Wireless and was head of the team at O2 ...

JasJar,

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

v1640,

VPA IV,

E-Plus E-Plus was a mobile telecommunications operator in Germany. With more than 25 million subscribers, E-Plus was the third largest mobile operator in Germany, until the takeover from Telefónica Germany in October, 2014. Ownership E-Plus was ...

PDA IV, etc. Despite all the different model names and housing appearance, they all have identical hardware specifications with small differences in the external color and branding. The most eye-catching feature of this device is its 180-degree swivel screen, allowing a quick swap between portrait mode and landscape mode. The

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

automatically adjusts screen orientation accordingly.

SIM lock

Most network-supplied versions of the Universal are shipped SIM-locked, with the O2 XDA Exec being a notable exception. HowevXdaer, a free SIM unlocking tool was released. This process involves flashing a new Radio ROM onto the device, and it may invalidate the warranty.

Detailed specifications

*Screen Size: 3.7 in (9.4 cm)

Transflective A transflective liquid-crystal display is a liquid-crystal display (LCD) with an optical layer that reflects and transmits light (''transflective'' is a portmanteau of ''transmissive'' and ''reflective''). Under bright illumination (e.g. when expos ...

LCD *Screen Resolution: 640 x 480

VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...

at 216 ppi *Input: 62-key

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden t ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

with stylus (included; stylus also available separately for 19 EUR as of October 2008) *Cameras: 2 **1.3 MP CMOS

Camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

with LED "flash" mounted on the reverse of the keyboard section **

QVGA The graphics display resolution is the width and height dimension of an electronic visual display device, measured in pixels. This information is used for electronic devices such as a computer monitor. Certain combinations of width and height ar ...

(320 x 240) CMOS Camera for 3G

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

calling, mounted beside the screen, close to the hinge *Processor:

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Bulverde (PXA270) 520

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

CPU *Memory:

Flash ROM Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use t ...

: 128 MB,

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

: 128 MB/64 MB SDRAM *Memory expansion: SDIO/ MMC card slot (officially without

SDHC Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanD ...

, with maximum capacity supported being 4GB, but there is unofficial SDHC support from

xda-developers XDA Developers (also known simply as XDA; often stylized as xda-developers) is a mobile software development community launched on 20 December 2002. Although discussion primarily revolves around Android, members also talk about many other opera ...

SDHC cards are accepted with Windows Mobile 6.1 or higher and there is another unofficial update to Windows Mobile 5 that allows the use of SDXC cards up to 64GB.) *Network Standard:

Tri-Band In telecommunications, a multi-band device (including (2) dual-band, (3) tri-band, (4) quad-band and (5) penta-band devices) is a communication device (especially a mobile phone) that supports multiple radio frequency bands. All devices which ...

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

/ GPRS (900/1800/1900) +

WCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G, third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the I ...

(

) (2100 MHz) *GPRS: Class B Multi-slot standard class 10 PBCCH MO/MT

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

over GPRS *Connection interface: Client only

Mini-USB The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of ...

connector,

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

charging,

USB 2.0 Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

protocol *Wireless connectivity:

Infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

IrDA The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...

FIR,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

1.2 Class 2 compliant,

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

802.11b

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

802.11b IEEE 802.11b-1999 or 802.11b is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking specification that extends throughput up to 11 Mbit/s using the same 2.4 GHz band. A related amendment was incorporated into the IEEE 802.11-2007 standard. ...

compliant, Internal Antenna, 11, 5.5, 2 and 1 Mbit/s per channel, 64-, 128-bit WEP and

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

standard data

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can de ...

*Standard battery capacity: 1620 mAh (included; battery is removable) *Charging: Mini USB (also used for data transfer)

Extended batteries

There are many high-capacity "extended" batteries available for the HTC Universal. 2600mAh, 3150mAh, 3200mAh, 3800mAh, 4800mAh and even 5200mAh models have been sold by various retailers, which allow the device to run for more than a week in many cases on a single charge (with light to medium use). All extended batteries have one big drawback though, they are all supplied with a new plastic back to hold the battery, which considerably increases the size and weight of the device. The 3800 mAh battery is a Li Ion battery with model number PU16B manufactured by Dynapack International Technology Corporation in Taiwan. It is rated at 3.7 VDC (or 4.2 VDC). It increased the weight of HTC Universal to 350 g. It allows the use of the camera by holes built in the battery plastic container. Its price is about 30 EUR as of October 2008. With this battery, HTC Universal can operate up to 200 hours without GSM/UMTS/Bluetooth/WiFi or about 100–150 hours with UMTS and Bluetooth on.

Unofficial extensions

With registry editing and/or ROM re-flashing (both of which should only be done by people who are confident and experienced with these processes), substantial extra functionality can be added to this device. A few examples follow (there are many more): *Wireless G ( 802.11g) connectivity. This only allows the device to communicate using the 802.11g protocol instead of

, it does not give a speed increase beyond 11 Mbit. However, numerous online sources now say this no longer works.HTC Universal also supports fast Wi-Fi (802.11g)
at XDA-Developers *Full emulation of an "SD card reader" (

USB mass storage device The USB mass storage device class (also known as USB MSC or UMS) is a set of computing communications protocols, specifically a USB Device Class, defined by the USB Implementers Forum that makes a USB device accessible to a host computing device ...

class). *Full

(640 x 480 resolution) graphics, as opposed to the "

(320 x 240) emulation/compatibility mode" which the Universal runs in by default. The two main downsides to this are that some software cannot handle "true VGA" mode, which usually results in corrupted graphics, and that it can be quite difficult to see (and use a stylus with) such small screen elements as text. *Emulation and mapping of additional keys not found on the Universal native keyboard, such as

CTRL In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, performs a special operation (for example, ); similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself. ...

and ALT. *Support for

cards. 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB cards have been tested successfully. This is only made possible via a third-party hacked driver. *128 MB of RAM. It is possible to replace 64 MB memory modules with 128 MB one. It can be only used with 128 MB enabled ROMs but it makes more space for running applications.

Linux

It is possible to install a custom version of

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

on the HTC Universal. Despite the lack of cooperation by HTC (and most other smartphone/PPC manufacturers for that matter), drivers for most of the device's components are functional (the two cameras and the flash ROM being the only significant exceptions). It is possible to run various handheld Linux distributions on the Universal, though application support is in its infancy.

Windows Mobile 6 (Crossbow)

There are numerous "unofficial" builds of

Windows Mobile 6 Windows Mobile 6, formerly codenamed "Crossbow",De Herrera, Chris pocketpcfaq.com. Retrieved September 6, 2007. was the version of Windows Mobile released on February 12, 2007 at the Mobile World Congress, 3GSM World Congress 2007. It comes in thr ...

(Crossbow) which have been made to run on this device, and now even some tools whthatllow users to create their own custom WM6 ROM images (a process commonly known by the term "cooking ROMs"). There is a thriving community of people dedicated to improving these WM6 builds (and associated tools) on the Universal.

References

External links

xda-developers
Probably the largest community of Pocket PC phone users out there. The majority of "unofficial" WM6 ROM development/hacking for the Universal & many other PPC phones is located here.
Android on the HTC Universalwww.iPocketPC.Net
The largest software website for free HTC software for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile. * See, in particular, th
HTC Universal section of the xda-developers' wikiLinux on Universal status page
*Th
supported hardware page of the Openmoko projectTitchy Mobile - Debian GNU/Linux on the HTC Universal
*'
Linux on the HTC Universal
'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Htc Universal Windows Mobile Professional devices

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

Mobile phones with an integrated hardware keyboard Mobile phones with infrared transmitter