My Verizon Wireless HTC Touch Pro 2 Review

[Gamer03]

What Was Included in the Box:

1. HTC Touch Pro2
2. Standard Li–Ion Battery (1500 mAh)
3. SIM Card pre–installed
4. AC Charger
5. Mini USB Cable
6. International Adaptor Clips
7. Spare Stylus
8. VZAccess Manager CD
9. Getting Started CD (Includes User Guide)
10. RF Brochure
11. Read First Poster
12. Quick Reference Guide


My First Impressions:

1. Slightly thicker device than my BB Storm.

2. The HTC Touch Pro2 is well built and of high quality. The device seems very sturdy.

3. The speaker phone is very loud. The new Straight Talk Speakerphone with built-in dual Microphone is outstanding. To activate it, all you need to do is set the phone face down (so the screen is touching the table) and it comes on and is quite loud.

4. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard is a lot more responsive and feels more natural than my old Mogul or AT&T Tilt. This is probably one of the best QWERTY keyboards that I have used.

5. Loud ring volume and overall sound quality due to the built-in dual speakers.


Pros:

1. The call quality is better than my BB Storm.

2. The reception is excellent. I have noticed that the db readings are either the same or slightly better than my BB Storm. I was able to make and receive calls in a trouble area (inside of Borders which has very thick construction) where all carriers have problems due to an overall weaker coverage area in town. My Storm would not be able to dial out in the back of the store or receive a 3G data signal. The Touch Pro 2 can now do both in the exact same spot of the store.

3. The earpiece is very loud especially at the highest setting.

4 The Speaker is very loud and clear. This is one of the best speaker phones that I have had in a cell phone. The new Straight Talk technology is outstanding. If you put the screen face down on a table, it will automatically go into speaker-phone mode.

5. The processor is faster and applications seem to switch faster than they did in my previous phones (Storm and AT&T Tilt). The phone also has less freeze ups and less lag than my AT&T Tilt did.

6. Great form factor. Even though the device seems bulky, it fits easily into my hand and is comfortable to hold. I also have no problem fitting it into my shorts pocket.

7. The 3.6" Tilt, touch-sensitive display with 480x800 pixel WVGA resolution is outstanding. It is a big step up from my Storm that had a 3.2” screen.

8. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard is the best keyboard that I have ever used. It is very responsive, comfortable to type on (especially longer texts or emails), and feels very sturdy.

9. The vibrate setting is stronger than my BB Storm.

10. The battery life is excellent considering that I have it on all day and it downloads emails throughout the day (via Seven beta [see Third Party Applications below]). The battery life is better than my Storm.

11. The standalone GPS is very good. I can find my location in a relatively short amount of time.

12. Setting up email accounts was easy. I am running the free Seven beta with my main Gmail and main business account and both accounts take advantage of having instant push email support.


Cons:

1. The camera does not have a flash.

2. The phone can only handle running so many apps in the background before becoming sluggish. This is not that big of a deal to me since I am usually only running a few apps at a time.

3. The device is bigger than my Storm. I, however, have gotten used to it and now it does not seem bulky at all.


What Was Easy to Do:

1. Blue tooth pairing with my Motorola H700 and my Kenwood DDX512 6”+ touch screen with added blue tooth.

2. Syncing my Outlooks contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, and notes via Windows Mobile Device Center.

3. Setting up my email accounts via Seven beta (a free beta push email program).


Third Party Applications Installed:


Software needed for the following programs:

Microsoft .NET CF 3.5 (This free program is needed in order to run many of the programs below).


Web browsers:

Skyfire browser (A free browser with flash support)

Opera 9.7 beta (In my opinion, this is the best free browser for the TP2. It is more finger-friendly to use than the built-in Opera 9.5).


Communication:

Seven (A free beta push email that supports most major email accounts. I have my Gmail set up as my main account and my main GoDaddy hosted business account for my other account). The emails come through instantly and Seven beta is a much better program/service than Google Sync (since that has been usually delayed by a few minutes or more for me and is not “push” email in my opinion).

