fuzzy's HTC Touch Pro 2 Review

[fuzzybabybunny]

Just got the Touch Pro and I'm running it now. Initial impressions:

1. The large screen is very welcome, however it is a bit too tall for me. I would have liked it if the screen was a tad wider rather than so tall, like the iPhone.

2. The battery door cover and the stylus is absolutely retarded. It's very hard to take out the stylus - it is no longer magnetic like the TP's stylus, and it requires you to dig your nails into its little nubby to take it out. The use of your nail could scratch up the case around the stylus area. You HAVE to remove the stylus if you want to remove the battery door. The soft reset button is behind the battery door, so imagine this:

You're trying to follow your GPS and you have no idea where you are. Your GPS software and the phone both lock up because you're doing too many things at once. While driving, you've got to dig out the stylus, set it somewhere in the car where you can find it again, slide off the battery door (while requires two hands), put the battery door somewhere, try to find your stylus again, reset the device with the stylus, put back on the battery door, put in the stylus, and wait for the device to reboot. All while driving. Great.

3. Changing out the SIM card is dumb. The card's located behind the battery and requires the stylus to pry it out. So to get to the SIM card you've got to: dig out stylus with nail, set it aside, slide off battery door with both hands, take out battery (you're now juggling three parts in your hands), grab your stylus to pry out the SIM card (two handed operation and now you're juggling 4 individual parts), put in the new SIM card, pop in battery, slide on case, pop in stylus.

4. All the numerous individual square holes in the back of the battery door are NOT vent holes of any kind because there's a solid plastic sheet behind the holes. Good place for miscellaneous grit and stuff to collect.

5. The shiny polished plastic bezel around the perimeter of the front face is just begging to be chipped and scratched when you drop it.

6. The keyboard is spectacular to type on.

7. The sliding mechanism *seems* robust. The ribbon cable that connects the screen half to the other half of the phone doesn't have much slack when the screen is tilted. I prefer ribbon cables to have decent slack so that when the phone gets dropped and flexes the ribbon cable doesn't get pulled to the point of disconnection.

8. TouchFlo is nice and smooth and the UI is OK. The Windows Mobile UI is pretty hard to get to. HTC did its darnest to reveal the WM UI ONLY if it absolutely has to (for example when you're trying to access settings like screen brightness). This is good. Because Windows Mobile sucks.

9. Many things seem faster, but PDFs are still really slow and so is my iGuidance GPS at loading and panning through maps.

10. Because the phone is so tall, it will be hard for people with small hands to reach everywhere. Too many controls for programs are either at the top or the bottom of the screen:

Opera Mobile: the navigation / bookmark buttons are all at the bottom of the screen yet the buttons for exiting out of the program are all the way at the bottom.

11. Since there is no hardware scroll button reading documents that require constant scrolling sucks because you have to keep flicking or dragging your finger. One of the things that I loved about the HTC 6800 (Sprint Mogul) was that there was a scroll wheel.

12. Finally has a frickin' headphone jack. I mean, holy shit. Took them long enough. The kicker? Apparently it's not on every version of the Touch Pro, but I got lucky with Sprint.

That's it as an initial impression. I'll report back with battery life and overheating issues, if any.

 

[Dangerer]

I'll give you my impressions on a few of the points.

2. I have virtually no trouble at all with the stylus. You can also access the soft reset by holding the power button at top for a few seconds. I'm not sure it'll work when your phone locks up though however. Anyway with all the steps you need to do on any smart phone to get the GPS up and running, I'd advise pulling over if your phone takes a crap on you.

3. I don't see why this is a problem, how often do you need to change out a sim card? Virtually all GSM handsets I've used in the past have had SIM cards underneath the battery cover. To add to that I've never had to juggle a bunch of things at once while changing out the SIM card but I don't change SIM cards while driving either

4. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the european version's battery cover was compatible with Sprint's TP2. Gonna look that one up as well because the orange isn't too appealing

5. The bezel around the screen is beautiful. I too am fearful of it chipping since I use the speaker phone quite often which requires the phone to be laying face down (speaker phone is PHENOMENAL btw). Either way, I don't think you can expect any phone to survive a drop without any cosmetic damage either. You're with Sprint so you should consider investing in TEP if you feel you have clumsy hands.

