HTC HD2 review

We’ve said it many times before but we will gladly mention it again: HTC is one of the most innovative businesses on the market for mobile phones. They are also one of the companies that have managed to stay positive during this financial crisis.

It is only a few years ago that HTC was an unknown brand which produced phones targeted at the geeks. Back then the phones were sold as brands such as Orange SPV and Qtek. In Denmark, this is not the case anymore. Orange does not exist anymore and Qtek is now HTC.

The HD2 is the latest grand multimedia phone from HTC and they have spared no expense on hardware. The phone is undoubtedly going to raise the bar in terms of what is possible in a mobile phone. “iPhone killer” is such a well-worn branding and we will refrain from this in this test. However, we cannot deny referring to the iPhone a couple of times. Enough about that let us get going with the test of HTC’s super phone also known as HD2.

HD2 and the match box	HD2 nex to Nokia 6500 Classic

HD2 comes in a completely new box design-wise. No more fancy packaging a la Touch Diamond, instead the wrapping is a fairly anonymous box. Therefore, you will probably not experience any heighten sensation when opening the box. You push the green inner box out and the HD2 reveals itself lying in a carton tray. Lifting the tray reveals the extra content. Together with the phone and battery, you will get a charger, a microSD memory card, a leather case to protect the phone, and a headset. Unfortunately the charger is split by a plug and a USB cable which means you have to move the cable back and forth whenever you want to connect your phone to your computer. Of course, you could just recharge your phone via the computer but we would still prefer having both a charger cable and a sync cable. If it was up to us, we would also have liked a bigger memory card. The MicroSD is a 2 GB drive and you also get a SD adapter.

HD2 in a handful

HTC HD 2 is impressive once you have it in your hand. As its predecessor the Touch HD, the large screen is a key feature. However, with the HD2, you will see for yourself just how big a screen can be in a phone. We will return to the screen a bit later but we can already say that there is not anything like it in any other phone. It is like HTC decided to use this large screen and then tried to have as little as possible ”real” phone around it. That is why the front is just a slim frame with a few buttons – very impressive!
 
Our rave about the design is of course not limited to just the front. HTC use the same tricks as Apple with the iPhone. That is making a really big phone look very slim. This is done by making the phone arch so it is its heaviest in the middle while maintaining the thin sides. There is no denying that the HD looks stunning on the back with a broad metal cover plate.

The side dimension of only 11 mm	The rear arches so the phone seems thinner

The size of a phone with such a large display is of course not in the tiny end. The one chink in HD2’s armour is the size. However, you just cannot have a huge screen in a tiny phone, that’s life.

The HD2 measures 120.5 * 67 * 11 mm. and weighs 157 g. This is a bit bigger than the predecessor which measures 115 * 62.8 * 12 mm. – about 5 mm. broader and taller and about 10 g heavier. Compared to the Omnia HD – another super phone – the HD2 is just a very little bit broader and heavier but still as tall.

Sony Ericsson Satio next to HD2

The quality is tangible. The screen is made of glass which adds to the weight. The sides and a part of the rear are made in this lovely rubber-y surface which is nice to the touch and does not leave smears. Even though the HD2 is only 12 mm. thick at its thickest point, we couldn’t produce any squeaky noises by twisting and turning the phone. In short, the HD2 is really nice both looking at and touching.

Let us take a tour of the phone and see just where HTC has placed the different buttons and whatnot. We begin with the front. As mentioned earlier, the large screen dominated most of the front. Above the screen you will find the speakers for calls. On the left is a small diode and to the left of this is a sensor, which turns of the screen when you put the phone to your ear. There is also a tiny ambient light sensor that measures lighting and adjust the backlight. There is not a camera on the front thus video calls are not possible.

Below the screen is a row of 5 different function keys.

On the left-hand side of the phone is a large volume key which is both nice to press but also large enough to be easily found during a call. The right-hand side sports absolutely nothing. We need a hardware key for the camera instead of being limited to the touch button on the display.

The bottom with microUSB and audio jack	A huge flaw! The camera protrudes the rear!

The bottom holds the mouth piece and the microUSB port for charging and computer connections. Furthermore there is a 3.5 mm audio jack. We are not quite sure why this is placed on the bottom because it is not very handy. However, we are pleased that there is an audio jack instead of having to use the microUSB for headsets.

The top of the phone is just like the right-hand side – completely rid of anything. So let us move on to the rear of the phone. At the top is the camera lens which is elevated from the rest of the phone. The lens is surrounded by a metal frame but there is not a protective lid. To the left is the speaker grill and to the right a double LED flash. We are not huge fans of elevated camera lenses. You cannot help but notice it when holding the phone and when the phone is lying on a surface, it is resting on the lens. This is a do-over!

The rear with the metal cover plate	MicroSD slot and a reset button under the cover

Below the camera lens is the metal cover plate. The plate stretches from side to side. Under the cover plate is a reset button and a slot for the microSD memory card. Let’s close it up and return to the front once again.

As mentioned many times now, the screen is huge. It is a 4.3” (93 * 51 mm) TFT display. Perhaps it can be hard to fathom just how big it is, so here is a comparison chart of the area of phones with large screens:

HD2: 47.43 cm2
Touch HD: 42.0 cm2
Omnia HD: 38.5 cm2
iPhone: 37.5 cm2
Satio: 32.7 cm2
Hero: 30.15 cm2

Sony Ericsson Satio next to HD2

From the above comparison, you can see that the HD2 has a screen with a 50 % larger area than e.g. the HTC Hero.

Size is not the only thing that matters though. HD2 is the first Windows Mobile from HTC that has a capacitive touch screen. This means that you only need to use a light touch for the phone to react. This is far more user friendly than the older resistive system that has been used for years.

Besides the delight of the capacitive touch screen is the fact that the HD2 has a very large resolution of 800 * 480 pixels. So even though the screen is larger than the one on e.g. the iPhone, the density of pixels is still higher on the HD2 (HD2 has 8,100 pixels per cm2 while the iPhone only has 4,100 pixels per cm2).

The screen has 65,000 colours which on paper is not very impressive. However, in real life the screen seems to display the colours just fine and they do not seem to be pale. The icing on the cake would have been an OLED display but we guess we will just have to make do with the TFT display.

Regular numeric keypad	Complete QWERTY keyboard in vertical position

One of the main advantages of having a large screen is of course that the virtual keyboard is much more user-friendly. The HD2 sports 3 different input types. You have the regular numeric keypad with 3 or 4 letters per number. The keys each measure slightly less than 13 * 7 mm. There is the compact QWERTY keyboard with keys measuring 8 * 7 mm each. Using the complete QWERTY keyboard, each key is now 5 * 7 mm in vertical position while in horizontal position, the keys measure 8 * 6 mm. This makes the keys smaller than the ones on e.g. the Omnia HD but still the same size as the ones on the iPhone.

QWERTY keyboard in the horizontal position

You can select vibration feedback when pressing a key. Furthermore the phone supports intelligent texting and T9 which speeds up texting while minimizing the number of spelling errors.

Below the screen are the previously mentioned function keys. We must admit that these keys lack a bit in quality. The keys are positioned in a long row which seems to be a bit too loose than we care for.

The functions are however just as they should be. From left to right is the answer/perform a call button, the home button, the Windows key for the menu, the Back key and finally the end call/shut down/standby key.

The five hardware keys

This concludes our tour of the outer perimeters of the phone. Let us get started with showing you all the functions and features the HD2 has to offer.

We begin with the network part. Phone-loving readers won’t be surprised to know that the HD2 comes complete with all possibilities for communicating with the world.

4 GSM bands and support of the EDGE technology as well as 2 3G bands are just some of the features this phone sports. HSDPA has a data rate of 7,2 mbit and HSUPA a data rate of 2 mbit Naturally, you also have Wi-Fi. A new feature is the Wi-Fi router. You can actually make the phone function as a Wi-Fi router so you can connect a laptop etc to the internet through the phone – wireless of course.

The TouchFLO settings menu	The Connections menu

Bluetooth is yet another way you can connect your phone to other phones, computers and peripherals. The HD2 supports Bluetooth 2.1 and A2DP – stereo profile. If you don’t wish to fiddle around with wireless solutions, you can still use a cable for data transfer. As mentioned, the HD2 comes with a microUSB cable and connected to a computer, you can transfer loads of data at lightning speed.

