We just got our HTC Touch Pro 2 yesterday using Palm OS products for the last 12 years.   Originally we had a Palm Vx (this was before the Treo phones came out) but later migrated to the Treo 600 phone and then to the Palm Centro.   We loved Palm and even waited until the GSM version came out before replacing the Treo 600.   Due to Palm/TMobile interoperability issues that started in late Aug 2009, we decided to make a change.

The Unboxing video (please be patient while the video starts – Wilbur is trying to fix the delay, once the movie really starts, it will work):

http://www.southerngoose.info/images/HTCTouchPro2Unboxing.mov

What Comes with the Phone:

• The device itself with battery
• Plastic screen guard – see these instructions for lint free application: http://www.ehow.com/how_5236534_attach-protector-phone-air-bubbles.html
• Case (no belt loop or clip)
• Audio adapter – use to charge and listen to music/talk on the phone at the same time or to use headphones with a 3.5mm jack.
• Headphones with a mini USB adapter – use to listen to music or talk on the phone.  Can be plugged directly into the phone if you don’t need to charge at the same time.
• USB charger/sync cord
• Folding electrical plug adapter for the USB charger
• Documentation, CD with syncher software

So what do we think of the Touch Pro 2 vs the Palm Centro?  

Let’s compare the similarities and differences. (Note: the black tape on the upper right hand corner of the Centro is just covering up the brand name – no need to mention those folks.

You’ll notice that the Touch Pro 2 is a bit “taller” and a hair wider.  However thickness-wise, they’re actually almost the same size, despite the fact that the Touch Pro 2 has the slide out keyboard.  The Touch Pro 2 is 6.6 oz and the Palm Centro is only 4.4 oz. 

Also note that the Touch Pro 2 for TMobile doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack.   The Centro had a lame 2.5mm headphone jack.   Neither is ideal.  Both need an adapter to use “regular” headphones (like our beloved Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones).

Charger plug – we love the mini-USB connector on the Touch Pro 2.   Our new GPS uses the mini-USB charger too so when we travel, we can actually share the cord!   The strange connector for the Palm Centro would often pop out of the device and we’d find that charging didn’t happen.  The mini-USB plugs securely into the Touch Pro 2.  We don’t anticipate any issues with it popping out unexpectedly.

What we really miss is the directional pad thingie.  We loved having a button for a scroller.   A sliding finger isn’t as nice as a set of buttons.  Plus, we liked having the phone button, the calendar button etc.   We think we can learn to live without the phone and calendar buttons.  But the directional scroller thing, well, we’ll be mourning that button for quite awhile

Size: Centro Wins
Weight: Centro Wins
Headset Jack: It’s a draw, both are less than ideal.
Charger Plug: Touch Pro 2 wins
Front Buttons: Centro Wins

Let’s now take a look at the side buttons.  The Centro has the IR receiver – however, it will not be missed.  :)  The Touch Pro 2 has a convenient reset hole instead.   At the bottom right side, the Centro has a cell phone strap lug.  Now, we think it’s rather odd that it’s on the lower right side.  From a practical standpoint, we’re thinking that if you have the strap on your wrist, having the lug on the lower right corner might be convenient.  However, for folks who want the decorative “bling” strap…come on, no one wants it at the bottom!   Of course, the Touch Pro 2 doesn’t have a lug at all.  Instead of the lug for the strap, the Touch Pro 2 has the stylus.   We think it’s odd that the stylus is at the bottom of the device, though it’s in there tight and we don’t think it’ll fall out.  But as of the first 24 hrs, we still go grabbing for the stylus at the top.

Let’s check the left side.   Both phones have the volume buttons here on the left side.  However, the Centro had this cute button that could be used to IGNORE calls.  We loved the ignore button that would stop the audible ringing, in case the phone rang at an inconvenient moment.   This button will be sorely missed. 

The position of the micro SD card is different on both phones but both of them require removal of the battery compartment cover to install.  We think the better solution would be one of these rubber doors that you see on cameras.  They stick rather well in normal conditions then pop open easily when you purposefully open them.   

Right Side Features: Touch Pro 2 wins, but by a very small margin.  We think that the convenient reset port is worth more than the IR or the strap lug.
Left Side Features: Centro wins, but only because we’ll miss that ignore button.
MicroSD Door: It’s a draw – both are similar in design and we hate them both.

Here’s the top of the phones.  It’s hard to see but the Touch Pro 2 has a power button at the top and nothing else.  The Centro has the silencer slider and used the hang up button as the power button.   We will REALLY miss the silencer slider!  Even with 3rd party tools that make silencing the phone easier, we think that silencing should be a one button event.    We have played with the button assignment too.  Still, we love the physical button that we can feel in the dark.  :)

Top Button Features: Centro Wins.  There’s no need for a power button but we desperately need the silencer!