 

[Deeko]

haha you have to understand - fuzzybabybunny really REALLY hates Windows Mobile, and therefore looks for things to complain about in a WM phone, such as #4, which is just...odd.

 

[Chunkee]

summary -

I do not like the phone.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
summary -

I do not like the phone.

So far I'm loving the phone because of the huge screen and awesome keyboard. The fact that you can't see WM's UI because of the decent HTC TouchFlo is a big plus.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Deeko
haha you have to understand - fuzzybabybunny really REALLY hates Windows Mobile, and therefore looks for things to complain about in a WM phone, such as #4, which is just...odd.

I've had lots of overheating issues with my old Touch Pro. When I saw the Touch Pro 2, I thought, "oooo... vents for helping dissipate heat."

Not so. Cosmetic. Bleh. But on the up side it's more water resistant!

 

[Krazy4Real]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Just got the Touch Pro and I'm running it now. Initial impressions:

1. The large screen is very welcome, however it is a bit too tall for me. I would have liked it if the screen was a tad wider rather than so tall, like the iPhone.

2. The battery door cover and the stylus is absolutely retarded. It's very hard to take out the stylus - it is no longer magnetic like the TP's stylus, and it requires you to dig your nails into its little nubby to take it out. The use of your nail could scratch up the case around the stylus area. You HAVE to remove the stylus if you want to remove the battery door. The soft reset button is behind the battery door, so imagine this:

You're trying to follow your GPS and you have no idea where you are. Your GPS software and the phone both lock up because you're doing too many things at once. While driving, you've got to dig out the stylus, set it somewhere in the car where you can find it again, slide off the battery door (while requires two hands), put the battery door somewhere, try to find your stylus again, reset the device with the stylus, put back on the battery door, put in the stylus, and wait for the device to reboot. All while driving. Great.

3. Changing out the SIM card is dumb. The card's located behind the battery and requires the stylus to pry it out. So to get to the SIM card you've got to: dig out stylus with nail, set it aside, slide off battery door with both hands, take out battery (you're now juggling three parts in your hands), grab your stylus to pry out the SIM card (two handed operation and now you're juggling 4 individual parts), put in the new SIM card, pop in battery, slide on case, pop in stylus.
4. All the numerous individual square holes in the back of the battery door are NOT vent holes of any kind because there's a solid plastic sheet behind the holes. Good place for miscellaneous grit and stuff to collect.

5. The shiny polished plastic bezel around the perimeter of the front face is just begging to be chipped and scratched when you drop it.

6. The keyboard is spectacular to type on.

7. The sliding mechanism *seems* robust. The ribbon cable that connects the screen half to the other half of the phone doesn't have much slack when the screen is tilted. I prefer ribbon cables to have decent slack so that when the phone gets dropped and flexes the ribbon cable doesn't get pulled to the point of disconnection.

8. TouchFlo is nice and smooth and the UI is OK. The Windows Mobile UI is pretty hard to get to. HTC did its darnest to reveal the WM UI ONLY if it absolutely has to (for example when you're trying to access settings like screen brightness). This is good. Because Windows Mobile sucks.

9. Many things seem faster, but PDFs are still really slow and so is my iGuidance GPS at loading and panning through maps.

10. Because the phone is so tall, it will be hard for people with small hands to reach everywhere. Too many controls for programs are either at the top or the bottom of the screen:

Opera Mobile: the navigation / bookmark buttons are all at the bottom of the screen yet the buttons for exiting out of the program are all the way at the bottom.

11. Since there is no hardware scroll button reading documents that require constant scrolling sucks because you have to keep flicking or dragging your finger. One of the things that I loved about the HTC 6800 (Sprint Mogul) was that there was a scroll wheel.

12. Finally has a frickin' headphone jack. I mean, holy shit. Took them long enough. The kicker? Apparently it's not on every version of the Touch Pro, but I got lucky with Sprint.

That's it as an initial impression. I'll report back with battery life and overheating issues, if any.

If you have this many issues with dropping your phones, then just get the insurance protection on it.

The GPS thing is just retarded. I've never had to fumble around with GPS like that on any of my phones. You plug in your destination and just follow the directions. How frickin' hard is that???

