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HTC Maple (HTC Snap) Review

Posted on January 24th, 2010Yale Holder
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HTC Maple or HTC Snap – What’s the difference?

When I heard about the HTC Maple it looked very familiar to me. It looked a lot like the HTC Snap and it looks a bit like the Blackberry Bold!! What’s also interesting is that it has a very Canadian like name…the Maple. Given these similarities I wanted to find out more about this device just out of sheer curiosity.

Well it turns out that my hunch was correct, the HTC Maple is the pure GSM version of the HTC Snap (the snap also has GSM capabilities) with some minor differences.  It’s slightly longer, but has all the similar features of the Snap. To learn more about the HTC Maple matched up against its cousin, the HTC Snap see the table below for key information about the differences.

Features HTC Maple HTC Snap
Processor Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 MHz Qualcomm® MSM7625™, 528MHz
OS Windows Mobile 6.1 Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
Memory Flash: 256 MB/RAM: 192 MB ROM: 256 MB/ RAM: 192 MB SDRAM
Display 2.4-inch 320×240 QVGA resolution 2.4 inch TFT-LCD w/QVGA resolution
Network GSM/GPRS/EDGE (Quad band 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz) – HSPDA CDMA2000 1xRTT/1xEVDO/1xEVDO rev. A
GPS Internal Antenna Internal Antenna
Camera 2 MP 2 MP
Connectivity Bluetooth 2.0 with EDRWifi 802.11b/g compliant Bluetooth 2.0 with EDRWifi 802.11b/g compliant
Talk Time 510 mins (GSM)/ 360 mins (HSPDA) 282 Mins (CDMA) / 570 mins (GSM)
Dimensions & Weight 116.5 mm(L) x 61.5 mm(W) x 12.0 mm(T) – 120 g with battery pack 114.15 X 63 X 13.35 mm115 grams

What is interesting about this device is that it is the first HTC device with a blackberry type trackball. No wonder it looked like the bold to me. I guess imitation is the best form of flattery.

There are a few things to like about the HTC maple:

  1. Illuminated keyboard and trackball when in the dark (that’s cool)
  2. It’s extremely thin
  3. Nice rubbery back which does not get those nasty finger prints on it
  4. If you are a windows Mobile fan then you will like some of the software enhancements, like viewing your emails from the desktop without opening outlook, some cool advanced features for changing key hardware features on the device etc.

What don’t I like about this device? The keyboard is way too small, making it difficult to type on, coming from a blackberry background, the location of the tab key is a concern as this is where the A is supposed to be on the blackberry keyboard. The 2MP camera doesn’t have autofocus so it doesn’t take great pictures. And finally the sensitivity on the trackball doesn’t compare with the blackberry and requires some work – higher sensitivity please.

Overall not bad! It won’t pull me away from my BlackBerry just yet, but it’s an improvement over many of the HTC’s I have seen in the market. In Canada, the HTC Maple is available through Wind Mobile for $200.

Create your own HTC Snap cell phone plan and get the cell phone companies to compete for your business.

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10 comments Cell Phone Reviews, The Cell Phone Blog , , ,
  • Ann Julie

    Keyboard is really a concern as it is very small indeed. 2MP camera should have had a autofocus feature.

  • http://www.yms.ca Yousaf M. Shaikh

    I just purchased the HTC Maple. I was a little disappointed though with this phone overall; I.E : The “Contacts” text capacity. In other words, I’d enter in somebody’s full name and the entry was deemed too long. I had to abbreviate their names. Strike 1.
    The buttons are a bit too small; I find I occasionally end up pressing two buttons at the same time or mash them up a bit (and I have medium sized fingers). Strike 2. Keyboard layout is nice (QWERTY). I also didn’t like the fact that one person/”contact” could not have multiple phone numbers listed under the contact entry. Each phone number equals a separate entry. So for example, Joe has a landline and a cell phone….instead of simply entering in “Joe” and punching in both numbers under the Joe contact, you have to enter in Joe Landline and enter in his landline number, and then Joe Cellular and enter in his cellular number. Strike 3. That kinda blows. I already own a BlackBerry Tour 9630 (Telus Mobility) that I don’t use; it just sits on my desk. It kinda sucks that most (not all) phones do NOT work with different carriers. For each carrier you need their phone; and even if the phone works on said carrier’s network, if it’s “unlocked” but not purchased directly from that wireless provider they hassle you in terms of support. Back to the HTC Maple; I give this phone 3 stars out of 5. Definitely NOT worth the coin they’re asking for.

  • Lily

    I’d like to respond to Yousaf’s gripe about adding contacts. It’s really not bad as long as you use the Outlook contact option, which allows you to add multiple numbers, addresses, etc. Contact names also do not need to be abbreviated. But yes, if you choose the SIM contact option, there will only be phone number space available and characters are limited.

  • Geena

    Kaee my friend has a ipod touch and theres a app that lets you text on your ipod touch i have a HTC maple and she trys to send me text messages it dosent work how do i add her or can i ? thanks please answer someone :D

  • admin

    Hi Geena,

    Thank you for your comment. This is not something that we are very familiar with by my thoughts are that if the ipod touch is connected to WiFi and depending on the app installed this should allow you to send a text message over the internet to your device. Can you share the name of the app on your HTC Maple? Let me know.

    Kye

  • Yousaf M. Shaikh

    One last complaint with this phone (I promise!). The 2.0 Mega Pixel camera is awful. Pictures are blurry most of the time (like 9 times out of 10), and turn out with a yellow sepia-like tint to it. I’ve tried various lighting settings but the camera on this thing is almost useless. That’s why I decided to sell this phone online. To summarize : This phone is a very plain, vanilla functional phone. Great for making calls and has a decent calendar function but that’s about it. I’d rate it’s value at no more than $100 (CAD funds) and I feel that’s being generous.

  • http://www.mycellphonemyterms.com/General/2011/02/dell-venue-pro/ Review of Dell Venue Pro

    [...] prior experience with Windows Mobile phones was with the htc Maple (which ran Windows Mobile 6.1). This set my expectations moderately low however the Dell Venue Pro [...]

  • Geena

    Its called textplus

  • HateStupidity

    @Yousaf M. Shaikh
    it is because you are saving your contacts to your SIM card. You cant have multiple phone numbers for same contact on any SIM card, same goes for name length limit. CHANGE IT to store your contacts to phone instead of SIM and you’ll see abundance of option for each contact that you could only dream of when you were using BB…
    (yes I am coming from BBs too)

  • Morleybrown

    Worst phone I’ve ever owned. Should have known better than to go with a windows OS, but the form factor and usability even on the hardware side is so ridiculously bad, I’ll never buy an HTC anything.