HTC Artemis First Look: Revisiting the GPS-Powered HTC P3300

Long before GPS-equipped smartphones were assumed rather than notable, a small Windows Mobile device called the HTC Artemis tried to make standalone satellite navigation feel routine on a phone that still fit in a jacket pocket. Mobility Today had a unit in hand within days of its announcement. Here's what the Artemis actually was, what the original coverage did and didn't cover, and how it stacks up against the devices around it.

What Was the HTC Artemis?

The HTC Artemis was a compact Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition device, announced in September 2006, built around a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen, a quad-band GSM radio, and — its real headline feature — a standalone GPS receiver. It shipped without a physical keyboard, leaning on stylus input and a distinctive trackball-and-ring control cluster instead, and it was small and light enough to pass as an everyday phone rather than a dedicated navigation gadget. That combination, a real phone that also happened to be a real GPS unit, was still unusual enough in late 2006 to be the device's whole pitch.

Artemis the Codename vs. HTC P3300 the Retail Product

Inside HTC, "Artemis" was the internal development codename, and it stuck around loosely enough that HTC's own materials and much of the tech press kept referring to the device as the HTC Artemis, or HTC P3300 (Artemis), well after launch. The formal retail model number was the HTC P3300. Depending on market and carrier, the P3300 name, an operator's own brand, or the Artemis name itself might be printed on the box, which is why collectors today describe the same hardware under three or four different labels.

Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition

The Artemis launched running Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition, the same software generation covered in our look back at the HTC TyTN, complete with Pocket Outlook, Pocket Internet Explorer, and Office Mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Windows Mobile 5's shift toward persistent flash storage rather than volatile RAM applied here too, meaning a dead battery wasn't automatically a data-loss event the way it had been on some earlier Pocket PC devices. As on the TyTN, the interface was designed first for stylus input, with the trackball offering a secondary, sometimes faster way to move around the screen.

The 2.8-Inch Resistive Touchscreen

The Artemis used a 2.8-inch TFT touchscreen at 240x320 (QVGA) resolution with 65,000 colors, and it was resistive — pressure-sensitive, responding to a stylus, fingernail, or firm fingertip press rather than the light touch a modern capacitive screen expects. That's the same panel size and resolution as the HTC TyTN covered elsewhere on this site, which makes sense given both devices came out of HTC's Windows Mobile lineup in the same general period, but the Artemis was a noticeably smaller, keyboard-free device built around a different set of priorities.

TI OMAP850 Processor and Memory

Under the hood, the Artemis ran a Texas Instruments OMAP850 processor, an ARM926EJ-S core commonly cited at roughly 200MHz — sources list it anywhere from 200 to 201MHz, a rounding difference rather than a meaningful one. Memory was 64MB of RAM paired with 128MB of ROM, figures that show up consistently across period spec sheets and the O2-branded version of the same hardware, so they can be stated with confidence. A dedicated microSD slot handled storage expansion, though it wasn't in an obvious spot — Mobility Today's original photos show it tucked underneath the removable back cover, near the SIM tray.

GPS: The Artemis's Defining Feature

Integrated GPS was the Artemis's entire reason for existing, and in late 2006 that still meant something. Most people who wanted turn-by-turn navigation on the go were carrying a separate Bluetooth GPS receiver puck, syncing routes from a dedicated Garmin or TomTom unit, or simply doing without — a phone with a real, built-in GPS receiver was the exception. Period spec sheets identify the chipset as a SiRFstarIII receiver, one of the more capable GPS chipsets available at the time, though which navigation software came bundled wasn't consistent: Mobility Today's own unlocked test unit shipped with TomTom NAVIGATOR 6, while other regional packages of the same hardware are documented with CoPilot Live or Garmin Mobile XT instead. The receiver hardware was consistent; the bundled software wasn't necessarily.

The Trackball and Scroll Ring

Rather than a conventional five-way directional pad, the Artemis built its navigation control around a small trackball set inside a surrounding metal ring HTC called the Trackwheel. Rolling the ball moved a cursor around the screen and doubled as a select button when pressed; the ring rotated independently to scroll content up and down, substituting for the vertical half of a directional pad, though it couldn't be pressed as a button the way the ball could. The trackball lit up blue when active. Contemporary hands-on coverage described the ball as smooth for straightforward movement but less precise on diagonals, where the cursor moved in small jumps — a minor tradeoff for a control scheme that was still a real departure from stylus-only navigation.

