Verizon-branded Touch Pro2 plays 'spot the difference' with previous spy shot
By Ross Miller 
posted August 5th 2009 9:18PM
posted August 5th 2009 9:18PM
It's been some time since we last spotted HTC's Touch Pro2 in the wild with a Verizon tattoo, and yet, there's a tinge of unfamiliarity with these new shots. For whatever reason, on this model the HTC logo has been banished to the opposite reaches of the front display, whereas previously it was fit to share space right next to the Verizon logo / check mark. Everything else seems to be identical, however, including any indication of when and for how much we'll be able to pick one up ourselves. Hey VZW, how's that fire sale of the original Touch Pro coming along?
Update: As a good number of readers have pointed out, there's now also video of the phone, with 3.5mm headphone jack to boot. See it after the break.
[Thanks, ckeegan]
Update: As a good number of readers have pointed out, there's now also video of the phone, with 3.5mm headphone jack to boot. See it after the break.
[Thanks, ckeegan]
That is a sleek looking phone.
...Exactly the reason they need to remove that ugly Verizon LOGO
Quick youtube video showing the device
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFDwqvWbogw
Looks a lot better than Verizon's sh-tfacing of the Touch Pro. Too bad Verizon still managed to f-ck the keyboard. They ripped out the Control key, which means you can't Ctl-X, Ctl-C, Ctl-V, Ctl-Left/Right/Up/Down, Ctl-Shift-Left, etc... without installing a hack to reprogram the keyboard driver. If you type a lot of emails or edit Word docs--two activities that WinMo is supposedly shines at--the lack of a Control key really sucks.
I used to have an eBay-purchased Sprint Touch Pro that I converted to Verizon. Not only did that phone look much nicer than the black brick of dog doo that is my current Verizon Touch Pro, but it actually had a nicely implemented keyboard with all the keys a typist would want. (I unfortunately lost my Sprint Touch Pro, right after Verizon closed the door to inter-carrier activation.)
i don't care about the control key. what makes this phone one step shy of perfection are those spaces between the keys. i have a tytn ii which has a continuous surface for the keyboard, making it an aesthetically pleasing experience to slide them across as i tap out a message. the touch pro 2's keyboard seems more geared toward typing in a more traditional manner using the fingers. i'm not sure how many people out there prefer using their fingers to type, but it's a whole helluva lot easier to cradle the device in my hands and type with my thumbs
Having those spaces in between the keys will cause thumbs to catch the edges, and that's going to cause a callous.
I just died. SPRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hope this thing comes out soon. Since tmobiles coming out very soon for about $299 i believe. lets pray this version has the 3.5 head phone jack
Unfortunately it looks like T-Mo's bumped the price up to $349 on a 2-year contract. Pretty ridiculous to pay so much for a phone that has such seriously outdated hardware (Qualcomm ARM11 @ 528 MHz -- iPhone 3GS is roughly 2-3x faster, with 5-10x faster graphics), only 512 MB ROM (sure, you can get a MicroSD card, but that'll make it even more expensive), a touch experience that (while better than previous WM devices) is still not fully competitive, and has only a high-res screen and slide-out keyboard to show for itself.
http://www.tmonews.com/2009/08/sigh-touchpro2-pricing-again/
Especially if Apple drops a $99 8 GB iPhone 3GS (as rumored), it'll be mighty difficult to justify spending so much on such an antiquated device. Also keep in mind that the TP2 is going to be a dead-end product in just some months, as it won't meet the requirements for WM7 when that comes out early/mid next year.
@amb9800
I think having a screen that is 480x800 vs the iphone 3gs' 480x320 is a big deal. You can have all the processing power you want, the Touch Pro 2 still has more than double the pixel density, the ability to freely install programs without apple's approval, the ability to fully customize/optimize the device, full GPS programs with TTS available, etc. Will I be upgrading from my Touch Pro? No, not worth it. But to shrug off the Touch Pro 2 as nothing special especially when you are using the Iphone as the benchmark is ridiculous. Until the iPhone can do basic phone functions, its not a serious smartphone, but rather a portable entertainment device which happens to have the ability to call people. Also, with all that processing power and graphics power, you would think that the phone could handle more than one program at a time.
