So I just my
HTC Touch Pro from sprint store in DC on Dec 24th. It is a new smartphone from High Tech Computer Corporation of Taiwan.
ROM version 1.03.651.4
Build Date 11/11/08
First, I'll post my conclusion first, then the details.
Conclusion: holy ^$&#*# this is the greatest thing I've ever owner or seen, my life up until this moment has been lived just to experience the HTC Touch Pro.
Review Details
Basically, this all started when I saw that Sprint was offering a 450 minutes + unlimited data plan for $69.99 a month (this includes sprint nav GPS services, internet, mail, text messages, EVERYTHING) This plan is cheaper than what my current plan was, so I switched. Then I glanced at my phone, a
KRZR and realized it would not be able to fully take advantage of the data plan. So I began hunting for a smartphone.
I've never owned a smartphone before, so I was intimidated. I looked at the iphone, blackberrys etc. But the HTC Touch Pro really got to me. It has a beautiful interface, the touchflo 3d interface made by HTC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pENEldRxuwQ
That is the default touchflo interface, I modified mine to look like this:
I like my modified interface MUCH better than the stock interface..but I'll return to that topic later.
The phone has a full keyboard, which I love! I tried typing on iphone, its so annoying. This phone runs on Windows Mobile 6.1, which is a pretty boring-looking OS but it lets you do SO much.
Thanks to the developer community at
http://forum.xda-developers.com and
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com i was able to change many things about the phone to make it way better. I even loaded a UI called iFOnz that turns the device into an iphone clone, just for laughs:
What I love
- Full, easy to type on keyboard
- Touchflo 3D
- Opera Browser is fantastic
- VGA high res screen
- No need for Stylus
- It has a stylus
- ability to heavily modify, device is not as padlocked as iphone
- Sprint GPS with turn-by-turn directions, extremely fast lock and accurate
- Built in AIM, Yahoo, MSN chat clients that parse URLs
- Weather animations in touchflo 3D
- SD card can be hot swapped
- Came with high quaility screen protector, tons of accessories
- Phone is tiny!
- Phone is FAST, it really feels like a handheld laptop capable of just about anything
- installing and uninstalling programs is very very easy
What I didn't love, but managed to fix within 24 hours
- Low speaker volume in phone calls (loaded a tweaked sound modification, now its PERFECT)
- Slow SD card navigation
- Sprint branded UI (I removed sprint logo and all sprint crap)
- Locking is boring (I loaded a slide-to-unlock program just like iphones feature)
- Screen does not always rotate (loaded a file to make this work in everything except touchflo 3D)
- Did not come with car charger (bought one for $7)
- Boring looking contact list (loaded iContact for an iphone-like contact list)
- File explorer does not give you the kind of power you'd need to copy lots of files, rename etc.
- Calendar is boring
- Opera kept taking me to mobile versions of website
What I didn't love but I can't fix
No headphone jack without a USB adaptor
So once you remove the stuff I didn't like since I fixed it with programs, then theres only one tiny thing I don't love, the no headphones thing. I dont plan on storing a ton of music on here though but it would be nice to have the jack without the usb adapter.
A lot of people felt the phone was thick, not me. This is my first smart phone so maybe people are used to other thinner phones, but the keyboard makes me so happy. I really really really love the GPS. The phone is beautiful and worth every penny. If you are considering a smartphone this is the one for you, you can get it really cheap at bestbuy until dec 25 with a new account and 2-year contract, or at a sprint store. To me, this is the iPhone killer. But then again I can understand that many people don't want to go around to forums installing applications to modify their phone and prefer it just works out of the box without much hassle.
Here is another good video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecvGg8qgq5o