Event Coverage

HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2 Unveiled

By Seow Tein Hee - 16 Apr 2009

Spotlight on HTC Touch Pro2

Touch Pro2: A Smoother Operator

The Touch Pro2's exterior improvements go beyond just a more rounded form and a different color scheme, to a dedicated conference-call button and a zoom bar for viewing webpages, images and Google Maps. The display is now a 3.6-inch WVGA unit (that's 800 x 480 pixels), up from 2.8 inches and VGA resolution previously. In a hark back to TyTN II days, it also tilts upwards for easier viewing on a desk or lap.

Under the hood, both RAM and ROM capacities remain the same at 288MB and 512MB respectively, while the Qualcomm 528MHz processor soldiers on as well. A microSDHC slot is available for cards of up to 16GB or more. Other items of interest that have been retained include the GPS, an accelerometer, the FM radio and a 3.2-megapixel camera with auto focus but with the flash LED omitted. In essence, most of the underlying features have hardly changed from the original version.

All connections are made through a miniUSB socket; there's no 3.5mm stereo jack. At 116 x 59.2 x 17.25 mm, the Touch Pro2 is just over a centimeter longer and a tad wider and thinner than the original Touch Pro, and gains 10 grams to tip the scales at 175g.

If you're looking to get your hands on a Pro2, you'll have to hang on just a while more - HTC says that it will be available in June 2009. The suggested retail price is S$1,328 including GST. That's quite a sum indeed and we'll find out in due time if the price tag matches up to its capabilities when we get the final review unit for evaluation.

With rounded edges, lacquered plastics and a large rear speaker grille on the Touch Pro2, HTC has clearly thrown out the old Touch Pro blueprints in the design department. Build quality is very good.

The keyboard's wide, separated keys require moderate pressure, though your fingers won't slip off the glossy keys easily. Typing feel is excellent thanks to accurate actuations without any "sponginess".

We liked the tilting 3.6-inch WVGA display for its excellent contrast and viewing angles, both trademarks of all recent HTC devices.

As far as we can tell, the zoom bar only works in 3 applications: Google Maps, Internet Explorer Mobile and Office Mobile.

The main additions to functionality come from the new TouchFLO 3D 2 interface, which now fully works in landscape mode.

The new Calendar tab shows both month and day views.

The People tab now also shows call history and messages associated with a selected contact, a nod to one of HTC's new themes: "people-centric communication".

HTC's new Straight Talk feature combines a conference call application with electronic and physical phone design improvements that HTC says gives a boardroom-like speakerphone experience.

The speakerphone is automatically enabled when the phone is flipped over, and you can control it via a dedicated button on the rear.

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