HTC Touch Pro 2 Review

One of the most anticipated phones of 2009 is the Touch Pro 2 from HTC. With its combination of a screen near the size of the HTC Touch HD and full QWERTY keyboard the HTC Touch Pro 2 looks to be the best all around Windows Mobile phone out there.

UPDATE:  This review has been updated to include items that were not in the original review. This however does not change the final conclusion of the review.

Quick Specs

• 3.6 480×800 Screen
• Windows Mobile 6.1 (Upgradable to 6.5)
• 528 MHz Processor
• Unlocked GPS
• Full Duplex Speakers
• Full QWERT Keyboard
• Tilt Screen
• 3.5 MM Headphone Jack
• 3.2 MP Camera

The HTC Touch Pro 2 starts off great with its solid hardware. The look is great as its sleek with a nice weight to that gives you a great feel of quality. The keyboard is also great to type on and with the new layout that is similar to a desktop keyboard and each key spaced between each other. You develop a nice flow once you begin typing on it and actually find yourself to be more accurate and fast.

Hardware Pics

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The 528 MHz processor in the phone makes the OS very snappy and responsive and with a 183MB of total of memory available for programs there is virtually no sluggishness. GPS is unlocked from the start and Google Maps and Bing Search both work with it out of the box. Google Maps currently is the faster of the two and also the phone now supports the Locate Me feature in Google Maps which finds your location via cell phone tower. The screen is bright and vibrant with a 480×800 resolution and 3.6 inch screen size that makes it much more finger friendly for the touch screen. Sound is also great on the phone especially with the 3.5mm headphone jack which makes it a much better multimedia phone. The speakerphone is full duplex and is probably the best speakerphone on any cell phone in the market. Overall the hardware is solid and one of the best offering from HTC.

On the software side the phone comes with Windows Mobile 6.1 but is upgradable to Windows Mobile 6.5 which will be coming up later this year. Windows Mobile 6.1 is a great OS but is now starting to show its age in the last few years. While it has all the features that most current OS competitors have, the user interface and experience is dated and needs to be revamped. The beginnings of that improvement have been done with Windows Mobile 6.5, but for 6.1 Touch Flo 3D has stepped in and has made great UI improvements and adds some key improvements as you see in the video review one of the top things is Touch Flo 3D in landscape mode which makes getting around much easier. The full encompass of Touch Flo into the operating system makes it a joy to use and should help out the windows mobile newbie to learn the OS and will be a welcome addition to us veterans out there. Making everything more finger friendly makes using the larger screen a joy and you will use the stylus less and less.

Battery Life on the phone is pretty good considering all that it does. You will get an average battery life of about 1.5 – 2 days with average use. Heavy usage your looking at about 1 – 1.5 day charge and most likely you are going to want to grab the extended battery. Program memory is about 183MB and around 74MB of that is available from a fresh restart. It’s using a lot of that memory just to run the phone but you do have a good amount of it available to run programs and apps. What I wonder if how much are we going to gain/lose with the upgrade to windows mobile 6.5. The phone app has a new dialer with bigger buttons and easier access to contacts and call history. When in a phone call you get a good amount of options to choose from while you are in a call. The phone app is a definitely a great upgrade from the version on the Touch Pr o 1. Video looks great and I will be testing out more codecs and videos apps in the future to figure out the optimal resolution, app and file format to watch videos on the phone. Also youtube look phenomenal on it. Its very close to the quality of the iPhone’s youtube app. Teeter is a great game that is highly addictive and shows you how the accelerometer works.

While in a call the phone proximity sensor will help save battery life as it will shut off the screen during a call when the top part of the phone on the front is covered and when uncovered the screen will come back on again unlocked. The speakerphone is also solid as its very loud and clear and the best speakerphone I’ve used ever on a smartphone or really any phone for that matter. When looking at the back and taking the battery door off you can see the 1500MaH battery which gives you a charger of about 2 days with normal usage. Also on the right side is where the micro SD card is hidden (not shown in video) and the stylus while doesn’t have the magnetic snap that the Touch Pro 1 did does have a switch on the inside so when you pull it out the phone will turn on and be unlocked. The camera controls are all touch screen based and provide you with a good amount of options and the pictures look pretty good for a 3.2 Megapixel camera.

Camera Pics

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Overall HTC has done a great job with this phone and its one of the best Smartphone out there in the market. You can tell there has been a focus on the Touch Pro 2 to take the best elements from past HTC Devices and put them all in on device and they have done a solid job of that. If you are a fan of HTC device this will be great for you. If you’re fan of Windows Mobile this is probably the best phone out there (with Windows Mobile 6.1). If you are a fan of HTC and/or Windows Mobile this is the one to consider for your next upgrade. If you are new to Smartphone and shopping around looking at iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre or Nokia be sure to put the Touch Pro2 in your list of considerations.