Official: I just got my TP2 thread....Initial impressions

[Sir Topas]

My 2 cents from an avid WM Pro user:

The T-Mobile Touch Pro 2 is nearly flawless! T-Mobile FINALLY got it right with this device. Since there are a ton of reviews, I'll just do some quick bullet points for anyone on the fence who is a fan of WM Pro and might be scared off by some of the previous reviews:

- The keyboard is, without a doubt, the finest keyboard ever made for a mobile device. The tactile feel of actually pressing the keys is wonderful, the spacing between the keys for ergonomic "typability" is excellent, and there is NO lag (one of the things that frustrated me to no end with the TyTN II!). The slide-out mechanism is the most robust of any of the previous HTC devices, and doesn't feel flimsy at all. Anyone complaining about the keyboard is just relaying their personal preferences and confusing it for a flaw with the device (which it is certainly not).

- The size of the device is NOT bulky, relatively speaking. I've used both a Universal and a Kaiser (my last device), and the TP 2 is more toward the Kaiser end of the spectrum. In doing a side-by-side comparison of the TP2 and Kaiser, the TP 2 is ever so slightly taller (we're talking mm) and arguably a hair wider. The Kaiser is actually thicker than the TP 2. The Universal deserves the title of "bulky," but certainly not the TP 2, which is very pocketable.

- The screen is absolutely gorgeous. Big, great resolution, crystal clear. The only thing that annoys me is that T-Mobile only included one screen protector. I am horrible at putting them on, so I screwed it up and it's got a few pieces of lint underneath. It would have been nice to get a second one, or at least have the option of buying more. However, it's been reported that T-Mobile is not selling them. I've ordered one of those indestructible clear shields made of helicopter blade-protecting technology.

- The Touch Flo 3D interface is snappy, and well done. I had been using a cooked TF 3D ROM on my Kaiser, and though it was very snappy, the official version on the TP 2 just feels more polished. Sure, I miss some of the customized things you can get with a cooked ROM, but they are certainly not deal breakers or anything that drastically affects usability/enjoyability.

- Battery life so far is excellent! With heavy use of 3G and WiFi browsing from 5p to 11p, the battery only dropped from a full charge to about 80%. This is great compared to my Kaiser's battery life (the battery was 2 years old, and the radio I flashed with the ROM was known to suck battery life, though). My only gripe with regards to battery is actually the battery icon. It only shows the bars, and not 1% increments. I'm sure there is a hack for this, though.

- Radio/reception seems to be okay. I definitely got more bars with the custom radio on the Kaiser, but at the expense of battery life. The Kaiser got 3-4 bars consistently at my place, but the TP 2 seems to only get 1-2. I'm not sure if that is because it's running on the 3G network as opposed to the GSM network that the Kaiser was using, but in the grand scheme of things it hasn't affected me too much. I haven't dropped any calls or had bad reception yet. I haven't really had a chance to play with GPS too much, but the GPS seems to be pretty accurate so far. Also, the lock times are way better than my Kaiser when using Google Maps. I haven't gotten a turn-by-turn navi program yet to test, and I will not be using TeleNav.

- Speakerphone is phenomenal. The speakerphone on my Universal was atrocious. On the Kaiser, it was usable but a bit quiet. Also, the manner in which to activate it was a bit clunky. With the TP 2, the clarity is crystal clear, the volume is loud, and all one needs to do to activate it is to turn the device upside down and place it on a level surface. That last point is salient, because if you try to put it on a non-level surface, you may experience problems in activating the speakerphone.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with this device, and I haven't even begun to explore its full functionality yet. I haven't gotten the TV-out cable (which T-Mo should have included IMO for $350). Oh, and I didn't pay full MSRP. If you're out of contract, talk to retentions and don't accept anything more than $280 (I even got it for several dollars less than that). I did have to sign a 2 year agreement, but I don't plan on leaving T-Mobile now for at least that long since I've got the unlimited loyalty plan, the grandfathered $19.99 internet with hotspots (new SOC, same features and price), $4.99 400-message bundle, and all of my other grandfathered features such as faxing, worldclass, and loyalty bonus minutes still show on my account. T-Mobile has FINALLY made me a happy camper!

[Scottish Skyedance]

Wirelessly posted (HP 211 and SE Z780: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.7))

don't be afraid to put the screen protector on, just have some scotch tape handy
once dust is caught, peel up and use another tape to remove, same way to get rid of bubbles

[cavenger]

Sir Topas....what do you think of the web browsing? Are their tricks to navigating some of the small links? Without a jog dial or d-pad, it seems difficult to get to some things without the stylus. Do you stick with the stylus?

