When we walk into a store with the hope of purchasing a new phone, as a phone fanatic you probably get butterflies in your stomach, or generally feel elated at the mere fact that when you walk out of that store you’re going to have a brand new shiny phone to play with. You can already envision the honeymoon phase that you’ll encounter for at least two weeks following the purchase of the device as you learn the ins and outs of your new toy. For people like you and I who geek out over phones, they’re one of the best days we look forward to.

But a honeymoon phase is just that - they don’t last forever. After that first month or so you’ll probably continue the relationship with your phone in one of two ways: you’ll feel content and confident about your decision, or you’ll buy a calendar to start counting down the days until you get to buy a totally different phone because as it turns out this phone wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and you’re just finding out now that it’s too late.

Yeah, you probably know what I’m talking about. Most of us have had at least one sour experience with a phone - you’re probably thinking about that phone right now. That phone. The one that you still can’t believe you spent that much money on.

For me? It was the HTC Touch Pro, an old Windows Mobile device that looked pretty on the outside, but was a complete potato on the inside. Don’t get me wrong, I like my spuds, but not when it comes to advanced technology.

First of all, the slide-out physical QWERTY was the worst I had ever used. It wasn’t springy, it wasn’t snappy, and the keys were awkward and had absolutely no spacing. I can still feel the nails-against-chalkboard sound my nails would make as they slid all over the keys. It was a far cry from the physical keyboards I was used to at this point: BlackBerry and Palms, which were some of the best keyboards I had ever used (Palm Centro and Treo Pros were my favorites - those gel keys were the bee’s knees, yo). But I hated the HTC Touch Pro’s keyboard. Strike one.

Despite the issues with the physical keyboard, the more important aspect of the phone - the software, that is - had yet to be explored. Surely this rather expensive smartphone had some redeeming qualities, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. The software was a one-way ticket to Lagville, which I guess in hindsight should have been something I could have expected with Windows Mobile, but I was a lot less phone savvy back then. I was just getting started on the road to smartphones at the time, otherwise I might have invested in something smarter like an Android or an iPhone. Still, if that phone was as expensive as it was (somewhere in the $200 range I think?) it had to have been that expensive for a reason (she thought foolishly). All I knew was that I liked Windows OS for computers, so I assumed that Windows Mobile was just as good.

The fact that the operating system is now extinct is proof enough that it wasn’t.

The lagginess was a constant occurence throughout the device. There was no avoiding it. Making phone calls, answering phone calls, sending and receiving texts, using the Internet, and just switching screens was a daunting task for the HTC Touch Pro. This phone was a hot mess. It got so bad that it’s actually what caused me to learn how to flash ROMs to a device. Something had to give and I wasn’t due for an upgrade at the time, so I had to get creative. Thankfully this was an option with the Touch Pro (also named Raphael) and after a few trial and errors I was able to flash some sturdier ROMs onto the device. It never really got to a point where I actually liked the phone, but it was nice to know that I could tune it up at least a little bit.

That’s pretty much the only good thing to come out of the HTC Touch Pro, though - knowing that what comes out of the box isn’t all that a phone can do. That smartphones were a lot like computers in the sense that you can tweak them to make them run faster or smoother. It’s because of the frustrations that stemmed from this phone that made me feel brave enough to attempt this with later Android phones once I had troubles with them.

Aside from that, though, the HTC Touch Pro was a nightmare that I was stuck with for a while. I still can’t believe I spent money on it, but I suppose it did come with its lessons and makes for a good story that nobody wants to hear at the dinner table.

But we want to hear from you now, readers! When it comes to phones you’ve owned, any phone at all, which one stands out to you as being “that” phone that was such a bad experience that you wish you had never purchased it? Tell us your stories in the comments below!