HTC Touch Pro arrival

It is now day 2 with this HTC Touch Pro and I have hardly scratched the surface of its capabilities due to night class. But now that I have some free time I am taking full advantage of it by writing with this AMAZING qwerty layout that has impressed me the most out of EVERY slider model. Being able to fit FIVE rows of buttons onto this compact area is not something I would have expected from HTC or any manufacturer for that matter. I always was of the mindset that a device had to be the size of a Nokia Communicator model to take a front seat in the department of intricate qwerty keypads, but this phone has proven me wrong thus far. I have already exhaled a sigh of relief at the ease of using a number row, a dedicated CAPS key (with an indicator light), a symbol key, a Control key and some messaging shortcut keys. I was even struck with glee in being able to use the Control key with the "C" and "V" keys to copy and paste!! The keys are flat to the touch but the feedback is a bit more crisper than my Nokia E71-2 and is also very quiet. If I had to be picky about something with this qwerty it would be the small sizing of the space bar, otherwise everything else is basically perfect and marginally better than the HP 910.

The dimensions of this device are very promising when compared to my previous HTC TyTN 2 (it feels so great to not have to press the "FN" key for numbers), for it is not as tall nor as wide. The depth of the device does give it the appearance of a potential brick, but online reviews I have read certainly did not lie when they said holding it does away with this notion immediately. The slimming effect that the Touch Pro has gone through has really made it much more comfortable to hold in either closed mode or landscape in open slider mode. Even now as I type on the qwerty I don't have that overbearing bulk to deal with like on the Nokia E90 Communicator and it isn't too narrow to where it would provide an awkward placement in both hands like the E71-2. Included with this is a black leather sleeve holder that is lined with a soft, suede-like material on the inside. Whether you slide your device snugly into one side or the other, there is a strap inside that catches and holds it securely. I am pleased to find that the bulk of the Touch Pro and the sleeve combined is compact enough to be held in my pocket without any belt clip holsters...a far cry from the previous TyTN 2.

Holding this unit in closed mode reveals a front face that closely resembles the previously released Touch Diamond model, and it is at this point that the old TyTN 2 becomes obsolete in the saddest way. When I am faced with the sleek blackness of the polished navigation panel framing the bottom of a flush 2.8 screen rated at VGA resolution, all thoughts of the predecessor have vanished. In a brief comparison the refined look of the new slider phone on the block immediately surpasses EVERYTHING about the old model, except for the fact that it doesn't support North American 3G right now. I was told by a rep from ExpanysUSA that a downloadable upgrade would be provided by HTC by the end of the year to change all of that, but we shall wait and see. The build quality of this device is sufficient for soft-touch premium plastic on the bottom half with what appears to be black metal framing the slider screen portion. There is minimal creaking on a small area of the plastic when lightly pressed, but this doesn't conjure any feeling of questionable craftsmanship. On the soft-touch plastic of the backing there is a faceted pattern harkening back to the Touch Diamond model, but it is flat enough for the device to exhibit minimal roll when resting on a flat surface. The navigational keypad is strikingly attractive with a concave circular select key in the center of a smooth rectangular panel. When the button is pressed this panel comes to life when four icons are suddenly illuminated in white backlighting. These icons appear to symbolize call, end, home and back commands for OS navigation and are tactile keys, but this isn't all to the this panel. Around the perimeter of the select key there is actually a tactile four way directional keypad as well as a touch sensitive ring that functions like the click-wheel on an iPod. So far I have been able to control only the zoom controls in Opera Mobile and the HTC Picture Album app and the messaging app for reading incoming texts and emails. I shall keep an eye out for other uses that this touch ring can be good for. Just when I think that I have seen everything offered from the navigational panel there is of course something else that comes out of the woodwork. Much like the illuminated perimeter on the Nokia E71's select key, there is also one included on this HTC Touch Pro! What makes the HTC more interesting than the Nokia involves simple aesthetics. Being that the panel is so sleek around the select key, there is more of a haunting, ghost-like quality when it is brought to life by backlighting that seems mysterious and even magical. Also like the E71 this light for the selector button provides signals for certain activities occurring on the phone at any given moment.