[AlexKidd1977]

I echo everything Sir Topaz said. This phone is nearly flawless. I absolutely love it. The big high res screen was sorely lacking on previous models. To sit back and watch Youtube videos or anything similar is pure joy because the screen is easy to read. My vision is terrible - considered legally blind - and having the text on default settings is extremely comfortable to read because it's so smooth and sharp, overcoming the blurriness caused by my poor vision.

The only thing that could possibly make the device better to me would be a QWERTY-bar version since I prefer not to slide to get access to the keyboard, however I've learned my lesson with the HP iPAQ 910 -- to do a QWERTY bar touchscreen and make it pocketable requires a screen to just be too small to do the kind of things these sliding devices can do. I guess what I'm trying to say is, before with the sliding form factor, it really didn't offer any more functionality than what was available on a conventional QWERTY-bar design like BlackBerry -- e-mail is e-mail, etc. But with the adoption of the big screens, TouchFlo 3D, multimedia, and beautiful 'net integration features, man, the annoyance of having to slide open to access the keyboard is completely and totally negated by the expanded featureset available on a touch screen device.

Bravo. T-Mobile *finally* has something to brag about, other than great customer service. I'm very happy.

--Kidd

[Sir Topas]

Sir Topas....what do you think of the web browsing? Are their tricks to navigating some of the small links? Without a jog dial or d-pad, it seems difficult to get to some things without the stylus. Do you stick with the stylus?

I only use Opera to browse the web, I don't like IE. That said, I double click to zoom closer to the link I want, and then press it with my finger. If I don't feel like doing that, and I have the keyboard out, I use the directional buttons to navigate to the link. Otherwise, yes, I miss the d-pad from the Kaiser just a tiny bit. Not enough to make me like the phone less, though.

@ Kidd, glad to hear that you feel the same way about the TP2 as I do!

UPDATE: I found something that I don't like about the TP 2 - Bluetooth PAN. For some reason HTC and T-Mobile chose to put a different bluetooth stack on this device. The result is that it is impossible to tether to a Macbook Pro. The TP 2 does not recognize the laptop as having a bluetooth PAN for some reason. Hopefully there will be a fix for this soon.

[kdenninger]

ST, the Widcomm stack is FAR superior to the Microsoft one. I bet there's a way to make that work (BT Pan connectivity)

If not, the obvious workaround is to grab the HTC Internet Wifi Router off XDA-Developers and turn the phone into a Wifi Hotspot!

[sflyer]

Would someone like to comment on the non-speakerphone audio quality?

Specifically, my Wing picks up so much background noise that other than in a quiet room, all people comment they can barely understand me. Audio in isn't the best, either.

I'm hoping the extra noise-cancelling mike will help with the outgoing call quality in noisy environments. Just looking for confirmation from an actual user before I pick one up.

Thanks.

[AlexKidd1977]

Would someone like to comment on the non-speakerphone audio quality?

Specifically, my Wing picks up so much background noise that other than in a quiet room, all people comment they can barely understand me. Audio in isn't the best, either.

I'm hoping the extra noise-cancelling mike will help with the outgoing call quality in noisy environments. Just looking for confirmation from an actual user before I pick one up.

I have no complaints at all. In fact, the standard earpiece speaker seems to be of higher quality than all others I've had before - even my Blackberry 8900 which had great quality. A person's voice comes through with a higher level of fidelity. In technical terms, the speaker seems to have a larger frequency response pattern - with callers with low/bassey voices, I can hear that in their voice. Some might say it's not "tinny".

--Kidd

[Sir Topas]

ST, the Widcomm stack is FAR superior to the Microsoft one. I bet there's a way to make that work (BT Pan connectivity)

If not, the obvious workaround is to grab the HTC Internet Wifi Router off XDA-Developers and turn the phone into a Wifi Hotspot!

Thanks, kdenninger. I tried the trial version of the WiFi router on my Kaiser. I loved it except for the fact that my device got hotter than Hades. Do you feel that the program is worth $30? Or are you using the old beta version that is free on xda?

[kdenninger]

Thanks, kdenninger. I tried the trial version of the WiFi router on my Kaiser. I loved it except for the fact that my device got hotter than Hades. Do you feel that the program is worth $30? Or are you using the old beta version that is free on xda?

Neither. Use Google to search for "HTC WiFi Router" and you'll find the link on XDA for a HTC-sponsored program that does the same job, is cleaner, and - oops - is free.

The guys selling the $30 one are finished; their market just got destroyed!

