HTC HD2 review – Far From Perfect

For:

Admirable design with Brilliant display and high-quality touch sensitivity, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, excellent HTC Sense UI and the fact that it’s a feature rich phone goes in favor for HTC HD2.

Against:

The size of the device is its biggest drawback and it’s quiet uncomfortable to carry around comfortably. Apart from this with Windows 7 series around the corner HTC HD2 comes with comparatively outdated Windows Mobile OS, unimposing battery life, average camera quality and mono loudspeaker that keeps it far away from being perfect.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM based HTC HD2 phone works on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and supports WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 of bandwidth. The additional software that runs the phone includes HTC Sense and Microsoft Office Mobile. The supported wireless interface for the phone is IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.

The TFT technology implemented LCD display of HD2 with screen resolutions of 800 x 480 pixels makes the multimedia experience of the phone exceedingly well. Some other entertainment features for the phone includes media players supporting 3gp, WMV (Windows Media Video) and MPEG-4, a 5 megapixel camera with automatic focus adjustment and LED light. The audio Supported Digital Audio Standards includes AAC, MP3, AMR, WAV, QCP, MIDI and WMA.

The power for HD2 comes from 1230 mAh Lithium ion battery that gives it Talk Time of up to 380 minutes and Standby Time of up to 490 h. With single connector slot, the HD2 comes with connection support for 1 x Headphones – Mini-phone 3.5 mm and 1 x Micro-USB.

Razzle Dazzle:

The undeniable fact about HTC HD2 is that the phone’s design is imposing and you will admit to it when you look at it. Measuring 4.74 by 2.64 inches and weighing 5.54 ounces, the smartphone certainly grabs everyone’s attention with many saying “it’s a beast” and we don’t deny it. As a matter of fact its colossal size will be a huge turnoff for many buyers.

Inside dope:

Do you have in mind the Windows Mobile smartphone HTC Touch HD with a gargantuan display? Well if yes then be prepared for even better. HTC finally has a big brother for it and are calling it the HD2. The biggest highlight of the HD2 is its vivacious 4.3-inch touch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and a capacitive touch screen technology which is also first for any Windows Mobile phone. Another unique feature of this phone is its 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Measuring only 11.5mm in thickness, HD2 is a slim phone. Apart from these there are plethora of other features in HD2 to lure the customers in the market and to give you an idea the HD2 features, 3G/HSDPA connectivity, a 5 mega pixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth and A-GPS. Read on for the full review of this phone.  At present the HTC HD2 unlocked can be brought for near about $650, but with that price tag, we’d suggest you to wait for the additional leisure features and 3G support.

Hardware

The one thing that comes in our minds by seeing at HTC HD2 is that, its, huge phone. More or less every bit for its façade is taken by the splendid 4.3″ display. One another thing that will strike you is display light censor on the earpiece at the top and the immediacy sensor on its left. The immediacy sensor is veiled beneath the glass panel and a string of buttons at the bottom. All this has been done to give display the centre stage and is done quiet aesthetically. The keys at the bottom contains the calling and ending keys at the two ends, the Home key, the back key in the middle and Start Menu key.

Display

The HTC HD2 display deserves a special accolades and mention due to the fact that it is the biggest display on any phone till now and also is the solitary Windows Mobile smartphone with a capacitive touchscreen. HD2 has a copious 800 x 480 pixel resolution, which makes it capable of displaying 16 million colours, though the operating system limits it to 65k.

Features

The precise features for the HTC HD2 Unlocked will be known once the T-Mobile version gets out in the market, but here’s a birds eye view of the basics. Features of HTC HD2 will satisfy the need of a high-end smartphone buyer. It has got all that it takes to be a top catch in the market and be it the Wi-Fi, GPS or Bluetooth you will get all in there. But for the US residents the quad-band world phone doesn’t offer the U.S. 3G support. So this certainly is an area where the T-Mobile HTC HD2 will be worked on.

Some other key features for HD2 includes a speakerphone, smart dialing, speed dial, conference calling, text and multimedia messaging, and voice commands. The integration of communication features in HD2 really is a job well done. The contact page displays all your interactions with any particular person you are searching for, be it a phone call or a text message. Apart from this, it will display if there are any updates from that person that has been posted to social networking sites. Other facilities includes calling the sender of an e-mail with a single hit at the phone icon, if there is any number associated, and in case there are multiple people in the e-mail thread, you can swiftly make a conference call using the similar method. The HD2 unlocked comes equipped with features of its own such as the Opera mobile Web browser, Peep, HTC’s Twitter app, and CoPilot Live 8 for voice-guided navigation

Multimedia

For the Multimedia fanatic buyers, HD2 comes with a 5 megapixel camera with built-in LED flash and autofocus. There is no protection for the lens and can easily get damaged. Though, the autofocus helps in focusing by holding the camera steadily, but still the absence of an out-and-out shutter button and the fact that you have to click an on-screen button to capture a picture, is certainly not the most convenient solution.

For the music fanatics there is HTC’s music player on home screen or you can use the conventional Windows Media Player. The HTC’s music player has a lot better interface. Regrettably you will have to be in the music player interface to get the volume level, and apart from that you will get the main system volume everywhere. The sound quality is pretty decent on the bundled headphones.

The humongous display screen makes viewing videos and images real fun on HD2. The absence of a built-in DivX/XviD player could be frustrating for some, especially considering the effort that HTC has given on the applications and OS. As an alternative you get prop up for fundamental MPEG4 formats only.

Call quality

We tested HTC HD2 the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) for the call quality and as expected the call quality for the phone was pretty satisfactory. Minimum background disruption and rich sound quality makes HD2 just the perfect phone for the modern buyers.

Battery Life

The 1230 mAh Li-Ion battery powers the HTC HD2 with up to 20 days of stand up time and 6 hours of rated talk time. It should be noted that there has been few sacrifices to make the phone slimmer and this could very well be one of them.

Verdict:

Despite the fact that HTC HD2 is far from perfect, it actually is an enviable handset, and that’s something you can’t say about other Windows Mobile phone. Though, its appeal could easily get hindered by its size.