The VGA resolution of the 2.8 screen is absolutely AMAZING and reminds me very much of the iMate Ultimate 9502 model I had owned for a short period of time. The great benefit of this Touch Pro in comparison to the 9502 is that it is so far MUCH more stable in its operating performance as well as much faster in executing commands. This brings me to the amazement I experienced when seeing the interface of the HTC TouchFLO for the first time. Windows Mobile is a very complicated beast to work with, so it is greatly appreciated when phone manufacturers put forth effort to bring ease of use to its customers via software innovations. With its TouchFLO initiative, HTC has officially gone above and beyond the simple tweaks of the Palm Treos to create a virtual world that basically shows no traces of Windows Mobile..a very ambitious feat indeed! I must admit that I was not too accepting of TouchFLO at first hand and actually turned off the feature to revert back the old-fashioned look of the Windows Mobile desktop. But after a few moments of experimenting with it I eventually got comfortable with its usefulness and I now really enjoy navigating interface menus with it. There are some random elements that remind me of my old first generation iPhone such as the clear fonts, smooth scrolling action, the music player app and weather app. An ingenious touch for the weather feature is the animation of the different types of phenomena once they appear onscreen for any chosen city (a few seconds into the rain animation even shows windshield wipers). The music player has absolutely NO trouble in displaying the album art of all the WMA and MP3 tracks stored onto my 4GB microSD card, and it is great to be able to scroll from one album to the next so flawlessly. Pictures of contact favorites along with media content pics and videos also are displayed like the album art in TouchFLO and can be searched by the swipe of your finger as well. This swiping method is also true for the Mail and Messaging apps. An incoming mail message appears on an open envelope graphic that is floating in midair and actually shows the sender's name and the first couple lines of the body!! Tapping on this opened envelope inevitably transports the user back to the harsh reality of the Windows Mobile OS when he or she finds themselves face to face with Outlook Mobile...I guess the TouchFLO was fun while it lasted! Another application available on this is the worthwhile browser from Opera Mobile that always grants an impressive online experience. It is only a shame that it still doesn't support flash videos. In a time when both my Nokia E71-2 and E90 can play flash videos via the S60 browser, this is truly a sad shame. I haven't had much time to surf the web as of yet, but the little bit that I have seen so far has been at least promising. Zoom control via the touch sensitive ring around the select key in the navigational panel is quite smooth without any lags or freezing at this point.

I hate to bring up the negatives after such rave reviews of great elements that this Touch Pro has to offer, but this is very necessary. To this day I cannot understand how HTC still has not managed to improve the quality of its external speaker. For the sake of not being too petty I can declare that I am thankful that the speaker is at least sufficiently loud when compared to the lackluster HP 910, but it can still be better. If my E71-2 can pull off producing acceptable music playback from its solitary mono speaker, I simply don't see how HTC can have any excuses in this regard. On the other hand I can be accepting of the fact that I can finally HEAR incoming alerts unlike with my previously owned 910 and move on. While I could go on and on about the camera's quality that is acceptable in stills and mediocre in video, I am currently at a point where I understand that the overall purpose of a Windows Mobile device is not to be a replacement to my Canon SD750. After such a brief period of time with this new device I am glad that I only have the speaker to complain about.

Voice call quality is acceptable even though it's not as vivid as the E71-2, but it gets the job done. Speakerphone calls have been improved considerably with the ample volume and sound clearer than the TyTN 2, and reception is as good as can be expected from an average quad-band phone with no dropped calls. I haven't been able to check out the GPS yet, but I assume it won't be any different to work with via Google Maps and the QuickGPS feature. I also haven't played with the accelerator function that's built-in to the phone, but will make time soon enough.

Either way, this Touch Pro more than makes up for its shortcomings with the layout of its qwerty in association with an outstanding messaging client and Mobile Office application which do surpass the Nokia alternative. As readers will see with this posting, whenever I find a terrific qwerty it is hard for me to put it down when I start writing with it. At this time I will say that I am extremely happy with what the Touch Pro has been revealing to me through its reliable performance, and I am looking forward to discovering much more in the coming days.

TRENT
Sent from my HTC Touch Pro.