06-04-2008, 07:01 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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HTC Touch Pro Announced (a.k.a. the Raphael)
If you looked at the HTC Diamond and thought "Nah, I need a keyboard", heads up: this might be the phone for you. Featuring much of the same look and feel of the HTC Diamond, the HTC Touch Pro boasts HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity (up to 7.2 mbps - glorious!), the same 2.8 inch VGA screen as the Diamond, a 1350 mAh battery, 512 MB of flash ROM storage, 288 MB of RAM (what a curious number - why not 256 MB?), microSD expansion, GPS capabilities (no real GPS, only AGPS? Really?), built-in TV-out functionality, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The full press release is below, followed by a bunch of images of this beautiful device. So what are your impressions? Is this your next device, or does it fall short in some way?
"Taipei, Taiwan — June 4, 2008 — HTC Corp., a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its advanced next generation business phone, the HTC Touch Pro™. Bringing a beautiful new angle to mobile business productivity, the HTC Touch Pro utilizes similar styling and functionality of the highly anticipated Touch Diamond™ and introduces a variety of business-focused enhancements that make getting work done on the go quick and easy.
“The HTC Touch Pro and Touch Diamond have created a new generation of HTC touch devices that make the promise of the one-hand, one-touch mobile Internet a reality,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corp. “HTC Touch Pro is for those customers that demand the ease of use and enjoyment of TouchFLO™ 3D and want the styling of the Touch Diamond but also need the powerful mobile business experience that HTC delivers.”
"A New Dimension To Touch – One hand, one touch
HTC has taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with its 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. TouchFLO 3D provides a stunningly intuitive way to zip through common tasks like messaging, calendar appointments or making calls with just one touch. Delve a little deeper to find that your music, photos, contacts and surfing the web are also responsive to the touch. In addition, the Touch Pro includes a new innovative touch-sensitive control for device interaction.
Making The Mobile Internet Useful and Fun
With the introduction of Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile Web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Websites in the way they are designed to be viewed on a PC. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan Websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.
In addition to Web browsing, the Touch Pro includes an HTC-developed, YouTube application for watching a variety of user generated video content as well as including Google Maps for mobile for mapping and traffic data.
Unmatched Style With Complete Productivity
Like the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro is crafted with precision to fit comfortably in a user’s hand and brings together elegant touch screen response with the direct precision of HTC’s trademark sliding keyboard design. Introducing a new five-row QWERTY keyboard layout that makes typing-intensive tasks like composing email or working on Microsoft Office® documents quick and easy. Built-in TV-out functionality means users can deliver the perfect PowerPoint® presentation from the Touch Pro.
Bursting with Innovation
The Touch Pro delivers an unrivalled combination of features and functionality. The 2.8 inch display provides near-print quality viewing that enables beautiful Web browsing and viewing of photographs. The built-in camera includes an optical auto-focus lens that ensures the photos you take will be clear and consistent. Advanced wireless and auto sensor screen pivoting are just a few of the features that make the Touch Pro experience a stand out.
Availability
The HTC Touch Pro™ will be available to customers across all major European, Asian and the Middle East markets in late summer. The North American and Latin American versions of Touch Pro will be available later in 2008.
Key HTC Touch Pro Specifications
• Size: 102 x 51 x 18.05mm
• Weight: 165 g
• Connectivity: WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA
• Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Display: 2.8-inch VGA touch screen
• Camera: 3.2MP, with video calling
• Internal memory: 512 MB flash, 288 MB RAM
• Expansion Slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Keyboard: Slide-out 5 row QWERTY keyboard
• Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR
• Wireless: WiFi 802.11b/g
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Interface: HTC ExtUSB (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
• Battery: 1350 mAh
• Talk time: GSM: up to 8 hours
• Standby time: GSM: up to two-weeks
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528MHz
HTC Introduces New Accessories
Also today, HTC announced multiple accessories will available for the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro including a similarly designed desktop cradle and travel charger accessory pack as well as an extended battery and slim collapsible case for the Touch Diamond.
About HTC
Founded in 1997, HTC Corp. (HTC) designs, manufactures and markets innovative, feature rich smartphone and PDA Phone devices.
Since its establishment, HTC has developed strong R&D capabilities, pioneered many new designs and product innovations and launched state-of-the-art PDA Phones and smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the US, and Asia. These machines are available as HTC devices and as products individually customized for operator and device partners.
HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com."
And here are some more high-resolution photos for your enjoyment:
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06-04-2008, 07:44 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 36
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Hmmm nice
Question though
the GPS: line in the specs
GPS: GPS/AGPS
I'm looking for a new phone and this looks like it but I want full GPS with maps.
Can anyone explain what the GPS specs actually are on this beauty..
PS This must be why the Diamond doesn't have expansions card support.
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06-04-2008, 10:15 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,468
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Quote:
Originally Posted by l0wey
Question though
the GPS: line in the specs
GPS: GPS/AGPS
I'm looking for a new phone and this looks like it but I want full GPS with maps.
