Live shots of the HTC Shift

The HTC Shift was one of several UMPCs on display at the dedicated MID section of Intel's booth.

Having lost most of my interest in the device (and all 7 inchers, for that matter) last summer, I waited until the last day of CES to actually play with it. And now that I have, I wish I had done it much sooner.

Even though it's not without its share of shortcomings, I think it would have been an excellent CES companion: lightweight, compact, and capable enough for me to do all of my work with little compromise.

The fact that I have an enormous soft spot for its form factor doesn't hurt either (my HTC Advantage and AT&T Tilt make that bias pretty clear).

The keyboard was a lot better than I expected it to be. I wasn't able to immediately touch-type on it and I suspect that extended sessions would result in cramped fingers and some aches and pains, but in general, it was really quite usable.

I don't think I would use the Shift very much at home, where I usually work, so I probably won't buy one when it becomes available in the next few months. I know I wouldn't choose it over the Vaio TZ, but I probably wouldn't travel without it either. And that's sort of the point of UMPCs, right?

The HTC Shift has definitely regained some of its lost appeal . . .