MWC 2009: HTC overview

HTC Touch Pro2

From a portable stylish device the new reincarnation of the HTC Touch Pro is slowly making its way to UMPC. With a 3.6-inch WVGA slide-and-tilt screen, 17.5 mm of thickness and 175g of weight, it's surely one bulky device.

HTC Touch Pro2 all over

While big may be the correct word to describe the HTC Touch Pro2, ugly is definitely not. The new design of the Pro sequel has nothing to do with its predecessor, but is definitely eye-catchy.

The HTC Touch Pro2 sides

You will see the family resemblance to the HTC Touch Diamond2 though. There's no D-pad again, and there's the Zoom bar, which works as horizontal version of the original scroll wheel used in the past generation.

No D-pad again, room for the new Zoom bar

The QWERTY keypad of the HTC Touch Pro2 feels really solid and is generally nice to use except perhaps for the first row. The metallic finish reminds a lot the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 thumboard.

The solid in touch and feel QWERTY keypad of Pro2

You should bear in mind however that the HTC Touch Pro2 we are looking at is not 100% the final design. Changes are due to happen, and we only hope that they will be for the best.

Now you probably wonder how well the UI is scaled to work in landscape mode this time. Well, with the HTC Touch Pro2, the TouchFLO 3D home screen is fully functional with all its tabs. The only difference to the portrait mode is that the Tabs bar at the bottom gets hidden away automatically.

To display the Tabs bar back on screen, you use the little arrow on the left, right at the bottom. A single press on it, brings back the tabs bar for a short while, just enough for you to scroll to the needed tab.

Our only objection to the implementation here is that the Tabs bar disappears after the preset amount of time even if you are using it in the moment. Quite nasty, yes. We hope they fix that in the final version.

Both the HTC Touch Diamond2 and the Touch Pro2 come with the well known Opera 9.5 web browser, which works even better with the help of the new Zoom bar.

HTC Touch Pro2 browser in action

A new feature on the HTC Touch Pro is the second microphone at the nicely designed back of the device. It's part of the so-called Straight Talk technology and it's used for noise-cancelling purposes when using the phone in loudspeaker mode. The system turns your Touch Pro2 into a professional conference speakerphone and it can be controlled by the dedicated key on the back of the device.

The Straight Talk technology with the dedicated hardware key on the back

The HTC Touch Pro2 is a really nice device and it's staking a lot on improving business calls, creating virtual conferences and eases management of calls and appointments. We are eagerly awaiting for it to get a get polished so we can put it through our reviewing drill.

Here are some comparative images with the Apple iPhone 3G and a couple of them while holding the Pro2 in hand.

HTC Touch Pro2 compared with iPhone 3G • the Pro2 held in hand

Now breaking away from Windows Mobile for a change, the next page will present you the second Android-powered smartphone by HTC and definitely the first one without a QWERTY keyboard. We also have a little surprising visit from an exclusively Russian HTC device with some noteworthy specs.