Hands-on with the Techfaith Vista 850

One last hands-on for the day (We'll bring you a couple more tomorrow): the Techfaith Vista 850. Spec-wise, it's not especially impressive and hasn't changed a whit since we first saw it in March. Well, this version is a nice black as opposed to the earlier white. Also unchanged, the “Vista” moniker, which we're going on record as calling “a bad idea.”

  • Windows Mobile 6.1 Stnadard
  • Quad-band EDGE
  • 200 MHz OMAP processor
  • 64MB RAM, 2 Gigs of ROM
  • 3.3 hours of talk time.

The only real new bit here is Techfaith is joining every other Windows Mobile maker in adding their own customizations on top of Windows Mobile. The transitions above are nice, but in terms of functionality the above doesn't hold a candle to the standard WinMo Sliding Panels in 6.1.

We'd say we're still intrigued by the 2 gigs of onboard memory, but we'd be liars -- the Diamond has stolen that thunder quite handily. What's left is a respectable low-end WinMo smartphone for Techfaith, one we don't really expect to get much play beyond this here post you're reading right now.

WC Staff