@Amb
I really have to agree here. One of the biggest things that have always bothered me about the cell phone market is why in the blue hell do all new smartphones seem to get a starting no-contract pricetag of $700-$1,000 (and $200-$300 with contract) regardless of specs? The best example of this I can provide is the Nokia N97 and the Samsung Omnia HD.
As of right now, both of these Symbian phones were only recently released, and you can buy them for roughly the same price ($600-$700), but the thing is that the two phones are a world of difference in specs. The Omnia HD pretty much overwhelms the N97 in specs, yet they both cost the same.
And the two above are just examples; I can't even count the number of smartphones I see that come out with nothing more than a new hardware design, yet still manages to cost the same price as a whole new phone. Maybe I'm just ignorant of how the industry works, but I'll be 100% grateful if someone can provide information on why this kind of thing does happen because as of right now, it seems like complete bullshit.
@Tom
No doubt, the extra pixels are nice. As for the other points, there are now full GPS apps with turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts on the iPhone (haven't checked the degree of TTS- e.g. if they read street names, but AFAIK, the upcoming TomTom app will def do that). Multitasking, off-App Store apps, and customizability are all taken care of by simply jailbreaking the phone, which anyone who reads this site can do in 5 minutes (download program, press button, and you're done). Once jailbroken, the iPhone is actually far easier to keep up to date with new App Store + jailbroken apps -- thanks to Cydia (the jailbroken app repository) -- than Windows Mobile, which for the most part requires users to download apps from separate sites on a PC, which a tiny fraction of smartphone users are capable of doing (and which is annoying even for power users). The iPhone (especially the 3GS) also handles multitasking better than most WM phones I've used, though neither has a particularly good UI model for task switching (Palm Pre is pretty solid in this regard).
The iPhone UI makes for a better phone experience, and even things like document viewing are smoother (DOCs and PDFs render better and are much easier to navigate on the iPhone's viewer vs. Word Mobile or Acrobat). In my experience, iTunes actually provides more consistent syncing with Outlook than ActiveSync/WMDC do-- I've never had any mass duplication or catastrophic deletions, which can't be said of WMDC. The iPhone mail client is worlds ahead of Mobile Outlook, which needs a serious redo, and Safari is still faster and smoother than Opera Mobile (though the gap is closing). The iPhone platform now provides hundreds of useful apps that are just not available on WM, and even those apps that are available on WM tend to be much less usable (as it takes a heck of a lot of effort on developers' part to create a smooth experience on a WM app, vs. just implementing the standard Apple controls on the iPhone).
One of the only major issues I see with the iPhone is that Apple makes it difficult to independently make use of the file system, though you can do so when jailbroken. This issue is one reason for the lack of a fully-featured Office suite on the phone, which is perhaps WM's one remaining advantage from a functionality standpoint (though very few users actually do any serious content creation on a WM phone). Otherwise there's a ton of stuff that's technically possible on WM but isn't implemented as all the development focus is on the iPhone platform. There's nothing I can really think of that, say, a jailbroken iPhone 3GS can't do that a WM phone can, but plenty in the other direction. This is mostly due to third-party apps that make use of the iPhone's higher-end hardware-- WM devs can't assume any such capabilities, have to account for hundreds of possible hardware configurations, and don't even have first-party APIs to work with to make use of, say, an accelerometer or compass (not to mention the lack of a practically usable 3D API, which means few first-rate 3D apps even make it to WM anymore, and cross-platform titles have been far better on the iPhone than WM-- e.g. see Need for Speed).
it is a very nice phone, a bit beastly in size but very nice weight to it. My CIO at work received one from Microsoft and we've been playing with it for about a week, and it run very smooth.
that's what she said.
@JJ
Old joke is old.
Yeah, I have one in my hands now and its too heavy for my liking.
@ djseik
That's what she said?
runs*
Anyone know what the hell AT&T is waiting for?
People to stop buying iPhones...
whatever, I like the look of the Fuze better anyway (and just ordered a refurb myself).
