Selfelected

I have jotted down the pros and cons with a HTC Touch Pro mobile phone here. Typically personal experiences and not the stuff you can read about in reviews and ads.

– Slow. It is possible speed it up a little downloading an app and following the instructions. The app I used is called Advanced Config and can be found at xda-developers.com. But the unit is till Slow.

– Bad battery time. Especially when you use ActiveSync to talk bluetooth or anything else but the phone functionality. One can argue that too much communication (Bluetooth, WLAN, 3G…) is to blame the the fact remains: I bought the phone to use this stuff and when I do I have to charge it before the day is over.

+ The TouchFlo3D user interface is nicer than what Microsoft presents. When the TouchFlo3D doesn’t work any more the GUI falls back to Microsoft’s implementation. A graceful degradation sort of. Or like using a terminal window when KDE doesn’t make it.

– The TouchFlo3D still behaves like version 1 and sometimes mistakes a slide for a click or refuses to recognize my gestures at all.

– Crashes. All my WindowsCE machines since 1999 have crashed unexpectedly. Sometimes due to no reason at all. If not being freshly booted and put in the charger counts as a valid reason to crash (it was also connected to my WLAN at the time).

+ Easy to develop for. As long as you use dotnet and have the right development environment. Unlike developing for iPod or Xbox it is free to develop (these to others are free to develop for as long as you pay the respective companies a fee for deploying)

– WindowsMobile6.1 and Dotnet CompactFramework 3.5 does still not support WPF.

– The API for TouchFlo is not made public.

– It is Slow. Did I mention that?

– As a phone for making phone calls it is not very good. There are cheaper and better alternatives. I use my mobile phone for much more than calling so to me everything is a compromise; but if the phoning capabilities are very important – look for another solution. I can defend it being slow due to it being bogged down by applications and bad architecture, but I cannot defend it’s bad sound.

– ActiveSync. It uses ActiveSync for synchronization which is not very good on the phone and possibly the worst software written ever on the client.

+ GPS and bundled with Google maps. It should run Microsoft’s competitor too but I havn’t tried. The GPS feels slow.

+ Radio. But it requires the headset as aerial.

+ Charged through a USB port.

– Bad battery time.

– It is not a standard USB port. Normal USB works so it is not much of a problem.

– Uses the proprietary USB variant for headset. There is no 2,5mm plug for listening.

+ Supports 3G.

– Only comes in the installed language. Microsoft’s Hej Knekt!-licenses forbids HTC to change language. This means that on a swedish phone you might get the totally unusable swedish error messages. They are better translated today but are still totally ungoogleable.

+ Has a gravity sensor.  I have still to find a use for it but I think it is cool.

+ The camera seems quite good but is slow.

– The phone and the camera are slow.

+ Hardware accelerated 3D graphics.

– So slow that the caller often hangs up before I manage to answer.

+ The case looks good.

– The usability of the case is not thought through.  I requires two hands for pushing the phone out of the sleeve and it is way too easy to happen to press the on/off button while doing this.  The phone also manages to change it’s volume even though it is in it’s protective case and the phone is locked.

– The home page looks cool but one has to choose between either a good time indicator and bad calendar or a bad time indicator and a less bad calendar.  The home/front page calendar doesn’t always manage to show all events for the day.

+ Easy to read the time on the home page.

+ The keyboard is quite good.

– The swedish onscreen keyboard lacks functionality.  So did the Qtek9100.  The 9100 was updated after a while but after way too long.  The thinking by HTC seemed to be like “we cannot support functionality X with åäö so the swedish users shouldn’t be supported without them either”

– It uses ActiveSync.  Probably the worst software written ever.

+ Has no key for taking voice notes.

– Shifts volume even though locked and in its cover.

+ Has dual touch sensitivity below the screen.

+ A screen cover comes with the phone.

– Not reliable.  Can crash unexpectadly in the middle of the night and leave you without wake up chime in the morning.+ A better way of killing running applications than Windows Mobile 5.  What were Microsoft thinking when they wrote in the guidelines that it should _not_ be possible to stop applications? At the same time they removed the cancel button – very wise on a gadget like a PDA or phone.  Not!

+ When putting it in its case it can mimic the sounds of a sword being put in its scabbard from a Holly Wood movie.

– Slow.  In case I forgot to mention.

+ Shows the last you called and it is easy to choose one and change to another number of the same contact.  Like: call to a friend’s home, isn’t there, call mobile instead.

+ The web browser Opera that is bundled is nice.  Unfortunately it is crippled.

+ The cross/back button works quite good.

+ After one gets a hang of how to change application through TouchFlo and have moved the right applications to the Program choose; it is quite easy to open apps of your own choice.

+ If you have Visual Studio it is easy to develop for.

+ Finally there is a built-in method for closing all applications quickly.

– The case doesn’t stand the wear and tear of jeans and suitcases.

– It sometimes makes prank calls and answers calls from my pocket.

+ It does less prank calls and answers phone calls from my pocket than my earlier EricssonP910i and QTek9100.

– Almost impossible to use as a phone with headset while in your pocket.  Even inside its case in a loose jacket pocket it tends to turn the microphone off.

– For locking the phone it is easiest to hold the hang-up button.  This also works when using the phone, just hold the button down and the phone locks.  Well… every other time.  The other times it hangs up.

– The head set that is bundled is ok.  But it still gets a minus because the headset for the 9100 was superb.  Lock behind the neck made it balanced so you could have it hanging without getting slowly drawn off.  Fabric around the wire made it very tangle resistant.  The good designs with the old head set where thrown away and back to square -1 for this.

– Slow.  In case I forgot to write.

+ USB charger, I use the same cable for charging, communicating and other gadgets; less to carry.

– Spontanous crashes during night.  I wrote this before but this month it crashed several nights leaving me without alarm clock in the morning.

– The HTC GUI sometimes fails.  But it doesn’t fail to let the Microsoft GUI through, only to show a big black screen with words like tap if you wan to restart the htc gui”.  Tapping makes the HTC GUI start and crash and show a big black screen with words like tap if you want to restart the htc gui”.  Repeat until you get tired and reboot.

+ Multi touch under the screen.  A semi secret.

– Up and down on the main button are ok but left and right are so so.

+ Direction sensitive so it knows if you hold it vertically or horizontally.

+ A new UI for messages that bundles SMSes.

– A new UI for messages that is in other ways harder to use.

– It doesn’t make it as a phone.  You can get both much cheaper and at the same time much better phones.

+ Has a lot of horse power (that it unfortunately abuses)

– Slow.

– The button on the headset, is it really a button?  It is possible to doubleclick it to recall.  But it is not possible to hang up.  It may be possbible to answer calls but I havn’t tried since if I have the plugs in my ears I go deaf when they ring.