HTC HD2 is in every possible way a small revolution for Windows Mobile phones. That is why we will take a lot at just why this phone is so different from what we have previously seen.

Bluetooth settings menu

First and foremost, the HD2 has a lot of horsepower under the hood. It has the most powerful mobile processer made to date. This is a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz (1024 MHz). This is almost double the power compared to phones such as Touch2, PRO2, Diamond2 and the old Touch HD. Those phones all have a 528 MHz CPU. Another important thing is the internal memory – RAM – which is used when multiple programmes are run simultaneously. The top Windows Mobile phones from HTC have previously had a RAM capacity of up to 288 MB (Last year’s Touch Diamond has only 192 MB). The HD2 has a whooping 488 MB RAM, a total of 160 MB more. This will put a stop to the annoyance that is lag when running more than one programme on the phone. On the HD2 we have had both 10 and 15 programmes running at the same time and we could not tell by the speed of the phone. That is truly something!

The advanced settings menu	Windows Mobile 6.5

If you have read our test of the Touch2, the first phone we tested that had the Windows Mobile 6.5 software, you will know that we are not big fans of Windows Mobile. There is no need for us to repeat our criticism, we are just happy to tell you that the HD2 is a really nice phone to work with despite the underlying software.

HTC has its own TouchFLO, which now has been upgraded with ”Sense”. This is on the HD2 making it fully up-to-date. The system is easily recognizable from previous versions but now you have to dig even deeper to reach the ugly interface of Windows Mobile. During the time we tested the HD2, we were continuously thrilled to find a HTC designed menu and not a Windows menu. However, they are present and sometimes it is very clear why we are yet to be impressed by Windows.

A nice calendar function in the TouchFLO	You can watch your stocks in real time

Luckily, the average user will seldom come in contact with the old and ugly Windows menus while there is easy access to the newly designed “beehive” layout.

All of the above makes the HTC HD2 the to date fastest Windows Mobile phone with the largest screen. Together with the capacitive touch technology and a real user-friendly system, the phone can measure up to the iPhone in regards to innovation and perhaps even surpass it in regards to speed. We even believe that if the HD2 had been on the market 2 years ago, it could have damaged the success of the iPhone! Well done, HTC!

The camera interface	Settings menu for the camera

The camera is one of the features that HTC receives a severe beating for. This time, however, both testers and users can let out a sigh of relief. As you know, trees do not grow to the sky and this; the HD2 is nowhere near the exclusive group of phones with superb camera functions, where the Satio, the Omnia HD and others are members. However, the HD2 is without a bout the best camera phone from HTC. It has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LEDs. These lights can make or break a photo. Normally, one small LED does not give out much light, but the HD2 has two quite powerful LEDs. This is almost (but only almost) nearly as good as having a Xenon flash on board.

The next positive thing about the camera is the speed. You could expect a quick response with all that power, but when you have previously tried other camera phones from HTC, you will be impressed. The camera is almost immediately ready to take photos, and it only takes ½-1 second from focusing to taking the photo.

Advanced camera settings

For HTC, the way the camera focuses is new. The iPhone has the same system in their 3GS model. When you point the camera in the direction of your motif, it automatically focuses and you just need to press the virtual shutter key. You can still select the common standard of pressing and holding the shutter key for autofocus before taking a photo. We do think that users will chose this new way of snapping pictures, because it is just so much handier. Unfortunately, there is no physical shutter key, which we really would have liked.

The software is what you would expect. There are four shortcut keys in the bottom of the display and a zoom key on the left. In the advanced settings menu there are no less than 5 pages of different settings you can browse through.

Seeing as this is a 5 megapixel camera, the quality of the photos is adequate. The photos have a slightly yellow finish to them, but they are sharp and clearly defined. And did we mention the speed?

Browsing through photos	The TouchFLO photos menu is super fast

The video part with a VGA resolution with 30 FPS is nothing to write home about. The results are far from impressive and the two powerful LEDs does very little to help. Despite being a very powerful phone, the HD2 really lacks when shooting videos, which is truly a shame. We know that if HTC would have put more effort into it, the HD2 could have been just as good as the Omnia HD.

