HTC Touch Pro2 Smartphone

The HTC Touch Pro 2 is the most dreadful phone I've ever owned.  I've had the MDA when it first came out, and then graduated to the Wing when it came out.  I have T-mobile and wanted a Windows touch screen with a slide out tactile keyboard.  I've had these types of phones for several years, and while I could never go back to a traditional phone, the Touch Pro 2 has me longing for my old MDA.

My first problem with this phone (and there are many) wasn't with the phone itself, but with T-mobile.  When the phone came out, I wanted an upgrade so I went to a T-mobile store.  They wanted to charge me 500 dollars for the new thing because I wasn't a new customer.  I guess loyalty (I've been with them since 2002) doesn't go unpunished as far as T-mobile is concerned (truth be told, I think all the major carriers play this game, and it's ridiculous).  I cussed out 4 managers, in person, online, and on the phone, and threatened to take my business elsewhere before they finally rewarded me with a still dreadful price of 349 for this plastic piece of garbage. 

Upon opening the box, you will realize how cheap the company (HTC or T-mobile, not sure who is in charge of accessories) has gotten.  Previous Windows Smart phones came with 2 extra styli, a dedicated charger and separate data cable, and a case that clipped on the belt.  Enter the all new overpriced, underperformed, UGLY Touch Pro 2.  It comes with one stylus, JUST ONE.  It comes with one cord, JUST ONE that must be shared for data and charging (an adaptor is supplied to plug the data cable into to make it a charger).  At least my previous chargers still fit the Touch Pro 2.   The cheap case they include is cardboard covered in vinyl and doesn't even include a belt clip.  Of course I store my phone in my pocket, but I mean come on!  Why even bother!  I felt like a server that had just been given a 3 cent tip... just leave nothing for goodness sakes and save the slap in the face!  At least they still included the proprietary headphones (they share the charger jack, no standard connection here), but I doubt the next version will come with so many luxurious accessories.  Pretty soon, we'll have to start paying 500 dollars for an empty box.  Crazy!

What do I hate about the phone.  Well, everything really.

Let's start with usability.  On the Touch Pro 2, HTC decided it would be a "good" idea to remove navigation pad (D pad).  There simply isn't one.  Scrolling on web sites and navigating menus is a nightmare... if you try to scroll over something with the touch screen, you actually click it instead of just highlighting it.  The only way around it is to open the slide out keyboard and use the arrow keys which they were still nice enough to include (gee thanks).  Of course you get a bigger screen with the nav keys removed, but I'd rather have functionality.  How big does a PDA phone screen need to be anyway!  Another button HTC thought it would be a good idea to remove from the Touch Pro 2 is the TAB key.  Can you imagine, a phone with a "full" qwerty keyboard that doesn't have a tab key?  Even my manual Smith Corona typewriter from 1952 has a tab key!  Now, when entering different fields when filling out online forms, one must completely remove their entire hand from the keyboard and tap the screen to move the cursor!  I can't even begin to express how much that disgusts me... but there was a time when I got Lentil and Sausage soup at Karrabas, and halfway through the bowl, I discovered a dead fly in the soup.  No TAB key on the Touch Pro 2 disgusts me more than that!  They also removed the tactile soft keys on both the phone face and the slide out keyboard.  One must now use the touch screen for soft keys (which aren't programmable either).  I don't like leaving the keyboard when I'm typing, for anything!  The volume button is awful too.  Previous Windows Smart Phones that T-mobile offered (MDA and Wing) had sliders on the side of the phone for volume.  They were both easy to use and NOT easy to accidentally activate.  The Touch Pro 2 has a rocker switch on the side, and it's too easy to press accidentally.  I hit it every time I pick the phone up.  Which causes the phone to freeze and then I have to take the battery out, throw it across the room and scare the cat, and then reassemble the phone and try to use it again without screaming (not easy).  The power button is in a dreadful location.  It's on the screen part and it sticks out.  When using the slide out keyboard, it's virtually impossible not to hit the power button by mistake.  The Wing had the power button recessed and on the keyboard side ... I never once accidentally pressed the power button on the Wing.  However, I'm making up for lost time with the Touch Pro 2.  The few buttons it does have on the front of the phone are super small and placed way at the bottom so the phone is very unbalanced when trying to manipulate those buttons one handed.  Oh yeah, HTC also removed the OK button from the QWERTY keyboard, once again requiring the user to tap the screen to close a window.  Stupid!  The plastic on the phone actually CREAKS in my hands and the play in the tilt screen when it is tilted up is about 2 inches... way too much.  HTC also thought it would be a good idea to remove the camera button.  Now, one must use the touch screen to activate and take pictures with the camera.  One of the non-programmable soft keys is permanently dedicated to the task of activating the awful camera (pictures are terrible), like I use it often enough to justify that.  Taking a picture is no better... when tapping the screen to take a picture, it moves the phone and the already dreadful picture quality is even more blurred.  That's if the thing you want to take the picture of is still there in the 5 seconds it take the camera to open and the 3 seconds it takes from the time you hit the virtual shutter button until the time the camera actually snaps the picture.  

