HTC Touch Pro

The HTC Touch Pro is a great offering from the folks at HTC. This great PDA phone offers the ease of a touch screen with the full accessibility of a full qwerty keyboard (with a full number row). This phone comes equipped with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (upgradeable to 6.5 in the future), and comes with a great software package.

This phone is nicely sized at 4.17” X 2.05” X 0.70”. Some may say it is too thick, or brick like, but this phone is a nice change-up from previous Windows Mobile offerings. This phone does have some weight behind it, and you will notice it is in your pocket, being that it is 5.3 ounces. Reviewers have complained at the weight and size, but if you remember, it was less than 5 years ago we were carrying this sized, and weighted, iPods in our pockets. Being that this phone is a mobile computer, it is a small sacrifice to pay for convenience.

It comes with a 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 480x640 VGA resolution is a beautiful screen. Though it is a bit smaller than I would like, it is enough real estate to do the tasks that I need to complete on a daily basis. The screen has great response to know exactly where the user wants to touch the screen, and the exact link or program that you wan to use. Where this phone shines is watching streaming video, or video off a memory card. The video is clear, crisp, and smooth, and is perfect for day to day operations.

The phone is a little powerhouse with 512MB ROM and 288MB RAM, and with up to 8GB upgradeable memory through MicroSD expansion. I must recommend that you pick up an SD card to accommodate all programs that you may pick up for this phone. Also, this phone has built in WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, Internal GPS, and the HTC USB expansion jack. One note about the GPS – you can purchase your own TomTom, or other, mobile program, to use on this phone’s internal GPS system. This is nice for those that choose not to use their carriers supplied GPS.

The keyboard, for those that prefer that over typing on a touch screen, is very easy to type on. The best part are the shortcuts that are on the keypad. You can access your texting, the web program, and email, without too much fuss. This keyboard is easy to use, even for those of us that have large thumbs and fingers. I will say that you will start to use this exclusively when you get used to this phone.

The call quality is great, with the internal antenna providing strong signal capability for clear calls. The earpiece is a little troublesome at times. If the phones volume is too loud, it will cause an echo that is annoying to the caller on the other end; too low, you can’t hear the person. The user must find that happy medium. The speaker phone is a great tool for business, or for hands free use. This is probably one of the best speaker phones I have operated.

Overall, I have been happy with this phone now for six months and have done many things to customize it to my tastes. I must recommend this phone to all power mobile users.

Pros:
-Bright, crisp screen
-Better sound
-Video capable
-Responsive touch screen
-Full Qwerty keyboard with number row
-HTC 3-D Touch Flow
-Upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5
-Expandable memory (up to 8GB on MicroSD)
-Great camera

Cons
-Windows Mobile gets sluggish when multi-tasking
-Limited internal space
-Sync port (proprietary), includes charging, headphone jack, and audio out all on the same port