Footprints let you save information on where and when the photo was taken

Speaking of videos, let us look at how well the phone plays videos. To be frank, you are in for a disappointment. The HD2 uses the ancient and pretty outdated Windows Media Player which only supports a few different formats. Where is the support for DivX/XviD? A phone such as this with a huge screen is almost begging for video playback. Luckily, you can download and install the programme Coreplayer. It costs roughly $30 and is ugly as hell, but it works and it supports almost all video formats. With 3rd party software such as Coreplayer, the HD2 finally raises the bar for video playback.

The music player brings nothing new to the table. It is an adequate, basic player without any advanced settings. You chose what music to play with the coverflow, and the large keys make it easy to navigate. We mostly miss an equalizer, because the ‘sound booster’ that is incorporated in the music player is more or less just a gimmick. You can, however, opt to use Windows Media Player, but there are not any real advantages to this. HTC’s own music player is easier to use and – in our opinion – looks nicer.

The music player as we know it	The basic settings menu

As previously mentioned, you get a headset with the phone. The quality is fair, but you will get better sound with headphones. The enclosed headset does have some advantages over the ones that came with previous HTC phones. HTC have placed a quite good remote on the middle of the chord. You use this remote to play and stop the music and also skip to the next or previous song on your playlist – very handy. The only problem is that you cannot plug your own headphones into this part to turn them into a headset.

Without a headset, sound exits via a single, powerful speaker on the back. It plays both loud and clear. We would have preferred two speakers in order to get stereo sound when playing music and videos, but alas…

Good remote but sound could have been better	The FM radio

HD2 also has a quite good FM radio with RDC. You can store up to 20 stations and the RDS feed gives you info on the selected station. As with all other mobile phones, the radio only works when the headset is plugged in, since this also functions as an antenna.

Google Maps	Satellite map

GPS in a phone such as the HD2 is as sure as fate. However, the quality of navigation software in mobile phones is erratic. HTC have selected to have Google Maps as a free service on the phone. With this, you can pinpoint your location and easily navigate from A to B. Furthermore, there is a 14-day trial version of a program called CoPilot (from TomTom). Both are very capable of navigating and are up to par with a standalone GPS.

WisePilot menu

The hardware of the phone, such as the large display and the great finger touch system together with the fairly quick and precise GPS chip and the integrated desk stand (not included) makes for a great navigation system. One of the things we like about CoPilot is that you are not forced to download data while on the move. Instead you can store the data on the phone or buy a complete package. Such a package can consist of a map of the EU stored on a microSD card, a desk stand with a new battery cover, a digital compass and a 12 volt charger. The price is unfortunately roughly $235 so with just a bit more money, you could just buy a ’real’ navigation unit with a larger screen instead.

HD2 placed on the sleek stand

Whatever you do is up to you, but if you opt for the complete package, we are certain you will get one of the best navigation systems for mobile phones that money can buy.

In all HTC phones you will find various programs. This is also the case for the HD2. Footprints is a program that allows you to store photos and info on places, locations, landmarks etc. There is a well developed weather forecast program. It looks great and has a lot of smart functions. The GPS-part will locate your position and show you the current weather in your area. This is also in a minimized version below the big, analogue clock on the home menu

The large home screen	HTC's gorgeous weather programme

There is also a YouTube program. This is the same as the software on previous HTC models, but it still performs great.

The usual YouTube software	A random video on YouTube

The web browser that HD2 has in addition to Internet Explorer is also great; in fact we think it is one of the best browsers for mobile phones. It is of course Opera, which uses multi touch like on the iPhone. Furthermore, this browser loads pages with incredible speed. Multiple users report that Opera on the HD2 is even faster than on the iPhone.

HTC web menu	Active pages and bookmarks

Unfortunately, we have not had the opportunity to test this, but considering the powerful CPU and the amount of RAM, something tells us this might be true. Also, the full experience of browsing the web is just greater due to the larger screen and the higher resolution. You can much easier get an overview of the page you are on.

