RSSHTC Touch Pro goes for market ubiquity
By Angela Gunn | Published November 24, 2008, 3:12 PM
Anyone not carrying an HTC Touch Pro over the next few months is hard-pressed to blame their mobile provider, as Verizon Wireless becomes the latest major mobile telco to offer the slider-style touchscreen handset.
The Windows Mobile-based Touch Pro's already headlining the holiday offerings at Sprint Nextel, which was the first company to announce support, and Alltel (also a CDMA-based service) carries it as well. There's also a GSM model, and AT&T has that traveling under the name of "HTC Fuze."
The Touch Pro is the successor to the Diamond, which was released last year. Older siblings include the HTC Touch Dual, with a traditional phone keypad hidden under the slide, and the GPS-crazy HTC Touch Cruise. In the tradition of interesting HTC product code names, the Touch Pro was known as Raphael.
Like its predecessor, it runs the TouchFLO 3D interface, and thus the user is presented with screens that look less like Pocket PC derivatives and more like those on other touchscreen phones. The underlying keypad, however, girds users for QWERTY work when it's time to type.
The handset also includes an orientation sensor / accelerometer, so it can reorient its display when turned, as well as respond to other applications hip to spatial orientation. HTC also has a warm relationship with Google, and the phone includes and YouTube viewer and a Google maps app. The camera is 3.2 megapixel with autofocus and a flash; storage is handled via microSD chips.
The GSM and CDMA versions of the handset are quite similar across the services, but the prices aren't. VZW is charging $420 for a phone with a two-year contract, or $350 after a $70 rebate. Prices are better at AT&T ($500 with no contract, $350 with a two-year contract, $100 rebate available), and though Sprint's site says that the phone's out of stock at the moment, when it's around it can be had for $300 -- $579, minus a $180 instant rebate and a $100 mail-in offer.
As for T-Mobile, no Touch Pro plans have been announced. References to it as the "MDA Vario IV" have been spotted fleetingly on certain company European support pages, but T-Mobile already does have that other HTC phone this year.
Creative thinkers might choose to hit Alltel, which is selling its HTC Touch Pro at the moment for $280 ($600 list with agreement, $220 online discount, $100 mail-in rebate)...as its acquisition by Verizon was approved by the FCC earlier this month.
We just rejected these as an upgrade to the AT&T Tilt (8900). Both iPhone and non-iPhone users had trouble using the touchscreen including the on-screen keyboard. The touch flo interface sucessfully made the phone feel as snappy as an 8100 (not good).
I agree with the "clunky" comment. I've noticed there aren't many pictures straight on from the side. The PDA is amazingly thick, but angled so the photos make it appear thin like an Epix (Blackjack III).
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|I have had mine for 2 weeks had the Diamond before that. This one is much better. a good info site is PPcgeeks.com
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|I've had my Touch Pro on T-Mobile(UK) for a couple of months now, and I still love it. Usually I would have some complaints as after using other phones for a while I usually do, but not so far.
There's plenty of free software that takes advantage of it specifically, and free WinMo software in general. There is also a lot of helpful people at the xda-developers forum.
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|Does your Touch Pro have two cameras, one in the front and one in the back?
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|And, h2so4, if you don't mind, could you tell us if actually *use* the smaller VGA camera assuming you have it? It's not offered on any of the models I've seen yet, and I honestly don't get how one would use the second camera for video calls. Or, um, why. (Wait, now who's being vitrolic? :-) )
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|Verizon has also crippled this phone with 128MB of RAM instead of 288MB that the competitors have. Expect a slower phone that can handle fewer programs as a result. The fact that it is also more expensive is a situation that only Verizon could think makes sense.
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|Saw one of those for the first time in the flesh the other day.
It's hilariously chunky.
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