Can anyone explain what the GPS specs actually are on this beauty..
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It has full GPS capabilities (provided as part of theQualcomm chipset) and should run any WM 6.1 compatible GPS software. The 'a' in aGPS stands for 'assisted' and simply means that it can, potentially, download extra information from your mobile network to make for a faster and more accurate GPS connection.
The Touch Pro won't come with full GPS software. In some markets it may come with a taster of TomTom 7, and some mobile networks may bundle GPS software. The Touch Pro will come with Google Maps though.
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PS This must be why the Diamond doesn't have expansions card support.
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It's more that internal storage and no SD slot enabled the consumer aimed Diamond to be as thin and light as possible. The Touch Pro can have a MicroSD slot because it has to be bigger, and so has the space for a slot.
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06-04-2008, 10:31 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,468
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
288 MB of RAM (what a curious number - why not 256 MB?),
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I've seen the T-Mobile Vario IV (a slight variation on the Touch Pro but otherwise identical) in action. Not personally I'm afraid, but a short video of it in operation. From what I saw the speed of the TouchFlo is noticeably faster and smoother (vitually no lag). Makes me wonder if the RAM is actually just 256 MB, with the extra 32 MB simply there to speed up the graphics intensive interface.
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GPS capabilities (no real GPS, only AGPS? Really?)
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Yes, real GPS. Standard Qualcomm GPS, with the possibility of getting a network assist. Exactly the same as the Diamond which operates as non 'a'GPS running TomTom just fine. T-Mobile in the UK say there will be an option of a bundle with the CoPilot software.
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So what are your impressions? Is this your next device, or does it fall short in some way
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I've been waiting for this for a while, and it is absolutely my next PPC. Oddly I was told it wouldn't be out until Q1 2009, so quite what happened to enable it to be pushed up to end of Summer 2008 I don't know. Perhaps it has some connection with HTC managing to ship the Diamond early? Beating the 3G iPhone to the punch? Worry about the Experia taking their sales maybe?
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06-04-2008, 10:57 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 541
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This could be my next device, depending on availability. Either this or Experia, diamond is nice, but I want bigger battery, keyboard and SDHC slot and iPhone2 almost certainly won't be available (officially) in my country...
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06-04-2008, 11:46 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 5
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I think the phone looks great and could be a real potential upgrade to my Tytn II. It does improve on the few things that I find cumbersome about the the Tytn II. The first is that from the pictures, it looks like you no longer have to press the function key to access the number keys and the second is that the screen is flushed. When I'm not using my keyboard, I like to use Cootek's TouchPal for one-handed use and the Tytn's edges make it difficult to access the keys at the edge. I think having an expansion slot is key. Especially since micro sdhc memory can go up to at least 8GB today. Also the additional memory will be an extra boost. However, since I'm still happy with my Tytn II, I probably won't rush to get it from abroad as I did with the Tytn II. Let's see what happens when the unit is actually available 
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06-04-2008, 02:20 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 39
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Hmm. I don't want the keyboard (never use the one on my 8525) and I really like the form factor of the Diamond, but I might be willing to put up with it and the extra bulk for the better specs here -- notably, the flash for the camera and the microSD card slot. I wish I knew what the pricing on this and the Diamond were going to be when they hit the U.S. (and especially whether AT&T is going to resell them with a contract subsidy).
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06-04-2008, 02:23 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 98
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You really need to point out that this device is ONLY tri-band. Once again, the 850MHz band is missing so no go for a lot of potential U.S. users unless they modify it and bring it over officially.
Once again - I fail to understand why ANYONE is manufacturing a GSM phone that isn't quad-band!
Eventually they will release these for the U.S. market, but who knows exactly when "later this year" really is? Why even change production? Why not start out with a quad-band device in the first place?
Last edited by cgavula; 06-04-2008 at 03:54 PM..
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06-04-2008, 04:58 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cgavula
You really need to point out that this device is ONLY tri-band. Once again, the 850MHz band is missing so no go for a lot of potential U.S. users unless they modify it and bring it over officially.
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You're right - I always forget about that particular issue because I use all sorts of European only phones and never have any trouble. But for someone that's living in a place with ONLY 850 band coverage, it's an important issue.
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Originally Posted by cgavula
Once again - I fail to understand why ANYONE is manufacturing a GSM phone that isn't quad-band!...Why not start out with a quad-band device in the first place?
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I've been curious about this issue myself - last week I submitted a question to HTC to get a direct answer on this issue from them. I'm hoping it will provide some insight - because I'm sure there's a reason for it and it's not just that HTC is ignorant about the desire that people have for a GSM phone that works everywhere.
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06-04-2008, 05:06 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cgavula
Once again - I fail to understand why ANYONE is manufacturing a GSM phone that isn't quad-band!
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isnt the US release going to be CDMA? i thought i read that somewhere...
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