Webpage in vertical position	The large display is great for browsing the web

There is just one thing that we miss. Opera does not support flash, so you cannot view flash videos when browsing. We guess there actually is a reason for having Internet Explorer on the phone, since this can show flash content.

Shortcut menu for web browsing

Windows Mobile 6.5 does come with reasonable software and programs. First off, there is the Office mobile. Just as Microsoft Office for PC, you have Excel, Word and PowerPoint. You also have access to Microsoft Marketplace, which is Microsoft’s version of Apple’s Appstore and Google’s Android Market. The idea is nice and will certainly be popular amongst users of Windows Mobile, but Microsoft has undeniably been too slow to introduce it. The amount of application is steadily increasing but you cannot compare it to Appstore or Android Market.

Windows Market Place

Of course, you have social networking applications such as Facebook, Twitter, MSN Messenger etc.

Even though the most fitting label for the HD2 is multimedia phone, it does come with a really nice calendar and of course also Outlook and Active Sync, so you can essentially use it as a business phone. Did we forget to tell you about the e-mail part? Well, we did not mean to, because HTC have made a super e-mail system that supports roughly all types of account.

9 possible shortcuts	Address book with photos

Naturally, we must mention the battery. Sometimes we get e-mails from our readers who disagree when we have stated that a certain phone could only hold charge for a day. We do not necessarily mean that the phone is completely dead. However, if the phone is completely charged Monday morning and it has below 50 % battery life left Monday evening, it would be logical to recharge it, so it can last the entire Tuesday. Furthermore, not two people have the exact same power consumption. The power consumption is to be taken with a grain of salt and especially with a phone as the HD2. On paper it does not come close to other Smartphones, which all have batteries with about 1500 mAh. The HD2 has a battery with only 1230 mAh. However, the phone has a reasonable power consumption considering the large screen, fast CPU and Wi-Fi. The phone automatically turns of Wi-Fi when not used and we are certain that the fast Snapdragon CPU can administer power consumption just fine.

To address the crux of the matter: Because of our immense testing, we recharged the battery every night. At the end of some days, the battery showed 20 % - 30 %, while on other evenings it showed up to 50 %. If you are used to the iPhone, the Omnia HD or the Nokia N97, you will hardly notice the difference despite the 20 % less powerful battery. Though, the HD2 will never come close to the uncrowned champion on this area, the E52.

Total 90 %

PROS:
Huge screen with a good resolution
Seems well made with the glass screen and metal back plate.
Snapdragon CPU 1024 MHz and 448 MB RAM.
HSDPA 7.2 mbit, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi router function
5 megapixel camera with a powerful LED for good pictures
Multi touch
TouchFLO and Sense is near perfect.
One of the most capable phones for GPS navigation (with the right software)

CONS:
Very unfortunate placing of the camera
Windows Mobile 6.5 is not that user friendly, especially for touch
The phone is physically large and especially the wideness can be a problem
Video recording and playback (with Windows Media Player) is of low quality
The battery should have been 1500 mAh
The phone lacks stereo speakers

CONCLUSION:
Size is a personal matter, we all know that. The Omnia HD seemed frighteningly huge when we first saw it, but it still managed to win our hearts. Since, we have gotten more used to such large phones and the HD2 is therefore not a problem – for us! It can surely be too bulky for users of regular mobile phones. The size is the Achilles’ heel of the HD2, but we cannot imagine a smaller phone if we still want a 4.3” screen.

Exactly the screen is without a doubt the biggest Wow-effect of this phone. If you put it next to an iPhone or a Satio, the latter two will look like babies. We are truly in love with this screen, the capacitive technology and multi touch. If this is not enough for you, perhaps the super fast Snapdragon CPU with a whooping 1024 MHz will do the trick.

If you are still not entirely convinced, we urge you to go out and try the phone for yourself. Surely you will find the new Sense software a delight.

Of course, there are things that could be changed and things to do better next time around. If the camera was designed differently, the audio jack was placed on the top and perhaps adding an extra external speaker, we could be dealing with the near perfect phone.

The HTC HD2 is without a doubt the best Windows Mobile phone we have tested so far and is in a league with the top mobile phones money can buy.

The HD2 has nicely succeeded the Touch HD. We are sure the competitors are mulling things over right now.

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