Why the hell are you complaining about a SIM card when you use Sprint? Sprint doesn't need a SIM card.

Sorry, but that's a terrible review. If you hate windows mobile so much, why are you getting a windows mobile phone. I love windows mobile, but I realize it's not for everyone. If I hated windows mobile, I wouldn't buy another windows mobile phone.

 

[Tom]

criticisms are valid, luckily mine has only locked up once, probably caused by a tweak I used. having to remove stylus to remove back to do a reset is bad design, but mostly the design is good.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Just got the Touch Pro and I'm running it now. Initial impressions:

1. The large screen is very welcome, however it is a bit too tall for me. I would have liked it if the screen was a tad wider rather than so tall, like the iPhone.

2. The battery door cover and the stylus is absolutely retarded. It's very hard to take out the stylus - it is no longer magnetic like the TP's stylus, and it requires you to dig your nails into its little nubby to take it out. The use of your nail could scratch up the case around the stylus area. You HAVE to remove the stylus if you want to remove the battery door. The soft reset button is behind the battery door, so imagine this:

You're trying to follow your GPS and you have no idea where you are. Your GPS software and the phone both lock up because you're doing too many things at once. While driving, you've got to dig out the stylus, set it somewhere in the car where you can find it again, slide off the battery door (while requires two hands), put the battery door somewhere, try to find your stylus again, reset the device with the stylus, put back on the battery door, put in the stylus, and wait for the device to reboot. All while driving. Great.

3. Changing out the SIM card is dumb. The card's located behind the battery and requires the stylus to pry it out. So to get to the SIM card you've got to: dig out stylus with nail, set it aside, slide off battery door with both hands, take out battery (you're now juggling three parts in your hands), grab your stylus to pry out the SIM card (two handed operation and now you're juggling 4 individual parts), put in the new SIM card, pop in battery, slide on case, pop in stylus.
4. All the numerous individual square holes in the back of the battery door are NOT vent holes of any kind because there's a solid plastic sheet behind the holes. Good place for miscellaneous grit and stuff to collect.

5. The shiny polished plastic bezel around the perimeter of the front face is just begging to be chipped and scratched when you drop it.

6. The keyboard is spectacular to type on.

7. The sliding mechanism *seems* robust. The ribbon cable that connects the screen half to the other half of the phone doesn't have much slack when the screen is tilted. I prefer ribbon cables to have decent slack so that when the phone gets dropped and flexes the ribbon cable doesn't get pulled to the point of disconnection.

8. TouchFlo is nice and smooth and the UI is OK. The Windows Mobile UI is pretty hard to get to. HTC did its darnest to reveal the WM UI ONLY if it absolutely has to (for example when you're trying to access settings like screen brightness). This is good. Because Windows Mobile sucks.

9. Many things seem faster, but PDFs are still really slow and so is my iGuidance GPS at loading and panning through maps.

10. Because the phone is so tall, it will be hard for people with small hands to reach everywhere. Too many controls for programs are either at the top or the bottom of the screen:

Opera Mobile: the navigation / bookmark buttons are all at the bottom of the screen yet the buttons for exiting out of the program are all the way at the bottom.

11. Since there is no hardware scroll button reading documents that require constant scrolling sucks because you have to keep flicking or dragging your finger. One of the things that I loved about the HTC 6800 (Sprint Mogul) was that there was a scroll wheel.

12. Finally has a frickin' headphone jack. I mean, holy shit. Took them long enough. The kicker? Apparently it's not on every version of the Touch Pro, but I got lucky with Sprint.

That's it as an initial impression. I'll report back with battery life and overheating issues, if any.

If you have this many issues with dropping your phones, then just get the insurance protection on it.

The GPS thing is just retarded. I've never had to fumble around with GPS like that on any of my phones. You plug in your destination and just follow the directions. How frickin' hard is that???

Why the hell are you complaining about a SIM card when you use Sprint? Sprint doesn't need a SIM card.

Sorry, but that's a terrible review. If you hate windows mobile so much, why are you getting a windows mobile phone. I love windows mobile, but I realize it's not for everyone. If I hated windows mobile, I wouldn't buy another windows mobile phone.

