Review: HTC Touch Pro2

HTC’s devices are many and varied, and all the better for it. After all, what suits one user won’t suit us all. But the HTC Touch Pro2 is, quite simply a stunner, with just one flaw in its otherwise superb armoury.

Specs & info
Price: £452
Operating system: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 MHz
Memory: 512MB ROM, 288MB SDRAM
Dimensions: 116mm x 59.2mm x 16.65mm
Weight: 178.5g
Display size: 3.6 diagonal inches
Display resolution: 480 x 800
Expansion slot: 1 x microSD

That flaw is battery life, which seemed to us during testing to be somewhat shorter than we’d like. It wasn’t a disaster – not in the BlackBerry Storm or T-Mobile G1 realms of shortness – it’s just that with a device that demands heavy use we were hoping for a touch more.

With HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth here all waiting and willing to be used, as well as a superb screen for, among other things, viewing video and looking at Web pages battery life is going to be at a premium.

The Touch Pro2 doesn’t have the largest screen we’ve ever seen on a PDA or smartphone, but at 3.6 inches is well above average, and with 480 x 800 pixels the quality and definition are both high. A ‘zoom bar’ lets you to zoom in and out of Web pages, images and text with just a slide of the finger and is very useful.

We found it a particular help with Web browsing, where it was easy to open a page full screen, fingerpan around to the section we wanted to view in detail, then zoom in.

The really exciting trick this device has, though, is its tilting screen. Those with long memories will recall the HTC TyTN II, a device we really liked thanks to its slide-out keyboard and screen you can tilt up to an angle.

Well, the feature is here again, with a 50 degree tilt making it really easy to view the screen when the Touch Pro2 is on a desk. For anyone whose smartphone spends a lot of time on the desk buzzing away with information, this is a real boon.

The sliding keyboard is really nicely designed. Eschewing the flat keys we’ve seen often before, the keys here are separated from one another and well raised from their base. There is a little click when one is pressed, and we were able to type at the kind of top speeds we’d expect from a keyboard of this size.

As with this device’s predecessor there is also a fifth row of keys, for the numbers.

HTC has tweaked TouchFLO 3D again, to make it even more finger friendly. You can go further without descending into Microsoft’s Windows Mobile user interface. Though even then, when you do, the relatively large screen means you may be able to get away without using the stylus.

There’s a feature called Straight Talk which lets you turn the Touch Pro2 into a speakerphone when on a conference call simply by turning it face down on the desk, and it is easy to group people to invite to a conference call from the phone dialler.

Push Internet makes an appearance here too. We’ve seen this before in the Touch Diamond 2, and while the idea is sound, what you get is a bit disappointing. It only works in Opera Mobile (which is here to supplement Internet Explorer) and you can only configure four Web pages.

Set them up and the Touch Pro2 will download the pages at intervals you define, so that your favourites are there when you want them without you having to wait.

Also from the Touch Diamond2 is the improved Contacts app, which brings together all of your communications with an individual into a single screen.

The GPS antenna is given a job to do thanks to the built in Google Maps link, and there is a YouTube link too. Add in an RSS reader, World Card Mobile which uses the 3.2MP camera to scan business cards into the contacts application, and an accelerometer for automatic screen switching, and you have here a well rounded and extremely desirable device.

The Touch Pro2 is a beautifully designed smartphone, with outstanding build quality. The keyboard and conference call function mark it out as a business-oriented device, but there is enough here to cross over into the consumer market as well.

Essential Verdict
Performance: 8/10
Design: 9/10
Features: 9/10
Value for Money: 7/10
Overall score: 9/10

Review written by Sandra Vogel. Originally published in Smartphone Essentials.

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