Quad-Band GSM, EDGE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth

The Artemis carried quad-band GSM covering 850/900/1800/1900MHz, with GPRS and EDGE handling data where faster 3G wasn't available or built into a given market's radio configuration. Bluetooth 2.0 was standard, supporting profiles like hands-free calling and A2DP stereo audio. Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) shipped as standard equipment on the core P3300 hardware and most carrier siblings — but not universally. At least one major carrier variant, the T-Mobile-branded version sold in several European markets including Germany, is documented as shipping without Wi-Fi in most regions, even though the same underlying hardware platform supported it elsewhere. Don't assume every Artemis-based device on the used market today has working Wi-Fi just because another variant did.

Camera, microSD, and Battery

A 2-megapixel camera sat flush on the back panel, without a flash or a dedicated macro mode, alongside a small mirror positioned for self-portraits — a common, low-cost touch on phones of this era rather than anything Artemis-specific. Removable battery capacity doesn't line up cleanly across period sources: some spec sheets list 1,200mAh, others 1,250mAh, and still others 1,350mAh, likely reflecting real revisions across manufacturing runs rather than one error repeated everywhere. Rather than pick a figure and present it as definitive, it's fairer to say the battery sat somewhere in the roughly 1,200 to 1,350mAh range depending on the unit and source consulted.

Carrier Variants: P3300, Xda Orbit, SPV M650, and MDA Compact III

Like most HTC hardware of the era, the Artemis platform went out under several brand names at once rather than selling primarily as an HTC-badged product.

That last row is the important one. It's tempting to treat carrier-rebranded phones from this period as identical hardware under different logos, and for the most part the Artemis family really was — same screen, same OMAP850 chipset, same GPS receiver. Wi-Fi is the documented exception, a reminder that mid-2000s carrier customization sometimes went beyond cosmetics into what radios actually shipped in the box.

Revisiting Mobility Today's Original First Look

Mobility Today's original HTC Artemis coverage, titled simply "First Look: HTC Artemis," was published Monday, October 23, 2006 by David Ciccone, and it's still recoverable through archived snapshots. It was explicitly a first look, not a full review — a two-page, photo-led piece built around a Flickr gallery with short captions. The opening text describes using the unit for about two weeks and frames it as "a personal mobile navigator," highlighting the standalone GPS paired with bundled TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 software and an FM radio that worked through the included wired headset acting as an antenna. The photos did the talking: a front view, the 2-megapixel camera, a close-up confirming the built-in GPS, the proprietary USB port next to the earphone jack that enabled FM reception, the trackball and scroll wheel described as "beautiful," a side shot of the voice recorder button and power switch, and an interior shot of the SIM tray, noted as unlocked, with the microSD slot tucked beneath it. Several photos lined the Artemis up against the HTC Excalibur, Motorola Q, and Samsung i-320 for a size comparison. What the surviving article doesn't contain is a network speed test, battery-life test, camera sample analysis, or narrative review of how the GPS or navigation software performed in use — none of that appears to have been part of this piece, and no price is stated beyond a link inviting readers to order the device. Worth being upfront about that gap rather than inventing impressions the original coverage didn't make. The piece drew real engagement, with 14 reader comments, several saying the lack of a physical keyboard was a dealbreaker, and others comparing the form factor favorably to HP's iPAQ hw6500-series GPS phones already on the market.

Artemis vs. HTC TyTN/Hermes

It's worth being precise about how the Artemis relates to the HTC TyTN, covered separately on this site — different devices built for different jobs, not two versions of the same idea. The TyTN, codenamed Hermes, was a larger, thicker device built around a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and early HSDPA 3G, running a 400MHz Samsung processor. The Artemis skipped the keyboard, ran a slower OMAP850 chip, and had no HSDPA, but added a GPS receiver the TyTN's original spec didn't include. Both shared the same 2.8-inch QVGA resistive display and Windows Mobile 5 foundation, and both sold under a long list of carrier names — but the TyTN chased mobile professionals who wanted a keyboard and fast data, while the Artemis chased anyone who wanted a phone that doubled as a sat-nav unit. Neither made the other obsolete.

