HTC's New Flagship Business Device (4/4)
HTC Touch Pro with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
BENCHMARKS
Spb Benchmark from has been used for the
following benchmark comparisons with the HTC Touch Pro.
The Touch Pro's performance was as good as the i-mate Ultimate 9502 (which for whatever reason, is a ridiculously fast WinMo device). It's interesting that the Touch Pro comes out slightly ahead of the Diamond in our tests.
BATTERY
I'm impressed, really. For a device that has so many reasons to have crappy battery life, the Touch Pro actually has decent battery life. Perhaps it's because of the nice-sized 1350mAh battery, or maybe HTC is getting much better at battery optimization. In my testing, with moderate usage of WiFi and Opera Mobile, several calls, some navigation with the GPS, and automatic screen brightness, I had around 25% battery life left at the end of a long day. That said, under heavy use, the Touch Pro will last you a day. Under moderate or light use, the Touch Pro will last you 1.5-2 days. Not bad, not bad.
HELP SUPPORT
The user guide that comes with the Touch Pro isn't terribly comprehensive, but the device is generally easy to use once you spend a few days with it and learn about its many little hidden features.
BUGS AND WISHES
The Touch Pro is far from perfect, despite the generally positive things I have said about it thus far.
I want to start with build quality. Yes, I said it - I'm questioning HTC on build quality. Not only is there a little bit of keyboard jiggle when the slider is closed, but if you pinch the side of the device, you get a squeaky sound - probably because there are some plastic parts that are rubbing that shouldn't be. With a price like this, I don't want to call build quality into question.
A tip to avoid having a really annoying keyboard lag: turn off T9 assist when using the hardware keyboard. To do this, slide out the keyboard, and press function+space and choose ABC. This should happen automatically.
And on the thickness. Yes, I know, I said that the device doesn't "feel" thick and I'll stand by that - in pocket and in hand, you hardly notice that it's almost as thick as the TyTN II. But it shouldn't be almost as thick as the TyTN II
. This is HTC's flagship business device, and so was the TyTN II back in the day (meaning, last year =D). With new iterations, things should get much better. 18mm thick? Come on. And while we're talking about the TyTN II - I wonder why HTC didn't do a tilting screen on the Touch Pro. It was a really welcomed feature that added a ton of versatility to the TyTN II. When watching YouTube videos on the Touch Pro, I really missed the tilting screen.
The accelerometer is way underutilized. It's used in Opera, pictures, and with the Teeter. That's it! Why doesn't it work in all programs? The Omnia can do it - why can't the Touch Pro? Speaking of landscape orientations, where is TouchFLO 3D in landscape? Why is it just a bunch of icons?
HTC did a great job at outfitting the buyer with a case, good headphones, and an extra stylus. Whoops - how about a video-out cable? HTC: I'm really not willing to spend more money on this phone for an accessory after I just spent the equivalent of two months rent to buy it! Really. Let the Touch Pro shine by letting me connect it to a projector or television.
Opera Mobile 9.5, though a big achievement for the Windows Mobile platform, is still not ready for prime time in my opinion. It's just not fast enough and is too buggy. When using it over WiFi, some pages either didn't render right or took a very long to to render. Then navigating around a page was often choppy, unless I moved slowly.
And finally, as implied above, this device is very expensive right now. Within the coming weeks and months, it'll be available as an unlocked phone for less, and of course, you'll be able to find it for a subsidized price on carriers across the world.
PURCHASING
The HTC Touch Pro can be had for a $949.99 over at Popular Electronics.
PROS
- Solid performance
- Elegant design
- Good keyboard layout
- Hot-swappable microSD expansion
- Touch enhancements are well-done (TouchFLO 3D, etc)
- Many little usability enhancements
- Beautiful VGA screen
- YouTube application is great
- Automatically configures itself to your carrier
- Includes leather case and extra stylus
- Above-average battery life
- aGPS/WiFi/FM Radio/HSDPA
CONS
- Almost as thick as the TyTN II
- Questionable build quality
- TouchFLO 3D in landscape doesn't exist
- Not enough utilization of accelerometer
- Expensive (unsubsidized)
- No Microsoft Voice Command
- Opera Mobile 9.5 needs work
- Where's the video-out cable?
- What happened to the tilting screen?
| Value |  |
| Ease of Use |  |
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Overall |
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OVERALL IMPRESSION
If you've skimmed the rest of the review, read this section carefully because I am going to offer important advice.
If you don't need the keyboard, and 4GB of memory is enough for you, get the Touch Diamond. It's much thinner, has fantastic on-screen keyboard options, includes almost identical software to the Touch Pro, and it costs less.
With that said, I firmly believe that the HTC Touch Pro is the best business device that money can buy right now. I declared the i-mate Ultimate 9502 the ultimate mobile companion as of May of this year. Today, I declare the HTC Touch Pro the ultimate mobile companion.
It's fantastically well-rounded in terms of features and software, plus it's elegant and powerful.
