HTC unveils GPS slider phone

HTC's S740 will be available from September

HTC has added a new slider phone with GPS support to its range of Windows Mobile handsets for business users and professionals.

The HTC S740, available from September, is a compact handset with a slide-out qwerty keyboard for messaging and features the striking styling seen on HTC's Touch Diamond consumer phone, introduced earlier this year.

“The HTC S740 combines a powerful, premium phone with a full slide-out keypad in a compact and sleek form factor. Clearly, one size does not fit all and the S740 will play an important role in expanding our growing portfolio of devices, " said HTC's European vice president, Dr Florian Seiche.

With its 12-key keypad and full-slide-out Qwerty keyboard for messaging, the S740 follows in the footsteps of the earlier S730 and S710 models, but features a four-row keyboard for easier text entry.

The S740 is the first of HTC's compact slider phones with GPS capability, and ships with Google Maps to provide navigation. It also supports HSDPA mobile networks at speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

Based on the Standard edition of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 platform, the S740 has 256MB memory and 256MB Flash storage and weighs 140g with its 1000mAh battery pack fitted. It has a 2.4in 320 x 240 display and storage can be expanded via a single slot for MicroSD Flash memory cards.

HTC has yet to disclose pricing for the handset, which will be available from resellers and is also likely to be adopted by one or mobile operators in future.