Touch Pro 2 - A Work Horse. Not The Fastest But Still Pulls A Load.

This full physical QWERTY Windows phone is still a good choice even two years after its initial release. Powered by a Qualcomm 7200A 528 MHz processor backed up with 256 MB of usable RAM this device is ready to handle your communication chores. It makes excellent use of what it has.

The key is the full physical QWERTY keyboard. I have struggled with the keyboard on the Nokia N900 for a year and a half. I fell in love with the HTC implementation of this feature almost immediately. Large keys, good travel and excellent feedback make it stand out. Having a full five rows also makes it stand out. Visual indicators of use of the Shift and ALT key - super!

Next cool feature - The screen tilts up at an angle so you can look at it comfortably. The hinge has a solid feel to it and the screen stays put when you adjust it. The screen has a 480 x 800 resolution. It looks good. It is plenty bright, at times too bright. I had to adjust it down for some uses.

The basic phone functions are all well attended to. Solid microphone and ear piece. Noise cancellation on the speaker phone. A mute button on the speaker phone is also cool.

Office Mobile is one of the best features of this phone. I am able to e-mail files from work to my phone and then review, edit and save them at my leisure. There is a free upgrade to Office Mobile 2010 available once I loaded the Marketplace app.

Internet Explorer Mobile is a disappointment. At 480 x 800 I expected better rendering of websites with a lot less scrolling about to read. If anything is crying out for improvement on this device it is IE Mobile.

The touch screen is the main interface for the phone. I have used more sensitive touch screens. This one is resistive which means it is stylus friendly, fingernail friendly and fairly accurate. Portrait and landscape on-screen keyboards are available for most programs that need input. I find most of my frustration with this device comes from having to double or triple touch an icon to get some action. (This does not apply to the keyboards.) Sometimes that leads to activating the subsequent icon and then you have to navigate backward to get to what you wanted to do in the first place. The screen is flush to the sides of the device making scratches and mars inevitable. This is the second weakest point on this device.

The weakest point on this device is headphone jack, data port, charging port. They are all the same unprotected port. To listen with headphones while hooked up to the charger or computer you need a dongle about the size of a matchbox that plugs into the multi-port and then you plug into the dongle. The port also takes a proprietary 11 pin miniUSB cable. A regular miniUSB will do for charging and data transfer. The extra pins allow you to do all the stuff that should be on separate ports through this one port.

Internet Connectivity is easy via WCDMA Band IV or via wireless g connection. Most encryption schemes are supported so you can browse via your home or work network securely. Entering the passkey via the full keyboard is a snap. While you are on the Internet you can download your e-mails from work, or home, gmail, AOL, Yahoo and any SMTP/POP e-mail provider.

The camera is passable, as is the media player. I am used to the Nokia N900 so the size and heft of this was no surprise to me. If you are adapted to a Galaxy S you will notice the weight and thickness immediately. The battery cover is too easy to remove, falls off at times.

great features for the price

I have 4 of these phones. Most from eBay. The great thing is that with Sprint you can get a "data pack" for only $15/month that gives full Web access and other things. But you do not get TV or car navigation for that price.

If you look on YouTube, there are good sections on how to disassemble the unit and replace the parts. My son and daughter have really hurt these units before they started using the LCD protectors. So I have had to replace keyboards, glass panel (known as the digitizer) and am currently waiting for an LCD screen to get the backlight to work. The neat thing is that with Voice Recognition Input that I can say the same or number in the Contact List and have it auto dial the person when the display or keyboard stops working. This really helps extend the life of the unit until I can get a replacement part. The camera on this unit has full auto focus and really helps capture business cards so I don't need to enter the info myself. That is a great timesaver.

I am working on getting the GPS Lat.,Long. out of the system so Google Maps can see where I am and direct me to my desired location. That will save $10/month in navigation fees. Only wish the unit had capacitive input so you could zoom in on Web pages easier than using the zoom bar at bottom of screen.

Bottom Line: a great unit which can normally be had used on eBay for around $105 these days.

Robust, not a toy

I have owned a winmo phone for 6 years up to the Mogul and they all have different failings (a lot of them). Although I did extensive research before purchase, I expected to find significant failings in the TP2 as well... I'm still looking.
This phone is designed to be used, not sit around and look pretty. It has arguably the most user-friendly keyboard on a smart phone to date. The speaker/conference phone sounds as good as my home cordless phone. Voice command (included) works great, which was a major setback of the mogul. it has a 1/8" Audio out jack, video out (with non included cables), prox detector, motion detector, gps, and on and on...You can read all about its many features on the manufacturers site but what I can add is the observation of a long time winmo device user. . .this is a great phone/tool. It is sturdy, even robust, feels good to hold and has a magnificent screen.
In the two months I have used it I have not had to reset it “once” for locking up, any winmo device user knows that’s awesome.

