Given its low pricetag, the lack of frills are understandable: no 3G or HSDPA, no Wi-Fi and a slower 201MHz TI OMAP 850 processor. But it does have a secret weapon by way of the built-in GPS, making it an attractive option for bargain-hunting road warriors. The P3470 reminds us of a thinner, more angular version of the O2 Xda Atom. It's nice and compact, with a matte black front and soft touch finish on the back that feels great in your hand. The touchscreen display is the standard 2.8 inches with a QVGA 320 x 240 resolution, and there are buttons on the front for accessing the on-screen soft keys, answering and ending calls and triggering the Start menu and OK button. Navigation takes place using the touchscreen and included stylus or the scrollwheel which also functions as a five-way controller. The P3470 isn't part of HTC's Touch range, so it doesn't have the fancy 3D cube launcher. But it does get the benefit of all the other HTC enhancements and applications, including the Home plug-in on the Today screen (which shows a large digital clock, weather forecast, and photo speed dials among other things), Audio Manager, Task Manager and RSS Hub. These are in addition to the standard Windows Mobile 6 Professional applications like Messaging (push email, SMS and MMS), Internet Explorer and Office Mobile. What separates the P3470 from most other Windows Mobile smartphones is the inclusion of CoPilot Live 7 Mobile, a satellite navigation program with Australia-wide maps that's worth $200 when bought separately - not a bad deal considering the phone only costs $649. CoPilot does a decent job of making the most of the limited screen real estate, and it has all the features of a regular GPS device like voice guidance, 3D maps, point of interest and the ability to specify different modes of transportation, such as automomobile, bicycle and walking. The box doesn't come with a vehicle mount, though, so you'll need to source one separately if you want to use it in the car. The P3470 isn't exactly a speed demon. While many of the latest smartphones (particularly Windows Mobile ones) feature 624MHz chips, the P3470 plods along at 201MHz. But most of the P3470's sluggishness can be traced back to programs staying open in the background, and HTC's Task Manager application can fix this by shutting down applications when you tap the close button (although this isn't the default setting that it's on). If you expect smooth map movements in CoPilot and jitter-free video playback in Windows Media Player, however, you'll be disappointed as the P3470 isn't really up to the task. On-board storage is fairly limited at 256MB, but it comes with a 512MB microSD card with 300MB of free storage (the rest is taken up by the CoPilot program and map files). Battery life is rated at a generous seven hours for talk time and 10 days of standby.
