HTC Touch Pro touches down on Bell
By Will Park on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:43 PM PST In Announcements, Bell Mobility, Devices, HTC, Hottest Hardware, New Hardware, Windows Mobile
Well, there you have it. The HTC Touch Pro has officially made its Canadian debut on Bell’s CDMA network. Following on speculation that the handset would be made available through Bell for rather steep price of almost $400 on three-year contract, Bell has launched their HTC Touch Pro at a surprisingly consumer-friendly price-point. The Bell HTC Touch Pro can be had for just CDN $239.95 (USD $200) when purchased with a three-year service contract.
Boasting the same 2.8-inch full-VGA touchscreen display (resistive/pressure-sensitive), 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, GPS, WiFi, 3G, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard that have made the HTC Touch Pro the gotta-have Windows Mobile smartphone, the Bell Touch Pro’s lower-than-expected price tag is an enticing deal.
Interestingly, Bell’s HTC Touch Pro images show a clean front face devoid of the carrier-logos that Sprint (NYSE: S) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have emblazoned on their branded HTC Touch Pro offerings. It’s not clear if the TouchFLO 3D UI has been tweaked to offer Bell-branded services, but with feature set that out-classes much of its competition on the specifications-front, it’s probably worth dealing with a little carrier-branding in exchange for some deeply subsidized pricing.
I purchased this phone the day it was released. The Touch Flow UI was not changed, instead Bell incorporated their own, named “The Bell Experience”. You can use either one of the UI’s or none. This phone, so far is an absolute incredibility – I was hoping for the the HTC HD but this will do just fine.