Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately instead of reading JAMM, you might have heard that Sprint just released the latest HTC superphone to hit American shores — the Touch Pro. The things are disappearing practically before they come out of the packing boxes in stores, so it wasn’t easy getting my hands on one. 

Yes, I bought it. This is not a loaner I have to send back, it’s mine to keep and they can take it when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. (I should really try to stop channeling Charlton Heston.) Anyway.

A little background on me. About a month ago I resigned my membership in the very small Non-Tech-Employed JAMM Staff club and started a new job with a software company. We use Microsoft products for just about everything. Management is very strict about what goes on company machines — all those End User License Agreements that regular people speed-click through can bite us bad. My job will have me traveling about 75% of the time, and if I don’t have fantastic communications power I can’t be effective. And I’m with Sprint. Add all that up, and the only phone in the Sprint lineup that will play nicely with company resources and has enough horsepower to do what I need is the Touch Pro. It was either get a new phone or risk getting fired, and I like it there.

I’ve had the Touch Pro since yesterday, just enough time to develop some first impressions. This won’t be a full review (maybe later), but more of a diary entry. I haven’t installed any third-party software or even completely explored the out-of-box capabilities. I do know it makes phone calls. That’s important.

My first thought when I lovingly lifted my Touch Pro from its cardboard cocoon was, “Ooh! Shiny!” I am not normally distracted by bright objects. However, the Touch Pro is one of the sleekest business phones I’ve come across, and in a pinch you could use it as a mirror. The front is dominated by the VGA screen and five hard buttons, all of which are flush. It looks very modern and high-powered. While it’s not fashionably thin, the Touch Pro makes me think of Daniel Craig as James Bond — purposeful bulk that could break those pretty little toy phones over its knee, readjust its tux, and calmly request another martini.

Turning the phone on, you’re greeted by the famous TouchFLO 3D interface. It’s every bit as gorgeous as everyone says, and I was thrilled to note that the lagginess which was a problem in early Diamond-line products has become in the Sprint Touch Pro a complete non-issue. The scrolling and flicking gestures are simple and intuitive, and they work wonderfully on the home screen. TouchFLO 3D makes it difficult to use any standard Today screen plug-ins — in fact, I haven’t found a way to get to the Windows Mobile Today screen we all know and, ahem, love — but I’m hardly crying over the loss.

Ironically, one of the other terrific input features is fairly low-tech: the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Coming from the Centro, typing on it is night and day. The keys are big enough to be easily distinguishable, and they are slightly domed for a pleasant tactile experience. The keyboard moves with a satisfying glide-and-snap, and the portrait-to-landscape transitions have been seamless. HTC designed the software keyboard, which is perhaps not quite as good as the iPhone’s. It’s fine but not overwhelmingly impressive, but then I’ve never met a SIP I loved. Finally, because there are still a few situations where you just need a pointy thing, there is a stylus.

Some basic functions are mostly HTC. The Task Manager (I think I hear angels singing!), which lives as it ought in the upper right corner of TouchFLO 3D, is attractive and functional. That’s good, because the Touch Pro has enough memory for some heavy-duty multitasking — right now I’m at 116 MB free, or about ten times what Doug’s Mogul pulls on a good day. Connection management is also mostly through HTC mods. The Touch Pro can handle so many types of data connections that they can’t possibly be dealt with through hardware buttons. A completely graphical basic connection screen displays when you touch one of the status icons, or for full control you can call up the Connection Manager and its elegant touch-toggle interface.

The points where you leave HTC’s interface and hit a slightly gussied-up version of Microsoft’s are pretty clear. PIM is strongly Microsoft, and replacing it with usable versions of  Calendar and Contacts is at the top of my list. The only problems I’ve noted with gesture scrolling have been inside Contacts, which is occasionally stubborn about wanting to zoom back to the top when I’m looking up a W. Phone is also mostly Microsoft with an HTC overlay, but the overlay makes a big difference to ease of use, functionality, and, obviously, style. Email and Messaging with WinMo 6.1 start out significantly better than they used to be, and some of HTC’s added touches, like circular gestures to zoom in and out, add even more.

So far I’ve barely scratched the surface with the Touch Pro, but my first impression is of an intriguing mix of beauty and power: the ultimate executive phone. For many businesspeople, Windows Mobile was a purchase out of necessity, not because they would have chosen it. The Touch Pro could change that.

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