August 14, 2008 — 
The scene of the PDA market can sometimes be highly confusing. On one side there is the mighty iPhone 3G where as to counter it are winmo devices like the Samsung Omnia i900, HTC’s Touch Diamond. Well these devices are good, but for a serious business user these devices almost mean nothing. Yes, nothing because they don’t come with any dedicated hardware keys. So all that big touchscreen real estate they talk about has to be shared with the virtual keyboard and in case you have big chubby fingers, then those devices are almost useless for you.
There are a few devices with external slide out keyboard coming to market in near future like Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 (designed for SE by HTC itself) and HTC’s very own Touch Pro.According to the official SE announcements, the X1 won’t be available anytime sooner than September this year, which in any case would be further delayed seeing the status of unstable firmware reports of X1 leaking out on internet. That puts HTC Touch Pro in commanding position as it is going to be launched this August by HTC and since the brand is quite popular and well known, we don’t expect them to delay any official launch. While we are waiting for the PDA to appear in our local stores, we present to you our HTC Touch Pro Review:
HTC Touch Pro is one heck of a kick-ass device. The hardware combination is absolutely amazing. Built with a Qualcomm 528 MHz, 288MB RAM, 512MB ROM and a 64MB dedicated Graphics chip, the device will function amaizingly fast, even when there are many applications running at the same time, since it has the same configuration as the HTC Touch Diamond we expect it to be as fast and powerful as HTC Diamond.
The phone measures 102 x 51 x 18 mm and weighs 165 g, a bit more than the HTC Diamond. The Pro is armed with a 2.8inches screen with VGA resolution, which is the same as HTC Touch Diamond. Comparing to HVGA resolution of iPhone and QVGA resolution of Omnia, the VGA resolution of Pro is going to be delight as it will allow more data to be displayed with crispier images.
And here is the bad news now: It has been officially confirmed by HTC that the devices would be available as quadband, with separate versions available for North American and rest of the world markets. That means if you own the European version of the HTC Pro and afterwards fly to the US, your $1000 piece of hi-tech gadget simply won’t work on their 850mhz band or even if it does with the custom Rom pack, but in that case won’t be able to use 3G frequencies there. A disappointing fact indeed as most phones these days offer seamless connectivity to all 3G and HSPA bands throughout world. Further to agonize, the North American version won’t be available anytime sooner than December this year.
Speaking of the HTC Touch Pro’s design.. it is simply superb, with a 5 row slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it looks just like the HTC Diamond, only that it’s a bit thicker. The keys are supposed to be quite big and give a nice feedback when pressed. The best part is that the numeric keys have dedicated buttons of their own much like the normal keyboards on computers. The interface is same as the one on HTC Diamond, with gorgeously made TouchFLO 3D taking the guard there. Navigation, searching, playing media, zooming-in and out of pictures is done through gesture based input.
The PDA is equipped with 3.2megapixel camera with AF and LED flash. Since it is a business oriented phone, so that could be one explanation why it has not been equipped with now-industry-standard-5megapixel camera. The back of the PDA is similar to HTC Touch Diamond with the HTC Diamond cut motif. For comparisons, Samsung’s Omnia is equipped with 5megapixel camera, Apple’s iPhone is with 2megapixel camera and the SE’s X1 would be having 3.2megapixel camera sensor. But there is also a second cam on the HTC Pro, a VGA one intended for Video telephony and 3g (Damn it, the developers didn’t forgot anything!).
The phone is so similar to Touch Diamond that till the time you don’t pull out the keyboard, you won’t feel it any different from the Htc Diamond. The only major difference apart from the keyboard it has with Htc Diamond is that it has a microSD card slot supporting up to 16GB of micro SDHC cards while HTC Diamond comes with only a 4GB internal storage
Is it an advantage? Well, it depends on how you perceive it, but in our HTC Touch Pro Review we would like to mention that the card based storage is a better solution for those who need a lot of storage, first of all cause they can always use it with a card reader which offers better transfer rates as compared to mass storage profile on phone and secondly they can always carry more than one card to increase the storage space by slipping in a new card when the current one gets full.
The HTC Touch Pro is also equipped with a regular 1-pin USB port which doubles up as TV-out port, with cable sold separately, a USB cable port and hands-free connectivity port.
Battery life is going to be really very good as it comes with industry un-surpassed 1340mAH Li-Ion battery. For facts, the HTC Diamond is equipped with meager 900mAH battery as standard and still manages to give standby of almost 2 days with decent amount of usage.
