Hands-on review: HTC Touch Pro (Sprint)

It's essentially the same phone as Sprint's HTC Touch Diamond, except with a slide-out QWERTY keypad. Does the physical keypad make living with the tricky Windows Mobile OS a bit more bearable?

Well ... yes, it does, although the slide-out QWERTY means extra bulk and weight compared to the Diamond (check out my full review), not to mention another $50 (bringing the Touch Pro's price tag to a lofty $299 with a two-year Sprint service agreement). Still, if you're dead set on a Windows Mobile phone, the Touch Pro makes for one of the best choices out there (right along with the slim, if pricey, Palm Treo Pro).

Measuring 4 by 2 by 0.7 inches and tipping the scales at 5.4 ounces, the Touch Pro about 35 percent thicker and 1.3 ounces heavier than the slender Touch Diamond. That's not to say that the Touch Pro won't fit in a jeans pocket—it will. But believe me, you won't forget it's there.

Still, the Touch Pro's roomy, slide-out QWERTY keypad is worth the extra girth—indeed, it’s a godsend for tapping out messages in Windows Mobile. The squarish, backlit keys are easy to tap, and you get a row of dedicated number keys plus dedicated period and comma buttons. There's no dedicated "@" key, but that's not a deal-breaker.

As with the Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro comes with HTC's gorgeous TouchFlo 3D interface, which sits on top of Windows Mobile and gives you one-touch (or one-flick) access to e-mail, alerts, music, photos, the current weather, and so on. Indeed, as long as you're tapping and flicking in TouchFlo, navigating the Touch Pro's various menus is a pleasant (if occasionally sluggish) experience.

But as with the Diamond, you're on your own once you arrive (and you inevitably will) in the tricky, often tiny menus of Windows Mobile 6.1, a highly configurable but confusing OS that demands a stylus and a steady hand.

On the plus side, Windows Mobile means full-on Exchange support, along with push e-mail and the mobile versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook. The mobile version of IE is still a pain; luckily, Opera Mobile is the Touch Pro's browser of choice.

The Touch Pro matches the Touch Diamond when it comes to wireless connectivity—we're talking support for Sprint's speedy EV-DO Rev. A data network (yep, that means 3G), plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (including support for stereo Bluetooth headsets).

And yes, the Touch Pro makes calls, too. Reception was solid in New York City, and callers sounded loud and clear, with no dropped calls to report. The Touch Pro's speakerphone was relatively loud, if a bit tinny. Sprint promises four hours of talk time, and you should plan on charging the handset each night.

Media junkies will appreciate the Touch Pro's access to Sprint's streaming video and music services; also, the TouchFlo interface includes a snazzy music player, complete with Cover Flow-like album browsing. Unfortunately, the Touch Pro lacks a 3.5mm headset jack, which means you'll have to use the awkward adapter if you want to listen over a standard headset.

Other features on the Touch Pro include a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and auto focus (my snapshots looked impressively sharp, actually), GPS (with Sprint's TeleNav-powered navigation service, and a slot for microSD memory expansion (up to 16GB).

So, overall? While I don't think I'll ever warm to Microsoft's smartphone OS, the Touch Pro makes for one of the friendliest Windows Mobile handsets I've tested, and it bests the Touch Diamond thanks to its physical QWERTY keypad (which, I've concluded, is essential for any Windows Mobile phone). If you need something slimmer, there's always the slim Windows Mobile-powered Palm Treo Pro (click here for my review)—although at $549 unlocked, it's way pricey.

Questions about the Touch Pro? Post 'em below.