HTC Touch Pro review

HTC Touch Pro Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 15 September 2008

On the back of the Pro there's a 3.2-megapixel camera with an LED photo light, which takes MMS-worthy pictures in daylight and doesn't perform very well in low light. You can also use the camera to shoot low-res video and, as with the Diamond, the Pro supports YouTube playback via an app.

Getting back to business, the Pro comes into its own by supporting Exchange email and most Office document formats, including Word and Excel, giving you the option to read and edit documents on the go. Again, the slide-out Qwerty keypad makes editing documents much easier than having to use a touchscreen.

It's these elements that make the Pro more useful for business users than an LG Viewty, for example. While we found it slow to open documents at times, it was very useful to be able to quickly edit them, and know that the formatting would be the same when we sent them to a PC.

Performance
The Touch Pro's battery life is quoted at 419 minutes talk time (GSM) and 367 hours standby time. We found that with moderate use we got around two days out of the battery, but that figure changed according to how often we used 3G or GPS in particular. If you're keen on preserving battery life, don't overuse any of the features -- 3G is a real battery hog.

With only an LED photo light, shots in low light don't come out looking great

Conclusion
If we had to choose between the Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro then it's a no-brainer -- we'd go for the Pro every time. If you asked us whether or not we'd hand in our TyTN II for a Pro, however, we'd have to think about it. While the improvements on the Pro certainly make it better than its predecessor, it's not a massive leap forward.

The Pro is another great device from HTC, but if you already own a TyTN II we'd recommend you check it in a shop before splashing out on the upgrade -- unless it's free, of course. We hope future models come with a 3.5mm headphone jack and that Windows Mobile becomes more finger-friendly.

Edited by Nick Hide