[Mike Mercury]

FWIW, I was one of those that called T-Mo corp on the 11th and was told of the $279 upgrade price - then one day later when I called to actually order it - the price jumped to $349.

I got through to the same girl I talked to on the 11th, she remembered the call and they honored the $279 upgrade price.

Anyways, I had an original Dash, then the Dash 2 (HTC-S630 that was never sold in the US; the "new" Dash T-Mo is now offering is technically the Dash "3").

I loved my S630, it had a better screen than my original Dash, a 400mhz perocessor, and would do 3G on AT&T ... but not T-Mobile(though I never used it on AT&T for any length of time). I was using the $5.99 T-Zones for my internet without any problems.

The case color of the TP2 - which many are complaining about - is the same color as my S630; so I feel right-at-home with the color.

As others have mentioned, going from a true smartphone to one that has a touch-screen takes some adjustment. My wife has a Wing, and screen icons and lists were so small that a stylus was a must. On the TP2, I can navigate it via finger with no problerms at all.

We don't have 3G in our area yet, so I am forced to use 2.5G and Edge for internet... the same as on my Dash and S630. But the better processor of the TP2 makes it noticeably quicker when surfing the internet at these slower connect rates.

BTW, using Opera (with the keyboard not opened up) will auto-change to Landscape mode if it detects the phone has rotated.

OH, and the first things I'd like to change is:

* bottom two soft buttons (on mine they say "Camera" and "ALL People") Would like to re-assign their tasks.

* under that fantastic clock display, on mine it says:
Call History
and
Calandar

I'd rather completely erase those - or re-assign some other tasks in that area of the screen

[preludef71]

Does anyone know if the 5.99 t-zones hack works on the TP2 using 3G?

[shawndh]

people who are calling this device bulky are just being totally unreasonable. What the heck do you expect from a full keyboard phone with a 3.6in screen? Just picked up the phone this morning (in fear of having to sell it because of the reports of it being too bulky to carry around) and I absolutly love the form factor of this phone. I've been using the P3300 in my avatar, and that is the smallest WM pro phone I've ever seen. I liked how pocketable the P3300 was - and I actually had a Tilt that I gave up in favor of the P3300 because of it's size. Now the Tilt WAS a brick, but the TP2 is so much more elegant and slim. I'll try to post some pics later, but this phone is actually THINNER than my P3300 which I thought was impossible from pics. They're about the same width (maybe 1mm or so wider) and the TP2 is obviously longer (a little less than a half in), but the P3300 is a pretty short phone anyway. This phone is so thin, that I wouldn't even know it was a slider just looking at it for the first time. Also, I'm actually using this phone with the carrying case that came with my P3300.

There was also a report on some site that said "although the SD card slot has been moved to side of the device, it's almost impossible to remove the cover without taking the batter cover off". BS! That was the first thing that I did when I opened the box - slid away the SD card cover, no problem.

I have also, not experienced any lag or slowness of the device yet, but time will tell. Everything good about the phone is true - the keyboards (physical and virtual) are really nice to use. I personally prefer a larger screen without the use of the slide out keyboard. This device is thin enough that I don't mind the extra size and the onscreen keyboard works so well that I rarely have to slide it out or use the stylus. I think I was like 2hrs into playing with it before I even remembered that it had a stylus.

I'll give a full review later when I've had a chance to customize it and use it for a while. But so far, so good. The only thing I'm missing is TomTom. ****WARNING***** Do not download TomTom to your TP2 before you do a lot of reading up on BT stack issues on XDA-Developers. It causes some problems with the BT stack and sometimes the sound. This issues sometimes will require a hard reset. I just hard reset mine about 30mins ago. So I'm stuck with the TelNav crap that I have not gotten to work correctly yet.

[kdenninger]

TomTom will work but you have to know what you're doing. TomTom themselves are absolutely ZERO help as a consequence of them pulling support for PDAs due to rampant piracy.

I will not help people STEAL anyone's software, but if you have a LEGITIMATE copy that you BOUGHT (along with the maps you BOUGHT) and are REPLACING your device with this one I will say this: It can be used on the TouchPro2 and works perfectly, but it DOES take some effort.

[Mike Mercury]

people who are calling this device bulky are just being totally unreasonable. What the heck do you expect from a full keyboard phone with a 3.6in screen? Just picked up the phone this morning (in fear of having to sell it because of the reports of it being too bulky to carry around) and I absolutly love the form factor of this phone.

it's very similar to the Wing - in size and weight. Certainly not out-of-the-ordinary for this class of device.