IM+ All-in-One Mobile Messenger for WM PPC (This paid program supports chats within AIM/iChat, MSN/Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, MySpace, Facebook IM, and now Twitter right from your Pocket PC in real-time).

Facebook (This is a free program. This is a nice application that has a good amount of features. It is not a push application, however, since you need to refresh the page to view the latest friends updates).

MoTweets (This is a free program that has ads. There is a paid version with no ads. I have not used the program yet since I just signed up recently for a free Twitter account).


Navigation:

Google Maps (A nice free mapping application)


Utilities:

Total Commander (A free program that is a file browser, text editor, and registry editor)

Change Screen (A free program that helps auto rotate your screen according to the built-in G-sensor).

Batti (This is a free program that displays a battery bar gradient across the top of the today screen. To view the remaining percentage, simply click the gradient bar at the top of the screen).

Shake and Save (A free screen capture program. You launch the program, select the format to save the pictures in [I used jpeg] and then start it and shake the phone carefully [be careful you don’t drop your device] like you do with a pair of dice to save the image on your phone’s screen).


Entertainment:

SlingPlayer Mobile 1.6 PPC (This paid program lets you watch live TV from your connected Slingbox-enabled TV).


HTC Touch Pro 2 screen shots while using Shake and Save (There are a few things to notice in the following two pictures. First, if you look in the top right corner in the following two images you will notice newer Verizon phones are starting to now say "3G" when you are in a high-speed data area instead of the older "EV" symbol. Second, if you look at the top of the screen shot in the following two images you will notice a multi-colored bar across the screen [this the Batti bar]):


Best speed test in a 3G Rev. A area near the downtown (In a well covered area, I range from 1.3 Mbps to my personal highest of 1.991 Mbps. In a lower signal area, I range from 400 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps):




WA00 Main Home page:




Pictures Taken with My HTC Touch Pro2:


Sunset with outdoor low light conditions:




My family's ecotour bus with outdoor bright light conditions:




Ten Thousand Islands in the Everglades National Park with outdoor bright light conditions:




Pumpkins on sale with indoor bright light conditions:

[Mobile Mike]

Outstanding review Erik. WOW!!!

I can't get over the quality of the pictures you took with the phone. Looks great to me coming from a smartphone.

Thank you for this review as I'm nearing my NE2 upgrade window (11/25) and have been considering the Touch Pro 2 (my favorite so far), plus the Motorola Droid. Your review answered many questions I had about the TP2.

Please update how it's going with the phone, as I'm curious to find out about your long-term experience with the phone.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by Mobile Mike

Outstanding review Erik. WOW!!!

I can't get over the quality of the pictures you took with the phone. Looks great to me coming from a smartphone.

Thank you for this review as I'm nearing my NE2 upgrade window (11/25) and have been considering the Touch Pro 2 (my favorite so far), plus the Motorola Droid. Your review answered many questions I had about the TP2.

Please update how it's going with the phone, as I'm curious to find out about your long-term experience with the phone.

Thanks Mike. I also think the quality of the pictures is good. I wish the camera had a flash, but I really don't miss it that much. The Droid does look like a nice phone. My next phone may have to be an Android phone depending on what is available when the upgrade is due towards the end of next year. I really like my Touch Pro 2 phone. I miss having push email like I did on my BB. Now that I downloaded the awesome Seven beta program, I have filled the push email void. I basically have the best of both worlds (the greater variety of programs available on WM as well as the ability to "customize" the device, and the instant push email aspect of the BB while using the Seven beta program).

I am hoping that WM 6.5 Verizon update comes out soon, but from what I have heard most are saying that it may not come out until the end of the year or early next year. I also want to test the new Windows Marketplace app when WM 6.5 becomes available on the VZW HTC TP2.

