Hands-on preview: HTC Breeze aka Qtek 8600

Qtek 8600 looks a lot better in real life then on the pictures I saw before I got my hands on it. The grey metal casing is what I like the most. It makes the phone look good and makes it feel solid.

The fact that the phone feels thin also contributes to the positive impression. If you look at the measurements and compare it to, for instance Qtek 8310, the difference may not be that big, but the shape of the sides of the phone gives it a different feel when you hold in your hand and makes it more comfortable to handle. 8600 is a few millimeters taller than 8310, but is still feels smaller.

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Handling is especially good thanks to the jog dial placed on the left side. It resambles the jog dial found on Sony Ericssons P-series but it can not be turned full circle or pushed towards you or away from you. Instead you can only move it a bit upwards and downswards and press it sideways, but that is enough.

The joystick is also easy to use and the other keys gives a good feeling when you press them.

The phone Mobil got to our newsdesk was a pre production sample and therefore we can not say anything with certainty about the software. But I could make a video call without problems and other features also worked fine so the software seemed to be almost ready.

The fact that it suppors 3G is the biggest different from Qteks previous models with Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone. Today there is only one 3G-phone with Windows Mobile on the swedish market, Qtek 9000. Unfortunately it is both expensive and big. I think that 8600 colud be the first Qtek-model that can be a serious competition for Sony Ericssons and Nokias smartphones in Sweden and Finland.

At Dangaard, one of the distributors of Qtek, they are planning to start selling 8600 sometime during the summer. We have no information about the price för 8600.