First Look: HTC Touch Pro
New handset adds a slide-out Qwerty keypad to HTC's Touch line
The HTC Touch Pro updates the firm's line of touch-driven Windows Mobile handsets with a model that incorporates a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.
However, it weighs more than other handsets of a similar size, and almost twice as much as RIM's BlackBerry Pearl models, for example.
Available from October, the HTC Touch Pro resembles a standard candybar phone, but its screen slides out to reveal a keypad for easier messaging.
It thus blends features of the Touch models and HTC's slider handsets such as the S710 and S730. Confusingly, the forthcoming successor to those devices, the S740, looks very similar, but the Touch Pro has a slightly larger 2.8in touch-sensitive screen, displacing the numeric keypad of the other models.
The Touch Pro has HTC's new-look styling and TouchFlo gesture-based user interface, which lets users select options and move things around with their fingertips or the supplied stylus.
In the Photos and Videos application, for example, you can flick the displayed photo off screen to move to the next one.
However, we found that TouchFlo often misinterpreted our gestures, launching an application when we were actually trying to move sideways through the application list, for example.
This is something we have also experienced on other touch-based handsets such as Apple's iPhone and the Samsung Omnia. Generally speaking, phone screens seem to be too small to successfully use your finger for input.
Like the Samsung Omnia, the Touch Pro is equipped with Opera in place of Internet Explorer. This gives a better rendition of web pages than Microsoft's browser typically does, but we also found it tricky here to scroll around the page using the touch screen without accidentally hitting a link.
Sliding open the device reveals the keypad which, unlike the S710 and S730, has a separate row of keys for numbers. Although the keys themselves are tiny, the Qwerty layout makes it much easier to tap out an SMS or email, and also makes the built-in Office Mobile applications much more usable.
The downside of this sliding design is that it makes the Touch Pro a little chunky compared to standard phones, and it is also on the weighty side at 165g, but not so much that it cannot be carried in a jacket pocket.
In specification, the Touch Pro is a match for other new handsets, with support for 3G/HSDPA networks up to 7.2Mbit/s, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and built-in GPS. It also has 512MB Flash storage and 288MB memory available for user data, plus an internal MicroSD slot for Flash cards.
As is now common, the default application for GPS is Google Maps, which we found can give a reasonably good fix on your location using information from the mobile network, before GPS is even enabled.
The Touch Pro has a quoted battery life of up to eight hours talk time or up to two weeks on standby. It is expected to cost €699 (£555) when bought SIM-free.
UPDATE: HTC has now advised us that the Touch Pro is available now from £493.99 retail, or through Vodafone, with the price ranging from free to £255.32, dependent on contract.
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