(AT&T) HTC Touch Pro a soild choice for me?

[DT0Xx]

No iPhones

Hello!

I've been really interested in the HTC Touch Pro/Fuze. I like the fact that it has WIFI.

Any phone I get on AT&T, I'd like it to not have a $30 dollar a month data plan. If the phone has WIFI, I don't want/need a data plan.


The phone must have a full qwerty keyboard. Touchscreen is a big plus.

My budget is around $250 on ebay, and the HTC Touch Pro fit's that perfectly.

I have a LG Xenon right now, but had to get rid of it due to it picking up way to much background noise.


I realize that I'm not really giving too many details into what I want, I just want a good phone for calling, good size screen, $10 dollar data plan/WIFI is a big bonus, touchscreen and a qwerty keyboard.

I'm really interested in the Windows Mobile / Android phones right now, but it doesn't have to be that.


Thanks for reading, please ask if you need anything else!

[Anna. Baby due 1/8/10]

I seriously thought of getting an HTC Touch Pro at one time (Sprint version available). But while the keyboard was nice, the phone felt like a brick and I didn't hear a lot of good stories about its long term integrity.

[Luca A]

Yeah, I keep hearing little things about that.


Well, the Android G1 is another phone that's interesting me.

Android G1 vs. The HTC Touch Pro

Who would win?

[THEY ARE THE WALRUS]

The G1 is a modded Touch Pro from the same maker, maybe with a different shell or body, but a lot of the interior circuitry and mechanisms are the same. Even as Android phones go, the G1 is long on the tooth, lacking memory, same problem as the Touch Pro.

The advantage of the G1 is the smoother Android OS and the more responsive and brighter capacitive screen (all cap screens are glass, while resistive screens used on WinMo phones are plastic). The Touch Pro though, has higher resolutions so the display looks sharper, even though the G1's display looks deeper.

Also the G1 has a 3.2" screen while the Touch Pro has 2.8". That makes quite a difference in browsing and touch.

Unfortunately since the G1 is a T-Mobile phone, you only get EDGE on AT&T's network, but then again you often still get EDGE on AT&T even with if the phone has the proper 3G support, since AT&T's 3G coverage needs improvement.

The question is whether the phone is unlocked so it can work on AT&T's.

Again do beware of Touch Pro you see on ebay. There are many carrier locked Touch Pro around. There are those that work only for Verizon, for Sprint, for AT&T, and for T-Mobile. Unlocked Touch Pro is rare and expensive. Chances that if you see a cheap Touch Pro it maybe a carrier locked one. For you, you better be sure that its the version for AT&T. The right name for the AT&T version of Touch Pro is called Fuze. Touch Pro for Sprint and Verizon uses a radio system that will not work with AT&T at all.

[bonnpapp85]

If you put your SIM in an AT&T branded smartphone, AT&T will "helpfully" add the requisite data plan. Better to go with Sprint where $60 will get you talk/text/data and Any Mobile M2M.

EDIT: If you're looking at unlocked, the G1 is better than the Fuze, but the Samsung Moment is (way) better than either.

[Fishcake]

My experience with dealing with unlocked HTC phones are this.

If you're using a carrier branded HTC Windows Mobile phone that got unlocked, putting the carrier assigned update, locks it right back. HTC has different set of updates for carrier phones and generic phones. For example, on the Diamond, HTC has a generic update for the Diamond, but you don't use it on the Sprint Diamond, and nor will you use the Sprint Diamond update on a Verizon one either.

Its very rare to find a generic unlocked HTC Windows Mobile that runs on 850 3G. Usually these are assigned to the Latin American markets. Quite expensive too.

The ones usually imported are from Asia. They got 900 and 2100 3G, so you need to run EDGE on the North American continent with AT&T or T-Mobile. But they do work and you can get around that situation if you have a wifi hotspot for faster downloads. For the most part, EDGE does adequately for all matters data except for video and music streaming, as well as large web pages. But if you have Opera Mini or Mobile 10, the compression mode can deal with the slower downtake.

Finally, on HTC Android phones, if Android gets unlocked, it stays unlocked even with OS updates. Though I'm not sure how the HTC Androids with Sense handle this.