After spending a few minutes with it, there's no question to us that the
Touch Pro is HTC's most impressive handset to date (even
if you count the
Xperia X1). Okay, the phone is still a bit thick (roughly the same as a
Tilt), and there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but it's got a very small footprint and a very comfortably proportioned keyboard. We can also really definitely appreciate the lengths HTC is going to trying to make Windows Mobile a bit less doggish these days -- but were they to spice up the Touch Pro with a capacitive touchscreen and Android, HTC
might just have a game-changer on their hands.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ari @ Aug 11th 2008 5:24PM
It looks quite thick compared to the Iphone but when i looked up the dimensions and they are the same as my SMT5800 i am amazed. Everything looks so more spaced out, and I just cannot see giving up a real keyboard. I have to think this phone will do really well for all three major providers
Drew @ Aug 11th 2008 5:26PM
As always HTC (and the carriers who lower the specs... cough cough Verizon cough cough) don't push technology enough (capacitive screen would be really nice...), and thus they will never beat "Apple" in the main stream.
Derek @ Aug 12th 2008 10:50AM
Too bad Apple doesn't "push" technology, it just has an insane hype machine.
matthew @ Aug 12th 2008 1:41PM
"never beat apple in the mainstream"???
HTC's first touch device beat the original iPhone in sales. And HTC's overall sales would completely crush Apple's sales figures for it's iPhone line, so please think before you talk!
ar @ Aug 13th 2008 7:50PM
can't wait untill it comes out on sprint !!!!!!!!!!
Russ @ Aug 11th 2008 5:34PM
No touchscreen???
How could they!!!
Jared @ Aug 11th 2008 6:04PM
It has a touch screen
I thought it was going to be thinner than that. The X1 is 1mm thinner, this should be same thickness.
Also what about radios? Only triband UTMS and GSM? Disappointing. If the X1 had an accelerometer I would have a lot less to think about for my next phone.
Charles Chun @ Aug 11th 2008 6:30PM
From Wikipedia: (i wasn't sure what it meant)
Capacitive
A capacitive touchscreen panel is coated with a material, typically indium tin oxide that conducts a continuous electrical current across the sensor. The sensor therefore exhibits a precisely controlled field of stored electrons in both the horizontal and vertical axes - it achieves capacitance. The human body is also an electrical device which has stored electrons and therefore also exhibits capacitance. When the sensor's 'normal' capacitance field (its reference state) is altered by another capacitance field, i.e., someone's finger, electronic circuits located at each corner of the panel measure the resultant 'distortion' in the sine wave characteristics of the reference field and send the information about the event to the controller for mathematical processing. Capacitive sensors can either be touched with a bare finger or with a conductive device being held by a bare hand. Capacitive touchscreens are not affected by outside elements and have high clarity. The Apple iPhone is an example of a product that uses capacitance touchscreen technology.
Capacitive sensors work based on proximity, and do not have to be directly touched to be triggered. In most cases, direct contact to a conductive metal surface does not occur and the conductive sensor is separated from the user's body by an insulating glass or plastic layer. Devices with capacitive buttons intended to be touched by a finger can often be triggered by quickly waving the palm of the hand close to the surface without touching.
Ryan @ Aug 11th 2008 6:45PM
Why is everyone so obsessed with Android when no one has actually seen it in use on any major device? Is everyone just a Google fanboy?? I don't understand.
MBN @ Aug 11th 2008 6:44PM
I was really looking forward to this one, but it's so FAT! Too bad. Oh well, I'm not sure T-Mobile was going to get this one within a reasonable time, given the 3 band radio and T-Mobile's unfortunate 3G frequency handicap.
TheGasMan @ Aug 11th 2008 7:56PM
So HTC creates the most advanced smartphone to hit US shores, but it's still not good enough for Engadget because it runs Windows Mobile. *sigh*
Bkultra @ Aug 11th 2008 8:11PM
Not sure what review you read, but they seem to like this device. They even give credit to the fact HTC is trying to improve the over all lack of appeal that WM has. I don't care for WM myself but I also love what HTC is doing to help in this area.
SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Aug 12th 2008 2:31AM
well you made a good point, Engadget doesn't like winmo. now if only Microsoft would start making good software, people would start liking it. thats probably why microsoft missed its winmo sales by 2 million (plus people are jumping to iphone in flocks)
Blad3 @ Aug 12th 2008 3:02AM
good thing these "flocks" are also the ones with shitty 3g coverage, and phones cracking right and left.
SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Aug 12th 2008 3:12AM
ohh? haha and i guess you and your brilliant mind have traveled all over the world to check the coverage everywhere?
where do you get these ideas dude... THINK before you speak.
kk? thx :)
Brien @ Aug 12th 2008 1:41PM
Windows Mobile may suck, but the core kernel isn't bad. PointUI is a good example of a WiMo shellish thing done right. Technically speaking, it's much better than what HTC offers.
Blad3 @ Aug 12th 2008 9:51PM
oh really superstupiderik? why then can i go on over to cnet where they have an article stating they want all the people who are having shitty 3g service to start mailing them in because of the pronounced assbackwards design of the iphone? hell even the apple forums are reporting this problem in the masses. get your head out of your ass and do your own research.
Slater @ Aug 26th 2008 3:05AM
You made me laugh out loud. Just caught my eye as I was about to exit. Bravo my brother......Bravo.
Sarig @ Aug 11th 2008 7:56PM
This is the phone I'm buying if I can manage to hoard enough cash for it. Food can be down-prioritised, right? And who needs electricity?
*wants*
Student Driver @ Aug 13th 2008 1:45AM
Just take your phone and your broke ass to the library and charge it off of their computers. Besides, you're forgetting various bodily fluids you could probably sell too.
Ditto on this phone, as I use my T-Mo Dash as a regular browser (more of a Google Reader "portal device"), email and general messaging gizmo, GPS w/ bluetooth puck, and a couple other things. I want to use it as a media device but the Dash just isn't fast enough to swing it, but that's where this one comes in. The iPhone is so heavily crippled for what I do (a ton of bluetooth file transfers, along with stereo and AVRCP, no video or MMS) that it never ranked anyway.
thequinox @ Aug 11th 2008 11:01PM
I don't think I would want a capacative touch screen. I like my stylus thank you. Also, this is one of the first phones to support TV out. Yes, TV out. That means you can load movies on to the microSD card and play them back at a friends house. I might not need my Gmini 402 anymore...
henry @ Aug 11th 2008 11:30PM
im never going to buy another device that uses some idiotic proprietary connector for headphones. what's the point of making a multimedia-centric device that's small and portable... and you have to carry around a dongle if you want to hear decent sound from it? give me a break HTC. you used to include seperate headphone jacks, now it's all this silly adapter nonsense.
TheJalAbides @ Aug 12th 2008 12:54AM
Dude, seriously.
SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Aug 12th 2008 2:33AM
exacly.. why make it a music phone that doesnt connect to average headphones? lol
there has to be a smartphone that does though... a smartphone that has a beautiful built in ipod.. and synces to Itunes.. oh yeah iphone does that! :)
Duncan @ Aug 12th 2008 12:03PM
"why make it a music phone that doesnt connect to average headphones? lol"
You mean like the first iPhone with it's recessed socket that also needed an adaptor for most headphones? Or both versions that can't even support A2DP and thus wireless stereo headsets?
SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Aug 12th 2008 2:10PM
do you have a point? Apple fixed that already LOL!
Duncan @ Aug 12th 2008 2:39PM
"do you have a point? Apple fixed that already LOL!"
In the second generation model they managed the remarkable feat of providing a socket that can be used by any headphone. Wow. Next they'll be adding cut and paste or Flash.
They still haven't added A2DP though - something that pretty much every smartphone has had for several generations now.
You were the one who attacked HTC for not having the headphone connection abilities of other smartphones, so it seems only fair to point out that both iPhones have lacked such features, with the Touch Pro at least havibg A2DP.
SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Aug 12th 2008 9:53PM
a2dp??
wtf.. if it was important, iphone would have it. stop writing letter and numberes together and pretending they are real
Blad3 @ Aug 13th 2008 1:35AM
wow you're a fucking idiot. wiki is your friend.
Eludium-Q36 @ Aug 12th 2008 12:45AM
Most Pathetic Hands On EVER!
Ryan, what's with the Android fan-boy idiocy ?! It's not even out, there's no user specs, and it'll be a pathetic v1.0 whenever it does come out. Park your WM attitude and do some authentic reporting, ok ?! Now, you can't tell from the photos nor the scant writeup but is the Home screen in color or just shades of gray ? How can you not even mention its TouchFlo 3D interface and its performance ?! I don't understand such rookie reporting on a highly anticipated handset. Please get a grown up (or your legal guardian) to do another, more indepth review that's actually useful to the intelligent engadgetmobile audience. Jeez...
SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Aug 12th 2008 3:15AM
do you call everything you disagree with "fanboyism" ?
prolly, cuz it makes you think your argument is right.
htc sucks! dumb htc fanboy!
see, its easy to copy you :)
3DFreek @ Aug 12th 2008 8:06AM
dude is right... I've been waiting for this and the Samsung Omnia with baited breath (can't breath well) All I want to read about is an objective view of the product. I don't care that you like iPhone or Blackberry or whatever... glad you have the choice. For me as a developer for winmo I will always need the winmo choice and these two phones are what I want to read about... Give me details.
Why do the winmo haters even bother responding to this thread... It's not out officially yet... go back to your kool-aid
Brien @ Aug 12th 2008 3:23AM
It's obvious that "Engdaget" is in love with this phone, but who else is!?!
Honestly, way too much fanboy love in this article to handle, I almost lost my 4th meal.
Let's bash this phone by comparing it to the iPaq 910c...
This phone is THICK. The oldish recently released iPaq 910c is .5" thick (some sites wrongly reported .6"). The crapola Touch Pro is .7" ...That's like nasty Treo 800w thick (but even the Treo is thinner).
This phone's battery is too weak. 1350mah vs 1950mah in the iPaq 910c. VGA graphics + HDSPA sucks the battery.
...Both have GPS+WiFi+HSDPA+Stereo Bluetooth, so nothing new there. Of course, HP doesn't lock ANYTHING on the phone and they give away a stellar SDK, I consider that a big advantage.
iPaq only has a 2.5" 320x240. The screen size on the Touch Pro is
only 2.8" running at 640x480. ...Almost the same size screen, not quite as bright and really tiny pixels = worse screen. ...Of course, if you're one of those "smartphone" users who users their phone a few inches from the face your geeky life probably could use the higher resolution. ...But normal people (or those who don't want to look like idiots) don't want it.
No scrollerwheel on the crapola Touch Pro, the iPaq 910c has a scrollerwheel. I love scrollerwheels, everyone should have one.
It takes TWO hands to type quickly on the Touch Pro. It takes ONE hand on the iPaq 910c (granted, you have to have ninja fingers, which fortunately I do).
Last, but certainly not least, the president of HTC has stinky pants.
...HP's president also has stinky pants, but HP's present speaks better english and doesn't look like he's on drugs (sedatives) all the time.
HONESTLY PEOPLE, I don't think the iPaq 910c is the best phone ever.
I just think it's the best WiMo phone right now (mainly because of the awesome battery). ...But they could be SO MUCH BETTER. Let's all complain alot until WiMo devices are as sleek as their fruity counterparts.
TheGasMan @ Aug 12th 2008 8:11AM
I almost fell asleep reading your comment.
Anyway, the 910c isn't the same form factor, and I hate to break it to you, but the VGA display you don't think is important is exactly the reason so many people want to buy this.
As for "scrollerwheels", I believe there is a touch sensitive ring around the d-pad that can be used to scroll with.
All that being said, but I'm on a CDMA carrier so I can't have the 910c. If I ever switch over, I'd probably get the thing.
