HTC Touch Pro Review

Introduction:

Touch Pro – the name clearly hints that we are dealing with a phone, created for work. The HTC model with the richest functionality is based on the popular Touch Diamond, but adds some to the specifications, sports a hardware QWERTY and is larger of course. It is the successor of the Tilt and targets the QWERTY dependent audience.

The very box shows the desire of the leading Windows Mobile manufacturer to raise the bar even higher. It reminds us of a diamond, it’s made of quality materials and houses classy accessories.

The package includes:

• HTC Touch Diamond
• Leather case
• Headphones/handsfree
• miniUSB cable
• Charger (only used with the cable)
• Spare stylus
• Screen protector

The charger, handsfree and cable have a glossy surface and fit the new image of the HTC phones. When you plug in the charger, a small HTC logo will light up, reminding you of the manufacturer.We are not happy however, that the leather case made to protect the phone cannot be attached to a belt. Since we consider this a large device, we think that the most appropriate way to carry it would have been exactly this. Apparently, HTC had something else in mind.

Design:

The front view of the Touch Pro is identical to the beautiful Touch Diamond, and on the back, it is similar, but it’s not shiny and the diamond pattern has a smaller relief. The main difference between the two is visible from every other angle. Pro has a “waist” of 0.7”, meanwhile, Diamond measures at only 0.5”. This definitely wouldn’t bother you when holding the “fatty” in your hand, but the contrast becomes apparent when you carry it in your pocket. In addition, you’ll feel the weight, which has been increased by 50%.



You can compare the HTC Touch Pro with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

As we’ve already mentioned, Pro’s face is a copy of Diamond’s and similarly to it, it is a fingerprint magnet. You’ll have to be constantly cleaning it so it looks good and to be able to see the display when you are outside. If it’s kept clean, the screen remains usable even in the brightest sunlight. However, it will be a lot easier to read black symbols on a white background, compared to the opposite combination (TouchFLO 3D interface). Typically for a Windows Mobile phone, only 65k colors are supported and you can easily see that when reproducing pictures or video, it’s not always done smoothly.

The buttons below are flat, but are easy to press with a good tactile feedback. Only the D-pad’s directions are troublesome and hard to operate due to their smaller size. Interestingly, its backlight takes the role of a system LED. When you have a missed call or message for example, the light indicates it with a circular movement. This looks good and suits the overall design of the phone, but is hard to notice during the day in contrast to the classical orange LED.

We have nothing bad to say about the power button (top), unlike the volume control, which is located on the upper half of the left side and when pressed, moves the slider lightly. The annoying process happens due to the fact that the slider is very sensitive and can be pushed opened no matter where you apply pressure. Our review unit had an irritating (not loud) sound coming from the spring, which was in contrast with the quality make.


Sliding the Pro open reveals the hardware QWERTY with five rows. Since there are a lot of buttons, they are smaller compared to previous models like the Tilt and the Wing and are tightly jammed but still very user-friendly. Because there are five instead of four rows, the manufacturer has decided to arrange the buttons as on a computer keyboard. Therefore, the question mark (?) for example, will be combined with the slash (/), which on the other hand, will be located on the right of the letter M. You’ll find the exclamation mark in the very beginning of the numeric row (1), and the brackets (9 and 0), at its end. This helps for easier navigation when looking for a specific symbol and we only have one small short remark: in computer keyboards, these symbols are accessed via the Shift, as opposed to FN (it’s only needed for the ones located on letter buttons) and that’s why you’ll need some time to get used to it.


The only connector is miniUSB port, which is used for computer connection, headphones/handsfree and charging, is located on the bottom. The slot of the stylus, which is of medium length and is not telescopic, is located in the lower right corner. As in Touch Diamond, pulling the stylus out will power the display on and when putting it back in, a magnet will assist it into place.


As we’ve mentioned above, the piano black on the back has been replaced by a rubber-coated finish, which is not that attractive but on the other hand, it doesn’t get dirty as fast as the glossy surface and helps for a better grip. On this side, we find the LED flash next to the camera lens.

Software:

HTC Touch Pro is the first phone after Touch Diamond, which uses the TouchFLO 3D interface. It is also based on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS and it is identical with the previous model in almost all aspects. That’s why we won’t get in details here. In order to get to know the software better, please read our in-depth review of Touch Diamond here.
   
