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TouchFLO 3D does a lot of hard work behind the scenes, especially in the graphics department, and as a result the Touch Pro isn't as snappy (when navigating through the TouchFLO 3D screens) as some older, vanilla Windows Mobile Pro phones. But we'll take finger-friendly, attractive and fun over a slight speed boost. That said, Verizon's version of the Pro is a little slower than the Fuze and more than a little slower than the Sprint Touch Pro. Verizon went with 192 megs of RAM rather than the Sprint and AT&T versions' 288 megs, and that may explain the difference, especially when several applications are running in the background. In particular, running Opera Mobile 9.5 (also memory and resource hungry) can slow down TouchFLO 3D. We noticed this with the original GSM HTC Touch Diamond, a device that also had 192 rather than 288 megs of RAM.
The BlackBerry Storm, HTC Touch Pro and Samsung Omnia i910. Video Review of the Verizon Touch Pro For those of you who feel that video speaks a thousand words, here's our 10 minute video review of the Verizon HTC Touch Pro XV6850: Phone and Data The HTC Touch Pro on Verizon is a CDMA dual band digital phone with EVDO Rev. A for fast data and fallback to 1xRTT. None of the Touch Pro or Diamond models are reception demons, so we weren't surprised to discover that the Verizon version has weak reception. If you're in a strong coverage area, you won't have a problem, but weak coverage areas like ours where many Verizon phones manage just one bar of reception equal no coverage on the Touch Pro. Unfortunately for those who love Windows Mobile and Verizon, the recently released Omnia i910 doesn't fair much better. Outgoing voice quality is good but not stellar, while incoming voice is quite clear, albeit with lower than average volume. We were impressed with the phone's voice quality with a relatively poor signal (-95 db) and heard less digital garbling compared to other Verizon phones in poor coverage areas.
The HTC Touch Pro comes with MS Voice Command 1.6, a speaker independent voice dialing and command system that we like. It requires no voice tags and can tell you the incoming caller's name (if they're in your contacts), the time, what's your next appointment and more. To start Voice Command, press and hold the green call send button. The phone's screen turns off a few seconds into a call to avoid accidental screen presses, so you'll need to press the power button to turn the display on as needed. Tip: the phone uses the ambient light sensor in the earpiece slot to detect that the phone is against your face, so the display won't turn off if you're using speaker phone. However, it won't turn the display back on if you start a call with your face against the phone, then move it away as do the iPhone and Samsung Eternity. The Touch Pro has the excellent Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser, as well as the standard IE Mobile. Opera does a very good job of rendering pages in desktop fashion with support for Javascript, tables, frames, cookies and SSL but not Flash. Opera starts out in page overview mode, and you can either double-tap the screen or swipe your finger around the d-pad ring to zoom. Page load times are quick over EVDO Rev. A, and we got an impressive 1100 kbps average speed result on DSL Reports' mobile speed test. Verizon now requires a PDA data plan with the Touch Pro and other recently released PDA phones. In the old days you could get a PDA phone with a voice plan only and rely on WiFi for data, but those times are gone. Our Touch Pro had weak WiFi reception, so in its case we'd definitely go with the data plan anyhow. Like all Windows Mobile phones, the Pro supports IMAP, POP3, MS Exchange and MS Direct Push email. Messaging, the equivalent of Outlook email on Windows handles multiple accounts, attachments, signatures, secure server connections and more. In addition the phone can do both SMS text messaging and MMS, though oddly there's no IM client. Horsepower The HTC Touch Pro runs on a 528MHz Qualcomm CPU as do HTC's other TouchFLO 3D phones. It has 192 megs of RAM (down from 288 megs on the Sprint and AT&T versions) and 512 megs of flash memory with nearly 300 megs free for storage. There's an SDHC microSD card slot on the phone's side under the battery cover (no need to remove the battery to access the card) and it worked well with our 4 and 8 gig SDHC high capacity cards.
Multimedia... not so much There aren't many other salient differences between the units beyond carrier software customizations. The Verizon version lacks the impressive multimedia clout of the AT&T and Sprint models: there's no YouTube Player or HTC Streaming Media Player (AT&T didn't include an icon for the YouTube player but the program is still there in the Windows directory while it's not to be found on the Verizon version). In fact, the phone is lacking video codecs to play lowly mobile YouTube content (m.youtube.com) through Windows Media Player Mobile, even though the Omnia has them. While Sprint's model has Sprint TV (service included with their Everything plans) and AT&T has CV streaming video (included with any unlimited data plan), Verizon offers nada. No V Cast, no Mobile TV-- just you and your business-oriented phone. You can store videos on a microSD card-- the Touch Pro works with SDHC high capacity cards and the slot is under the battery cover but doesn't require battery removal. It handles WMV and MP4 files fine up to 550kbps using Windows Media Player Mobile. We tested the Pro with CorePlayer, the commercial version of TCPMP, and it worked well with MP3 and a variety of video formats, though the YouTube support didn't work.
Battery Like the other US HTC Touch Pro models, the Verizon version has a 1340 mAh Lithium Ion battery that's user replaceable. Like the Sprint version, battery life is a sore point, especially if push email is turned on, or if the phone is set to check non-push email frequently (e.g.: every 15 minutes).
On other Touch Diamond and Touch Pro models, the d-pad center ring pulses white when the phone is charging. The Verizon version pulses first the call send and end buttons (green, red), then the d-pad ring and finally the white home and back buttons. It's like a mini-Christmas light installation. GPS The Verizon Touch Pro's GPS does a better job of acquiring satellites than the Fuze, though it's not as fast to get a fix as the Sprint version or the Omnia i910. The GPS works only with Verizon's own VZ Navigator software, which costs $10/month. It's a very capable mapping and navigation application that downloads maps and POIs over the data connection as needed. The POI listings are extensive and the spoken turn-by-turn directions are clear and easy to follow. The application didn't do well when we went off track-- unlike most other carrier-based navigation solutions and even some of Verizon's other GPS-enabled phones, it took about a half mile before it came up with a new route (it did manage to track us on the map, though that map is too zoomed out to read street names easily). Since the GPS is locked, it didn't work with Google Maps, Garmin XT Mobile or Windows Live Search. Conclusion Verizon has cranked out an all-business version of the HTC Touch Pro, and while there's absolutely nothing wrong with business phones, the Touch Pro seems an odd choice-- it's something like having an Aston Martin stripped down for daily commuter or beater car use. Having reviewed all the HTC Touch Diamond and most of the Touch Pro variants available around the world, we can't help but feel sad at what's missing here: TouchFLO 3D disabled by default, YouTube and Streaming Media Player gone, HTC's RSS reader gone, no IM client, less RAM and the GPS is locked to Verizon's own service. But with all that said, the Verizon Touch Pro is indeed a solid business phone, and a good choice for those who rely on MS Exchange sync for contacts, calendar and email. Call quality is good, though reception is a little weak, and with 3rd party application add-ons, the phone can crank up the multimedia a notch or two. Pro: Attractive, very good VGA display with flush touch screen. TouchFLO 3D is a pleasure to use. Offers the power of Windows Mobile-- customization, 3rd party apps, robust email support. Has EVDO Rev. A for fast data. Con: TouchFLO 3D is turned off by default and there's not a brain-dead easy way to turn it on. Odd keyboard layout and keys are low-travel. GPS is locked to VZ Navigator, phone has less RAM than other carrier's versions. YouTube Player and HTC Streaming Media Player are missing. Battery life isn't tops.
Web sites: www.verizonwireless.com, www.htc.com Price: $349 after $70 mail-in rebate with a 2 year contract. $539 without contract
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