John @ Aug 12th 2008 4:32AM
Meh, I'm going for the Sony X1 instead.
Sin City @ Aug 12th 2008 7:30AM
I find it crazy how when Engadget shows another cellular phone some love, it's ridiculous fanboy love, but when every other article is about the fricken I-phone, which has been going on for about 2 years now, it's "Great article, Engadget" . It's obvious what type of group is complaining but I'll leave it alone. You would swear everybody in here was from New York, the way they in love with the "Big Apple".
Brien @ Aug 12th 2008 5:43PM
...Excuse me, have you used an iPhone?
I agree that Engadget goes fanboy crazy over lots of stuff (especially stupid HTC devices) but the iPhone is AMAZING.
Here's a few reasons why...
1) The screen is glass, it has an advanced touch screen and it has a 166DPI resolution and twice the brightness of any other phone.
2) The interface is fast/snappy, almost all the time. It actually works as advertised.
3) It's super tiny and cool looking.
4) It has VISUAL VOICEMAIL. I think all carriers should give you the option of emailing you voicemails. This isn't complicated or technically difficult, most VOIP solutions provide this at no charge.
5) It has a REAL webbrowser.
...I'm tired of listing bullet items, but those are huge things. If you can't admit the iPhone is amazing, you're an idiot.
The ONLY reason I don't own an iPhone is because I type a lot, and I refuse to buy something with a non-removable battery.
I enjoy the speed of a QUERTY keyboard (though I'd love to see a Dvorak option). I refuse to look at the keyboard while I'm typing, the iPhone isn't bad to type on, but you have to look at the keyboard the whole time. At this point I don't have to think when I type on my iPaq 910c, and it only took a few weeks to get here. ...Of course, I have ninja like fingers.
Namarrgon @ Aug 13th 2008 10:04AM
I have an HTC Hermes and an iPod Touch, and I use both (for different things). They're both great devices, and most of what you say is true - but I'll be buying one of these Touch Pros:
- Compact VGA screen (360 dpi baby)
- Stylus if you need it. Works great with copy/paste ;-)
- Multitasking! I really miss it on the iTouch.
- Real keyboard - type faster and you can still see all the screen :-)
- Real buttons - answer a call without looking
- Opera (a REAL webbrowser). Or NetFront or Deepfish or even pIE.
- Autofocus camera, A2DP, MMS, video etc etc etc
- WM6.1 is less buggy (can't believe I said that, but it's true)
- and of course, no arbitrary software restrictions :-)
The iPhone's UI is certainly slick - but it's also limiting. Form over function. WM can be ugly, but it'll do anything you need, and I *use* my phone.
mike k. @ Aug 12th 2008 8:53AM
Man thats fat, but i guess thats what you get when you need a full qwerty. I still like the touch diamond a little better. I just wish the versions coming out for sprint had a SD card slot like the pro does. That'd make it just about perfect.
I also wish I heard better things about WinMo devices.. While i read mixed reviews of people who love it and people who hate it, all of the people I've actually physically met who have winmo phones don't care much for them, which makes me want to shy away from it.
Sarig @ Aug 12th 2008 11:35AM
The memory card slot is really the big thing for me. If the diamond had that. I'd settle for it, instead of waiting for the pro. If I'm getting a phone in this price-class, I had better be able to have more than 4gb of media on it :)
DonDon @ Aug 13th 2008 4:03AM
lol? The iphone shouldn't even be compared to this, its not even a smartphone, just a few featured feature phone so stop hating on HTC.
Flash0111 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:42AM
Give it a few weeks guys... Price will eventually drop and if you're looking to tie yourself (think iPhone) then you can wait for (insert whatever beloved carrier) a subsidized version.
Not everyone uses unlimited amounts of data on their phone. I personally like to change my plans over time based on what I need / like. I don't like the idea of being tied to a 30$+ voice and 45$+ data / voicemail plan Robbers (rogers) offer me for their phones for the whole three years.
Anyhow, I fail to figure why EVERY phone must be compared to the iPhone to be successful.