Sprint To Offer HTC 'Touch' SmartphonesSprint To Offer HTC 'Touch' Smartphones

Sprint announced Wednesday it would be offering in the United States two powerful, touch-screen smartphones from HTC.

The HTC Touch Pro and the Touch Diamond are stylish Windows Mobile handsets that have robust features for the mobile professional.

Both handsets sport a high-resolution 2.8-inch touch screen that's navigated with HTC's TouchFLO interface. This UI is provisioned on top of Windows Mobile 6.1, and enables customers to use finder swipes for some navigation.

The main difference between the two is that the Pro packs a five-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Because of this, the Pro is a little thicker and weighs more. Additionally, the Pro has extra productivity features like expandable memory, and a business card reader.

Both smartphones will be able to connect to the mobile Web via an integrated Wi-Fi processor, or over Sprint's 3G network. The handsets will come with a preloaded Opera browser, are capable of push e-mail, and can view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

The Pro and the Diamond have GPS chips that can utilize cellular data for assisted GPS, leading to services like turn-by-turn navigation. The handsets also have Bluetooth 2.0, instant messaging, and voice memo capabilities.

The smartphones can play multiple codecs of digital audio and video, and both pack built-in FM radio. There's a 3.2-megapixel camera capable of video recording on both, but the Diamond lacks a flash.

The Diamond will be available in September, and will cost $249.99 with a two-year contract and a $100 mail-in rebate. The Pro will be available Oct. 19 for $299.99 with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate.