Touch Pro Reviews

[Revelate]

I am a Mogul user who bought the Touch Pro as an upgrade and have very mixed feelings, mostly negative, about the Touch Pro. If any other Mogul users who have upgraded to the TP have insight or suggestions that would improve my experience, I'd love to hear your comments.

I really want to like the Touch Pro for the keyboard and screen improvements, but these are fairly minor hardware updates for Mogul users. The real pain is the usability of the phone itself. A little background on my Mogul experience is that I was very impressed with the Mogul after the stock Sprint WM6.1 update in August. WM 6.1 improvements, full GPS, great battery life and as stable as WM devices can get. Sure it is on the slow side and the limited memory required occasional application monitoring for memory usage, but those were pretty minor when compared to all the great features. And most importantly, everything just worked. The Touch Pro, so far, is a much worse experience.

Pros:
- Great hi-res screen
- (Mostly) good form factor
- 5 row keyboard is fantastic, especially for numbers and symbols

Cons overview (many more below):
- Battery life is horrible, can barely get 6 hours with average usage (Bluetooth on, ~2 hours of voice a day, 10-15 minutes of web browsing)
- Screen sensitivity is poor at the edges where the OK, Start Menu, scroll bar and soft keys are
- Either the screen, or the TouchFlo interface, or both, is horrendously inconsistent
- The TouchFlo interface itself, even if it worked properly, is almost completely useless

TouchFlo interface

Overview: This phone, combined with TouchFlo, has a disturbingly inconsistent and useless interface. Some of the worst offenses are:

- A home screen with a clock that covers half the display. Worthless. Even sliding it up to be a smaller clock, it still consumes too much real estate for the important information that any business user would want to see at a glance - a full day of calendar items, tasks, and shortcuts to commonly used apps.

- Poor integration with native Windows Mobile notifications.
Example #1 - The alarm clock. When an alarm goes off using the regular WM interface the two soft keys change to "Dismiss" and "Snooze". in TouchFlo, there's no screen pop or soft key options when the alarm goes off. Through trial and error I found that pressing the End button stops the alarm, but there's no snooze option.
Example #2 - Notifications (meeting reminders, new mail, etc). There is no screen pop or soft key to view and review system notifications. Instead it's a two-step process to select the icon bar at the top of the screen (if it works due to the lack of sensitivity on the screen edge) then select the notification icon. On the Mogul I just tapped the left soft key (which changes to Notification when appropriate) to view my reminders. Now it's a freaking job just to view them and I miss nearly all of my meeting reminders.

- Screen "sliding" in all applications.
Example #1 - Application bar. The app bar across the bottom of the screen is supposed to scroll if you grab any part of it and slide/flick across the screen. Instead it just selects the app that I first touched and opens it. It makes the entire application bar useless and I'm forced to click left and right on the D-pad. Why have a touch-centric interface when I can't use it???
Example #2 - Mail. When I'm viewing mail it defaults to showing the envelope with a message in it. I should be able to flick up and down to scroll through messages, but that only works about 70% of the time. The other 30% it opens the message that I was trying to skip by.
Example #3 - Calendar. No sliding, flicking, grabbing, available. Plain ol' WM Calendar, must use D-pad. Again, ts this suppose to be a touch-centric device or not??

Even without these problems, the interface itself is just poorly designed.

Physical design

Overview: I like the design. It's the right weight and size for its intended use as a slide-out smart phone. I could see the display benefiting from being just a little wider to accomodate the touch interface when used without a stylus, but it's still good. I don't find the design to be a significant advantage over the Mogul though... they share similar design characteristics.

The display is beautiful. It's bright and crisp. The resolution is so good that more text on web pages is legible which helps avoid time consuming zoom & scroll when scanning a web page.

The 5 row keyboard is great. I love using numbers without a function key, especially when typing passwords.

The flush-mount display is great for making full use of the screen all the way to the edge when not using the stylus.

The accelerometer, while present, rarely comes in handy with this phone. Only a couple of apps actually work with it (web browser, photo viewer) and in Opera it's incredibly slow to change from portrait to landscape and visa versa.

Even with some great hardware enhancements, the execution suffers greatly. It's definitely form over function. The chrome and black gets dirty and oily very quickly. The entire button section (D-pad and hard keys) is incredibly frustrating to use. There's a fine line between clicking the center of the pad, to clicking a direction on the pad (up/down/left/right) to clicking one of the 4 hard keys that surround the pad. I find myself trying to click right on the pad and getting the "back" key instead. If I move closer to the pad to click right, it clicks the center of the pad instead.

No dedicated soft keys. No Start key on the keyboard. No OK key on the keyboard. These are sorely missed. In contrast, the Mogul has all the "missing" keys, and also has a number of buttons around the entire case that are very useful. I use one for Comm Mgr to turn BT on and off. I use the other for voice commands, and yet another for opening a browser.

