Verizon to offer HTC Touch Pro2 for $200
HTC Touch Pro2
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)On Thursday, Verizon Wireless introduced its latest smartphone to the world, the HTC Touch Pro2. However, it's not so much the product announcement that's newsworthy, but rather the price.
Verizon will offer the Windows Mobile smartphone for $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate, which is a way better than some of its competitors (cough, T-Mobile, Sprint, cough, cough) which charge $349.99 for the same device.
Verizon doesn't cut back on the features either. The Touch Pro2 offers dual-mode functionality for world-roaming capabilities, Wi-Fi (yay!), Bluetooth, and GPS. In addition, like the Sprint model, the device is equipped with a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a tilting 3.6-inch WVGA touch screen.
Other goodies include a 3.2-megapixel camera, linked contact view (brings a contact's e-mail, text messages, call history, Flickr images, and Facebook updates into one location), and support for VZ Navigator.
The HTC Touch Pro2 will be available for order starting on Friday. Look for our full review soon!
Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie. 
Oh wait... didn't Bonnie just blog that the HTC Touch2 is coming out next month at all of the other carriers with Windows Mobile 6.5?
Way to go Verizon, you finally release a decent Windows Mobile phone (hopefully without crippling it - ref: TouchPro v1) several months after every other carrier, even though another phone is due next month with a better OS.
Sheesh! Best network, worst respect for customers.
Is there any hope the Storm2 will be any good from this corporate behemoth? Puh!
Bonnie... when you do the hands-on... please let the long-suffering Verizon customers know if waiting for a 6.5 phone is recommended. I have had my old Blackberry for 3.5 years now and have been ready to pull the trigger on a new phone for a year and half. But Verizon continues to kill me with its lag in rolling out phones while they are still hot.
Been running WM6.5 from MONTHS on my 2 year old touch... relying on the carriers for your upgrades is foolhardy.
Does anyone else find it interesting that this phone is so popular and so quickly picked up by providers? And by popular, I mean used by more than the average 2 carriers.
My T-Mobile bill is BY FAR cheaper than anything I would pay with another carrier, but I still think it's stupid to charge a $150 premium for the hardware over another carrier. I have had my same plan for years and it's locked in. My data charge is also less--that's my personal, 'fundamental' reason for being with T-Mobile.
Understand that people have a modicum of reasons for going with a certain provider--rural areas not providing coverage, homes and workplaces that don't get a signal from certain providers for whatever reason--there are too many to list so I just don't think it's fair to factor in your "Total Cost" with every review as there are many more factors than price that go into peoples cell phone carrier decisions.
You seem to like Sprint--care to weigh in (read: justify) on my horrendous experience with their outsourced support?
And the TP@ will be upgradeable once WM 6.5 is released. HTC announced this earlier this week.
verizon does big business because they have a more robust network - and you'll pay for it. as for upgrading, verizon has offered os updates in the past (xv6700, xv6800, etc.)...and as previously stated - recently announced they would offer the update to 6.5 for the tp2 down the road. and all of this talk about crippling is really moot. anyone there are plenty of "options" out there to get around that stuff. do a simple google search - xv6800 and tp1 users had gps enabled long before it was unlocked with an official verizon update. i know it's convienent to "hate" on big red, but the bottom line is you're going to pay more for the better service. i don't like it - but that's just the way it is. and i know i'm not in the mood to sacrifice network quality - especially when i'm trying to stream video via slingplayer. that almost constant 3g is a beautiful thing. go ask at&t users if they'd like better network coverage to go with their
"i-toy".
Nothing in my message disparaged the network. That is why I still have my crappy old blackberry.
They do "cripple" their phones. The TP1 released by VZ had LESS memory than other carriers (and puh-leaze don't even try the marketing hype about the faster processor). And they charged MORE for the phone.
And, yes, they do release OS patches, but similar to the months it has taken to release the TP2, the OS releases tend to lag the same distance behind so that Big Red can muck with the HTC interface first.
I have been paying the "big business" a lot of more money monthly for a long time now. And it is ALL because of the network. I would take exception to anything else at verizon being "better service". More expensive, yes. Higher quality, maybe.
But, ultimately, VZ is hated by its customers for VERY good reasons. My current one is how long they take to release decent phones. The Storm sucked. The TP1 was crippled. I am crossing my fingers that the TP2 and Storm2 reverse this trend (even with the months of delay).
I have three phones on my account with 700 anytime minutes shared ( never have gone over that) so I just got the $25 data plan and it comes out to cost me only $2.00 a month more than the plan I had with the old phone. Even if I do bump it up to the more expensive data plan I am still not putting out that much more a month but getting a phone that does a whole lot more. I can also up grade to Win Mobile 6.5 when it comes out and HTC has free ringtones I can download. I'm happy with my choice.
I did have a slight problem installing and setting up sync but I believe that to be from my own impatience and on second try everything went smooth. The keyboard is fantastic with it's well spaced keyboard but I can also use the touch with the supplied stylist that slides into the side of the phone. The phone is on the heavier side but I like that because some phones I have had feel like they might break is I bumped into something,
I did go to the store and buy a 4 g memory card because the internal memory is small and I do a lot of pics and video. While at the store all the representatives wanted to see it because even though they had known it was coming for months they had never got to see one.
