Preview - HTC Touch Pro

HTC launched its Touch Pro handset along with the Touch Viva only recently with Idea Telecom. Now I’m not particularly interested in what services are bundled with the handset and provider combined; since the phone's open GSM I’m more concerned with what it offers the generic user. Having gotten hold of a test piece I can’t give a comprehensive review, but I shall give you a preview of what it offers – and what I liked and disliked about the phone.

Form Factor
The biggest drawback I see with the handset is its bulky design. Let’s face it; if it’s going to go up against the Xperia it’s not going to fare very well in the looks department. To start with, it weighs about 165g and is 18.05mm thick. It has no hot swap slot for the microSD card on the outside; you will have to pop open the rear panel to access it. There's a magnetic slot for the stylus, so it neatly slips in. 

The 2.8 inch VGA display (480 x 620 pixels) is vibrant and will be great for watching videos or surfing the net. The Pro is identical with theDiamond with regard to the navigation system and the keys located below the display – a circular five-way nav-pad, home and return keys, and call take and end soft-touch buttons.

It has a proprietary USB slot at the bottom that somehow manages to accommodate a standard mini USB cable. What really gets to me is the one-slot-fits-all design. The same port is used for charging, earphones, and USB connectivity. There's a 3MP camera with LED flash, located at the rear of the handset.

Features
Running on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS with a 5287 MHz Qualcomm processor and 512MB ROM and 256MB RAM, I’m expecting the handset to be a lot faster than the prototype, so no comment on the speed of performance. The TouchFLO 3D looks great and is very convenient to use. The Stylus is absolutely redundant in this sense, but it will be handy for other features and settings. I couldn’t seem to find a control for the accelerometer though.

There's an Audio Booster feature that is usable only when a headset is connected. The fluid nature of the accelerometer is revealed in the preloaded game 'Teeter' (available with the Diamond too). There aren’t too many additional or HTC-oriented features though. A YouTube client should be available. The handset also has internal GPS, which is getting increasingly useful these days. 

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