The idea of TouchFLO is to make a larger part of the options available on the homescreen with a finger-friendly interface. Functionality and design-wise, everything looks good, but we are experiencing some problems with inadequate and slow responses (e.g. when running a finger across the screen). We had the same troubles with Touch Diamond in the beginning but later, a firmware update fixed almost everything. Our test unit uses ROM 1.90.401.1 WWE dated 08/01/08. Once this is taken care of, Touch Pro will have the best WM Pro OS personalization on the market. However, if HTC doesn’t do something about this, we will have serious remarks regarding its overall work.


Like in Touch Diamond, as soon as you leave the homescreen, you will find yourself in a slightly modified Windows Mobile environment. As expected, the phonebook has all options, the organizer and the messages are excellent. Touch Pro is not equipped with 4GB of built-in memory, but with 320MB and a microSD slot instead. The microSD cards currently are up to 8GB, but 16GB and 32GB ones are expected soon.

The only difference in the software is related to the keyboard. When opening the slider, a shortcut menu appears automatically with icons leading to the various applications it can be used for, which of course, cannot happen with the Diamond.

We are happy with the Opera Mobile 9.5 Internet browser; here we see another positive aspect of having a hardware keyboard, because it helps for faster entry of an addresses and/or texts. If you are a devoted blogger, the QWERTY can be a big plus, saving you a lot of time.




Same as the Diamond (after a ROM update), Touch Pro is a quadband GSM with a dual-band UMTS for Europe. There still isn’t an officially announced 3G version for America, but rumors, claiming that there will be one, have been circling the web for some time now. A CDMA version of the phone is also expected to be released with Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

The multimedia features are also almost identical compared to Diamond. The camera is an unpretentious 3-megapixel one, but here, we have a flash added. The interface doesn’t offer as many functions as OMNIA for example, but is not that modest as iPhone’s either. The only thing we would’ve liked to see is the auto flash mode.


The outdoor pictures are not anything special, they have a good detail level but very unrealistic colors. The pictures made in a well-lighted environment are usable, but when the light is dim, the final results are not good despite the flash.




HTC Touch Pro sample video 320x240 pixels resolution
* Note that due to codecs support, you may not be able to play the file.

The good (not excellent) music player is the same, with a beautiful, user-friendly interface and many options. Although it hasn’t been modified, it performs well but iPhone’s is still better. Unfortunately, the sound quality is a different story. The speaker sounds well, but the volume is really very low. The headphones do not improve things much and the ones included in the package will not satisfy the serious music fan. Unfortunately, since a miniUSB slot is used instead of a standard 3.5mm jack, you’ll have to find an adapter in order to connect a better set of headphones. In addition, the phone is equipped with an FM radio.

You should convert the video files to QVGA resolution and MP4 format and H264 codec. The quality is not as good as in VGA clips (let’s not forget that this is the display’s resolution), but on the other hand, they are not as heavy for the phone (therefore choppy) either. In addition, you have the convenient YouTube player at your disposal where the quality is definitely lower but you have access to a huge library, if you are connected to the Internet of course.

Performance:

As we’ve already mentioned, we are not happy with the fact that there is lag when navigating through the TouchFLO plug-in, and sometimes the phone performs inadequately. We believe that this will be fixed soon, but on the other hand HTC shouldn’t release products which are not finalized.

The overall sound quality during a talk is good although the incoming sound is below the necessary level. The sound in the speaker is moderately loud and the voices are muffled. Nevertheless, the collocutor will hear you very loud and clear, which is of utmost importance for a business phone.

HTC claims that Touch Pro’s battery should provide up to 7 hours of talk or 15 days in standby, which are excellent results!

Conclusion:

Touch Pro did live up to our expectations: it offers all features seen in Touch Diamond, including the same TouchFLO 3D interface, adding an extremely good hardware keyboard, which makes writing a pleasure. Unfortunately however, it doesn’t bring anything else to the table, becoming just another “old” device. If you have to have the keyboard, is a very good solution, and if not, then the slim Diamond is a better choice. *Bear in mind that at the moment the phone is not as adequate as it should be (although usable) and HTC needs to release a new ROM, to fix this.