HTC Touch Pro2 review: Out with a pro

Box contents are borderline passable

The HTC Touch Pro2 retail package may not have the spectacular shape of its predecessor's but contents are pretty much the same. This time HTC went for a classic shape and fairly large size.

Having previewed a bunch of other HTC handsets, we knew better than hope for a memory card inside. To put it mildly, HTC are letting everyone decide how big a card they need. As for accessories, HTC have launched quite a line of nice little extras for the Touch Pro2 to be purchased additionally, as was the case with the first Touch Pro.

The carrying case is the best part of the retail package

The items that ship with the Touch Pro2 are the familiar charger/USB cable combo, a set of wired headphones, a spare stylus and a CD with software of arguable use. Our favorite bit sure is the the leather carrying case for the Touch Pro2. There is also a bunch of leaflets and guides, along with a catalog of available accessories to order.

HTC Touch Pro2 360-degree spin

The formidable bulk of HTC Touch Pro2 stretches out to 116 x 59.2 x 17.3 mm with a total weight of 178.5 g. Now, we thought the original HTC Touch Pro was a handful but the Pro2 is on the verge of getting out of hand and back to TyTN II excess. The handset is definitely not a piece to just slip in a pocket and forget about.

As to weight - we are not saying it is entirely a bad thing as heavier phones tend to have this solid and reliable feel that we really like. Yet, 180 grams is probably too much, too dangerously close to the old-time heft of the TyTN II.

Design and construction

Now the HTC Touch Pro2 is definitely one hell of a looker when closed and just lying around. Shiny frame and big bright display, it sure will attract attention. Some of this positive impression will fade away once you hold it and the almost UMPC dimensions start to hit in. Still, the designers certainly deserve a pat on the back for the ergonomics of this heavy bloke.

The front view is impressive

The back panel of the Pro2 isn't quite as inspiring but we still like it better than the original Touch Pro. The immense faux loudspeaker grill seems to be the thing that bothers us here, plus the plastic seems prone to scratches. However, all comparison to the original is quite in favor of the Pro2. For one, the paint at the back of the original Touch Pro was peeling off ridiculously fast.

The front panel of HTC Touch Pro2 is almost completely taken by the huge 3.6" WVGA touchscreen display. The pixel count and good brightness levels add up to excellent picture quality.

The display is pretty impressive, even more so in WinMo terms

Just as any other WinMo handset, the HTC Touch Pro2 is able to show up to 65K colors on its display. We'll just say it yet again this isn't that much of a disadvantage compared to 16M-color displays. There are of course cases where this may potentially result in color banding in color gradients but that's hardly a frequently reported issue.

However the problem of sunlight legibility still stands. The HTC Touch Pro2 by far isn't the best device to have with you in the bright sun. We have to admit we do notice a slight improvement but it is far from enough.

On the other hand, the responsiveness of the display is just excellent. Even if it's a resistive unit, the Touch Pro2 touchscreen only needs a very gentle tap to register a command. We do realize that this may be partially attributed to the increased processing power or the optimization of the UI but it doesn't really matter as long as it works.

As we already mentioned, one of the coolest features of the Touch Pro2 display is that, unlike the original Touch Pro, it tilts to provide a better viewing angle when working with handset. It was a feature that was appreciated on the TyTN II and its absence on the HTC Touch Pro was curious.

As the HTC engineers wanted to increase the screen estate but still keep the handset within reasonable size, they had to take the four very large buttons of the Touch Pro and squeeze them at the bottom of the front panel, right on the edge. The touch-sensitive scroll wheel / regular D-pad combo was also dropped and replaced with the touch-sensitive zoom bar.

There are four keys and a zoom bar at the bottom

The zoom bar has basically the same functionality as the touch-sensitive overlay of the original Pro's scroll wheell. It can be used on images, web pages, messages, and doubles as a music control. We are delighted with the performance of the zoom bar, which responds immediately on almost every occasion.

At the other end of the front panel, right above the display we find the earpiece, the ambient light sensor and the secondary video-call camera along with the status LED.

Ambient light sensor, video-call camera and status LED above the display