Now, let’s discuss the UI.   The Touch Pro 2 comes with TouchFLO.   We didn’t like the flow.  Maybe this made it look more “IPhone-ish”.   All we know is that it didn’t work well.  We couldn’t figure out how to customize it to remove the parts we didn’t like.  It’s off of our device (hint…Start, Settings, Today, Personal Tab, Today, Items   Then uncheck TouchFLO).

Palmifying our Touch Pro 2

So, we know it sounds bizarre, but we wanted to “Palmify” our Windows Mobile device.   Obviously, this isn’t totally possible, but we think we’ve come up with a good compromise.  Note: We did this transformation by buying 3rd party software and modifying the “Today” screen radically from what it was when the device arrived.  So, if you want to try this, take careful notes about your setting changes, in case you want to change it back.  You also want to do the trials before you buy, just in case you don’t like it or you have compatibility issues.

Between the hard buttons and the “Main” screen, we were able to do 90% of our activity from one screen on our Palm.   So we set out to recreate this experience.  Here’s how we did it:

• We wanted icons on the Today screen like our Palm had.  We got '>'>iLauncher which allows you to put your icons into tabs.  We had our icons sorted into categories on our Palm and this is similar.  Note…'>'>iLauncher has two different icon sizes.  We’re showing you the larger icons.   Now, we rarely have to dig into those endless menus.
  
• We then bought the '>'>Inesoft Phone to provide a more Palm like contact searcher (type letters and it’ll find the matches in both the first and last name fields).   Inesoft also includes what it calls “profiles”.  You can create a profile for your different sound and network settings – example, “Silent” will turn off all the noises.  
  
  It also has little icons that indicate the status of the wifi, bluetooth etc.  You can click on one of these icons to modify the status.  No digging around in menus!
  
  The “history” button also indicates how many missed calls you have by a number in the upper right corner of the icon and how many unread SMS messages you have by a number in the upper left corner of the icon.
  
  The favorites icon will allow you to have pictures of your favorite contacts for fast dialing.
  
• We then added '>'>PocketClock Pro at the top to replace our Palmary clock.  This provides our fav stopwatch, world time zone conversions, and a time based screen locker.  The screen locker that turns on after a user defined period of inactivity is another feature that we missed out on when we stopped using our Palm.
  
• Another thing we loved about our Palm was the calculator that did unit conversions (ie yards to meters etc).  We got the '>'>Panoramic Calc Pro that does a cool job of unit calculations, currency conversion and base conversions (ie decimal to binary).   It has more than the Palm calculator and is much cuter.  :)
  

Here are a few other settings and hints:

• Does that calendar look funny?   Switch it to “Day” view to make it look Palm-ier.   Open the Calendar, Click Menu, Tools, Options, then Start In: Day View.   Now you can create an appt just like the Palm.  :)!!!
  
• Did you know about tap and hold?   These little dots come up and new options appear.
  
• There’s a little OK at the upper right corner – seems wise to use it.  We didn’t notice it there since there are things ALL over the screen.
  
• Don’t like the mini-vibration when you click on stuff?   Turn them off – Start, Settings, System tab, then “TouchFlo”.  Uncheck the second checkbox “Vibrate the device when tapping …”

Stuff we haven’t figured out yet:

• We keep calling people inadvertently!  We’re hoping that we’ll get better with the contacts list and history to avoid this happening in the future.
• We’ve tried locking the screen to avoid “phantom calls” (ie the phone answering itself or calling others on its own) – we think it’ll take more time and experience to figure out whether we were successful or not.
• It’s taken LOTS of time to locate the “Delete” button and the “Add new whatever” button.   We think we’ve found them all, but we really preferred the Palm’s UI guidelines that made all apps work similarly.
• The zoomer…very difficult to use!!! EEK!

Stuff we just don’t like about the Touch Pro 2

• Installing apps is a pain.  With the Palm, you just sync and go.   With Windows Mobile, you have to keep confirming – yes, I’m really sure I want to install the thing that I asked you to install! 
• Installing .cab files requires you to go into the explorer and click on it.  Hey…with Palm you just sync and go.  Don’t make me THINK about installing stuff.  I just want it installed. 
• The fold up screen really doesn’t tilt up to the right angle.   We would have preferred closer to 70-80 degrees.
• We would have preferred the joyous 3.5mm jack, though maybe our bluetooth headset will substitute.

Overall impressions:

We think we’ll learn to love our Touch Pro 2.   One thing that can’t be “fixed” is the weight.  Come on…if the Palm Centro can be light weight, why couldn’t the Touch Pro 2 be lighter?   We think we’ve fixed most of our “User Interface” issues, however, we admit that it did cost a chunk of change.  

Looking at the photos, we realize that the Touch Pro 2 with our configuration looks a bit cluttered, but we’re happy to have everything on one page, with very few things more than 1 click away. 

We also find the internet to be much faster on the Touch Pro 2.  Not sure why this is, but we’re thrilled.  The internet on the Touch Pro 2 is FAR easier to use and we will probably be enjoying it far more than we had in the past.

So, if you don’t have other options, we think you could learn to love a Touch Pro 2.   We think this is a far better than having a Centro that has poor phone reception.