In terms of stats the COOLe8900-2, (which from here on in I will refer to as the COOLe) is, like many thousands of phone designs in China, based on Mediatek's turnkey platform, while the HTC Snap is powered by a Qualcomm chip. In terms of screen size the COOLe gives you 2.2 inches with a 240 × 320 resolution, while the HTC is slightly larger at 2.4 inches at the same resolution.

If we look at the dimensions involved, the COOLe is 109mm × 58mm × 13.5mm while the HTC is slightly longer and wider but a shade thinner at 116.5mm x 61.5mm x 12.0 mm. One point five millimeters of thinness might seem negligible but on devices that sit in your pocket, it's still significant. As is weight. The shanzhai clone is 125 grams, which is 5 grams heavier than the HTC. Would I notice a five gram difference on a phone? Possibly.




Other major differences are mostly related to the platforms inside and the software that drives them. The Mediatek platform is feature-rich enough to do most video and music formats,  has a built in FM receiver and supports dual SIM cards. The COOLe is GSM ready and of course supports bluetooth. With the HTC, it really depends which version you get hold of. Sprint and Verison offer different versions with different configurations.

Which brings me to one thing I noticed. CNet reviewed the Sprint version of the HTC Snap and noted that they had modified the the navigation on the device replacing the track ball multi-directional keypad. Well Bonnie Cha, I got good news; the COOLe uses the ball, not the keypad.




Analysis: