Its upgrade season apparently. And hence I have decided to post about my new HTC Touch Pro 2 with Sprint service that I recently got. Well, it so happened that my Palm Treo Pro was pretty beat up and had stopped working very well –and therefore, I decided to bite the bullet for the second time in my life and get an HTC phone. My first experience wasn’t all that hot – the sliding keyboard was loose and wobbly and the HTC overlay on the awful Windows Mobile OS was full of bugs and apt to crashing.
So it was with some trepidation that I decided to order the Touch Pro 2. The very nice Sprint customer service rep informed me that this was the best business phone they had – so I decided to give in.
So impressions? First the hardware.First, the thing has a wonderful screen. But the screen is very susceptible to getting scratched. Not like the iPhone screen. The TP2 has a slide out keyboard. If you don’t mind changing the orientation of the phone to type long email on the keyboard – you’ll love it. The keyboard is probably the best on any phone I have used – other than my Blackberry Tour. No phone in my experience can do a keyboard better than a Blackberry but then I am digressing.
The phone itself is a dual mode CDMA / GSM World Phone – one of the key reasons why I got it. It comes unlocked – so if you are traveling abroad, you should just be able to buy a pre-paid SIM card (which is very big in Europe and Asia) and be able to use low local rates. If you want to maintain your US number, the TP2 comes pre-installed with a Sprint SIM card – you do need to call and get it activated before you travel. But remember, Sprint’s overseas charges will be significantly higher than a local SIM card.
Now the software – the nice thing about HTC Windows Mobile smartphones is that they have a custom UI built on top of Windows Mobile – and it has been getting better with every iteration. The UI (called TouchFlo 3D) is much more responsive, user friendly and stable compared to my prior experience with an earlier version of the software. For the most part, it hides the innate ugliness of Windows Mobile – it is only when you get into a native program like Microsoft Outlook Mobile – do you see Windows Mobile in all its glorious user interface ugliness. The TP2 also comes with something called Straight Talk –which is some intelligent integration of conference calling features into the phone. An example would be when I dial a conference bridge from my calendar, it actually shows the message and the pin (from the meeting invite) for me to type it in. Very useful for business people.
The speaker phone is unbelievable. It is, by far, the best speaker phone I have had on a mobile phone. It actually has dual speakers for noise cancellation. Beyond that it is loud, distortion free and very clear. Additionally, you can place the phone on a table face down, an existing call automatically switches to speaker phone mode. Very interesting and useful for me. The phone is excellent – I have 2 Sprint phones (the other being a Blackberry) but my TP2 reception is always consistently better.
And finally the battery – It definitely could be better. I have gotten about 3 hours on a conference call – but then it was on the verge of dying. I certainly keep it plugged into my laptop all the time when I am on my desk.
Overall, I love the phone. Its no iPhone. But its a solid performer. And yes, it is fairly hefty. Would I recommend it? Yes, if work rules dictate getting a Windows Mobile phone. Else, there are definitely better options available now.
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