The drawbacks of this phone are tolerable compared to what it has to offer. (1)Most significant (to me that is). . .the fm radio has been disabled by sprint. There's a lot of tech chatter concerning, whether winmo 6.5 will remedy this or if it is a hardware deletion, we'll have to wait and see. This touches the second issue, (2) No winmo 6.5 rumored to be available first quarter 2010. (3)It has only a half meg of memory, very puny for such a robust tool, thus some programs load a little slow and seem a bit sluggish. (4) In trade for one of the largest screens on a phone to date, there's no hat switch, joy stick, track or scroll ball or wheel,.(unheard of right?)and only 7 hard buttons (4 programable). I thought this would be the hardest thing I would have to adjust to since I had learned to operate my mogul by touch alone, but I was wrong, it wasn’t that bad at all because I use voice command to operate it most of the time. (5)A small annoyance is the tilt screen, a nice feature but it's a little top heavy, so it can only sit on a level surface, no biggie. (6)The camera is only 3mp and has no flash and by extension, no flashlight. It does take a reasonably decent picture non-the-less. (7) the battery cover has to be removed to get to the external memory slot and it has a short stylus. (Phone wakes up when you remove the stylus, and if you remove it while you’re on a call, the note pad opens and starts a new note for that call, nice) (8...which for a lot of people is #1)It's a bit pricy, a little shocking at first, until you do the math, the features-per-dollar price of Sprint plans offsets the price of the phone, which is more of a business tool than a phone, and let's face it, all winmo devices are expensive when first released.

My suggestion is. . .Don't let the failings of past Sprint winmo devices scare you away from this great phone, especially if you're in business. It’s a great phone.

2nd best phone in Summer 2010 Market

I give it a good rating and not a excellent because there is still a lot of improvement that can be done. Phone looks and feel great, very stylish, up to date with technology, and superb screen size. I love the screen size for browser the internet and watching video. Of course i'm a guy and I got big khaki pockets for the phone so i don't mind the big bulkiness, i actually like the screen size more than the iphone. As far as speed, the internet is really fast but programs needs some work to move in and out faster. A fast internet but slow software isn't gonna help it much. The Android software stinks, could use better functionality like the iphone. I miss the iphone due to simplicity, easy to navigate and organize app around. Sprint network is great but their data network isn't that great. I can call and text instantly but having trouble connecting to the data network to use app that require online access.

9/6/10 Update:
Batteries perform good unless you are using flash from like watch youtube videos. That's why Iphone decided not to use flash on their phones and I know why now. From a full charge battery watching youtube, the whole battery drains in one hour compare to your regular videos which last for about 2.5 times longer. Going in and out of video files sometimes lags and freezes. Your video search loads kinda slow if you're trying to get all the way down to the bottom for your video. I wish you can set the setting for video to show just a list so it can scroll down faster than trying to load all the video picture while slowing down the scrolling down part. Be prepare to get extra batteries on the side and thank goodness this phone has that feature unlike the iphones. Once its dead its dead. Does what I need to do and they need to start putting up more general app like local banks, etrade, and etc.

evo works great but battery life is poor

I have to say since I am a droid user I love the Evo, better then the crappy hero, which has memory leaks, I lost 3 phones because of the hero. the Evo on the other hand is incredible, two things are missing though, 16 gigs of ram instead of an expansion card which the Evo, cannot save apps to SD card unless you have a special app for that, and battery life, oh way bad, but besides that this phone rocks. Fast, user friendly, awesome camera, and very nice keyboard, even with swipe :) yes it has swipe unbelievably with the new upgrade. I had the I phone 4 and this blows it out of the water, only thing comparable is the Droid X by Verizon and that interface is not as good as HTC, however the Droid X battery life does rock, anyone with an I phone would switch to either one if they ever used it. because of the battery life and memory I ive this phone a 4 star, the i phone 4 is 3.5 at best, to many droped calls and battery life is almost as bad. Unless you go 4 g and then the Evo sucks lol, wow like 1 hour and you are done....
suggest u get a better battery if you purchase it

The screen is beautiful...the OS, not so much

HTC HD2 Review:

For some perspective, I'm coming from an original iPhone. By comparison, the HD2 has a much better screen. Much bigger, and brighter. The email and calendar sync well with exchange servers, and the actual phone seems to get good reception. The 1GHz processor is evident, there is very little lag in using the phone compared to older WinMo platforms that I've used. Battery life is about what you'd expect for a phone with a screen this big. It'll last a workday with light use in an area with good reception. Use it a lot, and you better have a travel/car charger handy. The area where this phone really disappoints is the operating system. WinMo 6.5 is pretty average, to be generous. If you've used the iPhone or Android OS, you will not be particularly pleased with the Windows Mobile system. The application library is very poor, with most programs charging a fee, and very few programs available. I like the form factor of the phone, but I can see why many do not -- it is very thin, but very large. I have large hands, and have no problems operating the phone with one hand, or fitting the phone in pants pockets, but the price you pay for that beautiful screen is evident when you hold the phone in your hand. It's not the lightest phone in the world, but I find it has a nice weight for it's size. Overall, if you like WinMo and are familiar with it, I could recommend this phone to you. If you just want a phone to sync with your exchange email and have a very readable screen, you might be in the right place. If, however, you are an experienced user of smartphones, perhaps coming from an Android or iPhone background, I would caution you that your experience may not live up to your expectations.

