HTC Touch Pro2 Smartphone

I purchased this phone on a few recommendations from friends and a co-worker. One of my good friends told me that the ability to remote into my servers at work would be worth the price alone. I wish that were so.

When I got the ability to upgrade to a new phone, I started looking around at what was available. The Android Phones were still in their infancy, so that was out. I started to look at the Windows phones. When I started to ask around about them, the HTC name kept popping up. This phone, the HTC Touch Pro 2, seemed to be the one that people were happiest about. On the advice of a co-worker, and a couple of friends, I purchased this phone.
 
Out of the box, it was easy to setup. The power cord also doubles as an USB connector to a computer for syncing, if you need to do that. I had issues with the XP Active Sync getting it to sync up with my XP machine, but absolutely no issues with my Windows 7 machine. Also, the cord will not charge the phone when syncing up data. You actually have to tell the phone to charge via the computer.
 
At first, the touch screen was responsive. Items would pop up as I touched the icon with little issue. It actually went too fast when scrolling through my contacts, but it was something that would soon end. It does have some quirks, such as the small ok in the upper corner. It's better to use the included stylus to tap those, unless you have small fingers. To me, not a huge issue, but something to consider if you have bigger fingers.

Call quality is pretty good. Most calls that I have had on this phone are clear. It does this part right.

Texting on this phone is cumbersome at times. If you are a touch typist ,meaning you use the touchscreen to type, it's easier to get to the texting area. There is an icon on the bottom scroll if you have the phone in portrait mode. If you turn the phone to use the slide keyboard, the screen switches, and you have to go through the start menu to get there, requiring an extra step.

Accessing the web on this phone is a crap shoot. It is a 3G phone, but it acts like a 2G phone at times. Access times are slow, no matter which browser or signal strength you have. My phone came with the Opera browser, as well as the IE browser pre-installed. There have been occasions where access is speedy, but that was the exception, not the norm. I tried the web on this phone, as well as my work phone, a Blackberry Curve 8350, and the Blackberry was much faster on the same sites, with same signal strength. Using the wireless to connect to a wireless router helps a bit, but not much.

I did try on several occasions to remote into my servers at work. I worked with a few people on this issue. The Remote Desktop on the phone just could not access the servers for a reason that we could not understand. This may not be your experience with this phone, but mine was frustrating to say the least, as this was one of the big reasons I purchased this phone.

Reading any type of Office document (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), can be tiring, trying to read it on such a small screen. If I could, I would wait until I got to a PC to read it.

Connecting this phone to a mail server, be it a POP3 or Exchange server, both of which I have done with this phone, is pretty simple. Setting up a personal email, usually the POP3, is really easy. As long as you have your user name and password, it does the rest. Exchange connection is a bit more involved, and you'll need to know the server settings to setup the mail there. Once that is done, it will sync contacts, calendar, and e-mail effortlessly. However, the more often it syncs, the shorter the battery life. By default, POP syncs up every 30 minutes. Exchange is setup when the phone is configured for that use. I had mine set for every 15 minutes. In both cases, you can force a sync at anytime.

Battery life is really good on this device, so long as you have the wireless disabled, as well as the Bluetooth. I've gone 4 days on a single charge with average use, which is talking, texting, e-mails, although I charge it everyday, as it is also my alarm clock. It charges from 5 percent life in about 3 and a half hours, which I find to be acceptable.

I've had this phone since late March. As time has gone on, the phone is not as responsive, even with the stylus. Similar to a older Windows PC, it locks up, forcing you to remove the battery. On a recent vacation to Florida, I had to remove the battery 6 times in 10 days in order to reboot it. To me, this is unacceptable, even in a Windows phone. It sometimes locked up on me just trying to read a text someone sent me. It would lock up when trying to read an attachment. It is a pretty random thing, although as it gets older, it happens more and more.

This is also a worldphone, meaning you can take it overseas if need be. Obviously, you'll pay a premium if you use it in another country. They also include adaptors that you can slide in and out of the power plug included.

Bottom line on this phone, is that over time, you will become frustrated with it. At first, it was a good phone, and allowed me to get work done with it. However, as it has aged, it's definitely showing that it is not a long term smartphone.