I’ve been using Windows Mobile for quite some time now, going through a couple Axims, the Verizon XV6800 I bought sometime in mid 2008, and while I have always enjoyed having more or less a mobile computer in my pocket, there’s always been little things that nagged me - a recessed, highly-scratchable screen, buttons that can still be pressed when the phone is against your face, and a slightly awkward OS layout in certain situations.  This morning, though, my new phone came in - the new Touch Pro 2 HTC released recently, and Verizon started offering this past Friday.

Anyone that’s called me lately knows the issues my last phone had - poor speaker, sometimes wouldn’t allow the two parties to talk to eachother until I restarted it, vibrate had stopped working, and a battery that could drain in 2-4 hours easily (even on new batteries).  While I’ve only played with this phone for less than 10 hours, I can already tell it’s a giant step in the right direction for Windows Mobile, especially with HTC’s Touch Flo 3D interface that’s overlaid on top of the WinMo interface.  Touch controls aren’t nearly as awkward, buttons are big enough to hit with fingers instead of stylus only, the thing’s fast, and my biggest pet peeve is gone - flush screen, so scrollbars are no longer a pain.  The only thing I miss is having a directional pad - when one-handed, that thing always made navigation a little easier.

The screen resolution is unbelieveable - 480×800, especially perfect for web browsing.  Say I want to see what amenities are on the aircraft Affordable Charters of Excellence owns, should I want a nice, luxurious private air charter - I can do so without having to constantly scroll left and right to read all that’s on the page.

For once, Verizon hasn’t fully crippled a high-end phone they’ve gotten, either - the Touch Pro 2 comes with aGPS (assisted GPS) still enabled, so I can use it with Google Maps and actually see where on a map I am.  The speakerphone is amazing, vibrate isn’t weak, camera pretty decent… and the pricetag wasn’t all bad, either - $199 after a $100 mail-in, Verizon’s finally getting that part right as well.

You say the iPhone has had a lot of these things (sans screen resolution) already?  Bring the iPhone to Verizon, and maybe I’ll consider heading that route - but for now, I’m quite content with the handy little WinMo phone I have.

Tags: Affordable Charters of Excellence, air charter, GPS, HTC Touch Pro 2, Verizon

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.