The battery life is junk. I can't get through a normal day without the phone dying around 2-3pm. Just not acceptable. The Mogul will go all day and half of the next before it dies.

Browser support

Overview: The Touch Pro includes Opera Mobile v9.5 as the default browser. This was one of the most exciting features for me as Opera Mobile didn't work on my Mogul due to the memory limitations... I got "out of memory" errors on every page, so I was "forced" to use Skyfire on the Mogul.

As it turns out, Skyfire is simply a better, faster browser for the mobile world. I was shocked at how slow Opera Mobile is when compared to Skyfire. The clarity of Opera is a little better than Skyfire, but I'll trade a bit of blur for a web site that opens in 3 seconds (Skyfire) vs 15 seconds (Opera).

While the Mogul doesn't work with Opera Mobile, I now know that I don't need Opera Mobile when I have Skyfire, thus removing one of the limitations I thought I had with the Mogul.

Summary

I am disappointed with the phone, mostly due to the TouchFlo interface and the lack of usability. I'm about 90% sure I will return it and go back to using the Mogul, but there's still a glimmer of hope that I (or Sprint, or HTC) can correct the worst issues and restore my faith in what I thought was going to be the "killer phone".

[PocketPcUser]

Yea, personally, I am thinking I may just stick with the Tilt. For the following reasons:

- Build Quality seems more like my 6700, which is important to me.
- Even though the Touch Pro has 150MB free RAM after soft-reset, I am sure I can still get about 70MB or so free with the Tilt. This is fine enough for me (128MB RAM for the Tilt.).
- TouchFlo3D is really nice and all, but it just isn't complete enough to make me want to use it all the time. Much needs to be worked on, before it is complete. Also, I prefer to use Spb Mobile Shell, and don't want to have a VGA screen anyways, because I am used to a QVGA screen. (This is really not a reason, but I am just not sure that I want this to be a selling point for me.)
- The many problems that are really important to me, that as of yet, hasn't been fixed, are:
1. Keyboard Backlight Timeout
2. TouchFlo Lag
3. Un-intuitive keyboard, that doesn't have many important buttons on it. (Even still, made a great investment a while back, in AEButtonb Plus, and am sure this will be a null-point.)
4. Even though there are programs out there, the options are still being developed for the Flo3D plug-in, and customizations to that software.

- The major things that I think will really get to me, are:
1. Hardware buttons and layout
2. "Plastic" contruction; I just don't think this thing could handle a bump in the road, while driving, even if it was in your pocket. (Mainly kidding, but still a major concern.)
3. Missing scroll-wheel, that was an innovation (for Windows Mobile Devices, at least) introduced with the Titan II and Mogul series. Why would they take a step backwards?


Still, I really like how they have a Ctrl key on the keyboard, and are finally making efforts in giving us more RAM. I think the most widespread issue for people, is the battery included. I would have thought they would cram more power, into that battery, since they still have a lot more room to hold a battery. Also, there should be some kind of controls for turning off Accelerometer, as I am sure this takes a lot of juice to be constantly running. It really isn't that well integrated into WM 6.1, but I think there are reasons why. WM6.5 and later will all have these features, integrated into the OS, and this is probably going to be the first device to get an upgrade to WM6.5. There is plenty of ROM and RAM to hold the newer OS.
Me rambling again.. Hopefully someone thought it was helpful at least. I'm more or less just thinking outloud, as I still can't make up a straight decision.

[bigwest]

This by far the best phone I've had in a while. I was an Original Sanyo user (from way back in the day) then I moved onto the ppc 6700, then the touch, then made the mistake of getting the Instinct (after having a PDA a "smart-phone" doesn't cut it)and luckily was taken care of by Sprint and got a deal on the Touch Pro!

I have not had any issues that most people have had. My Manufacturing date says 10/26/08 so it is not the batch that early Best Buy people received. My phone only gets hot while charging but NEVER in usage. The battery life has been descent for me better than my 6700 so I cant complain. I use it mostly during my hour lunch break and my commute to work and home and it is at 2 bars by the time I get home at 6pm (off the charge at 6 am). The screen has been pretty snappy for me. So far no lag issues as I have had with the Touch. I immediately the first day I received it downloaded my contacts, added S2u2 VGA, registry hack to stop "sent text message" alert pop up, and Opera browser hack to stop the mobile page only sites and added flash 3.1 to have flash work with Opera (works good but not as crisp and smooth as Skyfire). So far I have had no issues it has not had typical bad habits that my other winmo's have had. I LOVE the option between on screen and hardware keyboard, for emails I use the Hardware keyboard and for Quick texts i use the on-screen which seems to work great with t9. So bottom line is I love it no complaints ESPECIALLY AFTER COMING FROM THE INSTINCT!!! SO HOW CAN I POSSIBLY COMPLAIN LOL!!!

