HTC HD2/Review

Official Site: www.HTC.com Company: HTC Corporation
Specs: 4.3” capacitive WVGA (800x480) touchscreen; 1GHZ Snapdragon CPU; 512 ROM; 448 RAM; 5MP camera; Wi-Fi; Bluetooh 2.1; Windows Mobile 6.5

Touted as the best phone on the market currently running Windows Mobile 6.5, the HTC HD2 is a surprisingly attractive handset thanks largely to its unique blend of cutting-edge mobile hardware and customized software. In particular, HTC’s newly created Sense UI, which operates on top of Windows Mobile, should attract men looking for a more individualistic and straightforward approach to phone navigation. All bells and whistles aside, it’s still hard to recommend this device over competing smartphones from heavy hitters such as Apple, Motorola, RIM, and Nokia, or even non-Windows Mobile HTC handsets for that matter.
This is because even with the valiant effort on the part of HTC to push limits with the HD2, no amount of face paint or engine work can fully mask the inherent usability frustrations Microsoft has still yet to address in its Windows mobile platform. However, if you are dead-set on standing out from the pack of BlackBerry, iPhone and DROID owners out there, this may be your best bet.

In terms of specs, it’s hard not to be impressed with what the HTC HD2 packs under the hood. Powered by a lightning-quick 1GHZ Snapdragon CPU and 448MB of RAM, it has more than enough processing power to make HTC’s flowing Sense UI work in buttery smooth fashion. Other additional niceties thrown in the mix include: an auto-focusing 5-megapixel video/still camera with dual LED flash, GPS, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a variety of sensors to detect everything from the ambient light around the phone to its proximity to your head.
Despite these conveniences, the HTC HD2’s biggest attraction by far on the hardware side is its beautiful 4.3-inch, 800 x 480, capacitive WVGA touchscreen display. Thanks to its high resolution and deep color contrast, small text and images are clearly visible, making it very easy on the eyes even in relatively bright sunlight.
That’s good news considering HD2’s new Sense UI is quite a visually appealing take on Windows Mobile 6.5. In fact it’s such an overall aesthetic improvement on the operating system that many casually picking up the phone may not realize it is indeed still a Windows Mobile-powered device. Sense is far beyond just an attractive reskinning though. On the contrary, a significant amount of work was put in by the HTC team to integrate, revamp and even rip out applications or functionality deemed unnecessary. For instance, the home screen view has ingeniously been combined to not only feature the normal combination of a clock, calendar and application launcher, but also show off the local weather in a unique animated fashion that provides serious wow factor.

Looking at the device on paper from a pure specs point of view, it’s no question that the HTC HD2 is indeed a significant upgrade from previous Windows Mobile powered phones. Combined with the hard usability work conducted by HTC in its Sense UI, light hands-on use of the phone might even convince casual shoppers that it deserves similar accolades to those given to handsets like the DROID and G2. The reality is, however, that Windows Mobile does not have access to the plethora of unique apps being churned out for other mobile operating systems like Android or the iPhone OS. Nor does it exhibit the same crash reliability. In that light, it’s difficult to give the HTC HD2 the nod over other handsets in the next generation of high-performance smartphones. However, considering pricing and carriers have yet to be officially announced or its arrival in the U.S., there is a chance that competitive pricing could enhance its standing in our eyes.