Hardware aside, what's it like to interact with the phone?

The Touch Pro 2 came with Windows Mobile version 6.0.  It's an ugly operating system that reminds everyone of Windows 3.1 from the early 90s that came on regular computers.  They had a free update for Windows Mobile version 6.5 which I installed on the phone.  The new version is much more finger friendly, but doesn't do much to hide the not-so-deeply embedded remnants of the antiquated interface.  Using the phone is a nightmare.  Something as simple as copying and pasting is a huge undertaking (you have to chose "make selection" before you can even begin to copy and paste which requires a whole new hold and click step).  I couldn't even figure out how to copy and paste for the first month I had the phone.  The animated scrolling is sluggish at best, and often gets stuck and freezes.  The zoom scroll bar only works in certain applications, and half the time doesn't even work at all.  The phone itself freezes regularly just like the animated scrolling (frequently actually), for no reason at all.  I don't have any extra programs on it, and I delete texts and internet history regularly.  I don't have any pictures or music on the phone.  There is no reason for a phone less than a year old to freeze this badly.  When it does freeze, it doesn't just unfreeze... it requires removing the battery and throwing it at the cat and everything involved in that whole process all over again.  The clock is 2 minutes behind normal time ALWAYS, and T-mobile told me it's not a network issue.  Even if I reset it manually, it returns to being 2 minutes behind.  The phone is slow to recover a lost signal and fast to lose it. Internet Explorer has a quirk.  When entering text in any field, if the text is too long, it does not scroll, the text just disappears off the screen.  You can't see what you are typing.  The only way to get around it is to use Opera or type short phrases instead.  Super annoying.  It even happens in e-mail message fields.  Only within Internet Explorer.  The virtual keyboard mimics that of the Iphone, and while decent, pops up when not needed and is hard to make it hide again.  I just gets in the way.  Battery level is not visible from the main screen.  The memory card is covered with a cover that requires the battery cover to be removed before one can access the card.  Every text message sent is followed by an annoying text confirmation that cannot be turned off without tweaks.  This phone does everything slow, from activating the start menu to activating the camera or texting program... there is a considerable delay in response.  It works fine as a phone, but the rest of it is total garbage. 

Reliability...

I'd had this phone for 3 months when it first failed.  I was sitting at my sewing machine in quilting class and went to hop online to check a quilting term.  The Touch Screen did not respond.  AT ALL!  I took the battery out, restarted the phone, and still nothing.  The buttons worked (what few HTC decided to include on the phone), but the touch screen was dead.  When I got home, I went to remove the SIM to put in my trusty Wing so I could call T-mobile and cuss them out.... uhm I mean request a replacement phone under warranty.  That's when I discovered something awful.  This phone wasn't made to give up the SIM card!  The SIM card is retained by a metal tab.  Instructions on the back say to press the tab down and slide the SIM card out.  Sounds easy, right?  Well I pressed that tab down for an hour and it still would go down far enough to let me remove the SIM card.  I had to resort to using pliers to RIP THE METAL PIECE OFF OF THE PHONE AND EXTRACT THE SIM CARD WITH TWEEZERS.... I'm not even joking!  It was crazy!  And ridiculous.  Nobody should have to put up with that.  About a week later, the replacement phone came.  I've had it about 7 months now, and knock on particle board, the touch screen still works.  The rest of the phone is still as awful as the first one (had all the same issues with both phones, so I know I didn't just get a lemon).  Heaven help me the day I need to retrieve the SIM card from this thing again. 

The one redeeming quality about the Touch Pro 2 that was there, T-mobile ruined for their version.  The European version is a nice slick silver and the grill on the back for speakerphone ran all the way down  in an oblong rectangle.  It really looked sharp.  T-mobile removed the grill and made the phone a diarrhea brown color.  Thanks T-mobile.  At least the looks match the performance and usability now! 

If I had to pick something good to say about the phone, it would be that the battery is long lasting.  I charge the phone every night, but the battery still lasts a whole day of texting, youtube, calls, and internet browsing.  Oh yeah, and I like that Youtube, Facebook, and Opera are included.  Very small list of good things to say about a phone that costs what this one does.

All in all, this phone is awful.  It looks bad, works even worse, and has all the functionality of a 1989 Ford Taurus that is missing the motor and transmission.  Do not buy or even consider this phone.  You will be glad if you heed that advice, trust me! 

I promise I'm not a bitter person, but phones are now such an integral part of our daily lives, it's vital that they work properly and be easy to use.  HTC you failed!  I will have trouble trusting HTC again for my next phone!  I look foward to the day when I can take a sledge hammer to this thing or stick in in my blender and hit "destroy" (oh wait, I don't think my blender has that button!).  For now, I am stuck with it because it's not old enough or cheap enough to justify replacing.