With the earlier X7500 Advantage, HTC were beginning to blur the lines between the smartphone and a full-sized laptop. Now with the forthcoming Shift palmtop-PC, that line is well and truly smudged.

Combining a massive 7-inch touchscreen VGA display with hand-writing recognition, and a resolution of up to 16m colours, the Shift can easily claim to have the highest spec-screen inside the current mobile phone market.

Though it would be very difficult to list the vast wealth of features that the Shift employs, there are some that are unique to this handset, and definitely deserve mentioning.

Consolidating its status as a miniature laptop, the HTC Shift comes with an extraordinary 30GB HDD Drive, a massive 1GB of RAM, and a 1.2 GHz CPU, all of which should enable easy multi-tasking and fast working on the move.

The standard OS for most pocket-PC’s of late has been version 6 of Windows Mobile, but as to be expected, the HTC Shift has to go one better, coming as it does with Windows Vista Business, providing an insight into just how powerful this device is. Also included is a new system call HTC SnapVUE, which provides an always on connectivity mode for access to critical information such as e-mail previews, local weather, calendar and SMS, even if the device isn’t switched on.

Yet another feature to get one of its first airings in the mobile phone market is a fingerprint sensor for increased protection of all your data.

Amongst all of the new-features is the obligatory wealth of connection methods such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G HSDPA for high-speed data transfers and video calls, (which is via a high-quality 1.2 MP camera) mini-USB and EDGE, meaning you’ll never be caught short when locating any of your messages whilst on the move.

Though a release date is yet to be confirmed, the HTC Shift is sure to be the ideal combination of PC-like functionality and mobile portability when released.