HTC Touch Pro 2
The HTC Touch Pro2 is another serious smartphone contender rolling out this summer. As an original HTC Touch Pro user, reading this review has me reconsidering my plan to get a new iPhone 3G S next week.
Like Apple, HTC does a fantastic job at making a very intuitive device. TouchFLO, HTC’s answer to an intuitive Windows Mobile UI gets a few needed improvements. Several features that would have been nice to see with this update are missing, so the iPhone is still looking good as I compare a number of options from different carriers.
How about you? Are you looking for a new phone anytime soon? Have you considered HTC, iPhone, Nokia or others? Read more after the jump and post a comment or question.
Touch Pro2 has a tilting screen with a better keypad. With my original Touch Pro, I rely almost exclusively on the touch-screen keyboard over slide-out physical keypad. I’ve never used a tilting screen device, so the novelty is somewhat attractive to me, but I certainly wouldn’t upgrade from my Touch Pro to the Touch Pro2 only for the tilting screen. BGR reports that the soft keyboard is almost as good as iPhone, so maybe I can put away the stylus once and for all.
Screen quality is reported to be very good with 800×480 resolution on a 3.6″ (diagonal measurement) screen. Touch Pro2 is reported to be far more responsive that the original.
Unlike the Touch Pro where the screen wasn’t as responsive as everyone wished, the Touch Pro2’s screen is incredibly sensitive and responsive — paging through screens, sliding through TouchFLO menus and the like are all smooth as butter.
[BGR]
Also, a new stock page, updated weather and new calendar are now part of the upgraded TouchFLO interface. I use the weather feature all the time and have been satisfied with it, so I would be interested to see the upgrade. I’m not as obsessed with stock prices as I once was, but this might be a good feature again someday. The review didn’t give many details about the new calendar, but the original Touch Pro had the same old Windows Mobile calendar, so a more intuitive and slick interface is a welcome change and another feature that has me leaning a little toward HTC.
Of course, call quality is vitally important. It is a phone, after all. On my original Touch Pro, I’ve never had complaints from callers about their ability to hear me. In fact, I use speaker almost all the time and every caller I’ve asked said they were unable to tell I was on a speakerphone. Likewise, I’ve never had a problem hearing callers on speakerphone, using headsets or while cooking my brain with the phone pressed to my ear. BGR reports the call quality is very good and I believe it, given how happy I’ve been with the original Touch Pro.
Something that really has me considering this device is a new messaging integration feature that gives access to all communication history with each contact. Clicking a contact entry shows recent calls, emails, text messages, and Facebook updates for that contact through the TouchFLO interface.
Another reason I really want this phone is the advanced conference calling capabilities that are now built into TouchFLO. Selecting several contacts instantly conferences all the parties together with options to individually drop certain parties from the call while it’s in progress. The call instantly changes over to speakerphone when you flip it upside down—and the call quality on speaker is beyond impressive:
Besides being super loud and clear for you to listen to, the Touch Pro2 has got dual microphones. One for noise-cancelling and one to actually pickup your voice for uh, talking. This makes for an absolutely wonderful conference calling experience —it’s the best we’ve ever used on a mobile phone.
[BGR]
One area I can only call a major disappointment is the camera. Not only was there no upgrade—it’s still a 3.2 megapixel camera—but now there’s no flash. HTC’s Touch Diamond 2 got a camera upgrade, so why not the Touch Pro 2 and how does removing the flash module make any sense?
The directional pad is also missing, but I never really used that feature, so it’s not a deal breaker for me. Also, Touch Pro2 basically has the same internal hardware as the original Touch Pro did, so there’s no major jump in the specs, making the idea of upgrading a little less attractive even with those great new features.
Read the review in its entirety and see pictures of the HTC Touch Pro2 at BGR.
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6 Comments
There is no competition!
Touch Pro 2 is a win!
I’ve been using the HTC Tilt. I love this phone and it does everything I could want in a phone. It’s on the AT&T network and does things like Tethering, MMS and full voice command and read-back. Oh yeah, those are all the things that the iPhone *doesn’t* do! imagine that!
I upgraded from an HTC 8500, so the extra functionality of this phone is sweet! I can’t wait until I get to use the HTC Touch Pro2!
Ed
Like Ed, I am also a Tilt user. This new Touch Pro2 phone sounds impressive and may resolve the very few issues I have with my current phone. I will definitely have to check it out in person.
In my opinion, HTC doesn’t gets the credit they deserve. If they spent the same amount on marketing as Apple, RIM, or even Samsung, they would have a lot more followers.
Thanks for your comments. I spent the day comparing phones. It’s certainly a tough decision with all the great devices coming out this summer.
I just purchased the touch pro 2! It’s a very nice phone. I bought it online for 150.00 US. With free activation! (Brand New) You can still find it online for 200.00 at letstalk.com If I had to pay the 559.00 retail or the 359.00 with the two year agreement I would have waited for the Omnia 2 or the Omnia Pro 7330 . Why? These two phones both feature 800 mhz proccessor, amoled screen, 3.7 screen. I decided to bite the bullet because there was no release date for the Omnia Pro with the slide out key pad. The Pro is what I really wanted ! The Omnia 2 is scheduled to be released sometime this month of September.
absolutely terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i kid you not i upgraded this phone and received it within 24 hours…within 5 hours it is back in its box ready to be delivered back to Vodafone at which point i will be leaving to get myself another Iphone. I wanted a unit that is responsive and does everything while being user friendly. This is not that. Granted it has features on features but my god how hard to even make a call or text especially with the terrible screen!. you scroll along too gently and bang your into something you dont want. The internet is terrible and although the keypad is great really really great in fact it does not make up for the poor on board memory less then 500mb unless you buy a card! the poor build quality and the rather terrible camera
SWERVE at all costs