1. I DO have insurance on it. But they replace your phone with refurbished ones and in my experience the refurbished ones always have something wrong with them. Plus there is a $100 deductible on smart phones.

2. Looks like you don't have very high demands for GPS. Plug in your destination and go? That's all you do? You can't think of any other situations where people would need to be more demanding on their GPS software and the ability of the phone to multitask at the same time? I run into demanding situations all the time while working, while traveling, etc.

3. Sprint doesn't need a SIM card but this is a world phone for travelers and business users. Enough said.

I'm reviewing this from the point of view of someone who demands a lot from their phone. I don't want downtime. I don't want a fragile phone. I don't want lock ups. I want intelligently designed hardware and software that can keep up with my needs.

The only reason I'm sticking with WinMo is because I need those third party apps and I don't want to deal with stupid things like Jailbreaking.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Maybe it's because I'm super drunk right now, but I really like this phone. A bit faster than the orinial but the size of the screen is key and the keyboard rocks. I'm so two thousand and 8 you're so two thousand and late... boom boom boom

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

me so drunk woooooo

i really like the phone so far. the touch typing is pretty easy with the big screen. The keyboard is even better. The only thing that I don't like about the keyboard is the placement of the comma and the email and text buttons are down at the bottom and really easy to accidentally press if you're going for the function key.

everything does seem smoother though. the big screen really is key. ebooks look pretty good on it.

memory usage seems abnormally high though. I'm trying to figure out how the task manager works. For example, I have Opera Mobile at Anandtech. I click the X to close it and the task manager doesn't show it running anymore. But when I click Opera Mobile again it instantly pops up and at the page that I left it at. Not sure if this means that it was never actually closed, and that the task manager just didn't show it as still running?

 

[Dangerer]

the tp2 rom runs a unique kind of caching which although shows really high memory usage, makes the phone run a whole lot faster and smoother than its predecessor. i highly recommend you check out the touch pro2 clean up pack avalable at ppcgeeks. itks a set of compiled registry tweaks that makes your phone run squeaky clean. might wanna check out the entire changelog incase it turns off a feature you prefer tp have on

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I definitely do NOT like the absence of a hardware d-pad. I can't just hold down a button to scroll down a webpage, for example. As a result of this, selecting text using Opera Mobile you're forced to toggle between two modes - text select which locks the screen to finger input, and non text select to allow finger scrolling of the screen - but text select is no llonger possible. I'm sitting here at a Filipino restaurant reading its review and it's hard to select the names of unknown dishes to google because i have to keep on toggling between the two modes. I'd rather scroll down the page using a hardware key and use the touchscreen to select things.

The location of the comma button once again sucks. It's on the LEFT of the space key, and I frequently accidentally hit the period key, which is on the right side of the space bar, instead of the comma.

 

[Deeko]

What? Sprint must have a strange keyboard. The Verizon version that I have has the comma on the period key, to the right, and does have a hardware D pad.

Interesting how different the keyboards are from carrier to carrier. AT&T's (which comes out soon, the Tilt 2) looks terrible.

 

[luv2liv]

the kb is super nice! nice n big to type comfortably. n its lit in the dark! i was very impressed.
however, i cannot stand winmo after playing with web os. had to return the tp2.

 

[soulcougher73]

Ive had the TP2 for about 2 weeks now. Its my first WM phone and im not sure if i like it yet or not. Today at lunch im going to also buy the HTC Hero and try that for 2 weeks. Then i will return one of them when i decide who the winner is Never owned an Android phone before either so that will be new. I did play with the Hero yesterday for abit and liked what i saw.

 

[FireChicken]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Maybe it's because I'm super drunk right now, but I really like this phone. A bit faster than the orinial but the size of the screen is key and the keyboard rocks. I'm so two thousand and 8 you're so two thousand and late... boom boom boom

ROFL! Case of eBeer Goggles! WM had to get you drunk for you to like it.

Did you install the tweaks cab from PPC geeks. It seems to have sped up my phone a little. One of the things It does is shuts down opera so you have more resources. Caveat being it has to reload every time you open the browser but it only takes a few seconds to reload. You can also uninstall the tweaks file if you dont like it