Touch Pro - Business Users Perspective

[SporkLover]

I was a Mogul fan long before I bought the touch pro, and a Apache fan before that. Mainly for the business functions.

Even with all of the latest and greatest Roms, hacks, tweaks, updates my mogul left me wanting. HTC designed a great product, but the Windows Mobile interface was lacking, and the overall I the Mogul was buggy and it lacked RAM. We all know the Mogul's story, so let's talk about the Touch Pro and what I will primarily use it for, business.....

Improvements:

1. Form Factor - The Touch Pro did what I hardly thought needed to be done on my previous phones, but it did and I can see why its an improvement..... that is the Screen is flush with the front surface of the phone.

It is a small thing but it brings more usuable space to the phone from someone with bigger fingers.

2. Mo Memory Mo Better!!! - I will go out on a limb here and say that for most user's the memory is wasted horsepower. Doubling what the Mogul had would have suited most folk's purpose. But periodically I have to open and review rediculously large and graphics intensive power point presentations, large spread sheets, and even LONG word documents. On my mogul I have had a document take no less than 30 minutes to open, just to tell me memory error and crash! Not so on the touch pro, and the documents open faster too!

Obviously there are other pluses when it comes to More memory, such as multi tasking. I can have multiple memory intensive programs open at once!

3. Better resolution - Quick and dirty here.... I can fit more information clearer on the screen.

For the seeing challenged this might be more of an annoyance than a plus. No offense intended. There are just some that have a tough time reading small fonts.

4. TF3d - This interface does wonders for the phone. It does leave room for improvement, mainly in the ability to customize it (Re-order tabs, and delete tabs... I do not need sprint TV or music). It makes it easier for one hand use..... I do not find myself using the stylus much at all. The stride to making it a finger friendly interface makes my life so much easier.

I am sure some of this is because of the better resolution as well.

5. Opera Mobile - This is more a software thing than the hardware.... but Opera mobile is such a great product and I am glad it is the main browser on the Touch Pro. Way better than skyfire, miles ahead of PIE.

I spend a great amount of time doing internet surfing type things for work, and this is by far the best browser I have ever used on a WM platform.

6. Overall Stability - My Mogul required one soft reset a day because of the awful memory leaks. Even with minimal programs loaded on it, it leaked until it crashed. Not so with the Touch Pro. Going on one weekend of use here and not a soft reset required.

7. Less Hard buttons - This may seem like a Con for most folks, but it cleans up the phone, and cuts down on accidental program launches.

With the mogul I was able to map all of the programs I wanted easy access to, to any number of buttons (there were a ton on the mogul!). The interface was clunky, and hard buttons made it easier to get to the program rather than navigating the OS to get to the shortcuts.

With the touch pro, the UI is so finger and user friendly you don't have to have all of the buttons. Sure it's not a button away, but navigating the OS is no longer clunky. Everything is available at the swipe of the finger!

8. Dpad and Scroll wheel have been merged: I love the DPAD / Scroll wheel being merged. I use it a ton!

9. More bluetooth profiles supported! : One great feature of my car is the ability to sync a phone to it by bluetooth and to do all kinds of neat things hands free or through my Navigation screen. One of those things was to access my phone book and place a call without touching my phone. Awesome feature because I would never have to pull my phone out of my pocket / briefcase / holster while in the car. That can be an interesting bit of aerobatics sometimes....

Well previous Sprint WM PPC's did not support the PAB, or Phonebook Access bluetooth profile.... so I never enjoyed it until now.

Thank you HTC!

10. Worldcard Mobile - Wonderful piece of software included with this Phone. Takes OCR pictures of business cards and add them to contacts. Yesss...


Sustains from previous Phone Models:

1. Flexible OS and computing platform. Windows Mobile is IMO the best mobile computing OS out there because of it's flexibility and the ability to customize.

2. Supports my favorite apps, and well..... WMWIFI and Skype.

3. Great storage device for storage and management of contacts, numbers, etc etc etc.

4. Personal Organizer and ability to synch with computer! Yes. Ogg Sync is awesome too.



Improvements:

1. Switching from Landscape to portrait Lag - Come on guys there is still a lag here.... not as bad as with my Mogul but why isn't this solved yet?

Is it a WM issue?

2. Add more modularity to TF3D!!!!!!!

3. While battery life is not terrible, it sure leaves room for improvement!


Recommendation:

This phone makes strides ahead of it's predecessor and is worth an upgrade for the business user. Right out of the box.... no hacks or tweaks. Many of the usability issues have been addressed.

I cant wait to see what the Modders bring to this platform

[jbbosu]

I agree with you on most, but I am an avid fan of Skyfire, especially compared to Opera..they really need to step up their game (flash, speed, etc).

Granted, skyfire doesn't support VGA yet haha. I'm sure it would only run that much better on my TP compared to my old mogul.

[SporkLover]

Originally Posted by jbbosu

I agree with you on most, but I am an avid fan of Skyfire, especially compared to Opera..they really need to step up their game (flash, speed, etc).

Granted, skyfire doesn't support VGA yet haha. I'm sure it would only run that much better on my TP compared to my old mogul.

Skyfire annoys me with the requirement to click on an area to zoom in and then click on the link. If I could just zoom in with the scroll wheel like I can with Opera... then I could think about going back to Skyfire.

[jbbosu]

Originally Posted by SporkLover

Skyfire annoys me with the requirement to click on an area to zoom in and then click on the link. If I could just zoom in with the scroll wheel like I can with Opera... then I could think about going back to Skyfire.

Yah that is an issue..plus the rendering is kind of slow (at least it was on the mogul). However, let's remember that it's in BETA lol.

On a side note, any notice that the new skyfire beta is buggier than the first?

P.S. - Hurry up and make a VGA version!

Ok, sorry for hi-jacking the thread!

[blazin-asian]

i hope its just the bloated ROM that is creating the keyboard slide out lag. i also notice that there is a slight lag when typing sometimes.

like the Mogul, it kinda sucked at launch but once the ROMs came out its true potential came out!

also, i would really like to start using the PPT presentation software once i get my hands on some AV cables. this seems like a super cool feature and would like to see the looks on peoples faces when i bring the phone up the podium instead of my laptop like the rest of the suckers

[drexappeal]

Easiest way to explain it is, this phone is what I wanted when I first got my Mogul. Small, portable, pocketable, powerful and functional for business needs.

There are more bugs in this phone than I had with my mogul, but I'm sure they'll all be fixed at somepoint. Love the phone and I haven't even used it much yet.

What a great b'day present to myself.

[TurboFool]

This phone is nearly everything the Mogul was not. And the ability to occasionally hit the task manager and be shocked by the long list of running programs while still having 60% of my memory left makes it infinitely more usable. Only complaint so far that DOES impact business use is the battery. I'm afraid I'm going to be at 20% by 2:00 just like I was with the Mogul before I got my extended battery. THAT makes it very hard. But once I get one of those I'll be good to go.

[SporkLover]

Originally Posted by TurboFool

Only complaint so far that DOES impact business use is the battery. I'm afraid I'm going to be at 20% by 2:00 just like I was with the Mogul before I got my extended battery.

I've never really had an issue with the Mogul battery, and I don't predict I'll have one with the TP either. I know the expected continuous use battery life so I always have the ability to charge the phone handy, and I charge it was often as I can.