If you belong to XDA Developers, there is a good thread going where you could find good programs for the Touch Pro 2 (Software worth installing on the TP2 *Continuously Updated, links in thread* [Oct 16] - xda-developers). This is where I found a lot of my programs.

[Mobile Mike]

I'm not a member of XDA Developers, but I will keep it in mind. If I get this phone I'd definitely want to "app" it up some with useful tools.

I have to say I'm excited about all these awesome phones coming out for Verizon just as I reach my upgrade eligibility.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by Mobile Mike

I'm not a member of XDA Developers, but I will keep it in mind. If I get this phone I'd definitely want to "app" it up some with useful tools.

I have to say I'm excited about all these awesome phones coming out for Verizon just as I reach my upgrade eligibility.

You will have to look into XDA Developers. I really like the site. A lot of useful phone specific information. Verizon is starting to come out with a lot of cool devices. I hope they keep coming out with cutting edge devices in the future.

[budney]

Nice review Erik! It pretty much sums up my Sprint TP2 experience so far. The unlocker for the CDMA TP2 should be out very soon. You will then be able to have nice fast & lean 6.5 ROM on your TP2.

[Gamer03]

Wirelessly posted (HTC Touch Pro2: Opera/9.7 (Windows Mobile; PPC; Opera Mobi/35166; U; en) Presto/2.2.1)

Originally Posted by budney

Nice review Erik! It pretty much sums up my Sprint TP2 experience so far. The unlocker for the CDMA TP2 should be out very soon. You will then be able to have nice fast & lean 6.5 ROM on your TP2.

Thanks for letting me know, budney. I can't wait. Verizon usually tends to be slow when releasing software updates.

[budney]

All carriers are slow at releasing updates for WM. They are normally so slow that the updates never come, because the next device is soon to be released.

[budney]

HSPL/Unlocker (free) along with the SIM Unlocker ($17) was released yesterday.

Make sure you read everything carefully!!!

RhodiumW CDMA Worldphone HardSPL Unlocker Release - PPCGeeks

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by budney

HSPL/Unlocker (free) along with the SIM Unlocker ($17) was released yesterday.

Make sure you read everything carefully!!!

RhodiumW CDMA Worldphone HardSPL Unlocker Release - PPCGeeks

Thanks budney. I was reading about it this morning when I got up at 7 am. I will be running the HSPL shortly. I am reading over the instructions now. I am looking at the Mighty ROM. Which ROM do you recommend?

[budney]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

Thanks budney. I was reading about it this morning when I got up at 7 am. I will be running the HSPL shortly. I am reading over the instructions now. I am looking at the Mighty ROM. Which ROM do you recommend?

If you want to flash now Mighty's ROM is good, the only issue is the Manila "My Location" doesn't work very well. Other then that it is stable, quick, and well thought out. Also Juggalo_X's ROM is good too, I helped him beta test it. It is very standard right now, but it too is quick and stable. I am waiting to try JD's ROM. His are fast and very barebones, but will take a few revisions to perfect.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by budney

If you want to flash now Mighty's ROM is good, the only issue is the Manila "My Location" doesn't work very well. Other then that it is stable, quick, and well thought out. Also Juggalo_X's ROM is good too, I helped him beta test it. It is very standard right now, but it too is quick and stable. I am waiting to try JD's ROM. His are fast and very barebones, but will take a few revisions to perfect.

Thanks for the recommendations, budney. I just installed EnergyROM "Leo" Build 21864 Standard Manilla 2.5 (11-2-09 Update) on my TP2. I had his earlier version installed for the past few days. This is a good version and has nice eye candy enabled on it. I tried Mighty's ROM and ran into the same issue as you did. I will take a look at the other two ROM's that you mentioned.

[budney]

Glad you found a ROM you like. If manila 2.5 had full landscape support I might try EnergyROM. I am very surprised that mightly's ROM has that issue. He is very conservative with his ROMS he releases to the public.