Artemis vs. iPAQ, Treo, N95, and Dedicated GPS Units

HP's iPAQ hw6500-series Pocket PC phones had already put integrated GPS into a smartphone-style device in the US before the Artemis arrived, so it wasn't introducing the concept from nothing — it was refining it, adding the trackball and a more conventional phone shape. Palm's Treo line remained keyboard-first, with GPS more often handled through add-on hardware than a built-in receiver. Nokia's N95, following in March 2007, brought integrated GPS to a wider audience a few months later, pairing it with a 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera on Symbian rather than Windows Mobile — a different platform, but a marker of how fast integrated GPS moved toward the mainstream. Plenty of drivers simply kept using dedicated Garmin or TomTom units, since standalone devices offered larger screens and windshield mounts a pocket phone couldn't match. None of this produces a clear winner; the Artemis's contribution was proving a phone-sized GPS receiver could work well enough to be worth shipping.

Did Windows Mobile 6 Ever Arrive?

Yes — HTC officially made a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade available for the P3300 Artemis, alongside several other 2006-era HTC devices, through its HTC eClub program. HTC first signaled the upgrade was coming in mid-2007, and the actual download became available that fall, giving Artemis owners a real, sanctioned path to a newer version of Windows Mobile roughly a year after the device originally launched — not just a community-built workaround, though those existed too for owners who wanted to go further than HTC's official release.

The Artemis's Place in HTC's Lineup

The HTC Artemis never became HTC's flagship the way some later Windows Mobile devices did, and it's easy to overlook next to bigger, keyboard-equipped devices like the TyTN. But it filled a useful role: a smaller, more affordable route into integrated GPS, a feature otherwise mostly reserved for larger, pricier devices — positioning that continued through HTC's later Windows Mobile lineup. For anyone who picks one up today, it's a genuine artifact of a short window when "my phone has GPS built in" was still a selling point worth putting on the box.

FAQ

What was the HTC Artemis?

A compact Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition smartphone from HTC, announced in September 2006, built around a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen, integrated GPS, and a trackball control cluster in place of a physical keyboard.

Is the HTC Artemis the same as the HTC P3300?

Yes — Artemis was HTC's internal codename, while HTC P3300 was the formal retail model number. Both names, plus several carrier brands, refer to the same hardware.

When was the HTC Artemis released?

It was announced in September 2006, with Mobility Today's original hands-on first look published that October.

What operating system did the HTC Artemis run?

Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition at launch, with an official Windows Mobile 6 upgrade released by HTC roughly a year later.

Did the HTC Artemis have GPS?

Yes, a built-in SiRFstarIII receiver — its main selling point, at a time when integrated GPS on a phone-sized device was still unusual.

Did the HTC Artemis have Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) shipped standard on the core P3300 hardware and most carrier variants, though not universally — see the next question.

Did all carrier versions of the Artemis include Wi-Fi?

No. The T-Mobile-branded MDA Compact III is documented as shipping without Wi-Fi in most regions, including Germany, even though the same underlying hardware platform supported it on other carrier variants.

What was the Artemis trackball?

A small trackball set inside a surrounding scroll ring HTC called the Trackwheel, used for cursor movement, selection, and scrolling as an alternative to the stylus.

What processor did the HTC Artemis use?

A Texas Instruments OMAP850 processor, an ARM926EJ-S core commonly cited at roughly 200MHz.

Did the HTC Artemis support EDGE?

Yes, alongside GPRS, as fallback data options on its quad-band GSM radio.

What camera did the HTC Artemis have?

A 2-megapixel rear camera without flash or a dedicated macro mode.

What was the O2 Xda Orbit?

O2's carrier-branded version of the HTC Artemis hardware, sold in the UK and other European markets with Wi-Fi included.

How does the Artemis compare to the HTC TyTN?

They're different devices from the same general era: the TyTN was a larger, keyboard-equipped device with early HSDPA 3G, while the Artemis was a smaller, keyboard-free device built around integrated GPS. Neither replaced the other.

Is the HTC Artemis collectible today?

It holds genuine interest for Windows Mobile and vintage-smartphone collectors as an early integrated-GPS phone, though shut-down 2G/3G networks, an unsupported OS, and an aging battery make it a display piece rather than a daily device.

The Artemis rarely gets the nostalgic attention HTC's bigger, keyboard-equipped Windows Mobile devices do, but it deserves a closer look on its own terms: a genuinely compact phone that tried to make built-in GPS feel unremarkable, at a moment when most people navigating by satellite were still reaching for a separate device to do it.