6. Touch Pro2: Type and Swipe, Touch and Tap

The keyboard on the Touch Pro2 is outstanding. It’s the best we’ve seen on any Windows Mobile device and is almost as good as a BlackBerry keyboard (although it’s much wider so your thumbs have farther to travel). It has a separate row of number keys, and unlike its Tilt predecessor, the top row of keys isn’t trapped under the edge of the screen when you tilt it up. The individual keys are wider than they are tall, with a clear space between them, while each row is slightly offset—so you're very unlikely to hit the wrong key by accident, even if you have large fingers. The keys have a definite action—they go farther down than on most phones and there’s a slight audible click when you press a key, which means you can type fast and know you're hitting every key.

Use the keyboard in a dim room and the ambient-light sensor turns on a clear white backlight when you start typing. The keys at the bottom of the screen get backlit when you press them in dim light too.

Secondary keys are marked in a very legible bright green. There are primary keys for both period and commas, leaving room for function-key shortcuts that open the browser, Comms Manager, text message inbox, and an on-screen keyboard for symbols. You can also turn XT9 predict text and autocorrecting on and off from the keyboard rather than having to fiddle around with tiny icons on the screen.

Even though the Touch Pro2 has the same kind of resistive touch screen as the TG01, tiny icons aren’t a problem—HTC has done a superlative job of implementing finger touch so that you can swipe your finger across the screen to scroll and drag. This works very well in HTC’s own TouchFLO 3D interface, which replaces the Today screen and gives you access to your messages, calendar, contacts, applications, browser, camera and photos, music, and settings (along with widgets like weather and stock prices). You can swipe your finger across the screen to move to the next pane or pick icons from a bar at the bottom of the screen—swipe up and down to read text messages or scroll through your calendar or choose between speed dial contacts.

The swipe gestures work in HTC’s own tools for dealing with contacts and in the native apps like the inbox (swipe across the screen to switch between emails and text messages or between multiple email accounts). And where you have to tap rather than swipe, you don't need to grow your fingernails or reach for the stylus because the touch interface is tuned so that you can usually press the smallest of buttons with the flat of your finger. There’s a task switcher on the TouchFlo 3D home screen that lets you close apps or jump between them and you can easily choose the close button with a fingertip.

The on-screen keyboard may be a little small for some users, but it’s very responsive. You get haptic feedback as you hit the keys and confirmation popups showing what key you've hit well away from your finger so you can always see them.

There is a stylus in the bottom corner in case you find a link or button that you can’t quite tap with your finger. The stylus is in a notch so you can easily reach it with your thumb even if you're holding the device in one hand. The designers also assume that if you take out the stylus you want to use the handset—if the screen isn’t on already, it automatically turns on as you pull the stylus all the way out (so fiddling or catching the stylus by accident doesn't waste battery life, either). It’s this kind of thoughtful design that makes the Touch Pro2 such an attractive device.