The Touch Pro (or T7373) is HTC's latest addition to its portfolio of enterprise-class business PDAs. Featuring a slide-out 5-row qwerty keyboard, gynormous 3.6-inch WVGA screen and "Straight Talk" technology, enabling you to use the device as a speakerphone simply by turning it upside down during a call, impressive memory capacity and battery performance, this device should be able to satisfy the requirements of even the most demanding power user.

Technical Specifications

• Model - T7373
• Processor - MSM7200A, 528 MHz
• Platform - Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Memory - ROM: 512MB / RAM: 288MB
• Dimensions - 116mm(L) x 59.2mm(W) x 16.65mm(T)
• Weight - 178.5g with battery
• Display
  • 3.6-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 480x800 WVGA resolution
  • Adjustable tilt screen
• Network
  • HSPA/WCDMA: 900/1200MHz (Up to 2Mbps uplink and 7.2Mbps downlink speeds)
  • Quand-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/800/1800/1900MHz (band frequency, HSPA availability and data speed are operator dependent)
• Device Control - TouchFLO 3D, Zoom bar
• Keyboard - Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
• GPS - Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity
  • Bluetooth 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  • WiFi IEEE 802.11 b/g
  • HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack and TV Out in one) HTC TV Out cable needed for TV operation
• Camera
  • Main camera: 3.2 megapixel colour camera with auto focus
  • Second camera: VGA CMOS colour camera
• Audio - AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
• Video - WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI
• Battery
  • Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
  • Capacity: 1500mAh
  • Standby time
    • WCDMA: Up to 750 hours
    • GSM: Up to 500 hours
  • Talk time
    • WCDMA: Up to 390 minutes
    • GSM: Up to 510 minutes
  • Video call time
    • Up to 160 minutes

    (The above are subject to network and phone usage)

• Expansion Slot - microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• AC Adapter
  • Voltage range / frequency: 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz
  • DC Output: 5V and 1A
• Special Features
  • G Sensor
  • Straight Talk
  • Noice-cancelling dual microphones and speakers

What's in the box?

The Touch Pro comes with the usual accessories:

• Charger
• USB connection cable
• Hands-free kit
• Spare stylus
• Leather carry case
• User manual CD
• Outlook / ActiveSync CD

Getting Started

When powered on for the first time, the HTC Touch Pro 2 prompted me to let it automatically configure itself with Internet, WAP, SMS and MMS settings and then prompted me to confirm the network I'm using:

Following a quick reboot my device was ready for service and able to connect to the Internet.

Interface

The first thing you notice about the Touch Pro 2 is that HTC have added an additional 'skin' over the standard Windows Mobile 6.1 interface layer.
Applications and "widgets" can be accessed quickly and easily on the Today screen itself from the "slidebar" running along the bottom of the screen.
Tapping on the Start button displays a "quick launch" menu of your favourite or most commonly-used applications:

Tapping on the "All Programs" entry displays the full list of available applications, in a single vertical, alphabetically-sorted, list:

The same has been done to the Settings view. Selecting the Settings link will display commonly-accessed options, with the option to return to the default, 3-tab settings view by tapping on the "All Settings" link:

Contacts

The Contacts application has been renamed to "People", and also has a new 'layer'. When launching the application you are displayed with a Favourites screen which allows you to configure a list of up to 12 "most-used" contacts for easy access:

From the Favourites screen, selecting a contact enables you to call either the home, work or mobile number of that contact, or send a message to the contact at the touch of a button. By selecting the call log or messaging icon, all of the calls made to or received from that contact are displayed grouped together, and all messages exchanged with the contact are listed, grouped by conversation for easy reference.

Selecting the "All People" link displays the full contacts list:

When launching the People application for the first time, you are prompted to create your personal contact card, which once created can be sent via SMS by selecting its entry within the People application:

If you have a Facebook account, your profile details can be downloaded automatically and used to populate the contact card.

Push Email

Setting up Server ActiveSync Exchange-based push email on the Touch Pro 2 is a quick and simple process, provided that you know your account details and the Exchange server is using a root-trusted SSL certificate.
Launching the "Mail Setup" option within Settings displays the Add New Email Account wizard:

As the device is running Windows Mobile 6.1, you can add a POP or IMAP email account, or if using Microsoft Exchange 2003 SP2 or later, you can tick the option to create an "Exchange Email" account:

You will need to know your username, password, domain and the external address of the Exchange Server to complete the setup, as per usual.

If you are more comfortable setting up Server ActiveSync within the ActiveSync application itself, the process remains the same.

Straight Talk

The Straight Talk feature of the Touch Pro 2 turns your PDA into a conferencing tool simply by turning the device over during a call. A mute button is provided (below the camera aperture). Thanks to its dual microphones and dual speakers, noise cancelling technology ensures that background sounds are eliminated as much as possible and voices are presented free from distortion.
Conferences can be dialled into quickly and easily directly from calendar entries or pop-up reminder notifications simply by selecting the number in the appointment entry.
It is even possible to initiate a conference from the device itself by dialling contacts in turn and adding them to the conference when they answer the call (network services permitting).

Zoom Bar

The Zoom Bar is located at the base of the screen, above the left and right soft keys, and as its name suggests, can be used within applications that support 'zooming', such as Google Maps, Opera Mobile and the Photo Album.

Office Mobile

The Touch Pro 2 comes preloaded with the mobile versions of Microsoft Excel, Word, OneNote and PowerPoint, enabling you to view, edit and create office documents on the move.

RSS Feeds

The Touch Pro 2 has a built-in RSS feed reader application, allowing you to stay up to date with your favourite sources of news and entertainment (including the Brightpoint GB Tech Blog, obviously!):

Remote Desktop Mobile

Also included in this release is the Microsoft Remote Desktop client for Windows Mobile (or Terminal Services as you may know it by), providing remote access to a Windows-based PC or server that has the remote desktop feature enabled:

Album

The Touch Pro 2 has the same Album application that we saw on the Snap (http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/introducing-htc-snap), displaying thumbnail images of your image files and camera photos and enabling you to send pictures via email or MMS at the touch of a button, set up a slideshow or make the selected image your default Today screen background.

JetCet Presenter 5

JetCet is a Powerpoint presenting application, that provides additional features over PowerPoint Mobile, enabling you to preview the next slide and optionally skip it or re-order it if desired on the fly.

I haven't had the opportunity to test the TV Out capabilities of the Touch Pro 2, but when used in conjunction with JetCet, a compatible projector or external monitor could be used to present your magnum opus there and then, without the need to get your laptop out, or copy your presentation onto a USB stick and use someone else's PC.

WorldCard Mobile

The Worldcard application has long been available as a separate, purchasable download, but is now included as standard on the Touch pro 2. This handy utility allows you to use the device's camera to scan a contact's business card and save the information on it to a new contact entry within the Contacts application. It's not always perfect, but it can be quicker to edit the errors than entering all the information manually.

GPS

The Touch Pro 2 has an integrated GPS antenna and comes with both Google Maps and QuickGPS preinstalled:

Enabling you to use the device with any compatible satellite navigation application whilst driving as well as any "geo-tagging" application compatible with the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.

Web browsing

The award-winning Opera Mobile browser is preinstalled on the Touch Pro 2, facilitating mobile web browsing with the incorporation of such features as "tap to zoom", widescreen viewing, automatic text reformatting and password management.

Summary

This post has only been intended to give an overview of the features available in the Touch Pro 2. More information can be found on the Touch Pro 2 Simulator, or on the HTC web site - http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro2/overview.html
Or naturally, you can ring Brightpoint today on +44 870 849 0225