Other standard PDA features of the HTC Touch Pro are: the loud speakerphone, GPS and A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Auto UI rotate with built in accelerometer, 3G and HSDPA 7.2Mbps support, multi format supporting windows media player 11,Word, Excel, PowerPoint reader suite, Mobile Internet Explorer and Outlook Mobile.
If you have been an admirer of HTC’s TyTn, then probably you would drool over this phone. Or if you have ever been put away with the idea of on-screen virtual keyboards, in that case you will be pleased to own this device.
And finally, here’s the end of our HTC Touch Pro Review: the price. There’s no chance for this PDA to be any cheaper than HTC Diamond which retails for $700-1000 across world. We expect it to be in the next months available for about $900.
HTC Touch Pro technical Specifications:
- Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
- Operating: System Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
- Memory ROM: 512 MB
- RAM: 288 MB
- Dimensions: 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 18.05 mm (T)
- Weight: 165 g (with the battery)
- Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
- Network: HSDPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz
- Transfer rate: Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speed
- Device Control TouchFLO™ 3D
- Touch-sensitive navigation control
- Keyboard Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
- GPS and A-GPS ready
- Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
- Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
- HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)
- Main camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash light
- Second camera: VGA CMOS camera
- Audio Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
- Ring tone supported formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and AMR-NB 40 polyphonic, standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
- Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery
Capacity: 1340 mAh - Talk time: Up to 397 minutes for WCDMA or Up to 485 minutes for GSM
- Standby time: Up to 503 hours for WCDMA Up to 406 hours for GSM
- Video call time: Up to 201 minutes for WCDMA
- Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
- AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
- DC output: 5V and 1A
Hopefully our HTC Touch Pro Review managed to help you out in understanding what HTC Touch Pro actually is and what it can and can’t do.
Later edit: here’s the short, romanian version of our HTC Touch Pro Review
Horaayy..there are 27 comment(s) for me so far ;)
[...] reviewul complet în engleză a telefonului HTC Touch Pro, doresc însă să ofer cititorilor PDABreak şi nişte informaţii în română, cum nu tot [...]
[...] You can read the full review from MobileTechAddicts HERE! and PDABreak HERE! [...]
Which one would you suggest between Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and Xperia?
I’d suggest HTC Touch Diamond, I consider Xperia a bit too big, also the Qwerty keyboard of HTC Touch Pro and Xperia are only useful for those who write lots of emails (and I’m not that kind of person), if you’re an average PDA user I think you should get a HTC Diamond (it’s also a bit cheaper than the other two devices :D)
micro sd mp3 player…
(Blogger now has backlinks - very similar to the trackback feature in Movable Type.A Trackback is one of three types of Linkbacks, methods…
I thinks I have found my next fone. My current contract should be up just after it hits my local markets woot
i’ve been clamoring over this phone since i found out a month ago, i have the htc mogul from sprint…love the phone but this beauty right here will take away a good 60 percent of my wife time until i get bored…and she’s already aware of this!!
Why would they make this phone only Tri-Band??? What is worng with these people? Why is it that manufacturers always play games with products & the people that make their companies lucrative? Because they know we are stupid enough to keep buying their products hoping that the next item will be all we hoped for, “NOT”!!!!!!
I guess you’re right and HTC Touch Pro isn’t the first Tri-Band device. We all know that most of the HTC branded PDA’s have the same BUG.
Does anyone know how the HTC touch pro would cost cause im getting an upgrade and i wanna know how much more i would need to pay.
[...] review from pda break http://pdabreak.com/2008/htc-touch-pro-review/ [...]
I can’t tell you the precise price, look for example here: http://www.htcphonestore.com/product.asp?itemMDL=HTC_TOUCH_PRO , it’s available for 950 usd, while on the Expansys Store it’s £494.99 http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=169424
[...] We think this device is a reply to the yesterday announced Asus P552, HTC Opal isn’t any greater than the Asus, they both have about the same shape, the identical hardware configuration (500Mhz, 256 ROM, 128 RAM, 2 Megapixel Camera), sometimes I’m even asking myself why is High Tech Computer wasting time developing and launching such mediocre devices when the recently launched 3 outstanding devices: HTC S740, HTC Touch Diamond and HTC Touch Pro. [...]
hmmm touch pro…no spinwheel like the tytn?
say it aint so!
what’s the comparison of rom between the two? I ask b/c the tytn lags worse than a senior citizen! we’re talkin slow motion here!
I asked HTC if a Touch Pro purchased in the UAE would work in the States and they replied “Thank you for contacting HTC Corporation Middle East Support
Actually, this device is Quad band device which means that it will work on any GSM network all over the world as long as this mobile is not SIM locked for specific operator.”
