For as many people who have expressed interest and excitement at the announcement of HTC's Touch Diamond there is a similar number who have shied away from the full touchscreen text input. The bulk of these people it seems intend to use their smartphone for business purposes and value a mechanical keyboard for thrashing out those lengthy business emails.
Enter the HTC Touch Pro (nee Raphael). Sitting side-by-side with the Diamond the likeness is uncanny. With a few notable exceptions these phones are identical. The most obvious adjustment is the thickness; the Touch Pro packs an extra 7mm of girth to accommodate a slide-out, five-row QWERTY keypad. As far as we can gather, the Touch Pro will also feature the same on-screen virtual keypad options for those who prefer them, but the option to tap out messages on the mechanical keypad will be a major drawcard for many.
HTC has also played the memory shuffle in finalising the specs for the Touch Pro. This newer handset will feature 288MB of RAM as opposed to the Diamond's 192MB, but will not have the 4GB of internal storage the Diamond has, instead incorporating a microSD card reader that the Diamond is curiously missing. Both these adjustments cement the Touch Pro as being geared towards tech-savvy business users, rather than as an iPhone competitor.
There's been no official word about Australian release dates and local pricing, but we expect to see the Touch Pro down-under late in Q3 with pricing similar to previous HTC smartphones, like the TyTN II.
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| Operating system | Windows Mobile 6.1 | Windows Mobile 6.1 |
| User interface | TouchFlo 3D | TouchFlo 3D |
| HSDPA | 7.2Mbps | 7.2Mbps |
| Dimensions | 102x51x11.5mm | 102x51x18.1mm |
| Wi-Fi | Yes (802.11b/g) | Yes (802.11b/g) |
| Processor speed | Qualcomm MSM7201A 528MHz | Qualcomm MSM7201A 528MHz |
| Memory | 192MB RAM | 288MB RAM |
| Internal storage | 4GB | No |
| Expansion slot | None | microSD |
| Screen | 2.8-inch (640x480 pixels) | 2.8-inch (640x480 pixels) |
| Weight | 110g | 165g |
| Input | Touchscreen | Touchscreen, QWERTY keypad |
| Browser | Opera Mobile 9.5 | Opera Mobile 9.5 |
| POP3/SMTP/IMAP; push email via Exchange |
POP3/SMTP/IMAP; push email via Exchange |
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| Camera resolution | 3.2 megapixels | 3.2 megapixels |
| Camera flash | No | Yes |
| GPS | A-GPS | A-GPS |
| Video calling | Yes | Yes |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth (A2DP) | Yes | Yes |
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Hackerman
20/08/2008, 03:23 AM
rating
10/10
I sold my 3g iphone after 1 week to buy the diamond and i didnt make a mistake i can tell you that.
Would love the pro for the better battery and rom, but dont really need the qwerty keyboard.
Pros: More Ram , battery better than diamond, keyboard.
Cons: Thicker than diamond as expected though.
Price???
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tino14
19/08/2008, 01:06 PM
rating
9/10
where and when can i buy the bloody phone?
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Manni
18/08/2008, 11:49 PM
rating
8/10
Hesitated between this one and the Sony Xperia X1 (expected avail in October), but decided the non standard wxga and lack of enough rom/ram were too much of a minus, despite better battery life and nicer look (bigger but slimmer and lighter). So I'm getting a Touch Pro (to replace Tytn II)
Pros: - WM 6.1 (good OS, lots of software)
- VGA
- 288Mb RAM, 512Mb Rom
- G-motion required for WinMo 7 potential upgrade (X1 doesn't have enough ROM, and no motion sensor)
- Nice looks
- Compatible with some of my Tytn II accessories
- Opera 9.5 is fantastic
- Touch 3d is very good (when it works)
- Battery better than diamond, but worse than X1 (1500ma)
- MicroSDHC slot (up to 32Gb, much better than any integrated memory)
Cons: - Looks (could be nicer/slimmer)
- Back should be flat (although better than diamond)
- Why did they lose the tilt mecanism of the tytn II? Probably to save 1mm, but that was great to watch live TV/streaming...
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Ajv
18/08/2008, 05:08 AM
rating
9/10
Ihw IPhone and Touch Pro, so iPhone go quickly on eBay. Touch Pro is very well.
Pros: Interface, keyboard, speed, functionality, sd slot
Cons: hm.. weight?
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robbo33
16/08/2008, 05:05 PM
rating
9/10
can you get this phone through telstra and then and put another carriers card in there? im with vodafone and i got told that htc is a telstra phone? i hated my iphone and sold it after 2 days this phone looks awesome i want one.
can you download a patch or something?
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Jon
14/08/2008, 04:31 PM
rating
7/10
For those complaining about A-GPS you really should read up on it. It's ASSISTED, a positive, not a negative!
Those complaining about the 3.2MP camera need to realise that with the size sensor in this more MP would mean it'd be far too noisy to be useful.
Seen available to Australia in the next few days at $1239. I might wait a bit and live with my 838 Pro for now.
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Me
07/08/2008, 06:33 AM
rating
10/10
A million times better than the Iphone 3G.
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PaulG
06/08/2008, 02:38 PM
rating
10/10
Been using the DoPod 838 Pro & Tytyn II for the last 3 years & am impressed with the differences between the 838 Pro & TytnII, if HTC can pull the same thing off again with the Diamond Pro then I think they will have the TRUE iPhone Killer
Pros: Its looks/design
A real keyboard
Cons: A-GPS
Battery Technology
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j2dafizzle
24/07/2008, 09:02 PM
rating
9/10
where can you buy this in australia?
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Mick
14/07/2008, 09:39 AM
rating
9/10
Sounds great looking forward to it arriving in Australia
Does anyone know when?
Is it true the GPS the requires conection to the phone service to work
Pros: Looks Great
Size
Keyboard
Cons: possible lag
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