@ Thunda Chunky
They're waiting until people stop caring that they killed the keyboard:
http://pocketnow.com/html/portal/news/0000007448/NewsImage/fortress.jpg
So lame...
@ Jeff
Poor guy, you are getting a fuze its a horrible phone no matter what you do to it
Speak for yourself. I have had the Fuze since its launch, at it has been a great phone. Using a custom Windows Phone 6.5 ROM by NATF, runs great and I like the fact that you can fully customize the look and functionality of the phone using software like PointUI or SBP Mobile Shell 3.
I am not a fan of a glorified app launcher for my home screen, so the ability to customize the UI is important for me.One of my friends bought the phone the same time as me, and his experience has been similar. I also prefer a hardware keyboard as I use my phone for emails more than my work computer since I am out of the office meeting with clients most of the day.
If you were having some many problems with the Fuze, it was either because you had a lemon and should have switched it out, or it was user error.
I'm very disappointed there isn't news for this thing on AT&T. I've been using HTC phones since the 8125 except the Fuze cuz some stole my Tilt last summer and I'm just now able to upgrade. I don't like the Fuze though. It seems bulkier, the back looks terrible after a while and it just seems so ugly to me. I'm just going to hold out for this, it has to come to AT&T, just not first this time.
Digitallsick, more like digitally sick in the head.
Speak for yourself, seriously.
The Fuze, especially once customized (you know, that thing you can't do with iPhones), is one hell of a device that blows away iPhones and even Pre's in terms of uses and functionality.
So much misinformation in this thread. The fuze is very good, nearly the best version because of the triband HSPA. Also I'm not sure how anyone came up with the FUZE being bulkier, its actually smaller than the TILT.
Come on Sprint is verizon really gonna beat you to releasing this phone first??? please at least pull out what you did with the tour or better yet release it first.
Sprint dont care, they will be launching the Hero soon
The lower part of the device looks a little different?
I also notice a star button next to the spacebar which I dont think I saw on the Euro or Telus versions.
Star button is the "Favorites" key. It's meant to bring up your favorite application. Used in that manner, it's a PITFA, because accidentally hitting it while typing switches you out of your current application.
I programmed the Favorites key on my keyboard-gimped Verizon Touch Pro to bring up the "Context Menu" so that Cut/Copy/Paste are accessible without resorting to the touch screen.
I hope this comes out soon, im so sick of my dumb touchpro.
I've been suffering through the last 2 months with my first gen MotoQ. I REALLY want the TP2 but have been waiting on VZW. Hurry up!
I'm in the same boat man, my 3 yr old moto Q is dying and I want a physical keyboard smart phone soon. I've got big hopes for either this or the samsung b7610
i see a 3g logo i htought verizon has an EV logo for ev-do
VZ has 3G as well.
EVDO Rev. A is 3G. He is pointing out that the icon on the touch pro/diamond is Ev instead of 3G on the GSM phones. But, it is showing up as 3G on the verizon TP2
Verizon has been talking about 3G a lot in their advertising, I wouldn't be surprised if they told phone makers to switch out EV logos for 3G ones... (though that's a bit silly if you ask me)
*Looks@Sprint* WTF?
RIP AT&T. If this thing can dial out from Google Voice natively I'm jumping ship.
I'm using iDialer for Google Voice on my Touch Pro. It'll work on this, too. That's the beauty of WinMo, fee apps controlled by the user community.
Touch Pro 2 + GVdialer = goodbye iPhone.
It does have the 3.5 jack and it should be available to corp customers this month yet. It is a little bulky but not that big a deal. They didn't mess with the memory at all this time, but there is no front camera however.
I don't remember those hard buttons being contoured and bulky... I thought they were slim bars... and silver?
front facing cam?
nope, not for the US ones. Why? Because US carriers are idiots. That why.
Where's the CTRL key?
The unbranded UK one has it.
If the guts are the same as my touch pro. No thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFDwqvWbogw
This should answer you 3.5mm jack questions!
thanks for the video link
Where did he steal this from?