HTC HD2 Unlocked – with HTC Sense
Thumbs Up:
HTC HD2 has 4.3 inches capacitive touch-screen that features multi-touch support. The new HTC Sense provides better user experience. It is powered by 1GHz processor and has a 5-megapixel camera.
Thumbs Down:
HTC HD2 has a large size. The speakerphone call quality was poor. The unlocked version does not support U.S. 3G.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: 1GHz processor, 5-megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, HTC Sense
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
HTC HD2 is powered by Snapdragon 1GHz processor, 448MB RAM and 512MB ROM. The operating system is Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional. Supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.1 EDR and IEEE 802.11 b/g.
4.3 inches touch-screen display of HTC HD2 has a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The HD2 has inbuilt accelerometer, ambient light sensor and proximity sensor. It also has 5-megapixel camera that features LED flash light, video recording and auto-focus.
The additional features of HTC HD2 include Mobile blog, HSDPA, EDGE, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPR. Preinstalled application software are Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, Opera Mobile browser, HTC Sense, Windows Marketplace, MyPhone Backup service, Internet Explorer Mobile and Windows Media Player Mobile.
Supported digital audio formats are MIDI, WMA, WAV, QCP, MP3, AMR and AAC. In addition, the supported video playback formats include WMV, MPEG4 and 3GP.
HTC HD2 has 1230mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 380 minutes of talk time and 490 hours of idle standby time. Accessories included inside the package are wired stereo headset, reference material, soft pouch, 2GB micro-SD card and USB cable.
Razzle Dazzle:
HTC HD2 has an impressive candy bar design. It is 4.74 inches tall, 2.64 inches wide and 0.4 inches deep and it weighs around 5.5 ounces. The HD2 has a bit large shape; still it offers you big 4.3-inch touch-screen display. It has stainless steel body and feels solid while taking in hand.
Inside Dope:
HTC HD2 is a complete entertainment smartphone for T-Mobile. However, we managed to get an unlocked version of the HTC HD2 for our review. The highlights of the HD2 are 4.3-inch touch-screen, HTC Sense user experience and Snapdragon 1GHz processor. HTC HD2 continues to have the same size like its predecessor, but it offers exciting new features. The unlocked version of HTC HD2 costs around $650, but the 3G support will not be available. So, we recommend you to wait for T-Mobile to launch HTC HD2 with 3G support and mail-in rebate.
HTC HD2 has 4.3 inches large capacitive touch-screen display, which has WVGA 480×800 pixels resolution. The display is sharp and vibrant. The HD2 has inbuilt accelerometer to rotate the display on tilting the phone. The accelerometer is quick and responsive. The smartphone also has proximity sensor which locks the display when you are on a phone call. It also has multi-touch support and pinch to zoom support for numerous applications such as photos, email and browser.
The virtual onscreen QWERTY keyboard of HTC HD2 is also large and spacious in both landscape and portrait modes. We also typed quickly and accurately using the keyboard without any problem.
You will find quick access buttons including back button, Start menu, Home button, Talk key and End button located beneath the display. Volume rocker sits on the left side. Micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack are located on the right side. The camera and its flash sit on the back, whereas the micro-SD card slot is behind the battery door.
HTC HD2 runs of Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system and offers Microsoft My Phone backup service, Windows Marketplace Mobile, Windows Media Player Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile and Microsoft Office Mobile Suite. It also has the newly added user experience feature – HTC Sense that masks the Windows Mobile’s user interface.
HTC Sense offers tab toolbar on the bottom of display to navigate and launch numerous applications by swiping your finger from right to left, and vice versa. You will find total 11 tabs for different applications on the Home Screen of HTC HD2. You can easily add and remove the tabs from the settings.
Home Screen also has some link boxes that allow creating the shortcut for bookmarks, contacts and available applications on HTC HD2. You can view real-time weather updates for your location and upcoming appointments on the Home Screen. You can also select the animated wallpaper for Home Screen.
The unlocked version of HTC HD2 offers GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. As it is unlocked, so it would not support U.S. 3G support. However, the T-Mobile version of HTC HD2 will overtake this advantage. It also comes with CoPilot Live 8 for voice-guided navigation, Opera Mobile Web browser, Peep and Twitter application.
The basic features of HTC HD2 include conference calling, multimedia and text messages, voice commands, smart dialing, speed dial and speakerphone. You can view recent interactions of text message and phone call, and updates from social-networking Web sites on a contact page. On an email page, you can easily tap the phone icon to call the mail sender or recipient. Moreover, you can make a conference call quickly to all the contacts mentioned in an email thread.
HTC HD2 has 5-megapixel camera that features standard editing options, video recording, dual LED flash and auto-focus. The picture quality was good overall in both dim and bright light. The shutter lag is a bit large and flash can blow out the entire shot occasionally. The recorded video quality was also good. Sometimes, the scenes looked a bit fuzzy.
In Mobile World Congress 2010, the T-Mobile announced that it would provide HTC HD2 with Transformer movie, Blockbuster On Demand video download application, Barnes & Noble’s e-book reader, and more.
We made few calls through quad-band based HTC HD2 via AT&T service. The overall call quality was good. We received clear and loud sound with some background noise. The phone call was breaking up once in a while. The callers received rich and good sound at their end without any background noise.
The speakerphone call quality was not good. Both of us could not easily hear the voice and we had to repeat ourselves continuously. Moreover, the voice was tinny. However, we did not face any problem while pairing Bluetooth headsets from Motorola S9 and Logitech Mobile Traveller.
We also tested the browsing experience on the phone via AT&T 3G network. The Microsoft website loaded in 2 minutes and a Google search completed in 30 seconds. While using the Wi-Fi network, Microsoft website loaded in 20 seconds and Google search completed in 10 seconds. In addition, the YouTube videos buffered quickly and we enjoyed the uninterrupted playback on large screen. The sound quality for music and videos was poor on the speakers. However, the sound quality on included stereo headset and Bose On-Ear was very good.
HTC HD2 performed quickly due to upgraded processor while testing. It is snappy, more responsive and faster than other Windows Mobile smartphones. We did not get any delays while launching and working in all applications included multimedia one.
HTC HD2 has 1230mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 6 hours of talk time and 20 days of idle standby time.
Nitty Gritty:
HTC HD2 is only one best appealing Windows Mobile smartphone available in the market, but still has large size. It will face tough competition by Windows Phone 7 Series. If you cannot wait for the new 7 series, then we will recommend you to purchase HTC HD2.
