Everything you need to know about the Verizon Wireless Touch Pro
Tired of hearing about the Touch Pro? Hold on a little bit longer as the Verizon Touch Pro rumor mill is just starting to heat up. Earlier today, Engadget leaked a tentative launch date of November 24th for online/B2B/telesales and December 1st for retail stores. Soon thereafter, we got our hands on a Need to Know Guide that covers the ins and outs of using the Verizon Wireless Touch Pro. We picked out the highlights for you and we can finally put that whole “Verizon completely neutered the Touch Pro” rumor to rest. The document confirms that XV6850 will ship with a Qualcomm 7500A processor clocked at 528MHz, not the rumored 400MHz CPU. It also lists the 512MB of ROM and 192MB of RAM, which we realize is less than the 512MB/288MB on Sprint and AT&T. Why the difference? We are not too sure, maybe Verizon is reporting the available RAM and not the installed RAM. Regardless, it is nice to see the faster processor and 192MB of RAM which is way better than the rumored 400MHz and 128MB RAM device we were afraid Verizon was going to foist on its customers. The rest of the document has some nice eye candy of Verizon’s very red interface and a quick shot of the XV6850’s very different keyboard layout. Hit the jump for some more pages from the guide.
[Thanks to anonymous over at Howard Forums]
Almost everything…
what about the friggin Omnia….anybody?
verizons shit looks ugly as hell. sprint and at&t has the almost identical pro whi;le verizion makes that joint look like a alien device.
o yea and tmobile were u at where is my wing replacement
@Brum
almost everything..ur probably right. the original document had 23 pages so it seemed to me to be everything. I didn’t post all 23 b/c it was way too much for a single post.
@Mike
the xv6800 was the Mogul which I believe had the MSM7500 chipset, not the 7500A which is new in 2008. The MSM7201A chipset is GSM only so it wouldn’t work on VZW’s phone. The 7500A is new but not a new as the 7501A which is in the Sprint Touch pro. I am not sure what the difference is because on paper the two look the same. It does have the accelerometer according to folks on hofo who have used it. Just yesterday, someone over a hofo described playing the tilting ball game, teeter, on it. The people on hofo saying this are well known vzw people so I tend to believe them.
That being said, i do think the keyboard layout and possibly less RAM does make this the less desirable of the three versions of the Touch Pro. Neutering of phones by VZW is annoying but not surprising. They have been doing it since the motorola V710 which was promoted as VZW’s first Bluetooth phone and then shipped with many of the BT profiles disabled. I am sure they lose customers over it but they dont seem to care.
@ tony, Dude you must be referring to AT&T 4 years ago, AT&T no longer has statics on lines, Dude don’t tell me verizon has better voice quality cause they don’t, i know cause i have a line with them which contract will end in a month and it will be disconnected, Verizon does have a better network and calls drop from them is almost non existent, but again voice quality is kind of fuzzy if your coming from another provider
This may have been covered but..
If you check the specs on HTC’s page it list a front facing VGA CMOS 2nd camera. Do any of the American versions have this feature? It wouldn’t be so useful with VZW, since I don’t think they offer any type of video calling, but ATT does have VideoShare.
Glad all three major carriers have this device. I was thinking of getting it but I’ll get the Storm. I don’t know about the high prices though. I’m also glad Verizon left the specs the way it is.
Verizon needs to get on the customer’s side for once. Handicapping your phones for the sake of a few dollars is a sure way to alienate your base. Smartphone users are just that, SMART. By taking away WI-FI, GPS, etc. They will eventually give way to the services of the SIM networks who get the new phones first and don’t handicap. They also get OS updates first. Where’s my OS update for my BB8830 Verizon? And give me my GPS that you told me my phone HAD!
Can someone confirm as to whether or not the accelerometer has been removed?
Why anyone believed a rumor about a future Verizon phone that was started by Sprint is beyond me.
So, anyone care to tell us why it is 349.99 dollars with 2 years contract? AT&T and Sprint are selling this for 299.99 dollars.
I’m swapping out from Qwest, so it will be hard to go from the soft and nonconfrontational blue scheme of everything to that Hot Topic black and red junk scheme.
Has any of you smart guys compared the specs of the 3 TouchPros on Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon side by side? And the contracts, monthly expences?
If so, would you mind sharing the differences to us normal non-techies?
I am dying to wait another 2-3 weeks for this phone!!!!!!
@straylight
accelerometer is present.
I’ve often said the two most annoying things in the wireless business: Verizon Commercials and Verizon fanboys. Verizon is so shady in its advertising. They dumb down every phone they get. I’m writing this from my Sprint Touch Pro and I’ve never had a major complaint in the 8+ years I’ve used them.
I confirmed the presence of the accelerometer myself after speaking to high-level device developers in Dallas regarding the Verizon version of the device.
The MSM ASIC is the same as the Sprint version with the exception of the reduced ROM, which is due to Verizon advertising system ROM after OS usage and not before, which most carriers do as a cheap talking point.
Eric you’re writing it from a phone on a Network that’s quickly heading towards destruction…while this post says the specs on both phones are the same so what is your point in the statement you just so eloquently tried to make?
@likeabite,
The point he’s making is that Verizon fanboys and Verizon commercials are annoying. I think it was pretty plain in the first sentence.
Secondly, I came from Verizon to AT&T and the difference is phenomenal! Granted, Verizon has some sweet LOOKING phones but when you actually use them, they are pathetic excuses for trendy looking devices aimed at kids with rich parents. Hence why they can charge more for a dumbed down phone than Sprint & AT&T.
You’re always going to have your brand addicts who will swear the Bold or Storm is better than god, simply because they like BB’s. I can safely say I’ve used several BB’s, several Palms, several HTC devices and I will never own another BB as long as I live, unless they make some serious changes.
@ Kevin…that’s fine and well but Kelly just said this phone was not dumbed down so that comment was unnecessary. Also I’m not a fanboy…I’ve never had a blackberry or anything like that but I can say I don’t mind trading in the best phones for the best service though.
I played with an HTC Touch Pro today at the Sprint store and it was pretty sweet. I’m on AT&T now with a Blackjack and the Sprint EVDO was WAY faster than the 3G or EDGE I’m used to getting… when I can get it. Plus, you can’t beat their pricing. It’s VERY tempting to switch.
You could always buy the sprint version (non-crippled) and put it on Verizon’s network.
I have currently have the xv6800 and it has been good to me. But my contract is up and i know Sprint has better prices. Is the touch pro really faster and smoother than the xv6850? What about the data service, which one is faster, Sprint or Verizon?
Actually you are incorrect there. Verizon and Sprint both have CDMA networks which offer the clearest voice quality available. AT&T uses a much older digital technology called TDMA. TDMA suffers from lower voice clarity resulting in more static and reduced call quality.
Sorry but those are the facts. So call quality will always be much better with Sprint or Verizon.
Anyone know if this will have the G type sensor for motion? I read that Verizon may pull it out. Sprint has it.