My initial thoughts are that the Touch Pro is an extremely nice device, the screen seems to be more sensitive than the Touch Diamond and it looks like HTC have spent the extra time with the Pro refining a few things. The TouchFlo3D interface seems more fluid and that QWERTY keyboard it great. It’s a little bit bigger than I had anticipated and looks almost twice as thick as the Diamond plus the additional 50 grams may not sound like a lot but make it close to 50% heavier. Also, that TV-out feature that everyone has been talking about requires a special cable that you have to buy separately!
See more at http://www.AllTouchPro.com
will the Pro synchronize with my outlook contacts as easily as blackberry?
This phone looks pretty sweet. I think I may go get one… Does anyone know if it locks up at all? I heard a lot of Windows Mobile 6.1 phones were having that issue, but I’m not sure how accurate the information is.
I really do love these HTC phones… and the main thing I love about them is that they produce a phone for someone in every budget zone… not like the iPhone where you do you have to have quite a bit of money spare just sitting around to be able justify getting one…
I love the design of the phones and how easy they are, especially this phone! It’s so different and you can’t beat a little keyboard to text with opposed to normal buttons.
Thanks for this post.
In the real world this phone is dreadful.
I would advise anyone to stay well away, for the following reasons;
1)Battery life is very poor, less than 1 day of moderate use
2) Build quality questionale
3) Internal and external speakers are rubbish
4) Camera is utter crap
5) Answers calls on its own even when locked
6) Makes calls on its own when you are trying to do something else
7) Internet surfing is a disaster
9) The way it scans through your contacts when you want to make a call is the work of cretin
10) Powering up takes ages
11) Changes comms settings when it feels like it
12) Hangs up
13) The universe could end in the time it takes to transition ftom landscape to portrait
14)The stylus touch is imprecise and vague
15) Predictive text is rubbish and very annoying, switch it off, and guess what, next time its back on of its own accord!! WTF
I am sending mine back to Vodafone (after three weeks) as, to be frank, it’s not fit for purpose.
I also love the HTC phones, they are good price and look nice. I’ve never had the privelege to own one though
The HTC Touch Pro looks awesome and i love the way the keyboard just slides out.
I have to say, this is definitely better than the Touch Diamond but it didn’t convince me enough to switch from my Omnia. Now if HTC was able to get a slide out keyboard for their TOuch HD, I might go HTC again.
This phone is rubbish.
Battery last less than day.
GPS is non existent or so much trouble to use that it would pay to buy a phone that can make decent calls and a seperate GPS unit.
Touch screen works intermittantly, ok if you have tiny stylus like fingers (Girls phone)and worst of all its soooooooooooo SLOW
I have the same problems as commenter #20 and am wondering if anyone has any news regarding such issues? Service sucks in Romania for HTC and it takes 1 month for them to send it to god know where to “check it”.
Regards
@Marius: I guess HTC Touch HD got some of those issues fixed. I’m not quite sure all of them…
I’m on day 6 and can honestly say that this is the WORST phone I have every owned. Here is a list of problems:
When I am on a call there is no way to lock the key pad so I regularly hang up on people.
The battery life is about 1/2 of what the Treo was. Yesterday my phone was completely dead after three hours ~ approximately 1 hour of talk time.(I’ve adjusted the power settings to the lowest luminocity)
Since I had to reduce the lumicity it means that my backlight turns off immediately when I am on a call. When another call comes in (call waiting) it doesn’t re-light so I can’t see who is calling me.
When I am on a call and another call beeps in, I am able to click over to answer it however it drops the caller on hold every time
The keypad is so tiny that I have to pull out the stylett every time- Hate this feature.
There isn’t a “mail” “voice mail” or “contacts” button on the keypad. I have to use the digital screen, thereby requiring me to pull out the stylett every time.
When I turn the phone from horizontal to vertical, it is supposed to adjust (like the Iphone) however, there is about a 5 second delay.
When I type in phone numbers or email messages there is also a delayed response, so I constantly have to erase, re-type and wait.
In order to close out of a program (the current page open) I have to hit this tiny little “okay” button in the upper right corner and this requires that I use the stylett.
When I open an email message I have two options at the bottom of the screen, “reply all” and “menu”. If I don’t want to “reply all” I have to go into the Menu and select two separate items in order to reply to the sender.
When a call comes in I have an option to “answer” or “ignore” 50% of the time when I hit “answer” it completely hangs up on the caller.
Unlocking my phone by entering my password generally takes about 5-10 attempts because the touchscreen sensors have a delay, so I constantly over-type.
Im getting this phone saturday and i cant wait!!! i already know how to work it and evreything. YAY!!!!