The HTC Touch Pro2, the killer sequel to the already excellent HTC Touch Pro, brings back the tilted screen found in the original AT&T Tilt, and adds a few new features as well. With a large, comfortable keyboard, a gorgeous 3.6-inch display, and a new version of TouchFLO 3D that tightly integrates your contacts with your social life, the HTC Touch Pro2 is a feature-packed Windows Mobile phone. This device also takes voice communication seriously, with integrated noise-cancelation technology, and the ability to activate the speakerphone by placing the handset face down on a table. It’s a pricey at $349, and it’s not the most pocket-friendly smart phone, but the Touch Pro2 is powerful enough to let you leave your laptop behind and a good choice for business users requiring a Windows Mobile phone.
Design
There’s no way around it: the HTC Touch Pro2 packs a good deal of bulk, to the point that it’s not the type of phone someone wearing tight jeans will want to carry. The Touch Pro2 is bigger and heavier than the original; it measures 4.6 x 2.3 x 0.7 inches and weighs 6.3 ounces, whereas the Touch Pro measured 4.0 x 2;0 x 0.7 inches, and weighed 5.3 ounces. The Nokia N97, which has a similar sliding QWERTY keyboard, measures 4.6 x 2.2 x 0.6 inches, and weighs a lighter 5.2 ounces.
The large 3.6-inch, 800 x 480-pixel resolution screen is beautiful and bright, and the spacious slide-out keyboard is a pleasure to type on. Our review unit had a copper metallic hue, which extends across the keyboard and onto the plastic back cover.
HTC moved the microSD from under the battery cover of the unit to a more convenient location on its left side. Volume controls are just above the microSD slot, and a power button is on the top left; a microUSB charging port at the bottom of the phone doubles as a headphone jack. (Still no 3.5mm headphone jack? Come on, HTC.) Under the large display, you’ll find a touch-sensitive zoom slider bar, Send/End keys, as well as Home and Return buttons. On the back of the Touch Pro2 is a speaker and a 3.2-MP autofocus camera without flash.
The phone’s slider function is solid and smooth, and it reveals a 5-line QWERTY keyboard. You can also swivel the screen on a hinge to prop it up at about a 30-degree angle, which means you can rest the phone on your desk and still view the screen easily while watching videos or surfing the Web. Unlike the Nokia N97, which has a hinge that locks into a single position, the HTC Touch Pro2 can be tilted forward or backward, allowing for much easier screen viewing.
Keyboard
Because the Touch Pro2 has such a large base and screen, there’s also plenty of room for a spacious keyboard. The layout isn’t as flat as the original Touch Pro’s, and the keys are much more defined and spaced comfortably far apart. The result is good tactile feedback and high accuracy. However, we can type faster on a BlackBerry Curve 8900, whose keys are closer together. The Touch Pro2 also has keyboard shortcuts to put the phone into silent mode, display your text and e-mail inboxes, launch the Web browser, and open the communications manager.
User Interface
The Touch Pro2 has HTC’s own TouchFLO 3D user interface on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. The original Touch Pro had a similar treatment, but the latest version of TouchFLO 3D adds a boatload of new features, such as Straight Talk (more on that below). In the desktop view, you can swipe your finger across the bottom of the screen to view (in order) your contacts (represented by stamp-size images), recent messages, new e-mails, your calendar, Web favorites, stock and financial information, photos and videos, the music player, the weather, settings, and programs. You can quickly switch between these shortcuts by dragging your finger across the screen.
HTC added a few enhancements that are more subtle, but no less useful. For one, when you create a new contact, instead of just using a picture in your phone’s library, you can log into Facebook and use a friend’s profile picture as his or her address book photo. The software also automatically pulls down your friend’s birthday, and stores it in your phone as a reminder.