I recommend this phone to anyone who needs to keep their work and social life in order. A++
And i will be ordering my TP2 tomorrow. Thanks for all the info ppl.
- by CliveOwns September 27, 2009 10:35 PM PDT
- Funny how some in here say they love Verizon and hate Sprint and are willing to pay an extra $30 a month for using Verizon.Sprint supposedly doesn't work well in their areas but umm HELLO you can use the ROAM FEATURE to make it use the VERIZON network full time if that was what you wanted,as Sprint roams for FREE on the VERIZON NETWORK!!! I think most know this but continue to IE to the bitter end. Liars wil always be liars i guess.
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- by Spuddinator October 8, 2009 12:48 AM PDT
- There could be a big fat wrench to the argument (made by CliveOwns) that Sprint users can "roam"on the Verizon network. It has to do with the communication technology, digital logic/encoding, and radio frequencies used by cell phone carriers these days. Verizon uses (almost uniquely?) CDMA format, wheras other carrier use GSM. A CDMA phone won't work on GSM (Hence the reason nearly all Verizon phones are NOT globally functional outside the US where the prevailing standard is GSM). And conversely, GSM phones are not capable of working on CDMA networks. As far as I'm aware, they have not only different frequencies, and bandwidths, but also have very different wireless logic involved. It would be like trying to use an FM radio to pick up a digital TV station. However, there are a few phones, such as the Samsung Saga, some Blackberries, and the TPro2 that have multi-band capability and can work on CDMA or GSM formats--hence they are called "World phones" because they can be used most any where you go outside the US, and in MORE places inside the US, esp in the intermoutain west. So, unless your sprint phone is CDMA capable, (Highly unlikely unless you bought it hacked off of E-Bay) your sprint phone cannot use the more extensive Verizon network.
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- by Spuddinator October 8, 2009 12:52 AM PDT
- (Cont'd from above)
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(31 Comments)Currently I have an EARLY ancestor of this phone (HTC, with win mo 5, qwerty slide out, touch screen, 1.3mp camera, wi-fi, blue-tooth, etc, etc,) and have been with T-mobile 3++ years. Verizon can't even come close to my current "loyalty Unlimited" plan. The best they can do for a match it is MORE THAN TWICE the price. Why pay nearly $160.00 for something that I'm getting for $79/mo with taxes and fees and all that jazz? The answer is for better coverage in the mountains--and maybe the visual voice mail feature. But don't be duped to think verizon has the coolest coverage features. In places where I can get a Wi-Fi signal, I can use a really neat service called "UDP" which is a VO-IP feature that uses the brains of a capable smartphone paired with the braun of a global wireless company that allows you to talk on your cell phone from remote chalet's that have satellite internet but are too remote for even the old analogue cell-signals. T-mo is the only carrier that I'm aware of that offers this feature (1 time set-up cost of about $10). This weekend I ordered the TP2 from my carrier for only $39 bucks more than "Big Red" is offering it -- except that T-mo actually had it in stock, I only needed to talk to one sales rep, she sounded like a person--not like a robot following a script, and my phone arrived in 2 business days. I've scoured websites for about 1.5 years looking for something better than my current old phone but with the bugs worked out -- Verizon hasn't had anything except the Saga that even interest me -- until the TP-2.
EXCEPT that at Big Red Verizon it's not "in stock." I can't order it on the website, none of the local stores have it, none of the sales reps or managers that I've talked to (at 5 different stores) had any clue as to when they'll get them, if they'll get them, or where to find any more information other than saying "the warehouse doesn't have any yet". I e-mailed Big-red corporate for information a week ago--- no response. I called their national sales line and the sales rep had the wherewithall to say she thought it had been discontinued since they didn't seem to have any on order and because they released a new smartphone yesterday. (who hoo! they "released" a new phone...wonder if they'll actually have any product behind this "release"? ) Seems odd for a phone that was just released a month ago. Oversight doesn't quite fit this category. One would think that they would be pretty fired up for releasing a phone that costs $600.00 to replace. And the business savvy would be inclined to sympahize that if you have a customer who really wants a specific product of yours that you would do what you could to get it in their hands. Not so with verizon. When they Released the Samsung Saga, none of the local stores had any plans on getting even a just a DEMO. I had the same experience for the Omnia --but I can't stand virtual keyboards. Almost stooped to a Samsung SCH-i760 a day before they discontinued it. Verizon apparently really doesn't care much for customers who just want a fast running, fairly bug free, technically capable, global smartphone.
My entire family is on Verizon though. They could save money if I went with Verizon. only issue is, I'd have to pay about $9O.oo/mo more to get something roughly equivalent to my current plan. That's only about $2,100 more over 2 years--hopefully you can sense my understatement. Seems odd that Verison would leave a customer like me "High and dry." To their credit though, one manager did take down my phone nume on a post-it note and put it in his wallet to call me with any more information he hears of...if can remember. He quickly added that there's no way he could even set a "reminder" for himself since he has no idea when more information will become available, or when or if they'll actually get in. He did say they tend to arrive all at the same time.
Way to go Verizon! -- They finally decide to add a phone that has solid technical merrit that they resisted the urge to screw up, but can't even get their act together enough a month AFTER the release date to even know if they have product or when they'll get it or even IF they'll get it. I'm impressed--real impressed. But they'd be happy to show me a picture of a different phone on your computer that you "just released". Like I said -- Impressed.