[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile ROM Development] cajunflavoredbob:
New Touch Pro2

For anyone not using T-Mobile, what are you waiting for?! lol These folks are great! I just got my new phone in this morning. After taking it out of the box, I popped in my spare battery and booted the new one up. To my delight it was already running the latest T-Mobile version of WM (1.91.531.4). There was a cosmetic issue with the start menu, however, where the top half of the top row of icons was "stuck" above the task bar. I reflashed the same stock ROM to correct this and played around a bit.

I noticed that the buttons on the bottom of the device are a bit different. Instead of the standard all white answer, home (house), back (arrow), and end buttons, there was a green answer button, a white windows button (it still functions as a home button), a white back button, and a red end button. The backlight on the keyboard was a good bit brighter too. Pictures are posted below. The new one is on the left, old one on the right.

I backed up everything on the old phone with Sprite Backup. It's a wonderful application. If you decide to try it out, don't use it as a full backup to go between different ROMs. I only use it when going from the exact same ROM to the exact same ROM. It's a one-time backup with no need for using MyPhone or XDA_UC. It just makes an image of your ROM's current state and restores it later. Of course you can tweak the backup settings, also.

After this, I flashed the T-Mobile Stock ROM and retored the stock SPL. At first, I doubted that either of these would matter for a warranty exchange of a physical defect, but looking into the warranty reveals that the entire warranty is void if you change the ROM. I even subtly confirmed this with a rep over the phone. This may be different with other carriers, but I wasn't willing to risk it.

On the software side of things, I tried them out side-by-side with the stock ROMs in. I should have done screen shots, but I was too excited with the new toy to really think about it. The new one is REALLY SNAPPY. I'm not kidding. I did a task29 on each one before flashing the stock ROMs, and the new phone is definitely A LOT quicker. The old one, after visiting each tab, and going through some e-mails and music, moving from the home tab to each of the other tabs and back was extremely laggy. After doing the exact same thing on the new one, I did not experience any lag whatsoever.

Switching to landscape mode is almost instant in this one. The proximity sensor seems to poll more accurately now. I had a few issues with the other one either not turning the screen off during calls or turning it off when it wasn't near my face. The G-Sensor rotation is LIGHTNING FAST!!! Google maps, Opera, Sense all rotate within a second when the device is rotated.

My number one reason that I am excited about this, though:

THE GPS LOCKS IN FIVE SECONDS OR LESS EACH TIME!!!!!!!

I am pretty happy about this. I've been dealing with the five to ten minute GPS locks with the other one for two months now. It was unbelievable to me to load up Google Maps and have it find me instantly. What a relief!

After all of this playing around, I HardSPLed the new one, and flashed Energy.RHODIUM.21680.Sense2.5.Cookie.Classic.GTX.Sep.29. Once it booted up, I canceled XDA_UC, installed Sprite Backup, and restored the backup file. After the reboot, I played around and it really feels as if the ROM is even more speedy than usual. I didn't get to change the pagepool on this one as I was on a different computer than usual and had to download all the tools. I also did not do a task29 before this one.

I don't care what anyone says, not doing a task29 before a flash is a BAD IDEA. I've been using the new phone like this for most of the day and I'm having lots of "ghost issues." Bluetooth works whenever it feels like it; so does the ringer. These issues among other things are reasons why I normally task29 before each flash.

On a great note, however, free RAM after settling is at 94MB!!! That's after doing the same tests as above, and leaving the pagepool at 22. I normally go down to 16. I don't think I even need OCT anymore. This new one is amazing!

I almost forgot to mention, that T-Mobile does not offer the screen protectors separately from the TP2. They come packaged in the box, and that's it. When I brought it up that I would have to replace this also because of the physical defect, they offered to credit my account for $20 to get a new one. So now I need to figure out who has the best screen protector for the T-Mobile version of the TP2, since pretty much each version has a slightly different look.

That's all I have to report here. I'm please overall with the new device, and I think I'm going to try to edit the T-Mobile keyboard fix cab to link the new Windows button to the Start Menu. The end key brings you to the home screen anyway. Happy flashing, everyone! :D