[furiousgtz]

just got this about hour ago from local sprint store they had last one stock. This phone is sick! from the phone charger (I like how the HTC logo it lights up) to the interface and performance is awesome I'm experience bit lag but I think I have to reboot again and remove sprint crapwares. I miss my Skyfire but Opera is acceptable. I love the accelerometer and that Teeter game is cool im sure they will have more games in future. I miss Mogul keyboard I think TP keyboard is bit small and the keys are very close together.
I hate that HTC velcro case i guess better than nothing.

[amw1972]

Had the phone for over 24 hours now, and I am loving my decision to move up in the world from my Mogul.

Love the additional RAM; love the voice command app already loaded in the phone; love TouchFlo3D (i've always been a sucker for eye candy); love the smaller footprint (palm print); enjoying the accelerometer esp after installing gyrator2; beautiful display; like the way the keys "stand up" more than the Mogul's even if it is smaller; it should be understood that the TP is an upgrade from the Mogul...not exactly ground breaking. If you loved your Mogul, you'll love a Touch Pro.

There are things that I want to gripe about...the heat (it gets HOT)...the OEM battery is unsat (but what smart device's stock batteries ever are?)...lacking for accessories for now...did I mention the heat issue? Anyway, for ME...the pros far outweigh the cons...so this one is a keeper.

[kphillips]

I really like this phone. I upgraded from the Mogul. I had that one customized the way I wnated it. I am trying to get this one done but I am having trouble. Even though I am not there yet I still LOVE this phone.

[kphillips]

I upgraded from the mogul. I Love this phone I think that was a good decision to upgrade. I at this point dhave no complaints about the phone.

[Unflushablelog]

I'm pretty sickened by some of the reviewers on CNET for the Sprint Touch Pro. They're rating this phone half a star out of five just because they're in love with their iPhones. They clearly don't know a thing about Windows Mobile or Sprint and the bias is appalling. "This phone doesn't have 3g" - quotes like that make me sick. Apparently, they have no idea what evdo rev A is... and don't realize our phones had it before the iPhone even came out. It's also obvious these douche bags skewed the "has this review been useful" option that cnet has for their reviews. Before this phone started getting noticed by people outside of ppcgeeks/xda, the reviews on cnet were much more realistic. I know i shouldn't care, but it's obvious iPhone users are bitter for some reason. That being said, this means war. Touch Pro vs iPhone users.

I say we band together and write positive reviews for this phone we've come to love in a short time. It's obviously much better than our previous devices and should'nt even come close to getting half a star! I mean, I love wm and don't like the iPhone, but i'd never give it a crappy rating like that.

Please go here and write a positive review, so people who aren't biased that are looking for a great business phone can rely on real feedback: http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/....html?tag=rnav

Also, please write a note on this thread about these iPhone fanboys that love to hate on our TP: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44752
Thank you.

[vtective]

I have had this phone for about two days, and love it. Especially after the two mods that I found on this site. The touch screen was much more responsive after I adjusted the finger pressure, and you can now actually hear the caller on the other end of the speaker.

I previously had a T-Mobile Shadow, which I was unsatisfied with due to the NEO interface, slow response time, and poor battery life. I like this much more than that phone, and the blackberry that I owned before it.

[jscher2000]

After 2 weeks, I'm torn. Screen is beautiful, speed is good, but...

I am used to the Treo line (600 and 650), so I have not been able to make my peace with the keyboards. The onscreen keyboards get in the way, while the slide-out keyboard requires frequent rotations of the phone because most displays are not optimized for "landscape mode." Rotating Opera Mobile from landscape to portrait (by closing the keyboard) regularly causes the entire page to "shrink to fit", which is completely dysfunctional. The landscape home screen doesn't have an icon for camera, and I have not found an easy way to change this. (There do seem to be some hard ways. )

I do have a problem with the earpiece sounding muffled or distorted, even at low volume. When I switch to the stereo earbuds, there is an audible background sound, almost like the white noise of noise canceling headphones. I plan to discuss these issues with Sprint in the very near future.

I've only locked up Windows Mobile a few times; I'd say stability is comparable to PalmOS. I find the TouchFlo 3D Mail screen to be more a hindrance than an aid to productivity, but when I turn off TouchPro and face the spartan native interface of WinMo, I feel a bit lost.

Question: How can one keep the keyboard backlighting on for a decent amount of time?

I am leaning toward a Windows based Treo (800w or pricey Pro). I certainly would miss the Touch Pro's display, and the dedicated number row, but I do think having a more compact thumb keyboard is faster, at least for me, and having some space between the keys improves ease of use.