Scores (out of 10):
Form - 9
Usability - 8
Call quality - 8
Email - 9
Battery life - 5
Ability to type - 6
Web browsing - 8
Operating system - 2
Application availability - 1
OVERALL - 6

Summary: a great phone brought back to reality by a sub-par operating system.

Great device with many options and features!!

I purchased this product because I was curious of how Windows Mobile performed, so I took a plunge and sold my Android phone. I do not have a single regret for that decision! As I removed the device from the box, I felt that the device was a little heavy, but to me it just made it feel like a solid device. The slide out keyboard slides with ease, and the buttons are spaced just far enough apart to where you can text at a very fast pace. The screen can tilt at around a 50degree angle when the keyboard is out, although I haven't found a practical use for that yet. As far at the performance of this device, it is pretty fast and resonsive, although sluggish at times. If you do not try to change programs at lightning speed, the device should keep up with you. Sound quality was great, and having small things like Microsoft Office Mobile is awesome. There is also an abundance of ringtones and message alert tones to choose from, and they're not as corny as other phones on the market.

One of the things I dislike about the device would be the weather program. It is a beautiful program (you can tell the developers put a lot of time into creating awesome weather graphics) but if you don't live in a major city, you cannot get your weather to show up. The closest city that I found to me is roughly an hour and a half away.

All-in-all this is a great device, and I would recommend you give it a try!

One of the best built Windows Mobile devices around!

I would give this phone an excellent rating, but only with a new ROM.

To star off with, this is one of the most resilient phones I have ever owned. I have dropped it several times even on concrete, and it still works great.

The screen is quite bright, the touch screen is very responsive. The phone features are well rounded and it gets good reception.

Here is some of the issues though.

The first thing you should do after getting this phone is look around for the leaked Sprint ROM 3.03.651.4. The ROM that comes on the phone has some issues. If you have no tech background you may have some issues, but if you got to ppcgeeks.com there are step by step instructions on how to flash the ROM.

The second thing you should do is to get an extended battery. The battery will last 3 to 4 hours max, and If you are spending the money to buy a powerhouse phone you want to be able to use it.

With the upgraded ROM you will get GPS, Sprint Navigation, EVDO internet speeds, and Windows Mobile 6.1 with threaded text messaging. After that the only other annoyance is the sluggish dialing on the phone pad. The two ways to fix that are to disable key tones, or install a keypad vibrator hack (also available at ppcgeeks.com). The other thing I really don't like is the placement of the camera button. If you are like me you will find that you are always pressing it on accident, and frustrated when thew camera comes on. I could go on forever, but here is the short of it...

Pros:
Rugged
Versatile
Great indoor/outdoor screen
When you upgrade the ROM you get GPS, EVDO, Sprint Nav and threaded SMS
Good Bluetooth connectivity

Cons:
Comes with a junk ROM
Battery life
Camera button placement

Over all I would recommend this phone to anyone who is comfortable doing a ROM update and wants an extremely versatile and well built phone. If you are not comfortable doing ROM work, you should probably shy away from most Windows Mobile devises as I have found them all to be lacking when first released.

Current Phones: PPC 6600 custom ROM, PPC 6700 Custom ROM, PPC 6800 Custom ROM, HTC Touch Custom ROM, and 1900 WM6

Very pleasing, great price

This phone is one of the best phones right under the current top notch phones. That makes it a great price. That screen is amazing and the best I've seen on a cell phone. In my opinion, windows phone operating systems are much more pleasing to the eye than either android or ios. It's simpler and more efficient. Some of the sync options aren't as good as the other operating systems (especially android's amazing syncing abilities). But it can be set up and works great when it is. The phone has a fast processor making it quick and very responsive. That 5MP camera is a nice step up and it's what you'll see on the top notch phones today. If you want a phone that just feels really good to use, this phone is for you. If yo can afford a windows phone 7, then by all means go for one (i.e. an HTC HD7).

HTC Diamond

HTC diamond is a pretty nice phone it comes with the older version of windows mobile. (6.1) And that can not be updated. The OS seems to freeze up sometimes and requires you to power the phone down and the internet on it is a little glitchy it will sometimes start giving off an error 777 blah blah blah so in which case it needs to be restarted. It also has sync problems and update issues. Anyways what microsoft system has ever been flawless. It is really easy to use and get use to. Touch response is great and there are a lot of free fun and useful apps for this phone as well as pay for apps. The battery life is good on stand by so long as the LCD is off but when running apps it losses battery life fast. Charging this phone takes a considerable amount of time as well. Being a lot smaller then the htc evo the screen and resolution come in pretty nice. I recommend HTC Diamond to anyone looking to get started on smart phones because alot of the other OS are a tad more complicated to walk through.