HTC Touch Pro, More powerful than Touch Diamond, but much bulkier as well

In an attempt to meet the expectations of more smartphone users, the Taiwanese company HTC decided to improve its HTC Touch Diamond Windows Mobile device, by endowing it with a generous QWERTY keyboard. Those that were frustrated by the lack of a full QWERTY in the previous Touch Diamond model will be happy to find that HTC Touch Pro meets this requirement, and adds countless other stuff. Users won't find many changes in design, except for the thickness of the new Touch Pro, which is beyond any expectations. HTC Touch Pro doesn't come with anything innovative save that it adds more power and functionality to the previous Touch Diamond Pocket PC.

Announced in June 2008, HTC Touch Pro was made available on the market in August 2008. The slider smartphone from HTC can be acquired for about US$750, but pricing can vary, and depends on location or plan.

Design

If you are familiar with the HTC Touch Diamond design, then you won't notice too many differences compared with the Touch Pro device. Both come in the same size (102 x 51mm), but the thickness varies: 11.5mm for Touch Diamond, while Touch Pro has 18.1mm. The difference is huge also when it comes to their weight: 110g compared with Touch Pro's 165g (including battery). So, basically, you have the front of the Diamond, but the back of the phone has been completely reshaped. While HTC has kept the same diamond pattern on the battery cover of the device, the compound is mat plastic, and is something similar to the rubber-like material that has been used for so many other handsets as well – still, it is not quite the same. Actually, this is a good move on part of HTC, as the Touch Diamond had issues with the back cover, in that it was peeling off after heavy use.

The layout of ports and keys is much the same as on the previous Touch Diamond model. The middle D-pad button acts like a touchpad as well (much like a wheel), especially when zooming pictures in the Album area, browsing the Internet or when using the music player. There are two volume keys on the left side of the phone, and the miniUSB port on the bottom side, where you can insert the charger, a miniUSB cable for PC synchronization, or the headset that comes in the sales package. The Power button is placed, as usual, on the top side of the phone, and it can also be used to activate the phone when in standby mode. A very small ambient light sensor, the in-call earpiece, and a secondary VGA camera that can be used for video-calls have been placed above the 2.8'' display.

Below the screen, there are only four keys that can be used to control the menu of the phone, in case you don't want to touch and grease your device. The magnetic stylus can be pulled out from the bottom right part of the phone. The 3.2 Megapixel camera on the back doesn't have any protective lense, but it's placed a little bit behind a slim metallic plate, so it's not that easy to cause damage to it. A LED flash and a loudspeaker are also near the module camera.

Overall, I wasn't impressed by the new HTC Touch Pro device, and I noticed only a few differences compared with Diamond, but more similarities. Still, it is these differences that are important, as they make the smartphone seem appealing even to those who already own a Diamond right now.

Display and Camera

HTC Touch Pro embeds a large 2.8'' VGA touchscreen that supports 262k colors, but only displays 65k colors. The device supports a better resolution than most of the existing Pocket PCs on the market - 480x640 pixels.

Together with the new TouchFLO 3D interface, the screen offers marvelous quality viewing, which greatly improves Internet browsing and viewing of pictures. Just like with its Diamond predecessor, HTC literally outdid itself when developing such an incredible level of touch and view interaction. Thanks to the innovative TouchFLO 3D interface, HTC Touch Pro is very much comparable with the iPhone in terms of the level of sophistication of the interface.

The screen is very responsive to the touch, and pretty much readable even when exposed to strong sunlight.

HTC Touch Pro's 3.2 Megapixel camera features autofocus and flash capabilities. As is the case with Diamond users as well, you don't have a dedicated camera key so, in order to be able to take pictures, you'll have to use the large D-pad. Still, there's a trick that you might like and that's the "Touch and press" function. Basically, you can take advantage of the autofocus function by touching the D-pad. After the camera is focused, pressing the button will actually take the picture.

Even if the fact that the device lacks a camera button placed on either of the two sides is a bit annoying, the innovation introduced by HTC, back when the Diamond smartphone was available on the market, makes it a worthy change. In terms of quality, HTC Touch Pro is a considerable improvement over its Diamond “brother.” The plastic placed on the lenses of the Diamond, which was also the reason why pictures were sub-mediocre, has been eliminated. In fact, as you can notice form the sample pictures, the camera does way above-average snapshots. The 3.2 Megapixel camera of Touch Pro can be considered one of the best ever embedded in an HTC smartphone. The interface of the camera is rich in settings, with functions such as Brightness, White Balance, and Effect. Macro mode can also be used with ease, without the need of actually selecting the macro mode available.

Movies can be recorded in MPEG4 formats, but you will only get CIF mode recording at 30fps (352x288 pixels). You can even use the secondary camera placed on the front of the phone to take pictures of yourself. Overall, the camera is one of the pleasant surprises offered by HTC to its fans. Now, if only it also featured the geotagging function, it would have been perfect. Nevertheless, I believe that the Taiwanese company is taking into consideration all the feedback it receives from users, and further improves its devices.

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